I’m rising on Substack.
Someone from The Online Writing Club informed me about this today, and I was so excited.
Then I checked the stats in my Substack app and saw that I apparently added $3,000 to my recurring revenue in the last 30 days.
I’m now rising in my specific category on Substack’s bestseller list which is, of course, amazing.
$3,000. $3,000!
The Online Writing Club is read in 169 countries and all 50 US states by dreamers, builders, writing fans and doers - we’re the #14 International Bestseller.
Members have created a genuinely global community here,
all brought together by a love for writing, habit building, expressing yourself, finding your own voice, sharing your stories, quitting your job one day and starting your own business (part-time) and I’m totally here for that.
I share new posts each week on all things writing, (indie) book publishing, bring you inspiring voices in my Show and everything newsletter and Substack-related - basically all the ways of online writing.
Now I also have the Substack for Beginners class (value $499) with weekly lives and coaching included!
Do please come and join us!
And I know there are so many moms out there thinking,
“Oh, Kristina, I would so much love to earn my first 100 bucks on the internet.”
So this post is definitely for you.
Because I still can’t believe it. I sat there asking myself:
Okay, Kristina, what did you do differently in the last 30 days?
Usually I add $1,000, maybe $500 in a month but not $3,000.
How could I add $3,000 to my Substack income when I’m already earning about $4,000 per month in recurring income, as a mom of two, working part-time?
My kids are 2 and 6. Both under 7. Both very much in the “Mommy, watch this!” phase. And in a few seconds, I have to pick them up, too.
“Be realistic” What other moms told me for years
So many people told me I couldn’t do this. Over the years, I’ve heard it all:
“You can’t do this. Be realistic. You have a well-paid corporate job, why would you do that? And what about the baby? Is this even good for your health? Come join us for a drink…the mommy wine club! Come watch a movie with us. Hang out for three hours and do nothing while the kids run around.”
Sure, I’m doing all of this with my kids, well, not the wine and not the movie-watching. The mommy wine club was never my thing.
And here’s the funny part: the same people would say, in the same breath,
“One day... one day I’ll start my own business. Write my book. Write online. Do my own thing. One day.”
This is why you see all those ads about writing your own book — “Pay me $5,000 (or $1,000) and I’ll help you write it.”
I personally know exactly one person who actually started and kept going. She built a life coaching business. The others? Still waiting for “one day” to come.
I didn’t wait. I did it anyway, for six years now. I started writing on the internet, and you can do it too.
First: What even is Substack?
If you’re new here, let me explain, because this matters.
Substack is a free platform where you can write posts. It’s like a blog, and people subscribe to get your posts in their inbox like a newsletter. The cool part: you can turn on paid subscriptions with one click, and readers who love your work pay you monthly or yearly to support it and unlock extras.
What makes it special:
You can start for free. Go to substack.com, create an account, and you have access to everything. No paywall to get started.
You own it. You always own your intellectual property, your mailing list, and your subscriber payments. If you ever leave, your email list goes with you.
Substack only takes 10%. Some people call it the “Substack tax” in a very negative way, but it simply means: the moment you earn money, Substack takes a 10% cut (plus standard Stripe payment fees). Tell me another platform that takes just 10%.
No headaches. You don’t need to know how a website works. No WordPress, no hosting, no ads to run. You write, you publish, you grow.
“But what can a mom even blog about?”
Whatever you’re already living! Some ideas:
Motherhood itself — the honest, funny, messy version nobody posts on Instagram
Your before-kids career — teaching, nursing, marketing, finance, organizing
A hobby or obsession — meal planning, budgeting, decluttering, fitness after baby
Your journey — postpartum, homeschooling, earning money online, paying off debt, building something while raising littles
Gardening, fishing, you name it — put it out there!
You only need to be one chapter ahead of your readers.
My story: from nada, zilch ZERO to 18,000 subs
I’m not usually sitting down to tell this, but this time feels different, so let me talk more freely about it.
I started on Substack in 2022. I was already earning about $1,000 per month writing on Medium, but I knew it was important not to put all my eggs in one basket. And again, I’m a non-native. I’m from Germany. Starting on Substack was the best decision I’ve ever made, because my English got much, much better.
