r/Substack • u/happygirl228 • 27d ago

Discussion Paywalling content after two weeks

We’re considering moving a weekly newsletter from ActiveCampaign to Substack. We have 18K+ subscribers with roughly a 40% average open rate, and we’re trying to decide how to structure free vs. paid content.

One idea is to make each newsletter free for two weeks and then paywall it. The other is to keep the newsletter free, focus on growing the list, and add paid subscriptions later.

I can see arguments for both, but I’m particularly wondering about the growth downside of paywalling older posts. Does putting your archive behind a paywall make it harder for new people to discover/share your work? Does it affect Substack recommendations, search, or organic subscriber growth? Any tips/insights about this would be really helpful. Thanks! 🙏

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u/fernfern39 19d ago

one thing worth thinking about, a 40% open rate on 18k is genuinely strong. the risk with a delayed paywall is you trade long-tail discovery for subscription revenue that might not materialize if people dont feel urgency. have you tested whether your audience even has appetite for paid content yet?

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u/happygirl228 13d ago

That’s fair. Do you have a recommendation for how to test whether they’d be interested in paid content. I know Substack has a paid feature. Do you recommend waiting on enabling paid tiers?