Cheering you on Lucy, always!!!! And thanks for the shout out!
Also just as an aside: the reality of pricing on Substack for MOST people (not you, Lucy) is: If you have little to no social proof around what people are willing to pay for a newsletter (very important distinction!), you start at the low end of the average and you START WRITING. Give readers the very best of what you have, join the community and as your readership grows, so too, does the quality of your data. Then you make intentional pricing pivots.
Lucy had more social proof than most DIY writers/entrepreneurs I work with and even she found that jacking up her prices had some consequences in the Substack (and her larger) ecosystem. But because of her data quality, I could go on a treasure hunt and identify her pricing sweet spot. Not too low, not too high, reflective of reader behavioral engagement (what they SHOWED her they're able to pay).
Some might say she’s leaving money on the table but I say she’s making room for more people at the table. Which is aligned with her ethos too, providing DIY PR at an affordable price.
REALITY: Pricing even based on data can still be a wobbly proposition (we sometimes simply can’t predict what readers will do!) but Lucy saw things massively turn around in paid subs within a week. And she’s got that signature mojo back in full force too. Get ready, world, Lucy’s got a PR Recipe for you!
Love the idea that it's not about leaving money on the table, but making room for more people!! This resonates enormously with the membership I started running in June this year, and while I do not have the same degree of social proof as Lucy has, I do have providing access to support for as many writers as possible as a key value that underpins the decisions I make.
Thanks for the transparency and congrats for changing your mind!
Society thinks it's a sign of weakness. Instead it's a sign of higher intelligence.
Your story reminds us of how pricing is difficult, even when you have a clear niche and a large audience and large traffic like you.
And how pricing memberships is even more difficult. I think one-off payments would help in Substack...
In my Italian business, we never do discounts. I see they can work. But, as a customer, I know I'm always waiting for the next discount if I know they regularly happen.
Our solution to avoid devaluing the offers is to add bonuses, not lower the price. For example individual or group calls.
Thanks Lucy, this is so helpful! I'm just considering joining Substack 'properly' and looking at options for a paid tier and it's so good to hear the honest truth behind different pricing structures, what's worked and what hasn't. I definitely notice too that even if you offer something you know needs consistency and time and therefore an annual commitment is 'better', people are quite cautious and go with a monthly subscription first, even when they end up paying more. The whole psychology of pricing is fascinating and also that it's changed I think a lot in the last few years!
Yes honestly I wasn’t expecting the annual vs monthly to be such a hard sell! I am definitely more comfortable with the monthly fee now. I am really pleased it gives you some food for thought.
I think a lot of people maybe can't afford £150 in one hit.. also I think it's the commitment too.. at least with a monthly payment you know you can try it out and cancel anytime 😊 x
I have a monthly $$total of pd Substack subscriptions and review each every quarter depending on what I’ve felt benefit from to date.
I’ve 3 former paid subscriptions I easily released when I noted how extremely ‘busy’ vs reflective they were of value I had anticipated after 4 solid months of reading their regular posts = yes, but of decreasing interest.
Their posts felt simply ‘pushed out’ & rushed to me to get something on the page vs contributory of food for greater thought.
I’ve not missed any I switched back to simply a ‘free’ subscription now months later.
The ones I never consider releasing as ‘paid’ deliver enjoyment of reading consistently for ALL and furnish ‘bonus’ reads at least 1-2x monthly as extras for ‘paid.’
Were I to suggest a model - it would be Joyce Vance’s ~~Civil Discourse~~ Substack. It is always thoughtful and timely, plus who knew chickens could be so delightful!
Substance + Dessert is what I experience with following (and compensating) Joyce.
I LOVE this insight Sherry. Thank you so much for commenting and lots of food for thought. I love the substance + dessert analogy. Will check out Joyce!
I had a similar U-turn with pricing for my Living Journal®️ subscription - it was on a different platform, and it just stopped feeling good at the higher price point. Even though it was still a bargain, I was feeling the pressure to overcomplicate and commit too much time and energy to it and struggled to find time to promote both it and my higher level offerings.
It was always supposed to be a very affordable, accessible and SIMPLE way to get a hit of daily mindset support in less than 10 mins a day, not a big commitment for my subscribers either! So I've peeled it right back, relaunched it here... and it's feeling SO much better!
