Something useful for writers feeling guilty about paywalling - free paid subscription hack!

Brooke Teegarden on Make America Learn History Again did it first.

If you write on Substack and feel guilty about restricting content because some readers genuinely can’t afford a paid subscription — there’s a tool you may not know about.

You can offer complimentary “paid” subscriptions at no cost to the reader. They get full access to your paywalled content. You receive nothing financially — but Substack counts them as paid subscribers, which helps your visibility and ranking on the platform.

How to set it up:

Go to your publication’s Settings page. Scroll to the Payments section. Next to “Give away paid subscription for free” select Add subscribers. Enter the reader’s email address, select the length of the complimentary subscription, and click Add. They’re automatically added as a paid subscriber.

You can also do this in bulk — go to your Subscribers page, select multiple readers, click the three dots, and select Comp.

If you want readers to be able to apply for a free paid subscription themselves without you manually adding them, you can create a link that gives 100% off — readers go through the subscription flow but are charged nothing.

It seems obvious many writers on Substack would do it - but they don’t know this exists.

So I joined Substack only because of Brooke Teegarden. She gave me an afternoon full of belly laughs with her Substack. I could not subscribe. Then some time later she dropped the post with 50cents tier and for those who really can’t pay - free tier.

Brooke Teegarden is why I am here, in a place where I can write and potentially down the line make money for it.

At the moment I pay no one on Substack and no one pays me. Brooke has my credit card information.

And why I will always make a free option for readers.

Here’s a link to amazing Brooke Teegarden: https://letsnotdate.substack.com/