You’ve heard a lot from me about Substack lately….

And for good reason!

I’m very excited about its potential.

This platform lets you share useful AI-assisted content every week – and get PAID for it by your readers.

You don’t need to build your own website or grapple with email broadcasting systems and payment processors.

Instead…

Substack will host your content on a professional-looking page… then send it directly to your customer’s inboxes as an email newsletter.

Not only that, it will recommend you to new readers, and let you post public ‘notes’ to grab more attention, so that you can build a list for free.

Substack will even process the payments and manage subscriptions for you.

This opens the doors for you to create an almost entirely automated digital publishing business on your computer in a matter of a few days.

Which is why online content creators are flocking to Substack.

It has 35 million active subscribers, over 5 million of whom PAY for content.

This is more than DOUBLE the number from two years ago.

Meanwhile, every month, 47.6 million NEW visitors arrive on Substack looking for creators to follow…. a figure that has soared by 66% since 2024.

That is an utterly mind-blowing level of growth!

This is like being at the dawn of Google Ads, Facebook, or Amazon, before most people realised their true potential….

Early adopters who got in quickly were the ones who grew the fastest and got the lion’s share of the profits before the herd piled in!

Well, the same applies here.

Substack is already taking off in a huge way and people are making astonishing returns from posting on it every week.

• Emma Gannon started sharing self-help content on Substack, began charging £6.99 a month, and within 18 months was on a six-figure income.
• The FI Weekly is a personal finance Substack that got 4,200 free subscribers in just 8 months. By month 10 he was generating £2,400 a month in recurring revenue!
• Karen Cherry earned £33,000 from direct subscriptions alone in her first three years.
• Growth In Reverse is a Substack about marketing by Chenell Basilio, who built her newsletter to 21,000 subscribers in just 10 months!

As you can see, these people have tapped into the classic topics of personal development, wealth and marketing.

But there are plenty of other subjects areas you could consider:-

• Health…. nutrition, alternative medicine, mindfulness and ageing
• Making Money… personal finance, investing and building wealth..
• Food & Drink… recipes, restaurant recommendations, wine, and baking
• Fashion & Style… clothes, beauty, skincare, interiors and home design
• Parenting & Family… raising children, education, family travel and modern parenthood
• Self-Help… productivity, confidence and motivation
• Entrepreneurship… freelancing, side hustles, marketing and business.
• Nature… gardening, wildlife, hiking…
• Arts & Crafts… illustration, ceramics, photography, knitting
• Sports & Fitness… football, running, cycling, golf, yoga
• Spirituality… astrology, meditation, philosophy
• Local news… gossip, events and history from the town or city where you live.

Now, you might wonder if these subjects have all got the same moneymaking potential.

After all, if you share advice about wealth, business, or productivity, you can easily imagine that subscribers will pay for it.

However, what about some of the less obvious topics?

For example, could you make money from astrology, bird spotting, or local news?

Or what if your target audience is likely to baulk at an ongoing subscription (for example, readers of a money-saving advice newsletter)?

Well, this is the beauty of Substack.

Why ANY Audience Has The Potential to Make You Money

The most obvious way of earning an income is to charge a monthly subscription fee of £5–£15 per month for your content (Substack takes a 10% cut).

This model is best for niches with dedicated, passionate audiences who will do anything to get the inside track.

….where you help them solve a pressing problem – like physical pain, financial pressure or struggles at work…

….and where you help them achieve an important goal, like a career change, early retirement or more confidence in social situations.

This might include subjects like entrepreneurialism, marketing, investing, technology, career, work organisation, nutrition and self-improvement.

But the subscription model may not apply so well to subjects like spirituality, money-saving, travelling, gardening or running.

Also, it might be harder to sell a subscription to:

• Price-sensitive audiences are in life situations where they cannot afford ongoing payments.
• People looking for savings, deals, freebies or ‘life hacks’
• Beginners exploring a topic, where they haven’t yet got the urgency or commitment to pay.

However, none of this should stop you from setting up a Substack in these less obvious niches.

Because there’s more than one way to earn money on this platform.

Rather than relying on subscriptions…

You can instead use Substack to grow a list of FREE subscribers, offering them content that’s enlightening, useful and full of your unique personality.

(Don’t worry, AI can help you plan, research, write and edit your newsletters!)

Once you’ve built up some trust and shown readers what you’re about, you can earn money by recommending products to them via direct promotional emails.

Here are some options….