Abi so many similarities in what you are saying! Thank you so much. ☺️ this is really encouraging! I am already finding the selling much more comfortable at this price point and it’s even changing how I am showing up.
Exactly! Having a great relationship with money isn't necessarily about charging premium prices - it's about doing whatever feels genuinely good and sparky!
Hi Lucy, I've been wanting to join for ages as I love everything you stand for and promote & I've appreciated your support. I was struggling to commit to either price point With your updated pricing I've become paid today without hesitation! 🎉🎉🎉
God Lucy you are the Queen of Transparency! Thank you for sharing all this, I have found it both interesting and reassuring - building from scratch is sooooo much harder than I imagined. Even if people tell you all the time they love what you're doing, and even if they buy something, like a book, moving them to the next stage is HARD. And price is one of many factors, most of which don't seem to make sense. I charged £50 for a set of group coaching sessions (x 8 people) and got some traction but not the deluge I was expecting - was it too cheap, did it not seem valuable enough, that's what people told me...but then I worry about getting locked up and stifled as you describe if you raise the price.
I feel so lucky to get advice from you from all quarters in helping to build my business - thank you.
I think it’s such a fine line isn’t it on the value piece. I do think though that getting small group access is a premium though. And sometimes we can overcomplicate by adding more when actually less is more helpful in the learning experience.
I joined on your pilot price and I’m never leaving Lucy! Pricing is SO hard.
When I put my paywall on I truly intended to bring it up after a few months but now I realise it’s not the right thing to do. We can’t predict the future, we have to go with the flow and sometimes that means changing our mind and that’s okay 😘
I remember you being part of my Power 100 and its been such a joy getting to know you more and have some friendly faces who have been with me since the start. I love this reflection that yes things can change on pricing and going with our flow.
Oof and so the pricing conundrum rumbles on... but this is so interesting and what I love (aside from the transparency here) is that this model of working allows for this degree of flexibility and agility. It likes to keep us on our toes but it's also kind of fun. Kind of.
Yes! I think in part this was why I wanted to share. Not because I have any answers and obviously we are all unique user cases but there maybe a nugget or a learning that helps others.
Totally. I suspect that the ‘usual’ Substack model of pricing low and aiming for high volume makes it tougher to charge more than it would be off platform, despite the value (though there are definitely some doing so).
Thank you as always for your transparency, and bringing us along with you on your business journey!
I am still in the process of trying to learn what my subscribers will pay for. I think my paid offering (£5 per month for free access to my online presentations - two per month usually £18 each - plus some extra behind the scenes type writing) is amazing, but I have been stuck around the 30 paid subscriber point for six months.
How much do you promote the offering (and frame it in the same way as above) I definitely work well to setting myself a goal of a number I want to reach and then taking little steps to get there. I don’t know if setting a target helps you? I also get a feeling summer was a bit of a quieter season for some and there is a bit of that back to school energy now?
I promote it at the bottom of every free version, including the details above, and say what paid members are getting that week. But it seems the free workshops aren't what people want. Behind-the-scenes doesn't seem to be, either. Haven't cracked it yet! I did get a flurry of sign-ups when I promised a link behind the paywall, to my Spotify playlist of great tracks to do striptease to, haha. I have a similar juicy Spotify list to share this week so let's see what that does!
I love this on the playlist! Such a unique twist as well. It seems maybe people want something they can consumer privately, maybe they are nervous about showing up to a workshop?
Hmm… I think there could be some really individual twists for you here!
Hi. I'm subscribed. I know that because your essay tells me so. I always do annual rather than monthly simply for simplicity of accounting, but I have no idea without looking it up how much I paid. Either way I think you are great value and write well. What more could one ask?
Admire you for sharing this! These decisions are never easy, and yet they are the truth behind the scenes of business ownership. You’re doing so many people a service by sharing! And I admire you and your work so much. Glad to be here
And good for you for tracking your Substack like the professional outlet you want it to be, and making the decisions for what’s best about your “company” and it’s growth. It’s a smart, mature, and professional decision.
I agree with the above comment about discounts vs added value. I find discounts ultimately devalue an offering, but the idea of added bonuses is a compelling way to reshape the goal.
