👩🏽🔬 Turning your monthly Substack subscriptions (on and) off...
Read the room - you always have a choice.
It’s a choose your own adventure here at Sparkle on Substack focussing your attention on joyful, sustainable growth - I can’t wait to see what you create!!! Come and join my community for instant support in the exclusive members chat and more creative ideas, insight and experience than you ever thought possible - folks have time for you here and so do I!
Hi Sparklers,
I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot recently but have you considered the power and value of your archive here?
I wrote this post to prompt some creative thinking for those of you who run membership models here and communities across time zones.
We ALWAYS have a choice!
This piece is part of my collection of Growth Experiments which is a new section here for 2025. The idea is, I do a set of experiments (across multiple publications and models) and report back so you feel better informed if you want to be inspired to do your own version. If you’re also running experiments longer than 30 days on your Substack, you can email me to be featured.
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Why I Turned Off Monthly Subscriptions for my Substack publication and What Happened Next
A couple of months ago, I made (what I thought was) a bold decision: I turned off monthly subscriptions on my Substack. I spoke about it quite vulnerably in this podcast episode.
For a long time, I’d offered both monthly and annual plans as well as my Diamond Membership, nudging up the price as the archive became more valuable. I know the flexibility of a monthly payment makes it easier for people to say yes. It’s less commitment and you can budget.
I also know a month passes by quite quickly and folks have the excuse to say “I’m leaving as I’ve not had made time to make the most of this”.
There are different types of ‘buyer’ who come to browse our offers here… I talk about this more in my membership calls. Not everyone is a full body yes as soon as they stumble into your ‘Substack shop’. Some folks take their time to get to know you, others will never pay you - neither are good or bad, that’s just the nature of the Substack/ social media hybrid model here. With on average 5% across all Substack subscriptions converting to paid you can guarantee you’ll have WAY more readers than paid subs/ members. Both are beautiful but we also need to get paid. 🎢
“Claire is extremely knowledgable about the inner workings of Substack, and makes it super easy to navigate the whole process.”
In the first 18months on Substack of running a membership model here, I learnt a lot.
I had never dealt with volume of enquiries, questions, connection like that ever in my life. I went from living life on my own terms to being ‘plugged in’ and responsive. After a while of being responsive, I had to re-train my nervous system and re-model my business. Life online moves quickly, the internet is 24/7, your nervous system needs time to catch up. 1
I have THE best customers but started to notice a pattern—some ‘wrong fit’ people would sign up for a month, dip into the content, and then cancel or worst take my words as their own.
It sometimes felt transactional rather than like the deep, engaged community I wanted to build. If you ever feel like folks are barging into your beautiful space anywhere IRL or online, you’ll know it feels all kinds of wrong.
I started asking myself: What would happen if I removed the monthly option altogether? Would it push people away? Would my paid subscriptions take a hit? Would I stall my own growth? Would more of my ‘right fit audience’ find me.2
I was taking an option away but I was confident I could keep the monthly views metrics and the GAR increasing! Plus I was tired, last year was big personally as well as in my business. Oh fun - an experiment, we like those. 👩🏽🔬
An opportunity to test an new way of engaging my audience through Substack and to gift members my Substack beginners course which wouldn’t have been appropriate a year ago. 3
“Since working with Claire, my Substack has been transformed. It was a bit busy and scattered, which does not align with my mindful message at all! I was trying to tell everyone everything at once about what I do and what resources are available to them. Claire told me to simplify the homepage design and now it looks so much better. But the best thing about working with Claire is that she gives you insights and inspiration in a way that makes it all feel heart-centred and holistic. There’s no hustle culture in it and that is so important to me and how I show up in my Substack, my business and my life.”
The Results?
An absolute dream for steady energy and personal creative recovery.
Subscriptions are forever BUT the energy that is needed to keep conversions and keep paid subs coming in takes work. It doesn’t have to be hustle but there’s an element of showing up and selling… people aren’t going to trip over and give you their card details. 4
My membership numbers stayed steady, the grew and then dipped which is a pattern I see quarterly anyway in line with the energy I push around what people value here. E.g I almost guarantee any class on managing paid offers is a crowd pleaser.
It’s my hope that after 6-12 months in my membership working part time on their Substack folks have what they need and choose to stay anyway. Is that always the case NO! There are two ways to make folks stay - high consistent value5, no brainer price. You can put the two together to grow faster but that’s not my style.
It didn’t make a difference to free subs (always around 500 more a month)
I (felt like I) had more time to welcome folks into the community - I drop everyone who pays a direct message and my energy shifted from a quick - ‘here’s everything you need’ to ‘how’s your day going?’ - much more my vibe.
The shift encouraged people to be more intentional about subscribing. They were more excited to tell me why they’d joined. It’s not about numbers for me it’s always been about connection and being of service to the people who align with my creative practise and values.
I know I am safe to turn it on and off for seasons when I am delivering elsewhere.
“Your energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Your concept of a unique creative spirit at the heart of everyone.”
Why not just pause Subscriptions?
The Truth (without shame)!
Ok, I don’t pause subscriptions because the model here means people pay for access to an archive as well as the live elements. I can take time off however because I have support. We can each run our publications in a way that works for us and our energy across the seasons - we just need to communicate it with the people we are here to serve.
