Other Substack authors can probably benefit from some of these lessons, which include these:
- If you’re going to increase your paid subscribers and net income, from time to time, you’re going to have to quarterback a high-profile subscription drive. I know readers might not like being asked for money all the time, but from the perspective of Substack authors, we’ve got to do this if we want to continue to do what we’re doing.
- I now have 205 paid subscribers. However, I can now note that about 90 of these subscribers came from three subscription appeals. In other words, absent these subscription appeals, I might have achieved only 100 or so paid subscribers … in 12 months of full-time work.
_ A few Substack contrarians have broken through and have reached or exceeded the magic number of 1,000 paid subscribers. Thank God they have. However, this is s tiny percentage of Substack authors and most of us are still making far less from our writing job than, say, a teenager taking orders at McDonald’s.
Speaking for this Substack author, if I could increase my gross annual revenue by $3,400 every week, I’d have no worries, mate. But, unless I write the article that gets Fauci locked up for the rest of his life, I don’t think I can sustain this level. I understand I might now go the next 30 days with no paid subscriptions.
Still, nobody forced me to become a Substack author. I have free will and I chose to take the road less traveled. If I’d wanted to make a livable wage as a journalist, I could have written the type of stories that NY Times, Washington Post and Gannet journalists write.
... Of course I’d rather eat a bowl of live cockroaches than do that.
Also, I agree with you about truth-tellers; I think it may well be that Substack exists to identify those of us trying to get the truth out. I've been one of those folks for about 25 yrs - ever since the internet went public and became a big hit. I got my first computer in 1997 or so and was off and running. That was back in the days when a person could find all kinds of truth online, with many different search engines. It was true FREEDOM. I'm sure I'm on someone's list somewhere; however, I'm not afraid. Next year I'll be 70 y. o. and I've lived a very full life. If they come for me, I'm ready. I will die a happy death knowing I did my best to bring truth to humanity. Part of why I do what I do is that my dad did the same thing; I'm just keeping the "family tradition" going. btw, he died a quiet, peaceful death and they weren't able to destroy his reputation, though they did try hard. I have huge respect for you, Bill, for what you do, it isn't easy these days and you're far more high profile than I am. Prayers for you and your family, dear Bill.
If you’re going to increase your paid subscribers and net income, from time to time, you’re going to have to quarterback a high-profile subscription drive. I know readers might not like being asked for money all the time, but from the perspective of Substack authors, we’ve got to do this if we want to continue to do what we’re doing.
------------
I hate 'selling myself', but looking at your numbers I realized that doing something similar is much preferable to worrying about finances instead of writing. Therefore, you directly inspired this post: https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/pitfalls-of-going-pro and the resulting bump in paid subs that I saw over the weekend! Thanks for the kick in the pants I needed! :)
I saw that. We've got to do this from time to time. One of my buddies has an expression he uses all the time, which I've adapted as one of my life/sales philosophies: "You've got 'No' in your pocket ..."
Update I left off a... nd this happy news from my "Hail Mary" pass.
I should have mentioned that I added at least 100 free subscriptions this week. I want to publicly thank Dr. Paul Alexander for, once again, promoting my site as most of these free subscribers came from his cross-post of one of my columns ("The Most Important Articles I've Published so far").
Free subscribers sometimes turn into paid subscribers and even if they don't, you are still reaching important citizens. So I hope people know I appreciate all my subscribers.
... Also, thank you to the subscriber who just upgraded to the Founders' level. That's the fourth upgrade I've had this week to the highest level possible. That's generosity that makes a huge difference to writers like myself, who don't have any other income sources.
I hope we/I get a few more "last-minute" subscribers. I started with a bang last Monday. Maybe I can finish with a bang too.
Also, thanks to everyone for reading all these "Subscriber" columns. This is it for those (for at least six more months). I've already started my next piece - which is on the "flu shot" scam.
Your takeaways are valid but I see a more multi faceted approach going on.
While the media continues to deny certain things and guide the impressionable to follow the desired narratives, I believe that they expect this to collapse one day and they are building the next wave to replace it.
Consider that Substack is an allowed opposition that will be used to destroy the media when it is no longer needed. At some point the media will lose all credibility and enough people will know that it is only propaganda. The truth will come out and destroy the pawns that can no longer be trusted.
Those controlling the narrative are not so foolish that they don't have a plan for the next step in the game. They are breaking everything now and will pick up the pieces when the time comes.
There are two ways of thinking. One is: "do unto others as you would have them do to you." Most people agree this is the way the world should work. Even those that are forced to make bad choices to survive or because they were coerced.
