How I Built a $1,120/Month Substack in 9 Months (And 69% of My Subscribers Came From Inside Substack!)
I’ve grown to $13,000+ in annual recurring revenue & 10K+ subscribers without importing my email list. I also started monetizing Substack from day 1, and here's how you can do it too.
Nine months ago, I opened a Substack account.
Today, it’s generating $1,129 per month in recurring revenue.
That’s an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $13,559, with 156 paid subscribers plus 10,808 free subscribers.
And before you think...
“Well... that’s because you already had a huge audience.”
Let me stop you right there, because sure… I do have a big audience on social media. At the time I’m writing this, I have around 385,000 followers on TikTok, a little over 40,000 on Instagram, and around 70,000 on Threads.
But here’s the part I think is much more interesting…
Almost 70% of my new subscribers are actually coming from inside Substack itself.
Not Instagram. Not TikTok. Not Threads. Literally from Substack itself.
That means people are discovering my content through Notes on Substack, recommendations, reposts, and the Substack ecosystem—not because they were already following me somewhere else.
Another thing people always assume is that I imported a giant email list when I started, but nope… I didn’t.
I actually have an email list with over 10,000 subscribers outside of Substack. I’ve never imported it. My current Substack subscribers definitely do not come from me importing that list over, as you can see here.
I wanted to grow this publication organically and separate from what I’ve already built outside… so I could understand how the platform actually works. And I’m really glad I did!
So now I can confidently tell you what has worked, what hasn’t, what I would do differently, and what I think is actually worth your time if you’re thinking about starting your own Substack.
I’m definitely not the biggest creator on this platform. You’ll find people making five or even six figures a month here. This isn’t one of those stories.
This is the story of someone who started from zero nine months ago and built something that’s already generating over a thousand dollars every single month.
To me, that’s exciting… not because $1,129 per month will make you retire. But because it’s proof that recurring income compounds.
It’s one more income stream that didn’t exist nine months ago, and that’s exactly how I like building my business. Slowly, sustainably and comfortably — perfect for work-life balance. It’s my kind of vibe!
Here’s what you’ll learn in this article
We’ll go through everything I’ve learned after publishing 42 articles over the past nine months, including:
Why I decided to charge from day one instead of trying to build a free audience first.
How I priced my subscriptions (and why I eventually raised my prices).
The content strategy that’s made Substack sustainable instead of overwhelming.
What I think is the single biggest growth opportunity on the platform.
Where almost 70% of my subscribers actually come from.
The biggest mistakes I see people making when they start a Substack.
How much time I actually spend on it each week.
My monthly revenue growth so you can set realistic expectations instead of expecting overnight success.
The biggest lessons I’d share if I had to start over tomorrow.
If you’ve been thinking about starting a newsletter—or you already have one that’s not growing—I hope this article saves you months of trial and error. Let’s do it! :)