On the Arrival of My First Paid Subscriber

A tip of the hat for the first dollar in my tip jar

Photo by Florian Krumm on Unsplash

Substack has paid subscriptions. The idea has been around since the site started, and the option has generated a little bit of controversy from time to time. But when I started writing in my little corner here (almost three years ago now) the idea of getting paid wasn’t really on my radar. I approached this pursuit as something between blogging and memoiring, just to see if I could think of enough things to write about and get them organized in a spot that was easy for others to access. Making money from it wasn’t a goal.

And on some level, it felt silly to even ask. I didn’t know if I was capable of generating enough content of enough interest to justify asking for money for it. It seemed arrogant to even consider. Who are you, buddy?

So I proceeded to write for a couple of years, and around the start of 2023 I had two thoughts. First, I realized I had a couple of years’ worth of content: dozens of article pieces on a variety of topics that I found interesting, and every once in a while somebody else found interesting enough to click Like on. It’s gratifying to look back on a time period and realize what you’ve accomplished, and I was pleased with what I had produced.

Second, I wondered if I was missing some sort of editorial account tool by virtue of not having paid subscriptions enabled on my site. Substack takes great pains to ensure every user that all users get all the tools, so paid subs are totally optional, but you know how it is. Surely there was something I wasn’t getting access to (even if it was additional color or layout options or something), and I was curious to see. So I turned on paid subscriptions.

I set the amounts as low as substack would allow, because as I’ve said making this a profitable endeavor wasn’t my primary motivation (no matter how much my family urged me to “go for it”). I treated paid subscriptions as a tip jar: if you like what you’ve read so far, stick a few bucks in my burrito fund. I’ll go eat a burrito and think of something else to write, and thank you for your generosity.

And then like another year went by. No paid subs. But I kept writing, and kept building, and found a lot of really interesting other things to read and comment on via Substack’s “new” engagement tools like Notes and the quasi-Xtter feed that piece of the engine generated.

About a month ago I got a notification that I had received my first paid subscriber. I have no idea who it is. I mean, I know the name associated with it thanks to the notification. I won’t embarrass my subscriber with a public naming, but dear subscriber I want to take a moment here and thank you. You were under no obligation to stick a few bucks in my burrito fund, but you liked what you read and decided it was worth something more than just clicking Like. That’s deeply gratifying, and humbling, and I’m thankful for you.

Here’s to 2024. I’ll keep filling this stack with things that interest me, and I hope you find them at least passably interesting, too. I hope I don’t let you down, and I hope that if I do you let me know why.

Thank you.