I Hit #1 Rising on Substack: 30 Substack Perks That Get You Paid Subscribers
No-nonsense, straightforward, proven bingo ideas
I’m jumping out of my skin excited.
This week, I reached #1 on the Substack Rising list, part-time.
See it for yourself:
Well, I'm the part-time one managing this while juggling a job and a full life.
I’ve never previously been close to the top of that list. Especially since I don’t have any real rhythm or so. I post when I find the time. Most of the time in the evening after putting the kids to bed or early in the morning when the neighbor’s rooster wakes me with his crowing…
But let me make one thing clear, I don’t actually want to be up here celebrating all by myself, because that wouldn’t be much fun.
Alright, let's go ahead and celebrate this amazing moment together.
This week I'm going to share your posts from Notes with my 36,000 subscribers. If you'd like to take part, simply leave your link in the comments or reply and I'll include you.
Let's get you some exposure.
As soon as I began to rise, my inbox was filled with the same questions appearing in a hundred different forms:
how do you do this? Did you make any money? How can I rise?
On this Friday Live there are two points to discuss:
🟠How to make the things you offer with your paid services genuinely worth the money (that's by using the list which comes later).
🟠We're also getting around to discussing the new Substack AI policy, since you've been asking me about it based on my viral post.
We'll gather at 2 p.m. in Berlin, 1 p.m. in London, 8 a.m. in New York and 5 a.m. in LA. For those on the west coast, I know that 5 a.m. is harsh, that's why we always have replays.
I'll see you at the live event on Friday. So join the Club today for only $7 or $70 for an all-access pass to celebrate one year of the Substack Bookstore for indie publishers with me
What “rising” on Substack really means
Rising on Subsatck simply means that you’re attracting more paid subscribers than other writers on the platform. For every of the 31 categories, of which 2 are new, there are rising leaderboards.
Here’s example from wonderful category #Parenting on Substack:
So all you need to rise is to attract more paid subscribers.. but of course this sounds easier as it is.
I teach writing online, write and sell books, start an email list and run Substack, so my field constantly sees people leave. Those who come to learn achieve their goal and then move on.
A newsletter covering topics such as yoga or politics or gossip or horses will keep readers for years.
Two weeks ago I said that I'd return and look more closely at the financial aspect of writing on Substack. Here I am carrying out that promise.
To you, 'being paid to be yourself' might seem like an additional hundred dollars a month going towards your bills.
It could be a community that really supports you.
Or perhaps you'd like the entire package, the Bestseller badge and the glass box full of cash (that’s why I created this featured thumbnail haha). We'll look at all of that.
30 paid subscriber perks on Substack you need to know in 2026
You could also call it paid-perk bingo :) because from the Club members I know the same list applies to all areas of interest and categories on Substack
If you look at any paid tier that is functioning well, whether it's yoga, finance, horses, politics, or food, you'll notice that it's always only a small number of ideas that are being used.
That’s why I often call it: paid-perk bingo which is hopefully a relief for you, since it shows that the Substack success wasn't due to some clever perk that no one had ever considered.
You can do BINGO too!
⚠️Very important: there's no need to attempt to create all thirty!
Pick your 2 to 6 that fit and feel good.
You can also find the full list in our Online Writing Club Resource Vault.
The list is arranged in order from those easy to launch down for newbies and part-time writers to the more substantial and personal ones.