It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited by a new platform.

But I believe Substack opens so many doors for you.

Finally, here’s a way you can get an instant blog, email newsletter and in-built social marketing channel for finding customers…

With payment processing and subscription set-ups included…

AND the ability to promote product links to your own products or affiliate products…

All of which can be set up with a ready-made design in as little as a day…

With zero skills, no previous experience and AI to help with ideas, writing and research.

Honestly, this has to be the easiest ever way to set up your own digital info business from scratch on a budget of zero.

But I know that you might have some doubts.

You might assume, from the media coverage, that Substack is just about politics, finance, news and journalism…

Or that it’s only for authors and academics.

However, it’s actually wide open for ordinary people to tap into an enormous array of niches.

I’ve been researching this for months, and have found plenty of Substacks in niches (outside the usual news, politics and economics) that are thriving right now.

Here’s a sample to get you inspired…

(IMPORTANT: Before you jump in, I did include live links to each of the Substacks but my email broadcaster had a meltdown! So I put everything onto a Google Doc so you can click through to any that take your fancy. CLICK HERE TO VIEW.)

Food & Drink

• What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking — Family meals and low-effort cooking
• Cocktails With Suderman — Home bartending
• The Smoke Sheet — Barbecuing
• Restaurant Dropout — Meal planning
• Longer Tables — Food as a humanitarian mission
• Victoria Minell — High-protein, low-calorie recipes
• Pass the Fish Sauce — Asian home cooking

Lifestyle

• Big Salad — Lifestyle, fashion and beauty
• The Contender — Men’s style, gadgets and travel
• The Goose Gazette — Farm life and slow living

Health & Wellness

• Well Well Well — Wellness, midlife and menopause
• Second Brain — Gut health and nutrition
• Real Self-Care — mental health
• Easy EP — Exercise science
• Brain Health Kitchen — Nutritional brain health
• We’re All Getting Older – Ageing and creativity

Spirituality & Faith

• The Corners — Honest Christianity, doubt, grace, and modern life
• The Cottage — Spiritual reflection, meaning and community
• Tipping Point Prophecy Update — Biblical prophecy and current events
• Gita For Everyone — Applying ancient wisdom to modern life
• Leonard Sweet’s Substack — Christian insights on faith and culture

Ageing, Retirement & Later Life

• Aging Well Newsletter — Longevity, ageing, caregiving
• Oldster Magazine — Personal stories and reflections on growing older
• The EndGame — Purpose, curiosity and joy in the second half of life
• Age with Attitude! — Staying active, engaged, and optimistic
• Aging Independently — Navigating later life and solo ageing
• 1000 Weeks — Making the most of life’s fourth quarter

Motivation & Personal Development

• Ten Percent Happier — Meditation and mindfulness
• No F*cks Given — Self-help
• Growth Spurts — Body positivity
• Open Tabs Club — For people with ADHD

Relationships & Parenting

• Conversations on Love — Love, relationships, grief
• The New Fatherhood — Modern fatherhood
• The Candy Club — Parenting teens and adult children

Crafts & Hobbies

• The Contemplative Woodworker — Woodworking
• Everyday Knitter — Knitting
• Current Fish — Angling
• Wax Museum — Vinyl and music collecting
• Cosmographia — Travel, maps and geography
• Soul Space Notes — Weaving
• Slow Stitching Circle — Embroidery

Pets & Animals

• Paws and Reflect — Dog behaviour
• Like Cats and Dogs — Pets and training

Home & Garden

• Living Small — Small spaces and sustainable living
• Home and Hort — Interiors, renovation, gardening
• Wild Way — Wildlife gardening
• Vertical Veg — Container and small-space growing

Investing

• Polymath Investor — Stocks
• Toys to Retirement — Amazon FBA and toy investing
• The Yellow Brick Road — Gold, silver, commodities

Business, Side Hustles & Marketing

• Write With AI — AI writing
• Solopreneur Code — Solo business using AI
• Growth In Reverse — Newsletter growth
• Lazy Millionaire — Passive online business
• Freelance with Erica — Freelancing

Local Newsletters

• Wooden City — London
• The Glasgow Wrap — Glasgow
• The Bristol Drop — Bristol
• Don’t Miss Margate — Margate
• Hefted, Tales from Cumbria — The Lake District

Now, just look at that range again,

You’ve got barbecuing…. angling…. vinyl collecting… small space gardening…. old maps… pets…

These are everyday hobbies and passions that early adopters on Substack are already building successful newsletters around.

And the good news is…

You Don’t Even Need a Product to Make This Work

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have products to sell, or affiliate opportunities lined up.

All you need to make money from a niche is an audience of readers that is interested in the subject… and willing to pay a small subscription to keep hearing from you.

But here’s what excites me most.

It’s still early days!

The list above barely scratches the surface of what’s possible.

There’s a huge gap for UK-based home creators to get into a niche now, while the competition is low and Substack’s growth-rate is sky high.