Affiliate Offers

You can recommend tools, products, and services that are relevant to your audience, created by experts who will deliver the product for you.

These could include digital courses, eBooks, software and apps.

For example, a money-saving newsletter reader might not pay an ongoing fee, but they might buy a one-off product that helps them out, like a financial planning tool.

You could earn 20–50% commissions just by sending an email with an affiliate link and your personal endorsement.

A single mention to an engaged list of just 1,000 free subscribers could generate £100–£500 per send.

While 5,000 free readers that would be £500 – £2500 per send.

The more free subscribers you get onboard, the more you can potentially make from endorsement emails.

Digital Products

You can make even more profit by creating and selling your own digital products. These could include ‘how to’ guides, digital courses, eBooks, webinars, planners, templates, checklists and swipe files.

All of them can be created using AI tools like Claude, Chat GPT and Canva in a matter of a few days.

So this is something that’s achievable as a part time solo operation, even if you lack skills in research, writing and design.

For example, you might have a newsletter about woodcraft and decide to create a ‘How to Sell Your Crafts on Etsy’ course or a set of woodwork design templates.

Unlike an affiliate product, you get to keep all the profits for yourself, so you can make MORE income from the same size of list.

Not only that, but you could offer these products to others in similar niches to sell on Substack on an affiliate basis.

Of course you can also promote ready-made products you have the rights to sell, allowing you to skip the creation phase and monetise your newsletter quickly with proven offers.

Local Advertising

If you wanted to set up a local email newsletter on Substack, you could get local creators, freelancers, entrepreneurs and small businesses to advertise with you.

That might include:

• Sponsored spots – that could be a segment within an issue that covers their business
• Local business ads – these can be placed in your newsletter
• Featured listings – these are where you take money to list people’s events.

Sponsorship Deals

As your Substack list grows and becomes more engaged, you can find brands who might sponsor your newsletter.

They might offer a fixed fee per mention (or per issue) to get exposure to your target audience.

For instance if you have a successful newsletter for parents of young children, a toy company, health food company or clothing company might be interested.

This also works well for subjects like tech, fitness, beauty, business and marketing.

Qualified Lead Generation

You could use your Substack subscriber list to market your own services.

For example, you might be a coach. tutor or instructor…. or you might be a freelancer, consultant or skilled tradesperson.

In these cases, you can offer your help to your readers in the form of one-off jobs and tasks, training sessions and one-to-one sessions.

For instance, you might be an accountant who shares free bookkeeping advice to solo entrepreneurs.

You could make money from your Substack by offering personalised accountancy services.

Coaching and consulting could be priced at anything from £500–£5,000+ per client. So it might be that you only need one person to take up your offer every month to make your Substack activities profitable!

Events and Community Access

You can earn on Substack by giving away your newsletter for free, but keeping a ‘community’ aspect behind a paywall.

For instance:

• Private group or forum
• Q&A sessions
• Live group chats

People might then pay to get access to the insights of other like-minded people – which can be invaluable!

Or you could offer your free subscribers tickets to live events that you run – either online, or offline – like:

• Workshops
• Seminars
• Meetups
• Webinars
• Walks
• Training days

As you can see, there are a lot more ways to make money from Substack beyond basic subscriptions.

Which means that a thriving Substack could be about growing orchids, vintage motorcycles or vegan baking.

However, I recommend you get started sooner rather than later….

Why NOW Is the Time to Get Into Substack

We’re in a ‘sweet spot’ moment for Substack.

This platform is growing at an exponential rate… yet it’s still early days, which is why they are actively rewarding new creators at the moment.

Currently, Substack is making it VERY easy to build a list of paying subscribers from scratch.

Anyone who joins now gets full access to their massive database of active users, with lots of reach with the help of their algorithm.

But this won’t last forever.

When Google Ads, Facebook and Amazon got popular, they changed their policies and made it harder, and more expensive, for people to grow businesses on their platforms.

The same will happen here…

This is why I’m so keen to get you as much information about Substack as I can.

In fact, you could even get started this weekend!

Your Weekend Mission (If You Choose To Accept It)

If you can find just 60 minutes in the next few days, here’s what I’d like you to do.

Go to Substack at https://substack.com and search for topics you’re interested in, passionate about, or have experience in.

Follow a few newsletters and get a feel for what people are writing about and how they present themselves in their content.

I think you’ll quickly realise that this is a remarkable platform, full of people sharing genuinely useful content and building audiences around subjects they love.

Just explore and have fun!