I agree. I would love to integrate the courses I offer into Substack, that would be a huge game changer for me. It would be far more valuable than Notes or even Chat. However, I refuse to even "go paid" until Substack handles the sales tax since digital subscriptions almost universally fall under products that require you to collect and remit sales tax and VAT. Etsy and Patreon both collect and remit sales tax for you so I know it can be done. I see that Substack pushes you over to Stripe Tax which monitors and collects but leaves the much more complicated process of registering in various states and countries and remitting the tax to me, not to mention the expense for contracting with a service which is far greater (especially for VAT/international) than a small 3,000 subscriber creator like I can afford.
Yup, paid subscriptions to a Substack newsletter are subject to sales tax in all US states that have sales tax (and sales tax in some instances in cities and counties alongside the state sales tax) and VAT in UK and EU. The tax laws are very unclear and changing all the time according to the firm that handles my taxes. I also have read that marketplace platforms like Substack are supposed to be the entity responsible for the sales tax/VAT. I’m waiting to see if Substack will eventually be forced to do that to be on compliance. We shall see. Unfortunately until then this issues prohibits me from going paid.
yes. I've seen a bunch of comments lately asked for better paywall features. I actually logged a feature request a few weeks ago for something like what you describe; a way to present navigation based on articles marked as for paying subscribers only. Unfortunately I don't there's a way to link back to feature requests...
I like the direction of your thinking. As a creator, I would like this as well. The problem I see is that Substack - a newsletter business, principally - gets into the crowded online course hosting space, competing with the likes of Kajabi and Teachable. I'm not sure they want to expand in that adjacent area - though, like you, I would welcome it.
Yes! I've been saying this since I heard about Substack over a year ago. There is always going to be a much smaller group of people who subscribe to paid newsletters, especially now as people start to get newsletter fatigue.
For those who don't want a newsletter, there are usually other things they'll buy from a writer. For example, I can also see people buying one-off products like a collection of posts or tickets to events in addition to classes.
For sure. I think a lot of people make nice livings off little stores, but really think people build big businesses off education and experiences. Seems like a great opp for them
i completely agree. It has the potential already of monetizing learning but it's missing the navigation needed to make it less confusing for the users. I'm already brainstorming how to bring my membership to Substack so this would be really helpful if i didn't have to integrate any tools in the process
This would be so wonderful, Scott! Having a light membership functionality could be a win-win-win (win for our subscribers because it's easier to learn that way, win for us because we can set a higher price, and win for Substack because they get a fraction of that higher price). And it would also just feel great to move everything over here, as opposed to handle all these different platforms.
A very interesting and thoughtful post. I have been thinking about what Substack could do better without acting like a snot. The issues for me are different, or my concerns are. I'm not close to monetizing subscriptions, and I don't think I have any special skills that anyone would like to pay me for (training). But still, the sign up system is awkward, I know sophisticated e-commerce providers look at the smallest of psychological and practical obstacles to completion, especially when they examine the problem of abandoned e-comm shopping carts. I don't like the sign up/sign in with email, it takes people off site, there should be a one button sign up, the barriers need to come down.
Furthermore, there should be some built in micro currency (like with Twitch or Tiktok) where writers can still get paid (sorry, in Canada it's $7 to follow one person and that's too much unless you think that nothing but pearls drip from their lips). This would allow writers to charge lower prices by using micro currency. Another suggestion is that Substack organize the material better, there is room for incorporating some Substacks into classroom content. Substack is still not know well by most, reading is not very cool, or perhaps my friends are all illiterates.
But Substack should promote themselves on social and they should work out arrangements with writers, so that writers can, for example, spend $25/month to run a small Twitter (X) campaign, or an email one through Mailchimp. I don't have an email list and not many social followers but I have experimented with a bit of advertising for my substack that has no paid option haha. I got 42,000 views for my essay, RIffing on Dylan Thomas, but just a handful of new subscribers. Perhaps they thought it sucked, but more likely either the subscription button is awkward or it involves too many steps. I have send my subscription invite to a number of friends and do you know how many thought my account had been pirated?? I think Substack needs to start thinking more like Temu and less like a literary magazine.
Just stumbling upon this post. I would love to see something like this, as our organization is about to launch its first course, and we're already building a paid community here on Substack. We're looking at possibly offering our paid Substack subscribers discount codes 100% off the course (which would be hosted somewhere else). A little clunky, but it avoids asking the same people to be paid subscribers on multiple platforms.