The other thought pattern is the strongest survive. "Any thing I can take from others is rightly mine because they were too weak or not as smart as I am." The people that think this way become more powerful because they have taken from others and don't have any compassion or morals that slow them down. Once they reach the 'ruling level' (CEOs of major corporations, political figures, etc.) they are immune from prosecution. A sort of 'too big to fail'. The irony is that many of the first group begin to worship them and turn to them for direction. In the corporate world, the rules are that you must provide a good return for your shareholders. It is criminal not to bend the rules and cheat a little to assure that the company makes more profit. The CEO who can add 10% to the companies bottom line when the company has a Billion dollar annual revenue will be worth $50 million/year easy. In fact in the corporate world it is criminal not to hire such a person.
I have always said that if the Mafia were on the stock market, people would be cheering them on so they could get a cut. "That's a nice business you have there, it would be a shame if something were to happen to it", would be embraced by the stockholders. Businesses we have today traded in the stock market are exactly that. Should the Pfizer CEO tell the truth and recall the bad vaccines? If he did, he would likely be arrested for tanking the stock prices.
Any other result from such a system would be unexpected.
It is not a statement I personally agree with. It is the mindset of some individuals and it is those individuals that gravitate toward leadership in our screwed up political system. Since much of our political system is designed by those currently in power, it is understandable why it is that way.
Of course I'm biased I admit upfront in self-disclosure cause that it is one of the Stacks I have subscribed to fiscally in support of the ideas shared there.
Over the past 3 years I have been amazed at how many of my friends and family have been captured by the Mass Formation Psychosis. I feel that there must be something that would make it 'snap' and people would come to their senses. Dr. Bronner (makes soaps and household products) suggests that LSD or Psychedelic mushrooms would do the trick. He may be right, but it does make me wonder what may be in his soaps. ;-)
most forget that the legacy media has almost always been government propaganda: that was the entire point of the media apparatus... then it started selling itself off and became a corporate propaganda machine AS WELL AS government... now it is an amalgamation of “public-private partnerships” ie the fusion of government with corporate to advance the wealth and interests of a select few elites (at the expense of the rest of us whom as deemed disposable anyway...)
I have zero social media these days apart from linkedin (for work and hardly ever use it) and substack and a few telegram channels... I buy 1 local paper each day to get a feel for what the masses are being told to think and do all my other news, research and reading on substack and via telegram links to other alt media.
this was a process I had already begun a few years back but ramped up massively during the last 2-3 years where I began reevaluating and examining my media sources....
I agree that substack will one day have passed it’s point of use (or will no longer be able to be ignored or derided by TPTB) and I think a lot of people are afraid of being catalogued and listed and may be hesitant to become known/paid subscribers....
here in australia I know of people who have been targeted and investigated because of their social media links and from comments and posts and posts they liked or shared during the last 3 years, so it IS a real and valid concern!
"Which brings me back to the question that’s nagging me: Why hasn’t this same message been sent to Substack yet?"
I'm sure it has been -- but in contrast to the bought-and-paid-for media, Substack told them to shove it. (After all, Substack loses all its value if it becomes another censored site like Twitter)
If they said that, that took some guts in today's world. And, for all I know, they might have said that. The "known knowable" is they haven't gone wobbly. Think if there was no Substack the last three years.
I would like to think that the market would have provided an alternative, just as Substack did. I think we agree that the demand is there -- but is "the market" free enough to allow it?
that's the puzzler. The demand for "truth-seeking"/non-captured journalism is through the roof. The MSM has admitted/proven they aren't going to investigate any subject that's actually important. Substack authors have a monopoly on every massive scandal of our times. We have zero competition on those stories.
It's actually quite awesome. I never thought that I'd be the only person in media going through newly released FBI emails involving 1/6 and writing about it, but that's what happened! Ditto the Hunter Biden/Rosemont emails. All the covid stories. The list just goes on and on........
So the time I walked in Franklin's place in Philly it really informed my views about this country.
If you haven't been there I advise a visit, but if you have to choose twixt Philly and Boston, then go to Boston - history was made there no doubt and it is preserved and the time we spent with the well informed curator when my wife and my two daughters' went there prior to flying to Iceland is a moment and time I treasure in imagination - but Iceland itself- that place in the month of June - it was enlightening in so many ways!
OK - I'm going to post a picture of my family in Boston and we went on a tour with a guide who knew her shit and then I purchased a print made by Paul Revere. I think I'm going to post this on one of my articles buried deep and if you can find it, then post a message there.
At the end of the day, the truth is what matters and there will always be journalist not subsumed by the system so to speak and really know this - Ben Franklin is on your side and so am I.