For example, here are niches that I think have potential…

Making & Craft

• Woodworking and whittling
• Knitting, crochet and macramé
• Cross stitch, embroidery and needlepoint
• Quilting and patchwork
• Sewing and dressmaking
• Pottery, ceramics and clay
• Bookbinding and paper crafts
• Jewellery making
• Model railways, model kits and miniatures
• Upcycling and furniture restoration

Gardening and Outdoor

• Vegetable growing and allotments
• Container and balcony gardening
• Wildlife and pollinator gardening
• Orchids, houseplants and propagation
• Bonsai
• Beekeeping
• Foraging and wild food
• Wild swimming
• Camping and caravanning
• Stargazing and amateur astronomy
• Geocaching
• Metal detecting
• Fishing and angling

Food & Drink

• Bread and sourdough baking
• Cake decorating
• Jam, chutney and preserving
• Fermenting (kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut)
• Home brewing, wine and cider making
• Cocktails and mixology
• Slow cooking and batch cooking
• Budget and frugal cooking

Collecting

• Stamps and coins
• Vinyl records and music memorabilia
• Vintage books and first editions
• Antiques and bric-a-brac
• Sports cards and football programmes
• Militaria and medals
• China, glassware and ceramics
• Watches and clocks
• Toys, models and die-cast cars
• Postcards, maps and ephemera

Arts & Philosophy

• Watercolour, oil and acrylic painting
• Photography (and phone photography)
• Pottery and sculpture
• Folk, jazz or classical appreciation
• Reading and book clubs
• Journaling and letter writing
• Philosophy and “big questions”

Movement & Wellbeing

• Cycling and e-biking
• Bowls and croquet
• Golf
• Dance (ballroom, line dancing, jive)
• Mobility, stretching and fitness
• Meditation and mindfulness

Heritage, Place & Travel

• Canals, narrowboats and waterways
• Slow travel by train
• Caravanning and motorhome touring
• Map collecting and cartography
• Local and family history

Home & Domestic

• Interior decorating on a budget
• Vintage and thrift-store hunting
• DIY and home repairs
• Sustainable and low-waste living

Animals & Pets

• Dogs and dog behaviour
• Cats
• Chickens and backyard poultry
• Aquariums and fishkeeping
• Horse riding and care

Tech

• Demystifying AI, internet and computer tech for older users
• Scam-spotting and online safety
• Amateur (ham) radio
• Vintage computing and retro gaming

If you do ANY of these already…

Or you have an interest in starting one of these hobbies,,,

Then you could create a Substack newsletter around it!

It needs to be something that you could happily write about week after week (with the help of AI, if you’re worried about not having writing skills or lacking the time!)

You don’t need to be an expert, because you can position yourself as someone on a journey of discovery, documenting your ups and downs… sharing tips… recommending tools and resources.

And the beauty of Substack is that it’s not a TikTok-style social media network where you need to post slick videos, stay on top of trends and hustle all day for attention.

At its heart, this is a classic ‘blog-and-newsletter’ business model that’s ideal for older readers – and older creators.

Being Older is An Advantage On Substack

In particular, I think the over-50s are perfectly placed for creating a successful Substack.

And for a simple reason…

We’ve developed careers, raised families, bought and sold houses, coped with stress, illness, pain and relationship problems.

So we know a thing or two about life!

Which means the field is wide open for you to share your experiences with other, like minded folk.

Here are some ideas…

• The phased exit. Going part-time, consulting, winding down your career to make more time for yourself.
• Late-life self-employment. Starting the home business at 58 you never had time for. Turning a craft, a skill, or decades of know-how into modest income.
• Making your money last. investing, personal finance, equity release, helping the kids get through university.
• Working while ageing. Staying employed and relevant in your 50s and 60s.
• The big renovation. Doing up the forever-home for old age.
• Making a move. Buying a house near the sea, moving abroad, getting a narrowboat.
• Travel. Reviews of train journeys, cozy bed-and-breakfasts, or quiet coastal towns.
• Local newsletters. Your town’s history, walks, character and, hidden corners.
• Cooking for one or two. Recipes scaled down, batch-cooking for a solo fridge, eating well alone.
• Mobility. Maintaining strength and balance.
• Men’s health. Prostate, heart, weight.
• Living with a diagnosis. Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, a dodgy heart.
• Herbal remedies: Sharing simple, everyday home remedies, the comfort of brewing functional teas, or cooking for heart or bone health.
• Brain Health: sharing daily habits that keep the mind sharp, from crosswords and sudoku to learning a new instrument.
• Modern grandparenting. Long-distance grandparenting or staying close to phone-glued teens.
• Grief and Loss. Writing about losing parents, saying goodbye to old family homes, or finding peace.
• Reading deeply. A book club in newsletter form.
• Slow Living. Chronicling a shift away from the modern, fast-paced digital hustle toward slow mornings and analogue hobbies.
• Everyday Meditations. simple thoughts, prayers, or natural observations that occur each day.
• The Retro Media Club: Reviewing books, movies, or music from the 1960s, 70s, or 80s.
• Journaling. creative-writing or journaling prompts.
• The Small-Scale Gardener. the successes and failures of a standard small back garden.
• Collecting. Records, stamps, militaria, cards.
• Family history and genealogy. Tracing your line, and helping others trace theirs.
• Writing your life story. And teaching others to write theirs.
• Vintage Store Hunting: Documenting weekend trips to charity shops, antique markets, or car boot sales.
• Spotting scams. A protective, trustworthy, slightly outraged newsletter on fraud targeting older people.
• Simplifying your life.: fewer possessions, simpler admin, lighter commitments, getting affairs in order without it being morbid.

These are really just to whet your appetite, and show you that there is no shortage of subjects – and no barrier to entry, even for someone with no experience.

However, if a particular niche idea jumps out from today’s email, hit reply and tell me what it is.

I’d be interested to get an idea of what you might need in terms of help to get set up and making an income from Substack.

And if you DO have an idea you want to take forward…

Hold fire!

I’ve got some more very exciting insights for you coming very soon!