I agree. I would love to integrate the courses I offer into Substack, that would be a huge game changer for me. It would be far more valuable than Notes or even Chat. However, I refuse to even "go paid" until Substack handles the sales tax since digital subscriptions almost universally fall under products that require you to collect and remit sales tax and VAT. Etsy and Patreon both collect and remit sales tax for you so I know it can be done. I see that Substack pushes you over to Stripe Tax which monitors and collects but leaves the much more complicated process of registering in various states and countries and remitting the tax to me, not to mention the expense for contracting with a service which is far greater (especially for VAT/international) than a small 3,000 subscriber creator like I can afford.
Cool to hear you agree. I did not know that about sales tax. Hopefully they fix it
Yup, paid subscriptions to a Substack newsletter are subject to sales tax in all US states that have sales tax (and sales tax in some instances in cities and counties alongside the state sales tax) and VAT in UK and EU. The tax laws are very unclear and changing all the time according to the firm that handles my taxes. I also have read that marketplace platforms like Substack are supposed to be the entity responsible for the sales tax/VAT. I’m waiting to see if Substack will eventually be forced to do that to be on compliance. We shall see. Unfortunately until then this issues prohibits me from going paid.
yes. I've seen a bunch of comments lately asked for better paywall features. I actually logged a feature request a few weeks ago for something like what you describe; a way to present navigation based on articles marked as for paying subscribers only. Unfortunately I don't there's a way to link back to feature requests...
Interesting. Good to know I'm not alone! I didn't even know you could log feature requests! I have plenty : )
I like the direction of your thinking. As a creator, I would like this as well. The problem I see is that Substack - a newsletter business, principally - gets into the crowded online course hosting space, competing with the likes of Kajabi and Teachable. I'm not sure they want to expand in that adjacent area - though, like you, I would welcome it.
Yeah I don't know the market super well. I just know that paid newsletters is not a super compelling monetization engine
Yes! I've been saying this since I heard about Substack over a year ago. There is always going to be a much smaller group of people who subscribe to paid newsletters, especially now as people start to get newsletter fatigue.
For those who don't want a newsletter, there are usually other things they'll buy from a writer. For example, I can also see people buying one-off products like a collection of posts or tickets to events in addition to classes.
For sure. I think a lot of people make nice livings off little stores, but really think people build big businesses off education and experiences. Seems like a great opp for them
i completely agree. It has the potential already of monetizing learning but it's missing the navigation needed to make it less confusing for the users. I'm already brainstorming how to bring my membership to Substack so this would be really helpful if i didn't have to integrate any tools in the process
This would be so wonderful, Scott! Having a light membership functionality could be a win-win-win (win for our subscribers because it's easier to learn that way, win for us because we can set a higher price, and win for Substack because they get a fraction of that higher price). And it would also just feel great to move everything over here, as opposed to handle all these different platforms.
Agreed!
A very interesting and thoughtful post. I have been thinking about what Substack could do better without acting like a snot. The issues for me are different, or my concerns are. I'm not close to monetizing subscriptions, and I don't think I have any special skills that anyone would like to pay me for (training). But still, the sign up system is awkward, I know sophisticated e-commerce providers look at the smallest of psychological and practical obstacles to completion, especially when they examine the problem of abandoned e-comm shopping carts. I don't like the sign up/sign in with email, it takes people off site, there should be a one button sign up, the barriers need to come down.
Furthermore, there should be some built in micro currency (like with Twitch or Tiktok) where writers can still get paid (sorry, in Canada it's $7 to follow one person and that's too much unless you think that nothing but pearls drip from their lips). This would allow writers to charge lower prices by using micro currency. Another suggestion is that Substack organize the material better, there is room for incorporating some Substacks into classroom content. Substack is still not know well by most, reading is not very cool, or perhaps my friends are all illiterates.
But Substack should promote themselves on social and they should work out arrangements with writers, so that writers can, for example, spend $25/month to run a small Twitter (X) campaign, or an email one through Mailchimp. I don't have an email list and not many social followers but I have experimented with a bit of advertising for my substack that has no paid option haha. I got 42,000 views for my essay, RIffing on Dylan Thomas, but just a handful of new subscribers. Perhaps they thought it sucked, but more likely either the subscription button is awkward or it involves too many steps. I have send my subscription invite to a number of friends and do you know how many thought my account had been pirated?? I think Substack needs to start thinking more like Temu and less like a literary magazine.
Hi friend how are you
Just stumbling upon this post. I would love to see something like this, as our organization is about to launch its first course, and we're already building a paid community here on Substack. We're looking at possibly offering our paid Substack subscribers discount codes 100% off the course (which would be hosted somewhere else). A little clunky, but it avoids asking the same people to be paid subscribers on multiple platforms.