1. I have no idea how many of your readers pay to subscribe to other substacks. But it can become expensive quite quickly. I subscribe to (checks list) 9 which works out at $450/year. I could easily subscribe to another dozen but don't because that's a significant chunk of change right there. When I had a news magazine habit back in 1990s/early 2000s I paid less than that $450 for the 2 weekly and 1 biweekly subscription and I got considerably more in terms of text to read as a result. I also subscribe to the electronic Spectator (UK) and Unherd which have costs not unadjacent to the annual substack sub but which also give me much more content.
I'd love a way to pay for a bundle of substackers and I suspect other readers would too
2. There are alternatves to substack, Ghost for example which can be hosted on their servers or on your own.
Bill, I think it’s merely because people get used to something being free, and then expected to remain so. It takes a change in culture and in these times with the dollar sinking there are a substantial number of people that don’t have money to pay bills, unfortunately. 😕
No doubt. I picked a bad time to become a freelance writer depending on paid subscriptions. For all I've written about Covid topics, I really think "real inflation" might be THE story now and going forward. But we need Substackers to tell the real story on inflation too!
Bill, it is more than just "odd"...and I think all of us had better find out WHY.
The only answer can be gotten from the "owners"....and I have a bad feeling about
this....My god, they've even gone after reddit....
Keep on this please.
The most sinister interpretation is they know everyone here writers and posters...and will round us up one day all at once and put us in the re--education camps...or worse.
Congrats on the milestone, I pray for more to come. The opportunity exists to be overwhelmed by subscriptions. My limitation is "eye time". When I pay for something, I want to use it. I can read only so many written articles and with reading comments, it takes considerable time. I grew up being spoiled by listening to talk radio in the background while doing other work and have it paid for by the advertising dollars in everything I purchased. I haven't mastered the technology to have a steady stream of audio information from people i follow going while i move about. podcasts try to fill the role but leave me filling isolated from real time.
Thanks, Doug. Many of my readers share the same thought - They have too many subscriptions to read them all. My "open rate" on the emails I send out has recently been about 42.5 percent. This means 57.5 percent of my subscribers are NOT reading my stories - probably because they are getting too many emails. I'll post a final subscription drive update soon. I've now got to get back to stories proper. I can't flood my readers with non-stop subscription appeals!
Or, Substack will just be a small cadre of writers who are writing as a hobby or people who don't need any income from this writing. That would not be good at all.
"... one reason people might be afraid to become a paid subscriber is they know this will make them more identifiable to Big Brother."
I'm writing this on a Samsung phone with a Droid operating system populated by a bunch of apps that are literally designed to "spy" on the user. THEY know what I read and write, and with the DoD's push into AI, there is a unhidden desire by the Feds to predict what I am going to think and do. They know I am on Substack. If things continue politically as we are now headed, I expect to be unbanked after the next federal election, because the Dems love themselves some censorship and you know they are just dying to deprogram a bunch of deplorable Americans. Not sure what happens then-my wife will lose her mind and probably leave and I can't ask my elderly parents to take on the burden of acting like a middleman with a financial institution, and there is no wild blue yonder to flee to, so I guess I'll have to identify as a Guatemalan (I only half jest).
I already self-censor, everyone does, but instead of the censorship just being what I would say to my wife when she asks, "Do these jeans make me look fat?" I censor what I write, because if I were to start my own stack, I'm pretty sure I'd be having a conversation with some G-men with crew cuts by Xmas.
Thanks to all who are letting my Subscription drive close with a bit of a flourish! Two of my readers have upgraded to the Founders Level in the last two or three hours. Also, if I get two more paid subscribers, that would make at least 50 in the last 7 days. That might not be a record, but I imagine that few Substack authors have netted so many paid subsribers in such a short period of time.
If you count each Founder Level as the equivalent of five annual subscriptions, I've netted the equivalent of 75 new subscibers in 7 days. That is a pretty good statement IMO.
The surprise of leaving Substack alone in today’s locked down world presumes all the writers aren’t captured.
I started out loving Substack because I saw it as a place truth lives. As time progressed I became more discerning and frankly suspicious.
Some of the Substackers I’ve become disappointed in are very popular so I won’t name them to avoid the inevitable firestorm.
I see many of them now as, agents, whack jobs, or monetizers of hysteria. However, that is exactly what free speech is supposed to do. Let the listener learn, evolve, and decide, not let some third party nanny lead you around by the nose.
Free speech is messy and malleable. It rarely leads to an instantaneous epiphany. When it does it’s usually selling bs.
So, why is Substack allowed to exist? Perhaps the main reason is because it is useful for pacing and leading suspicious minds into a predetermined narrative they cannot detect.
Sorry if that bruises egos but the prospect of infiltration is a point worth exploring, no?
