How We Hit 1,000 Paid Subscribers on Substack

The Full Breakdown.

When you launch your Substack publication and start to learn how to grow an audience, you soon get bombarded by endless amounts of content from self-proclaimed writing experts and growth coaches who have barely been around for a couple of months.

Here’s why this post is different from 99% of the garbage you will find about Substack growth:

I’ve been writing online since 2018 and have built a total following of over 100,000 people across different platforms.

I’ve been running my newsletter on Kit for six years.

When we launched the Write • Build • Scale publication in 2024, we didn’t intend it to replace our newsletter. The goal was to treat Substack as a growth and discovery channel.

I’ve helped thousands of writers, creators, experts, and coaches start publishing online, grow their audience, and monetize their work.

So when I talk about growing on Substack or how we’ve hit 1,000 paid subscribers on this platform, you’re not just getting the same recycled fluff that you get on most places. I’m speaking from years of experience of being in the trenches and working with people just like you who want to show up consistently, and put their work in front of the right readers.

Now that we’ve cleared the basics, let’s dive in!

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Why 1,000 Paid Subscribers Matters

First, let me give you context on why a paid subscriber goal can matter.

If you charge $10/month and have 1,000 paid subscribers you’re looking at over $100,000 a year in recurring revenue.

After Substack’s cut and Stripe fees, you still make a significant amount of money just through your paid tier.

But here’s what matters even more: this income is predictable because it’s recurring.

As long as you keep showing up and your subscribers don’t cancel in bulk, you have a solid base and can build lots of other offers and services on top of your subscription.

At Write • Build • Scale, we treat Substack as a growth channel, not just an income stream. Our paid tier is the entry point—once people are inside, they often go on to join our courses, coaching programs, and paid community.

But none of that matters if you can’t get to 1,000 in the first place, so here’s how we did it:

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Stage 1: From 0 to 100 Paid Subscribers

When you’re starting from zero, the game isn’t about optimization. It’s not about funnels, retention strategies, or conversion rates.

The focus at this stage is to build trust.

You’re asking people to give you money before you’ve proven anything: you don’t have testimonials, you don’t have a track record, and nobody has validated whether your work is actually worth paying for.

So Stage 1 comes down to three things: build trust through free content, launch like a product, and price with confidence.

#1. Give Away Your Best Work for Free

At this stage, we did something that sounds counterintuitive: we gave away our best work for free.

Everyone says to lock your best content behind the paywall, but think about it from the reader’s perspective: If they’ve never heard of you and all your best stuff is hidden, why would they pay?

They wouldn’t. They’d just leave.

When we launched Write • Build • Scale, we republished some of our highest-performing content from other platforms—pieces that had already resonated with audiences on Medium and elsewhere—and we gave them away completely free on Substack.

This did two things:

1. It built immediate credibility. New visitors could see the quality of our work right away.

2. It gave people a reason to subscribe to our free list, which meant we could nurture that relationship over time.

This works whether you have an existing audience or you’re starting from scratch. The principle is the same: lead with your best work, not your paywalled work.

#2. Launch Your Paid Tier Like a Product

Here’s where most new Substack creators go wrong. They quietly add a paid tier, put up a little “subscribe” button somewhere, and then wonder why nobody’s upgrading.

We took a completely different approach. We treated our paid tier like a product launch.

In September 2024, we ran the Substack September Bootcamp.

Instead of saying “hey, upgrade to paid for exclusive content”—which is vague and unattractive—we created a specific, time-bound offer.

Everyone who upgraded during that period got:

• Access to live workshops

• Expert interviews

• Recordings they could watch later

There was a clear start date, a clear deadline, and a clear reason to act now instead of later.

That single decision—treating the paid tier as a product launch instead of a passive option—is what got us to 100 paid subscribers in less than 60 days.

#3. Don’t Underprice Yourself

Here’s the mistake we almost made: pricing too low because we felt uncomfortable asking for money.

I see this constantly with new creators. They think, “Well, I’m just starting out, so I should charge $3 a month or $5 a month.”

