Today I received my first paid subscriber! I was stunned to receive the email notification.
I had only written one paid-subscriber-only post a few days earlier, and figured it would require AT LEAST a month of publishing/large enough back catalogue to get a reader to even consider subscribing.
I was so surprised at how quick someone had subscribed, that I actually emailed the person making sure they understood what they were subscribing to! Haha.
This "Zero to One" moment (there were no other newsletters on Substack charging readers for access to content about what was essentially a rival platform) was a real game changer.
The concept worked, someone found value in my writing, and I could charge for content that was higher quality and more in depth, that would be restricted to those who cared about digital publishing platforms as much as I did.