We shall know them by their fruits is a wise missive. So when in doubt I step back and look at the fruits of their labors. Then ask what precisely are they accomplishing? What are they trying to accomplish?
Some of those highest up the food chain making the rounds on so-called alternative news sites talk a lot of bombshells but it’s been three years and they’ve fundamentally changed nothing.
It is good to stop and contemplate these things. It is good to build redundancy in our communications on platforms like these, and push out information that will lead each other to our redundant communications channels if/when platforms like Substack are closed off like so many before. Take those email lists we are given and download them periodically so we can notify our followers of future platforms we may be forced to move to. Have as many steps ahead as is reasonable already planned.
Why do they allow us here? It's not lost on me that Substack's home address is San Francisco. The Woke Capitol of probably the world. Where most of its denizens probably hate us and would do harm to us if they knew who we were IRL. Not far from Stanford Internet Observatory and naval intelligence operations. It could be any of the possibilities you describe. It could be a honeytrap, not just to allow us to blow off steam, but to have a database of who to target when they really come after free speech absolutists, the disobedient, the asocial who need to be removed from the gene pool, as eugenicists are wont to do. Or it could be that there really is a chance that We, The People have to reclaim our nation's founding values and principles and make the words on the US Constitution mean what they were written to mean. Not words interpreted in a "living, breathing" sense to declare Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength and War is Peace. Maybe this is where we are being given a chance to make our best case by the powers that be, that are ready to turn the page on individual freedom and liberty as a failed governing experiment. Hope springs eternal.
Thanks for your contributions. I, too, face similar challenges. I haven't tried to monetize it, yet, believing sharing information and insights to be too valuable and necessary to preserve individual freedom and liberty, our constitutional promise, our rights we were endowed with by God, our creator, to put under paywall restrictions. But we do need shelter, food and clothing, too. So there's that. We're in this together, I enjoy learning from your experience and the insights you share. Thank you!!
Never heard this before, but if it’s true -TALK ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!!!
.
So the subtitle would be: "When the Divide and Conquer Play Goes Bad". I think that all (our?) government(s) might be able to view this as an object lesson, a premonition of sorts....
.
NoW,
let's think about what can go wrong with this plan....
Abortion - No Abortion
White Supremacy - Black Power
George Floyd - ANTIFA - Defund the Police
LGBTQ-TRANS-STUPOR - Bible
Thumper
"Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?"
Child sex trafficking - ice cream and laptops
No penalty for crime
No serious penalty for assaults
Hush, hush - Cross dressers raping in female prisons, let's not talk about that!
They IDENTIFY AS FEMALE!
Import fentanyl (and Lord knows what else, across open borders)
Open Border to mix the races (and cultural norms) up completely - SHUT UP
YOU RACIST!
And don’t forget…
.
Those dirty anti-VAXers - FOLLOW THE SCIENCE STUPID!!!!!
Maybe it’s just me, but when I try to use the “Manage Subscription” button embedded in an author’s article, the message “You cannot manage your subscription in the app” pops up. And because I am a curmudgeon, I refuse to go to a computer to do it.
It has come to my mind as well, that all of us non-narratives, are vulnerable and identifiable. Several people advized me to go to proton mail, but since we are all on substack, that is a move for nothing. We are out here in the open already. Who owns substack after all? How did it start? I got to know it several years ago, when Zat Rana moved from Medium to Substack. Shortly after Medium lost its credibility becoming all woke. I hope Substack stays ! I love it. It kept me sane while all the world around me seemed to get lost in viruses LOL
Cutting room floor text ...
Other Substack authors can probably benefit from some of these lessons, which include these:
- If you’re going to increase your paid subscribers and net income, from time to time, you’re going to have to quarterback a high-profile subscription drive. I know readers might not like being asked for money all the time, but from the perspective of Substack authors, we’ve got to do this if we want to continue to do what we’re doing.
- I now have 205 paid subscribers. However, I can now note that about 90 of these subscribers came from three subscription appeals. In other words, absent these subscription appeals, I might have achieved only 100 or so paid subscribers … in 12 months of full-time work.
_ A few Substack contrarians have broken through and have reached or exceeded the magic number of 1,000 paid subscribers. Thank God they have. However, this is s tiny percentage of Substack authors and most of us are still making far less from our writing job than, say, a teenager taking orders at McDonald’s.
Speaking for this Substack author, if I could increase my gross annual revenue by $3,400 every week, I’d have no worries, mate. But, unless I write the article that gets Fauci locked up for the rest of his life, I don’t think I can sustain this level. I understand I might now go the next 30 days with no paid subscriptions.
Still, nobody forced me to become a Substack author. I have free will and I chose to take the road less traveled. If I’d wanted to make a livable wage as a journalist, I could have written the type of stories that NY Times, Washington Post and Gannet journalists write.