But here’s the math:

• If you charge $5/month and want to make $50,000/year, you need around 1,000 paid subscribers

• If you charge $10/month, you only need half of it

More importantly, readers who pay more are often more committed.

They take the content more seriously. They show up to calls. They engage in the community. They get better results, which means they stay longer.

We set our price at a point where we felt genuinely confident about the value we were delivering. And that confidence came through in how we talked about the offer.

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Stage 2: 100 to 500 Paid Subscribers

Once you hit 100 paid subscribers, something shifts. You now have proof. You have that first bestseller badge. You have people who’ve actually paid you, which means you have testimonials.

But here’s the trap: what got you to 100 won’t get you to 500.

At this stage, the game stops being about trust and starts being about systems.

You can’t personally message every potential subscriber. You can’t run a live launch every single week. You need repeatable processes that bring in new subscribers while you focus on actually creating content.

For us, three things made the biggest difference.

#1. Build a Recommendation Network

Substack has an incredibly powerful feature that lets you recommend other publications, and they can recommend you back. When someone subscribes to a publication that recommends you, they see a one-click option to subscribe to your publication too.

A huge part of our subscribers discovered us through recommendations—not through viral content. Thousands of people found us because another creator vouched for our work.

But here’s the key: you can’t just cold-DM someone asking for a recommendation swap. You need to build real relationships first.

This is where our 10-5-1 Rule comes in.

Every day, we committed to a simple rhythm:

• Like 10 Notes from other creators

• Leave 5 meaningful comments (not “great post!” but actual insights or questions)

• Start 1 genuine conversation in DMs or Substack Chat

This isn’t about gaming the algorithm or being transactional. It was about showing up consistently in other creators’ worlds before asking for a favor.

When you like someone’s Notes regularly, they start to recognize your name.

When you leave thoughtful comments, you become memorable.

When you start a real conversation, you build the foundation for collaboration.

After a month of doing this daily, we had genuine relationships with dozens of creators in our space. And when we eventually mentioned that we’d love to swap recommendations, it wasn’t a cold ask. It was a natural next step in a relationship that already existed.

The 10-5-1 Rule sounds simple, but most creators don’t do it. They just post their own content and wait for growth to happen. We treated relationship-building as seriously as content creation—and it paid off massively.

#2. Master Substack Notes

Notes is Substack’s short-form feed, and most creators completely ignore it or use it wrong.

We started posting one to three Notes per day—not random thoughts, but strategic content designed to test ideas, build visibility, and drive people back to our publication.

Here’s the thing about Notes: it’s how new people find you.

Your long-form posts mostly go to your existing subscribers. But Notes puts you in front of people who’ve never heard of you.

We used Notes to:

• Test hooks for future posts

• Validate ideas before writing full articles

• Stay top of mind with our audience between weekly posts

If you are serious about growing on Substack, you really can’t miss out on Notes.

But we know that showing up every single day can feel like a massive burden. That’s why we have created 365 notes templates for you. One for each day of the year. You can get full access for only $47 right now.

#3. Create a Content Funnel Inside Free Posts

Every free post we publish has a strategic link to a deeper resource behind the paywall. Not a hard sell, just a natural extension like:

“If you found this helpful, here’s the complete framework with templates inside our paid archive.”

Readers who loved the free content could see exactly what they were missing. And many of them decided the upgrade was worth it.

Here’s a deep dive on how we use Content Funnels (see what I did there? 😉)

The Biggest Mistake at This Stage

While we were focused on these three growth tactics, we almost missed something critical.

We were so focused on getting new subscribers that we almost ignored the ones we already had.

We were celebrating every new paid subscriber, but we weren’t paying attention to how many were quietly canceling each month.

Here’s the math that woke us up: if you gain 20 new paid subscribers in a month but lose 15 to cancellations, your net growth is only 5. At that rate, getting to 1,000 takes forever.