Thanks for the update. Interesting how things pan out, isn' it. Humility and adaptability are two directions of my self-aware leadership compass and your message above is a really good example of how people can do both: learning and responding.
I find that the Substack stats offering isn't hugely helpful. The one thing I want to see is my most popular post and you can order by newest, oldest and recently edited. They need to add popularity there ASAP. I'm not much of a data person and me and detail will never be BBFs but they need to give us something a bit more useful....
They also need a pay as you read option too. If you want to read just one article, writers need to have this option to be available to readers.
Could you help us by giving us a bit of a masterclass on the stats tools we DO have on substack and how we can make the best of them pls? Thanks
Hey there! Yeah, I agree, Substack tracks the data, but interpreting the data is a whole other issue. Luckily, this is a playground I love and have tons of experience in. Depending on the size of your audience and how long you've been running your newsletter, a Gut Check Pricing chat might be a good fit. The quality of data is really the factor on zeroing in on a pricing sweet spot, but that doesn't mean you're stuck completely. There are lots of ways to try to nudge readers into action! I'd love to hear more about where you are! https://amandabray.com/custom-newsletter-strategies
I would LOVE To do that but actually analysing the data is my achilles heel. I got Amanda Hinton from the editing spectrum to help me get into mine as I couldn't find anything to help me on the pricing side.
I think she has some resources around these so I will nudge her to this thread to comment!
Cheering you on Lucy, always!!!! And thanks for the shout out!
Also just as an aside: the reality of pricing on Substack for MOST people (not you, Lucy) is: If you have little to no social proof around what people are willing to pay for a newsletter (very important distinction!), you start at the low end of the average and you START WRITING. Give readers the very best of what you have, join the community and as your readership grows, so too, does the quality of your data. Then you make intentional pricing pivots.
Lucy had more social proof than most DIY writers/entrepreneurs I work with and even she found that jacking up her prices had some consequences in the Substack (and her larger) ecosystem. But because of her data quality, I could go on a treasure hunt and identify her pricing sweet spot. Not too low, not too high, reflective of reader behavioral engagement (what they SHOWED her they're able to pay).
Some might say she’s leaving money on the table but I say she’s making room for more people at the table. Which is aligned with her ethos too, providing DIY PR at an affordable price.
REALITY: Pricing even based on data can still be a wobbly proposition (we sometimes simply can’t predict what readers will do!) but Lucy saw things massively turn around in paid subs within a week. And she’s got that signature mojo back in full force too. Get ready, world, Lucy’s got a PR Recipe for you!
Love the idea that it's not about leaving money on the table, but making room for more people!! This resonates enormously with the membership I started running in June this year, and while I do not have the same degree of social proof as Lucy has, I do have providing access to support for as many writers as possible as a key value that underpins the decisions I make.
Love hearing this! Do you mind if I restack your Note with some more perspective/thoughts? I think a lot of folks are in the same boat with you.
Yes of course 😊
Love that "making room for people at the table"! Great advice thanks
It’s a good one right!
Thanks for the transparency and congrats for changing your mind!
Society thinks it's a sign of weakness. Instead it's a sign of higher intelligence.
Your story reminds us of how pricing is difficult, even when you have a clear niche and a large audience and large traffic like you.
And how pricing memberships is even more difficult. I think one-off payments would help in Substack...
In my Italian business, we never do discounts. I see they can work. But, as a customer, I know I'm always waiting for the next discount if I know they regularly happen.
Our solution to avoid devaluing the offers is to add bonuses, not lower the price. For example individual or group calls.
Thank you so much for the insightful comments. I completely agree. I love the idea also of bonus rather than discount.
One of my biggest takeaways is actually keeping it simple and I am looking forward now to just playing with content rather than price!
I leaned towards complication too often in life. Now I believe there's always a simple way.
Thanks Lucy, this is so helpful! I'm just considering joining Substack 'properly' and looking at options for a paid tier and it's so good to hear the honest truth behind different pricing structures, what's worked and what hasn't. I definitely notice too that even if you offer something you know needs consistency and time and therefore an annual commitment is 'better', people are quite cautious and go with a monthly subscription first, even when they end up paying more. The whole psychology of pricing is fascinating and also that it's changed I think a lot in the last few years!