... Of course I’d rather eat a bowl of live cockroaches than do that.
Your last line is pure gold!
Also, I agree with you about truth-tellers; I think it may well be that Substack exists to identify those of us trying to get the truth out. I've been one of those folks for about 25 yrs - ever since the internet went public and became a big hit. I got my first computer in 1997 or so and was off and running. That was back in the days when a person could find all kinds of truth online, with many different search engines. It was true FREEDOM. I'm sure I'm on someone's list somewhere; however, I'm not afraid. Next year I'll be 70 y. o. and I've lived a very full life. If they come for me, I'm ready. I will die a happy death knowing I did my best to bring truth to humanity. Part of why I do what I do is that my dad did the same thing; I'm just keeping the "family tradition" going. btw, he died a quiet, peaceful death and they weren't able to destroy his reputation, though they did try hard. I have huge respect for you, Bill, for what you do, it isn't easy these days and you're far more high profile than I am. Prayers for you and your family, dear Bill.
Thank you, E Grogan. The apple didn't fall far from the tree!
THANK YOU! OK, now you made me cry - and I mean really cry as in sobbing LOL! That was probably the highest compliment I could receive. ❤️ ❤️
If you’re going to increase your paid subscribers and net income, from time to time, you’re going to have to quarterback a high-profile subscription drive. I know readers might not like being asked for money all the time, but from the perspective of Substack authors, we’ve got to do this if we want to continue to do what we’re doing.
------------
I hate 'selling myself', but looking at your numbers I realized that doing something similar is much preferable to worrying about finances instead of writing. Therefore, you directly inspired this post: https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/pitfalls-of-going-pro and the resulting bump in paid subs that I saw over the weekend! Thanks for the kick in the pants I needed! :)
I saw that. We've got to do this from time to time. One of my buddies has an expression he uses all the time, which I've adapted as one of my life/sales philosophies: "You've got 'No' in your pocket ..."
Go ahead and ask, you might get a "yes."
Update I left off a... nd this happy news from my "Hail Mary" pass.
I should have mentioned that I added at least 100 free subscriptions this week. I want to publicly thank Dr. Paul Alexander for, once again, promoting my site as most of these free subscribers came from his cross-post of one of my columns ("The Most Important Articles I've Published so far").
Free subscribers sometimes turn into paid subscribers and even if they don't, you are still reaching important citizens. So I hope people know I appreciate all my subscribers.
... Also, thank you to the subscriber who just upgraded to the Founders' level. That's the fourth upgrade I've had this week to the highest level possible. That's generosity that makes a huge difference to writers like myself, who don't have any other income sources.
I hope we/I get a few more "last-minute" subscribers. I started with a bang last Monday. Maybe I can finish with a bang too.
Also, thanks to everyone for reading all these "Subscriber" columns. This is it for those (for at least six more months). I've already started my next piece - which is on the "flu shot" scam.
Your takeaways are valid but I see a more multi faceted approach going on.
While the media continues to deny certain things and guide the impressionable to follow the desired narratives, I believe that they expect this to collapse one day and they are building the next wave to replace it.
Consider that Substack is an allowed opposition that will be used to destroy the media when it is no longer needed. At some point the media will lose all credibility and enough people will know that it is only propaganda. The truth will come out and destroy the pawns that can no longer be trusted.
Those controlling the narrative are not so foolish that they don't have a plan for the next step in the game. They are breaking everything now and will pick up the pieces when the time comes.
I used to think people couldn't be this evil or this immoral; the world couldn't have this many sociopaths or psychopaths ... not anymore though.
There are two ways of thinking. One is: "do unto others as you would have them do to you." Most people agree this is the way the world should work. Even those that are forced to make bad choices to survive or because they were coerced.
The other thought pattern is the strongest survive. "Any thing I can take from others is rightly mine because they were too weak or not as smart as I am." The people that think this way become more powerful because they have taken from others and don't have any compassion or morals that slow them down. Once they reach the 'ruling level' (CEOs of major corporations, political figures, etc.) they are immune from prosecution. A sort of 'too big to fail'. The irony is that many of the first group begin to worship them and turn to them for direction. In the corporate world, the rules are that you must provide a good return for your shareholders. It is criminal not to bend the rules and cheat a little to assure that the company makes more profit. The CEO who can add 10% to the companies bottom line when the company has a Billion dollar annual revenue will be worth $50 million/year easy. In fact in the corporate world it is criminal not to hire such a person.