Not everyone likes to commit to a subscription or membership. People are open about swapping spaces - it’s like a fun sweet shop here. It’s IMPORTANT we make our home a space they want to stay, we respect their time and money, we don’t ghost, overwhelm or confuse them. That’s really the biggest mistake I see with creators.
You can get Substack education more readily online now. When I first started, there was me and like 2 others who are very different to me in their approach. In the last two months the amount of new Substack education and people going viral sharing growth hacks and content is dizzying… I hide it all. 6
You simply can’t get the community I’ve cultivated anywhere else online. The people who have been with me since the beginning (2023) experimenting and growing their Substacks. They are so helpful and they are paying it forward when new folks join live in my community chat every single day! They meet for coffee, dinner, organise meet ups, they support each other’s podcasts, book launches. It’s so so beautiful and I’m honoured to have been a catalyst in a conscious way.
There is NOTHING triggering for anyone’s nervous system here on
, no frenzy, no hustle - all joyful, sustainable growth - my methods work LONG TERM. It’s a burn out free zone. You care about your health? So do I? You care about being your most creative self? Me too!! You want your Substack to earn you money? I’ve got you! Do I believe we can grow without hacks and hustle - you betcha and I have over 400 members who feel the same. Come join us!
“I love listening to your relaxed take on building a Substack following organically, that it doesn’t have to be large. it is actually relaxing for my nervous system vs creating panic or FOMO. Your insights have been encouraging and motivating.”
The Takeaway:
More Commitment, Less Churn
Removing the monthly option made joining my membership here on Substack feel more like a thoughtful decision rather than an impulse or grabby one. (NB- not all people.)
Instead of people hopping in and out, they’ve consciously invested in a year of connection, learning, and engagement. It led to deeper conversations and me connecting to the names and the motivation of the people who joined.
If you’re wondering whether it’s the right move for you, I’d say this: If your goal is long-term community over quick wins and metrics, it’s worth stepping into how you want to feel. Marketing guru Seth Godin talks a lot about why he’s not on social media. My favourite line of his is around the concept of one deliriously happy customer/ member who tells 10 people passionately about your work. The power!
People paying monthly access for membership have the choice to come and go - are you 100% comfortable with that in the season you’re in? Do you have energy to meet them? Does it fit your business model? 7
Have you considered turning off monthly subscriptions for your Substack publication?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! It’s hard to get across the nuance of feelings here hence the footnotes/ asides. Probably should have done a podcast!
NB - to turn off monthly subs, you simply make the price the same or slightly lower than your annual price. (You don’t actually turn them off just stop the flow).
Ooof that was the longest post I’ve written (and hopefully edited *quite* well) in a while.
Sending sparkles for the DELIGHTFUL home you’re building on Substack, I’m here for you and I’m so excited about what’s possible at this expansive time where your creative voice is more important than it’s ever been.
Claire
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PS - If you are looking for support outside a membership model, I have two signature courses I’m incredibly proud of with rave reviews.
“I love Claire's open hearted, enthusiastic and generous sharing and support around Substack. It has made me feel it is possible to achieve my goals, it has extended my goals, I've managed to get Bestseller status within months of working with her, all whilst working intuitively, from the heart, with flexibility and always keeping my writing at the heart.”
I don’t have notifications on my phone, I don’t consume any news except accidentally on IG/ Notes. I regularly take apps off my phone and step into my work consciously at the laptop.
We all have different metrics for growth… mine is a feeling goal but I also like to see green on my dashboard. I can cope with grey but I prefer green!
This is a business decision, the course is over a year old. I have updated it but Substack education is free and easy to come by for beginners. I want people to see where I was when I was building - it’s cute!
Unless it’s from a free trial - it often happens there as they miss the email. People are very transparent with me in that they ask for a refund as they can’t afford to pay but wanted to access the free trial when I offered it. That’s the way the cookie crumbles when something is labelled as ‘free’. Not everything is measured in money and I am often glad of these connections and those folks stay on a bursary spot or send others my way - it all works out.
Value is subjective. I value lots of things - inspiration, education, honesty, congruence, art…
I have supported folks to take their Notes go viral but I haven’t personally had one go viral. It became a bit of a running joke as I was researching the Notes chapter of our book ‘How to Grow a World Class Substack’. I don’t play the lottery either - maybe I have an energetic block or maybe there’s a different type of magic at play.
Subscriptions (unless built as hands off systems) focussed on volume need some sort of nurturing by a human - it’s just the way it is.
Hi Claire, this is brilliant! I love how you moved to annual only and got rid of monthly!
I had paid option on for a while but nothing paywalled and no extra offer so I turned it off again. I have one pledge for annual sitting there should I decide to turn paid on again. I have a lot of ideas but just not the bandwidth to put these into action at the moment. Frustrating but I guess this is just the season of life I’m in.
Would you say I should have paid turned on just in case people feel generous vs suggesting pledges? I tried buymeacoffee but wasn’t consistent and barely anyone used it anyway xx
This is on my list of 'to read' next week. I am having a full sparkle day next week. Goals, subscriptions, ecosystems. I can't wait! Thank you as always Claire for all you do, it is so helpful xx