Substack started off so transparent and data-oriented. It’s sad that they don’t publish stats on various theories and their impact. Presumably you don’t have to be that legible with your readers/subscribers, and you can test out (probably on a monthly or quarterly basis, not post-by-post) what attributes of a post advise toward being public, and what attributes lead to a private post. The feedback loop is distant enough that it’s not a simple classifier.
You’re missing at least one strategy—paid for frequent short-term takes, free for delayed summaries.
Substack started off so transparent and data-oriented. It’s sad that they don’t publish stats on various theories and their impact. Presumably you don’t have to be that legible with your readers/subscribers, and you can test out (probably on a monthly or quarterly basis, not post-by-post) what attributes of a post advise toward being public, and what attributes lead to a private post. The feedback loop is distant enough that it’s not a simple classifier.
You’re missing at least one strategy—paid for frequent short-term takes, free for delayed summaries.
More strategies:
all articles start paid, the become free after 1 month
articles are free, discussions are paid
articles are free, open threads are paid