I have always said that if the Mafia were on the stock market, people would be cheering them on so they could get a cut. "That's a nice business you have there, it would be a shame if something were to happen to it", would be embraced by the stockholders. Businesses we have today traded in the stock market are exactly that. Should the Pfizer CEO tell the truth and recall the bad vaccines? If he did, he would likely be arrested for tanking the stock prices.
Any other result from such a system would be unexpected.
Wow - this statement I believe is the definition of a psychopath:
~
"Any thing I can take from others is rightly mine because they were too weak or not as smart as I am."
~
Now stepping back and appreciating nature on planet earth is it not evident the statement above is a recipe for extinction?
It is not a statement I personally agree with. It is the mindset of some individuals and it is those individuals that gravitate toward leadership in our screwed up political system. Since much of our political system is designed by those currently in power, it is understandable why it is that way.
I concur. In fact, let me suggest this SubStack as a place to study this in depth.
https://ponerology.substack.com/
Of course I'm biased I admit upfront in self-disclosure cause that it is one of the Stacks I have subscribed to fiscally in support of the ideas shared there.
Thanks. I will check it out.
The big question is how do you 'unwind' it?
Over the past 3 years I have been amazed at how many of my friends and family have been captured by the Mass Formation Psychosis. I feel that there must be something that would make it 'snap' and people would come to their senses. Dr. Bronner (makes soaps and household products) suggests that LSD or Psychedelic mushrooms would do the trick. He may be right, but it does make me wonder what may be in his soaps. ;-)
most forget that the legacy media has almost always been government propaganda: that was the entire point of the media apparatus... then it started selling itself off and became a corporate propaganda machine AS WELL AS government... now it is an amalgamation of “public-private partnerships” ie the fusion of government with corporate to advance the wealth and interests of a select few elites (at the expense of the rest of us whom as deemed disposable anyway...)
I have zero social media these days apart from linkedin (for work and hardly ever use it) and substack and a few telegram channels... I buy 1 local paper each day to get a feel for what the masses are being told to think and do all my other news, research and reading on substack and via telegram links to other alt media.
this was a process I had already begun a few years back but ramped up massively during the last 2-3 years where I began reevaluating and examining my media sources....
I agree that substack will one day have passed it’s point of use (or will no longer be able to be ignored or derided by TPTB) and I think a lot of people are afraid of being catalogued and listed and may be hesitant to become known/paid subscribers....
here in australia I know of people who have been targeted and investigated because of their social media links and from comments and posts and posts they liked or shared during the last 3 years, so it IS a real and valid concern!
Thanks for the feedback. What's happening in Australia and Canada seems to be even scarier than what's happening in America.
I've got several subscribers from the Land Down Under. But I'd like to add a few more.
and most people here in Oz have their heads down under in the sand and have no idea the shit we are in!
now they are using the recent attacks in israel as support for the voice to parliament referendum and further dividing and segregating the citizens
"Which brings me back to the question that’s nagging me: Why hasn’t this same message been sent to Substack yet?"
I'm sure it has been -- but in contrast to the bought-and-paid-for media, Substack told them to shove it. (After all, Substack loses all its value if it becomes another censored site like Twitter)
If they said that, that took some guts in today's world. And, for all I know, they might have said that. The "known knowable" is they haven't gone wobbly. Think if there was no Substack the last three years.
I would like to think that the market would have provided an alternative, just as Substack did. I think we agree that the demand is there -- but is "the market" free enough to allow it?
that's the puzzler. The demand for "truth-seeking"/non-captured journalism is through the roof. The MSM has admitted/proven they aren't going to investigate any subject that's actually important. Substack authors have a monopoly on every massive scandal of our times. We have zero competition on those stories.
It's actually quite awesome. I never thought that I'd be the only person in media going through newly released FBI emails involving 1/6 and writing about it, but that's what happened! Ditto the Hunter Biden/Rosemont emails. All the covid stories. The list just goes on and on........
So the time I walked in Franklin's place in Philly it really informed my views about this country.
If you haven't been there I advise a visit, but if you have to choose twixt Philly and Boston, then go to Boston - history was made there no doubt and it is preserved and the time we spent with the well informed curator when my wife and my two daughters' went there prior to flying to Iceland is a moment and time I treasure in imagination - but Iceland itself- that place in the month of June - it was enlightening in so many ways!
How so?
OK - I'm going to post a picture of my family in Boston and we went on a tour with a guide who knew her shit and then I purchased a print made by Paul Revere. I think I'm going to post this on one of my articles buried deep and if you can find it, then post a message there.
That is how so.
Any more questions?
I think we cross posted, I was talking about Franklin's place, but I'm stoked to see Boston pics as well :)
At the end of the day, the truth is what matters and there will always be journalist not subsumed by the system so to speak and really know this - Ben Franklin is on your side and so am I.
