Substack?

[MulberryPeony]

Do you subscribe to anyone? How much do you pay a month?

I’m curious because it seems like everyone is leaving instagram now they have realised they can make money out of their readers somewhere else like Substack.

I go on instagram because it’s like a personalised magazine. I don’t even read the captions most of the time. I just look at the pretty pictures and mindlessly scroll. If I want to read an article I’ll usually turn to a publication online. I can’t see myself subscribing to 10x instagrammers for their own brand of weekly content. I used to visit blogs in ye olden days (and had one myself) but I probably wouldn’t have paid to read one. Maybe I’ve got the wrong end of the stick of what it’s all about?

I think it's them putting value on their time and writing skills / content creation. I subscribe to one and it's £4 a month. I did then have a look at a few and could see it was a good source of income!!!

I subscribe to a couple who offer free content (one offers paid upgrades), and I've paid an annual fee for one related to a course I'm doing this year.

I absolutely love Instagram (have managed to avoid the dark corners thank god) but I tend to unfollow people if they start promoting their Substack accounts. Don’t mind a link to a Stan Store - I’ve even bought the odd thing - but Substack? Nope, not going to buy into that.

@hopeishere I believe that they believe their content is valuable and not just a way to make cash lol. Did you already know the one you follow? Do you think you’ll follow more?

@CocoPlum how did you come across the one you pay for? Was it from previously free content so you knew what you were getting?

@Tutorpuzzle I’ve never even heard of a Stan Store 😬. I’m not at the unfollowing stage yet. I had a few trying to shill money about how I could make my instagram make me money by giving them money. Now they have decided it’s not making money on the first place so forgive me for not being convinced haha!

I maybe do need to edit who I’m following though.

@MulberryPeony 🤣🤣. A Stan Store is just an online platform where you can easily buy things like ebooks, no commitment, unlike Substack.

And yes, I hate those “I earn £10,000 a day, and I only work for an hour” posts. Scroll right past!

Fair play to them all, but how many people can afford to/want to subscribe to multiple Substacks? I have a paid subscription to one, and am highly unlikely to pay for any more.

The one I pay for used to write a weekly column for an online publication. She has brought it over to Substack. She posts twice a week and I really value her content. Plus it is 5 dollars which I consider a reasonable price. Some Substacks are £10!

hopeishere I believe that they believe their content is valuable and not just a way to make cash lol. Did you already know the one you follow? Do you think you’ll follow more?

I did raft follow them. The sub adds the option to comment and discuss stuff in more depth. I did already follow them. I don't think I'll pay for more.

Usually it's someone I listen to on a podcast. The paid one I found by people on the course I'm on mentioning it. I wanted full access as she is posting specifically geared to this exam we're working towards- helpful mneumonics (sp?) etc.

I love Substack! However I only pay for 1 person, who offered a years content for £6 or £12, so I decided to go ahead.

I follow it mainly for fashion, and find it much more useful than Instagram at the moment. It feels like insta is very much geared right now for hauls/ here's links to what you should buy, when really I want to see multiple ways to wear a popular item, or everyday actual outfits. I don't want people to push me to buy, I want people to push me to use.

I've joined a low buy year community on there (free users included), everyone else I follow is free to some extent too. I find it very frustrating when everything is paywalled, but more because it's not immediately clear if it is, so you get sucked in on an intro then there it is. Put a line at the top people! The best ones say 'the first 2 are for everyone, the rest are paid subscribers'.

I do think the model isn't really sustainable, and they'd be better off with a different model- I'd rather pay a fiver a month, and choose 4/5 posts from whoever I want that take my fancy, than a fiver for the same amount of posts from one person.

I also found it's a much nicer place to use if you switch your home screen from being the notes page to being your inbox/ followed posts. I didn't change until after the US election, which I had limited interest in, but I was fed so many sobbing notes about that.

Also, be careful about what you jump in and read- there appears to be little to no moderation, and I've read a couple of posts by a female singer that went into a fair amount of detail of trauma that she's been through in her life. So very sad that she's gone through stuff, but there were no trigger warnings, etc, and I imagine some people would be very affected by what she wrote.