Then I got pregnant. I felt sick all the time and couldn’t stay consistent. And you know what? That’s real life as a mom. And it’s okay. The internet waited for me, or at least some people who already knew me from Medium did.
In 2024, I said: you know what, I’m opening a new chapter, paid subscriptions. I had been reporting about the platform on a meta level, but I hadn’t made my own newsletter paid yet.
Fast forward to today:
18,000 subscribers (starting from zero , zilch, nada), 34,000 readers, and a $3,000 jump in a single month.
So .. how did this mom do it part-time? It didn’t happen by accident. Here’s everything I changed in the last 30 days, step by step, so you can do it too.
What I changed #1: The new Paid Perks (visualized!)
Paid perks means people open their wallets to pay you as a writer because they love you. In the past, your offer was just text. Now Substack visualizes your perks, subscribers can actually see what they get before they pay.
On my page, people now see at a glance: access to Kristina’s community chat, direct messages, personal support, and my Substack for Beginners course included.
Here are just two of many I need to beef it up with ALL cool things I really offer:
How to access it:
Go to your Substack Dashboard_Settings
Scroll to your paid subscription section.
There you can edit the perks attached to each subscription tier.
List everything a paid subscriber unlocks, chat access, courses, Q&As, archives. Add a thumbnail/image, description and the link to get access.
👇🏻Hungry for more? Here’s the post + tutorial👇🏻
#2: The highlighting feature
This is new on Substack and fun fact, a small Substacker with just 500 subscribers asked for this feature.
I use highlighting to mark the most important parts of every post for skimmers. Because let’s be honest: moms read with one hand while holding a toddler. They need some help. And there are so many skimmers on the internet, they need this.
Example:
How to access it:
In the Substack post editor, select the text you want to emphasize and
choose the highlight option from the formatting toolbar.
Use it sparingly, only the lines a busy reader absolutely shouldn’t miss as CNN would do in their newsletters.
👇🏻Hungry for more? Here’s the post + tutorial👇🏻
#3: Callout boxes
Callout boxes are also new on Substack. Before, everything was just text, now we can visualize it. I use callout boxes to emphasize my paid subscription and my courses inside my posts.
And I would tell anyone: don’t be shy about telling people what you offer. Very important! Tell people what you offer, and offer a paid subscription from day one.
One more thing: I call my paid subscription a membership since day 1, because it’s not a newsletter, it’s not a blog. It’s a community you’re building. Whether your topic is divorce, breastfeeding, postpartum yoga, you’re building a community around it.
This is a callout box to tell you about our LIVE on Friday!
How to access it:
In the post editor, click the + (insert) button or open the formatting menu and
choose Callout in the quote icon
Drop one in wherever you mention your offer.
#4: Bold, original thumbnails
My thumbnails, let’s call them featured images, also changed. I always used to go with a beige background and a few brand colors. Professional. Like the brand manager I am.
In the last couple of days, I changed this and went bold, unique, original. I stopped trying to make my thumbnails look professional and started asking:
how can I stand out?
The more you, the better. I want to get paid to be me, not to maintain a brand look so I’m now testing lots of stuff.
How to do it:
When you publish a post, Substack lets you set a featured image.
Skip the generic stock-photo look.
Use your face, your handwriting, bold colors, something only you would make.
Ym fave tool is Canva with its Magic Studio. However you have to be careful as sometimes it changes the facial expression, skin colour or some parts of your body and then it’s not a fit anymore. You want to look authentic.
#5: I asked AI to analyze my newsletter
Based on an event with top experts I attended, I went into ChatGPT and into Claude and asked both:
“Could you analyze my newsletter? What are you seeing? Why would you send people to my Online Writing Club?”
The answers were eye-opening. And it got me thinking: AI is like a child, it’s important to educate it on who you are. I’m going to share the full breakdown in an upcoming video, because I learned a lot.
How to do it:
Paste your About page and a few recent posts into ChatGPT or Claude and ask:
“What is this newsletter about? Who is it for? Why would you recommend it?
The gaps in the answer show you exactly what’s unclear about your positioning.