A couple of thoughts.
1. I have no idea how many of your readers pay to subscribe to other substacks. But it can become expensive quite quickly. I subscribe to (checks list) 9 which works out at $450/year. I could easily subscribe to another dozen but don't because that's a significant chunk of change right there. When I had a news magazine habit back in 1990s/early 2000s I paid less than that $450 for the 2 weekly and 1 biweekly subscription and I got considerably more in terms of text to read as a result. I also subscribe to the electronic Spectator (UK) and Unherd which have costs not unadjacent to the annual substack sub but which also give me much more content.
I'd love a way to pay for a bundle of substackers and I suspect other readers would too
2. There are alternatves to substack, Ghost for example which can be hosted on their servers or on your own.
Bill, I think it’s merely because people get used to something being free, and then expected to remain so. It takes a change in culture and in these times with the dollar sinking there are a substantial number of people that don’t have money to pay bills, unfortunately. 😕
No doubt. I picked a bad time to become a freelance writer depending on paid subscriptions. For all I've written about Covid topics, I really think "real inflation" might be THE story now and going forward. But we need Substackers to tell the real story on inflation too!
Bill, it is more than just "odd"...and I think all of us had better find out WHY.
The only answer can be gotten from the "owners"....and I have a bad feeling about
this....My god, they've even gone after reddit....
Keep on this please.
The most sinister interpretation is they know everyone here writers and posters...and will round us up one day all at once and put us in the re--education camps...or worse.
Congrats on the milestone, I pray for more to come. The opportunity exists to be overwhelmed by subscriptions. My limitation is "eye time". When I pay for something, I want to use it. I can read only so many written articles and with reading comments, it takes considerable time. I grew up being spoiled by listening to talk radio in the background while doing other work and have it paid for by the advertising dollars in everything I purchased. I haven't mastered the technology to have a steady stream of audio information from people i follow going while i move about. podcasts try to fill the role but leave me filling isolated from real time.
Thanks, Doug. Many of my readers share the same thought - They have too many subscriptions to read them all. My "open rate" on the emails I send out has recently been about 42.5 percent. This means 57.5 percent of my subscribers are NOT reading my stories - probably because they are getting too many emails. I'll post a final subscription drive update soon. I've now got to get back to stories proper. I can't flood my readers with non-stop subscription appeals!
One of your readers said that he was doing Stack writers a favor by reading the writers' free material.
This is a bullshit stance. In response, I'm going back to posting "Paid Subscribers Only" stuff.
If people won't pay for stuff they value, that stuff will cease to exist.
Or, Substack will just be a small cadre of writers who are writing as a hobby or people who don't need any income from this writing. That would not be good at all.
I don't need the income. But I don't tolerate disrespect or the "everything should be free" attitude.
When I started this site 12 1/2 months ago, I didn't need the income ... but now I do.
Regarding
"... one reason people might be afraid to become a paid subscriber is they know this will make them more identifiable to Big Brother."
I'm writing this on a Samsung phone with a Droid operating system populated by a bunch of apps that are literally designed to "spy" on the user. THEY know what I read and write, and with the DoD's push into AI, there is a unhidden desire by the Feds to predict what I am going to think and do. They know I am on Substack. If things continue politically as we are now headed, I expect to be unbanked after the next federal election, because the Dems love themselves some censorship and you know they are just dying to deprogram a bunch of deplorable Americans. Not sure what happens then-my wife will lose her mind and probably leave and I can't ask my elderly parents to take on the burden of acting like a middleman with a financial institution, and there is no wild blue yonder to flee to, so I guess I'll have to identify as a Guatemalan (I only half jest).
I already self-censor, everyone does, but instead of the censorship just being what I would say to my wife when she asks, "Do these jeans make me look fat?" I censor what I write, because if I were to start my own stack, I'm pretty sure I'd be having a conversation with some G-men with crew cuts by Xmas.
Sub update:
Thanks to all who are letting my Subscription drive close with a bit of a flourish! Two of my readers have upgraded to the Founders Level in the last two or three hours. Also, if I get two more paid subscribers, that would make at least 50 in the last 7 days. That might not be a record, but I imagine that few Substack authors have netted so many paid subsribers in such a short period of time.
If you count each Founder Level as the equivalent of five annual subscriptions, I've netted the equivalent of 75 new subscibers in 7 days. That is a pretty good statement IMO.
I'm touched by the support.
And we have 3 hours and 50 minutes left!
- Bill
The surprise of leaving Substack alone in today’s locked down world presumes all the writers aren’t captured.
I started out loving Substack because I saw it as a place truth lives. As time progressed I became more discerning and frankly suspicious.
