So you read the article—the one promising that all it takes to make it on Substack is “decent content” and the nerve to charge $8 a month for it. A couple thousand subscribers later, you’re raking in a six-figure income—financial freedom, the keys to the kingdom.
Substack would be your ticket out of the 9-to-5 grind, powered by a legion of readers eager to pay for your thoughts on productivity, politics, or your most recent emotional growth spurt.
They made it sound so easy. The comments confirmed your thinking—“Such an inspiring article.” “I can do this!”
NOT.
Let’s hope you didn’t shell out $499 for the course offered at the end of the article: Secrets to Substack Success, where the only real thing was the credit card charge.
The course promised to unlock the one foolproof strategy to building a loyal audience, but what it unlocked was a PDF, a vague pep talk, and a persistent sense of buyer’s remorse.
Fast forward from the initial glow: you’ve published 27 articles, and your newsletter has three paid subscribers—two of whom are your parents, and the third is you, testing the subscribe button to be sure it’s functioning properly.
“But I had 1.5K followers on Medium!” Let’s be honest: most of them hit your “follow” button hoping you’d return the favor. Nobody’s committing to $8 a month for that.
Here’s a hint for the hopeful: Substack isn’t some hidden corner of the internet where everyday wordsmiths rise to glory. It’s Medium on steroids.
And the competition? It’s not a bunch of humble bloggers sharing life lessons from their martial arts class. You’re stepping into an arena filled with ex-congresspeople, Morning Joe talking heads, and influencers who’ve been building audiences since you were still wondering why punctuation goes inside quotation marks.
They’re all vying for the same readers you’re dreaming of—except they come armed with PR teams, podcast deals, and a lifetime supply of built-in credibility.
You? You’ve got a Gmail list, a dream, and a head full of Tim Denning.
Tough love—I know. But somebody’s got to be real here.
Not that it matters. You’re not going to listen anyway. So go ahead. Give it your best shot.
If you make it, you will have earned something—an audience, a voice, maybe even a living—and that’s no small thing. You’ll get to say you broke through the noise, turned words into income, and proved the skeptics (and me) wrong.
But you probably won’t. Most don’t.
Not because you lack talent—you may even have some of that. But you’ll find out soon enough: talent isn’t the game. Visibility is. And the house always favors the well-connected.
Still, if you do make it, it won’t be luck. It’ll be relentless work, smart strategy, and more grit than most people can stomach.
And if that sounds like you?
Well… maybe. Just maybe.