We started treating retention as seriously as acquisition:

• Every new paid subscriber gets a welcome email asking what they’re working on

• We actually reply to every single response

• We ask for feedback regularly

• We make sure our paid community feels like they’re getting more than they paid for every single month

This shift alone probably saved us six months of grinding.

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Stage 3: 500 to 1,000 Paid Subscribers

Getting to 500 paid subscribers felt like climbing a mountain. Getting from 500 to 1,000 felt like building an engine.

At this stage, the game is about leverage. One well-timed promotion can bring in more subscribers than a month of daily posting. One strategic partnership can open doors that years of grinding never would.

The key shift at this stage was thinking in systems, not just campaigns.

#1. Run Strategic Sprint Promotions

Most creators either never promote their paid tier or promote it constantly. Both approaches fail.

Never promoting means leaving money on the table. Constant promoting burns out your audience and makes you feel gross.

We found a middle path: sprint promotions.

A few times a year, we run dedicated campaigns—like our 1-year anniversary promo where we offered tiered discounts for early upgraders:

These campaigns have clear start dates, clear end dates, and clear reasons to act now.

During those sprints, we promote heavily.

Between sprints, we focus on delivering value and barely mention the paid tier.

This approach respects our audience while still driving significant upgrade events. Our anniversary promotion alone brought in over 100 new paid subscribers in a single push.

#2. Expand What Paid Subscribers Get

At 500 subscribers, “exclusive articles” isn’t enough anymore. People expect more.

At Write • Build • Scale, our paid subscribers get access to in-depth workshops, templates, downloadable pdfs, and much more.

When you scroll through our About Page, you instantly see that you are getting access to way more than just “locked articles.”

We made our paid tier feel like a membership, not just a newsletter subscription.

This increased the perceived value, which made it easier to retain existing subscribers and convert new ones.

#3. Build Beyond Substack

Here’s the part that surprised us most, and what most Substack creators miss entirely.

Your Substack publication is your home base. But if it’s your entire business, you’re vulnerable. Platforms change. Algorithms shift. Policies update.

We started using Substack as the entry point to a larger ecosystem.

Paid subscribers often go on to buy our in-depth programs like Substack System, join our VIP coaching programs, or become affiliates for our products.

This doesn’t mean we treated Substack as less important. It means we treated it as the foundation of something bigger.

Every piece of content we create now has a purpose in the larger machine:

• Free posts attract new readers

• Notes drive visibility

• Welcome sequences nurture new subscribers

• Paid content delivers ongoing value

• Promotions convert at predictable intervals

When you have systems, growth becomes more predictable. You’re not hoping the next post goes viral. You’re running a business.

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The One Decision That Accelerated Everything

If I had to point to one decision that made the biggest difference in our journey to 1,000 paid subscribers, it’s this:

From day one, we treated Substack like a business, not a hobby.

That sounds obvious, but most creators don’t actually do it.

They dabble around. They post when they feel inspired. They avoid promoting because it feels uncomfortable. They don’t track their numbers. They don’t study what’s working. They don’t invest in learning the platform.

We showed up like professionals:

• We published consistently whether we felt like it or not

• We studied the best-performing publications in our space

• We ran real promotions

• And we decided to charge $20 per month for our paid subscription, which is a lot higher than the average simply because we know that our resources are worth paying for.

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Your Next Step: Make Substack Notes Work for You

If there’s one takeaway from our journey to 1,000 paid subscribers, it’s this: consistency compounds.

But showing up every single day on Substack Notes while also writing long-form posts, nurturing your community, and running promotions? That’s a lot.

That’s exactly why we created 365 Substack Notes Templates—one for each day of the year.

These aren’t generic prompts. They’re proven patterns that drive likes, comments, and restacks. Each template comes with 3 examples so you can see exactly how to adapt it to your niche.

The result? You eliminate 80+ hours of brainstorming and never stare at a blank Notes composer again.

Get instant access to all 365 templates for just $47 →

Stop letting Notes feel like a burden. Make it your most consistent growth lever instead.