Some of the Substackers I’ve become disappointed in are very popular so I won’t name them to avoid the inevitable firestorm.
I see many of them now as, agents, whack jobs, or monetizers of hysteria. However, that is exactly what free speech is supposed to do. Let the listener learn, evolve, and decide, not let some third party nanny lead you around by the nose.
Free speech is messy and malleable. It rarely leads to an instantaneous epiphany. When it does it’s usually selling bs.
So, why is Substack allowed to exist? Perhaps the main reason is because it is useful for pacing and leading suspicious minds into a predetermined narrative they cannot detect.
Sorry if that bruises egos but the prospect of infiltration is a point worth exploring, no?
We shall know them by their fruits is a wise missive. So when in doubt I step back and look at the fruits of their labors. Then ask what precisely are they accomplishing? What are they trying to accomplish?
Some of those highest up the food chain making the rounds on so-called alternative news sites talk a lot of bombshells but it’s been three years and they’ve fundamentally changed nothing.
We deserve better bombardiers.
It is good to stop and contemplate these things. It is good to build redundancy in our communications on platforms like these, and push out information that will lead each other to our redundant communications channels if/when platforms like Substack are closed off like so many before. Take those email lists we are given and download them periodically so we can notify our followers of future platforms we may be forced to move to. Have as many steps ahead as is reasonable already planned.
Why do they allow us here? It's not lost on me that Substack's home address is San Francisco. The Woke Capitol of probably the world. Where most of its denizens probably hate us and would do harm to us if they knew who we were IRL. Not far from Stanford Internet Observatory and naval intelligence operations. It could be any of the possibilities you describe. It could be a honeytrap, not just to allow us to blow off steam, but to have a database of who to target when they really come after free speech absolutists, the disobedient, the asocial who need to be removed from the gene pool, as eugenicists are wont to do. Or it could be that there really is a chance that We, The People have to reclaim our nation's founding values and principles and make the words on the US Constitution mean what they were written to mean. Not words interpreted in a "living, breathing" sense to declare Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength and War is Peace. Maybe this is where we are being given a chance to make our best case by the powers that be, that are ready to turn the page on individual freedom and liberty as a failed governing experiment. Hope springs eternal.
Thanks for your contributions. I, too, face similar challenges. I haven't tried to monetize it, yet, believing sharing information and insights to be too valuable and necessary to preserve individual freedom and liberty, our constitutional promise, our rights we were endowed with by God, our creator, to put under paywall restrictions. But we do need shelter, food and clothing, too. So there's that. We're in this together, I enjoy learning from your experience and the insights you share. Thank you!!
But on a happy note... or maybe not.
And also admittedly, off topic, but I do think you would be interested:
.
Interesting -
https://revolver.news/2023/10/ron-paul-hamas-was-created-by-israel-and-the-us-to-counteract-yasser-arafat/
.
Never heard this before, but if it’s true -TALK ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!!!
.
So the subtitle would be: "When the Divide and Conquer Play Goes Bad". I think that all (our?) government(s) might be able to view this as an object lesson, a premonition of sorts....
.
NoW,
let's think about what can go wrong with this plan....
Abortion - No Abortion
White Supremacy - Black Power
George Floyd - ANTIFA - Defund the Police
LGBTQ-TRANS-STUPOR - Bible
Thumper
"Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?"
Child sex trafficking - ice cream and laptops
No penalty for crime
No serious penalty for assaults
Hush, hush - Cross dressers raping in female prisons, let's not talk about that!
They IDENTIFY AS FEMALE!
Import fentanyl (and Lord knows what else, across open borders)
Open Border to mix the races (and cultural norms) up completely - SHUT UP
YOU RACIST!
And don’t forget…
.
Those dirty anti-VAXers - FOLLOW THE SCIENCE STUPID!!!!!
AND OMG - TRUMP SUPPORTERS!!!!!!
What did Hill call them? DEPLORABLES?
.
.
And what have you got?
.
Just look at the Middle East…
Hate, Chaos, Bloodlust, and Barbarism
Maybe it’s just me, but when I try to use the “Manage Subscription” button embedded in an author’s article, the message “You cannot manage your subscription in the app” pops up. And because I am a curmudgeon, I refuse to go to a computer to do it.
It has come to my mind as well, that all of us non-narratives, are vulnerable and identifiable. Several people advized me to go to proton mail, but since we are all on substack, that is a move for nothing. We are out here in the open already. Who owns substack after all? How did it start? I got to know it several years ago, when Zat Rana moved from Medium to Substack. Shortly after Medium lost its credibility becoming all woke. I hope Substack stays ! I love it. It kept me sane while all the world around me seemed to get lost in viruses LOL