Why Grow Your Newsletter is now its own publication

I'm going full-time on Substack to share exactly how you can grow too.

I’m going full-time on Substack.

That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.

I’ve been active on Substack for nearly two years, and publishing for around 18 months. I started the Freelance Writing Network in late January of 2024 as a simple space to connect with other writers and share some opportunities that I couldn’t take on.

To say that it has grown beyond what I expected would not do it justice.

The whole experience has been completely humbling. It’s proof that anyone can set up on Substack, create a publication, and with the right application and some hard work, earn a living from it.

Anyone can, but not everyone will.

Because the thing is, I’ve read a lot of writing about writing on Substack. Some of it’s great, some of it isn’t. Some of it even comes from people who aren’t successful on Substack themselves. An alarming amount of it appears written by AI.

Small sections of it are even outright lies about how the platform itself works, or selling an unrealistic dream of tens of thousands per month in earnings (if someone claims this but is below me on the leaderboard, they aren’t even making one quarter of that from Substack).

Those kinds of earnings are not realistic. It happens, but it’s not realistic. Yes, I’m going full-time on Substack, but don’t mistake that for meaning ‘rich’. I’m now earning enough to live on (when partnered alongside some additional writing commitments that I have), not enough to buy one of those dazzling homes that you might find on the latest season of Selling Sunset (no prizes for guessing what I’m watching right now).

The Freelance Writing Network will take up much of my time, but while going full-time, I want to expand what I offer through Grow Your Newsletter. The name might change in time, but for now the continuity is helpful as we get started and grow.

I’ll be sharing more about what has worked for me in growing from 0 subscribers to 13,000+ and a Substack bestseller at #60 on the business leaderboard.

No BS. No AI-written shortcuts. No promise of unrealistic earnings.

Honest insights. Practical tools. Genuine help for you to grow.

If you’re reading this and hoping that a subscription to GYN will replace your day job within a couple of months or see you earn a spot on the next Forbes rich list, you’re probably in the wrong place.

However, if you’re serious about growing a real newsletter and building both a free and paid audience, this is the Substack for you.

Here’s a taste of the content coming your way soon:

• How I grew from 0 to 13,000+ subscribers without a prior audience, ad budget, social media strategy or any marketing experience.

• Why charging for a newsletter sped up my (free and paid) growth, and what to consider when doing it yourself.

• The foundational habits that matter: being useful, specific, and consistent.

• What didn’t work for me, so you can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes.

• The difference between running a blog and a newsletter business, and how to build the latter.

• Some tools, templates, and frameworks that I still use to help with planning, writing, and promoting a newsletter.

• Real talk about balancing other work with Substack, and why I still take on projects from elsewhere.

• Actionable advice whether you’re starting from zero, trying to break through a plateau or earn serious money.

• Why you don’t have to go full-time to take your newsletter seriously.

I’m really excited to jump into new content with you, coming later this week.

In the meantime, please feel free to check out the content from the FWN that I recently moved across on the new Grow Your Newsletter website. Lots of useful stuff for you to check out already!

And if you have anything else you’d like to see, feel free to leave a comment or DM me on Substack. I’ll reply to every message!