Yes honestly I wasn’t expecting the annual vs monthly to be such a hard sell! I am definitely more comfortable with the monthly fee now. I am really pleased it gives you some food for thought.
I think a lot of people maybe can't afford £150 in one hit.. also I think it's the commitment too.. at least with a monthly payment you know you can try it out and cancel anytime 😊 x
Yes. Agreed on both! Commitment issues in subscribing - who knew? (Definitely not me!)
🤣 Maybe it’s just me! 😳😆 I can’t be the only one.. anyone else? 🙏😆
You are definitely not the only one! 😍
Exactly!
I have a monthly $$total of pd Substack subscriptions and review each every quarter depending on what I’ve felt benefit from to date.
I’ve 3 former paid subscriptions I easily released when I noted how extremely ‘busy’ vs reflective they were of value I had anticipated after 4 solid months of reading their regular posts = yes, but of decreasing interest.
Their posts felt simply ‘pushed out’ & rushed to me to get something on the page vs contributory of food for greater thought.
I’ve not missed any I switched back to simply a ‘free’ subscription now months later.
The ones I never consider releasing as ‘paid’ deliver enjoyment of reading consistently for ALL and furnish ‘bonus’ reads at least 1-2x monthly as extras for ‘paid.’
Were I to suggest a model - it would be Joyce Vance’s ~~Civil Discourse~~ Substack. It is always thoughtful and timely, plus who knew chickens could be so delightful!
Substance + Dessert is what I experience with following (and compensating) Joyce.
I LOVE this insight Sherry. Thank you so much for commenting and lots of food for thought. I love the substance + dessert analogy. Will check out Joyce!
I had a similar U-turn with pricing for my Living Journal®️ subscription - it was on a different platform, and it just stopped feeling good at the higher price point. Even though it was still a bargain, I was feeling the pressure to overcomplicate and commit too much time and energy to it and struggled to find time to promote both it and my higher level offerings.
It was always supposed to be a very affordable, accessible and SIMPLE way to get a hit of daily mindset support in less than 10 mins a day, not a big commitment for my subscribers either! So I've peeled it right back, relaunched it here... and it's feeling SO much better!
Abi so many similarities in what you are saying! Thank you so much. ☺️ this is really encouraging! I am already finding the selling much more comfortable at this price point and it’s even changing how I am showing up.
Exactly! Having a great relationship with money isn't necessarily about charging premium prices - it's about doing whatever feels genuinely good and sparky!
Yes yes yes to all of this.
Hi Lucy, I've been wanting to join for ages as I love everything you stand for and promote & I've appreciated your support. I was struggling to commit to either price point With your updated pricing I've become paid today without hesitation! 🎉🎉🎉
I just saw this! So pleased you are part of the squad. Thank you for coming and confirming my decision. It’s great to know the reasons why. 😍
God Lucy you are the Queen of Transparency! Thank you for sharing all this, I have found it both interesting and reassuring - building from scratch is sooooo much harder than I imagined. Even if people tell you all the time they love what you're doing, and even if they buy something, like a book, moving them to the next stage is HARD. And price is one of many factors, most of which don't seem to make sense. I charged £50 for a set of group coaching sessions (x 8 people) and got some traction but not the deluge I was expecting - was it too cheap, did it not seem valuable enough, that's what people told me...but then I worry about getting locked up and stifled as you describe if you raise the price.
I feel so lucky to get advice from you from all quarters in helping to build my business - thank you.
I think it’s such a fine line isn’t it on the value piece. I do think though that getting small group access is a premium though. And sometimes we can overcomplicate by adding more when actually less is more helpful in the learning experience.
I joined on your pilot price and I’m never leaving Lucy! Pricing is SO hard.
When I put my paywall on I truly intended to bring it up after a few months but now I realise it’s not the right thing to do. We can’t predict the future, we have to go with the flow and sometimes that means changing our mind and that’s okay 😘
I remember you being part of my Power 100 and its been such a joy getting to know you more and have some friendly faces who have been with me since the start. I love this reflection that yes things can change on pricing and going with our flow.
Oof and so the pricing conundrum rumbles on... but this is so interesting and what I love (aside from the transparency here) is that this model of working allows for this degree of flexibility and agility. It likes to keep us on our toes but it's also kind of fun. Kind of.
