Hi everyone!
Hope you’ve had a great week so far.
I had a call with a creator today who was curious about how I make a living from my writing. Perhaps you are too?
So in the interests of transparency (because so few creators are willing to share their dollars), let’s answer the question: Where does my income come from, and what proportion do I earn from Substack?
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Self-employment: fun and stressful
I was going to start this post with a whole heap of caveats about why what I do works for me but probably won’t work for you. Stuff like: I’ve been creating online for ages; my kids are grown up so job security is less important than it used to be; I have valuable expertise in my professional career (food safety), my household expenses are low, yadda yadda yadda.
Boring. The point is, everyone is at a different place in life, everyone has different levels of expertise and skill sets. Everyone has different income needs and family obligations.
This is not everyone’s story. This is just me, telling you where my salary comes from each month.
I’m currently self-employed, and it’s wonderful. And scary. My business pays my salary and taxes and mitigates certain risks I face with my food safety work. This structure makes sense in the legal-financial framework of my country (Australia).
Self-employment means I get to choose my own priorities, set my own work hours, travel as much as I want (yay), and stress out when my business income dips (boo).
Revenue sources
There are two main ways I make money. The first is by helping people with my food safety skills. The second is helping solopreneurs and newsletter writers.
Last financial year (July 2022 to June 2023) my revenue sources looked like this:
Food Safety (digital products, training courses, speaking events, consulting): 65%
Substack (food safety): 32%
Medium and Skillshare revenue (helping solopreneurs and newsletter writers): 2%
Dividend revenue +interest on savings: <1%
Last financial year my gross revenue from Substack was $11K. All of that came from my food safety publication.
This year I’m earning more by helping people with Substack (11% of total income, up from 2% last year).
Since I launched my Substack products and services in September, I’ve earned $5K. This is a brand new income stream I didn’t have last year. I’m also earning more on Medium this year, compared to last year (currently around $80 to $100 per month).
My paid Substack revenue has grown significantly because I get new subscribers every month and have a high retention rate. It’s on track to earn around $15K this year, up 36% from last year, and will account for around 40% of my revenue.
Unfortunately, revenue from food safety products and services is down, because I’ve put more energy (perhaps too much?) into helping solopreneurs and Substack creators.
Best money-earners
As you can see there are a lot of revenue streams in my business. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to have so many balls in the air. But mostly it’s exciting. I like knowing that I don’t have all my eggs in one basket, and I love working with two completely different audiences.
My paid Substack newsletter is my second-best source of revenue and is on track to account for 40% of my income this financial year, perhaps more if its current $1K per month growth spurt continues.
My free Substack newsletter (this one) is bringing financial rewards too. In fact, it’s my fastest-growing revenue stream, on track to bring around $7K to $9K this year. I make this money by providing helpful products and services to readers and posting member-only articles on Medium.
Right now, my food safety products, services and consultancy are still my biggest source of income. That’s likely to be eclipsed by Substack-related revenue by the end of next financial year (July 2025).
Key takeaways
I haven’t been earning a heap of money since I quit my day job, at least not by the standards of my home city (Sydney, Australia). On the other hand, almost 10 weeks of this year will be spent traveling, mostly for pleasure - a lifestyle choice that wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t self-employed.
That’s the big reason to be excited about earning money on Substack; it helps me have a lifestyle I couldn’t get otherwise. Better still, if my paid Substack continues its current growth spurt I’ll be giving myself a $1K pay rise every month for ever more.
Can you do this too? Perhaps not. I have skills, expertise and experience that people are willing to pay for, and not everyone has that. I also have the freedom to take financial risks - like quitting my job to build a Substack publication - and not everyone can do that either.
What you can do, however, is find a way to help people with your writing, because that’s ultimately what it’s all about.
And enjoy the journey!
Karen