I’ll share the exact prompts I used in an upcoming post with my subscribers as we’re often THINKING our newsletter is about a specific topic although it’s not or missing something.
#6: Live classes and group calls
I run live classes inside my Substack for Beginners course, and it’s the best decision, really. Live classes, group calls, coaching calls, because I get feedback every single day, every single week. We discuss Substack’s new features together, and that feedback goes straight back into my work.
This works for any niche. Your newsletter is about gardening? Do a live class on spring gardening, then summer gardening and you get direct feedback from your readers.
#7: DMs with ZERO automation
On Substack, you have built-in direct messages. Some people set up automations. I have zero automation. That means I’m always replying as Kristina, whenever I have the time, usually within 24 to 48 hours.
One-to-one conversations.
No matter what you’re doing, reply in your voice. People can really feel the difference. Sure, you can automate things if you’re super busy as a mom but even with 18,000 subscribers, I can reply to everyone without an automation running.
(And if you’re someone who just wants to write, that’s fine too! You can tell people: “You know what, I’m super busy writing my love novel.” You can still grow.)
#8: I got way more active in Chat
Substack has two built-in community features: Chat and Direct Messages. In the last couple of weeks, I did way more in my chat than ever before:
Sharing my YouTube videos
Asking questions
Sharing behind-the-scenes moments
Celebrating Online Writing Club members and the class of 2026
Talking about open rates and events I attended
Letting people promote themselves and share their work
It really changed things. I have way more personal contact with people now.
How to access it:
In your Substack dashboard, you’ll find Chat in the main navigation.
Turn it on, and start posting there like you would talk to a friend, questions, wins, behind-the-scenes.
I’ll start a whole series aroung building community on Substack as this is soooooooo important in an AI age where trust is at an all time low and people are craving for deeper connections with real people.
Why all of this works: be more you
If you’re asking why these changes made the difference, here’s the bigger picture.
Before, I was always the corporate girl: everything has to look professional. Now I’m the girl who says: this has to be original, this has to be more me, this has to be different from everyone else (in a world where everyone copies everyone), I want to be prouf of myself!
Because now, with ChatGPT, Gemini, you name the tool, it’s so easy to make a Substack tutorial, put it on YouTube, even write a personal essay, script, book, course… whatever. What’s missing is the human connection.
I was at the biggest event for events last week, and even there they said it: it’s about humanizing the whole experience.
I also started sharing more personal photos and apparently, people like it.
As a non-native speaker, “be more you” isn’t always easy for me. Sometimes I keep using the same words I learn through my conversations and podcast. But at the same time, this work is helping me find my voice in the English writing world and now even in the German one.
What I didn’t change
I know there are many claiming they built their business in 1 hour or 2 hours per day and everything is sooo easy with the right system… that’s not me. I still work early in the morning and late in the evening, the hours around my kids. This is not so good. That’s the part-time reality.
It’s not pretty, but it’s mine and it pays.
You don’t need 18,000 subs to start
I wanted to keep this short and sweet so I’m not covering ALL features and things I’m doing, but here’s the thing I really want you to take away:
You don’t need 18,000 subscribers to start. I didn’t start with 18,000. I started with zero. Then I had the Medium side income, with a lot of people telling me to “be realistic.”
And six years later, I’m earning more than $4,000 a month through Substack — part-time, sometimes with a two-year-old on my hip. Where else can you earn $1,000 or $3,000 per month in recurring revenue like this?
So please…I don’t want you to be a “one day” kind of girl.
One day is today. One day is yesterday. And Substack is free.
Your story is already written. You’ve been living it. You can do this, girl.
Tell me about you 💌
Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, in the comments, I’m going to learn about you. Maybe you’re going through a divorce. Maybe you’re a stay-at-home mom. Maybe you have a passion you definitely want to bring to Substack. Let me know!
Everyone who replies gets a special surprise from me and this surprise will, of course, include getting in contact.
Und den ganzen deutschen Leserinnen sage ich: viele Grüße!
Tschüss!
P.S. I’d love to invite you to join my Club. As a THANK YOU you’ll get access to the Substack for Beginners course (value $499) + weekly live sessions with me every Fri-YAY!
Let me join the LIVE on Friday!