Thank you for sharing this. We are all figuring out this platform as we go and it helps to hear other people’s perspectives.
Yes! I think in part this was why I wanted to share. Not because I have any answers and obviously we are all unique user cases but there maybe a nugget or a learning that helps others.
Totally. I suspect that the ‘usual’ Substack model of pricing low and aiming for high volume makes it tougher to charge more than it would be off platform, despite the value (though there are definitely some doing so).
It has definitely been helpful 👍 Thank you 🙏
Thank you as always for your transparency, and bringing us along with you on your business journey!
I am still in the process of trying to learn what my subscribers will pay for. I think my paid offering (£5 per month for free access to my online presentations - two per month usually £18 each - plus some extra behind the scenes type writing) is amazing, but I have been stuck around the 30 paid subscriber point for six months.
How much do you promote the offering (and frame it in the same way as above) I definitely work well to setting myself a goal of a number I want to reach and then taking little steps to get there. I don’t know if setting a target helps you? I also get a feeling summer was a bit of a quieter season for some and there is a bit of that back to school energy now?
I promote it at the bottom of every free version, including the details above, and say what paid members are getting that week. But it seems the free workshops aren't what people want. Behind-the-scenes doesn't seem to be, either. Haven't cracked it yet! I did get a flurry of sign-ups when I promised a link behind the paywall, to my Spotify playlist of great tracks to do striptease to, haha. I have a similar juicy Spotify list to share this week so let's see what that does!
I love this on the playlist! Such a unique twist as well. It seems maybe people want something they can consumer privately, maybe they are nervous about showing up to a workshop?
Hmm… I think there could be some really individual twists for you here!
All good stuff. Thanks for being so transparent in your growth strategies et al.
Awww thank you for taking the time to comment.
Hi. I'm subscribed. I know that because your essay tells me so. I always do annual rather than monthly simply for simplicity of accounting, but I have no idea without looking it up how much I paid. Either way I think you are great value and write well. What more could one ask?
Admire you for sharing this! These decisions are never easy, and yet they are the truth behind the scenes of business ownership. You’re doing so many people a service by sharing! And I admire you and your work so much. Glad to be here
Thank you for being so gracious with me and I am honoured you are with me too!
Love the honesty and transparency.
And good for you for tracking your Substack like the professional outlet you want it to be, and making the decisions for what’s best about your “company” and it’s growth. It’s a smart, mature, and professional decision.
I agree with the above comment about discounts vs added value. I find discounts ultimately devalue an offering, but the idea of added bonuses is a compelling way to reshape the goal.
Good luck!
Thank you for taking the time to comment and yes, I think I need to start thinking about the other bonuses I can use moving forwards for sure.
Your transparency is beautiful!
Thank you - that is really kind of you to say.
Thanks for the update. Interesting how things pan out, isn' it. Humility and adaptability are two directions of my self-aware leadership compass and your message above is a really good example of how people can do both: learning and responding.
I find that the Substack stats offering isn't hugely helpful. The one thing I want to see is my most popular post and you can order by newest, oldest and recently edited. They need to add popularity there ASAP. I'm not much of a data person and me and detail will never be BBFs but they need to give us something a bit more useful....
They also need a pay as you read option too. If you want to read just one article, writers need to have this option to be available to readers.
Could you help us by giving us a bit of a masterclass on the stats tools we DO have on substack and how we can make the best of them pls? Thanks
Hey there! Yeah, I agree, Substack tracks the data, but interpreting the data is a whole other issue. Luckily, this is a playground I love and have tons of experience in. Depending on the size of your audience and how long you've been running your newsletter, a Gut Check Pricing chat might be a good fit. The quality of data is really the factor on zeroing in on a pricing sweet spot, but that doesn't mean you're stuck completely. There are lots of ways to try to nudge readers into action! I'd love to hear more about where you are! https://amandabray.com/custom-newsletter-strategies
I would LOVE To do that but actually analysing the data is my achilles heel. I got Amanda Hinton from the editing spectrum to help me get into mine as I couldn't find anything to help me on the pricing side.
I think she has some resources around these so I will nudge her to this thread to comment!