🌸Substack’s NEW Flower Badges Just Expose Everything
Who’s supporting, who’s not, and why your paid status on Substack just went public
The Substack landscape just shifted.
And it all starts with… a flower.🌸
You might think:
What flower?!
I mean that new little gray bloom you’re seeing next to people’s names?
Months ago, an industry insider already told me something was coming.
“A ranking system,” he said. And that at some point we would pay for being more visible on the platform.
He wasn’t wrong.
For the 50,000+ writers on Substack came…
Now for the readers (most writers are also readers, of course)…flowers.🌸
Like watching better? Here you go. I just recorded this for you!
Just Like Real Flowers These Badges Don’t Grow In Vacuum
They need soil (the platform), water (your writing), and light (paid subscriptions).
No light, no bloom.
That’s the idea.
Substack is turning financial support into a visible signal, a bloom next to your name.
I tested it myself before writing this post. Waited a bit before I add my two cents.
Here’s What I See
People with 10+ subs who had told me they couldn’t afford mine and were asking me for a scholarship.
People with zero subs except mine, those folks deserve an extra warm welcome.
Wonderful combos, like me and
blooming together thanks to The Substack Bookstore x Online Writing Club partnership. Or me and or the co-hosts of my Notes Bootcamp. Or people I intriduced you to like or other friends.
Readers proudly wearing their flowers as badges of honor as
…and others who want to get rid of their public flower.
Before? Support was invisible.
Now? It’s blooming in public.
🌸 How to Use Your Flower Badge
If you’re wondering how this all works (or how to control what shows), here’s the breakdown.
For Writers: Bestseller Badges (+ Flowers)
Appear next to your name in Notes, comments, and profiles.
Colored checkmarks that show how many paid subscribers you have.
I have more than 100 so I have the white badge.
If you have 1000 as Club member
you’ll see an orange badge. (And with 10,000 you’ll see a purple badge.)
Also you’ll see the flower badge with the number of paid subscribers.
When someone taps on this, they’ll see:
Who these paid subs are.
How long you’ve been subscribed (1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year etc.).
For Subscribers/Readers: Flower Badges
A flower appears if you’re paying for any Substack newsletter (monthly, annual, or founding).
Petals grow depending on how many publications you support:
1+ subs 🌼🌼🌼🌼(4 petals)
5+ subs 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 (5 petals)
10+ subs 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 (7 petals)
Gifted or comped subs don’t count.
When someone taps your name, they’ll see:
How many paid subs you hold.
How long you’ve been subscribed.
👉 Privacy concerns? No worries, thanks to Zac from Substack I figured out how to hide my subscriptions.
How to Manage Visibility
If you’d rather keep your subscriptions private:
On iOS App:
Tap your profile → “Edit.”
Tap “Subscriptions.”
Toggle left to hide specific subs.
(Or tap your badge → three dots → “Edit subscription visibility.”)
On Web:
Go to your profile → “Edit profile.”
Scroll to “Reads.”
Toggle left to hide a sub.
(Or click your badge → choose “Hide all,” “Make all public,” or customize.)
You can also click on your flower badge and the three dots and edit subscription visibilty.
If you have no paid subscriptions?
Your profile simply shows: “No paid subscriptions yet.”
Which means your not supporting the subscription-based model… YET.
Before You Blame Substack
Substack is undergoing lots of changes. Some features are nice, other “suck”.
I know the new banner or column on the right side on our homes feed “sucks” as I don’t want to see what’s on the agenda and going on in politics on Substack. This is better for my nervous system and was the #1 reason I quit X.
I know this is annoying so I fixed it… well my hubby fixed it for me and so also for you with Calm Your Stack.
What you need to know when it comes to THIS feature update Substack shipped is this was something Bestsellers (not me) in our private Bestseller chat had been asking Substack to ship:
“Let us see who’s subscribed — and who isn’t.”
And now writers can.
When you scroll comments, you’ll see it instantly:
If someone’s subscribed to your publication as the wonderful
, one of the petals in their flower will carry your color.Orange, green, red, blue, whatever matches your newsletter.
If there’s no petal? They’re not supporting you (at least not financially).
That’s huge.
Because before, paying was invisible.
Now it’s visible at the exact point where community happens, in comments, in Notes, in conversation.
Good thing? Bad thing? You decide!
The Bigger Picture I’d Love You To See
Apparently…
Flowers are social proof.
Flowers are trust.
Flowers are how Substack is gamifying support.
So check your flower.
Check your friends’.
And if you don’t like it? Hide the petals, as I showed you above.
But don’t ignore it.
Because in this garden that is Substack, what blooms 🌸 gets noticed and will get noticed more.
LIVE Q&A: The New Substack Flower Paid Subscriptions Badges + All Lates Changes
What those flowers mean, how to get them, and why this change matters more than you think.
This week’s Q&A will be about exactly this. As a subscriver, you’ll see my invite in your inbox, in the Chat and Notes.
What Do You Think?
Do you see flower badges as a lovely new feature?
How many are you subscribed to?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Join tomorrow’s Substack LIVE tomorrow for more!
To endless blooms,
Here’s how I can help you even MORE
⭐Calm Your Stack (FREE tool) to get your zen back on Substack to hide the annpying column on the left on your home feed. Thansk to my hubby
⭐StackBudy Collaborations (FREE tool) no excuses! Patrick built a tool for us to find collab partners in no time.
Thanks for sharing Kristina, very helpful!
For me I feel that subscriptions should be between the publisher and the person who subscribes. Free or paid.
It now feels like some kind of surveillance/competition system.
The clarity of your explanations is always first rate!
I don't fault Substack for trying to make money. It is a business, after all. I'm concerned, though, that instead of just praising the people who do support substacks with paid subscriptions, it comes across as shaming those who don't. At least, that's the way it's being taken.
I'm fortunate to have disposable income I can use for substack subscriptions, but not everyone has that. This tends to be particularly true of new writers, but it can also be true in a variety of other circumstances. I've interacted with people who are practically broke, with retired people living on fixed incomes, etc. Even if they develop their writing as a nice income supplement, they may still not have a lot of disposable income. Yet some of them are excellent writers who should ideally be nurtured by the platform.
Maybe Substack also needs to consider ways to acknowledge contributions of a nonmonetary kind. How much positive interaction people have also makes a difference. Maybe someone doesn't subscribe to my substack but does consistently restack my posts, like, comment, etc. That person makes me more visibility, increasing the possibility that more people will see me, which in turn leads to more interaction. From what I can tell, free subscribers far outnumber paid, so to get paid subs, one needs an even larger base of free subs. (Service providers like you may have a different pattern, but in fiction, the one is describing is pretty typical.) Free interaction paves the way to paid interaction.
I think there are some people who spend the equivalent of a full working day here almost every day. They interact a lot, and they also interact quickly. If I comment, they comment back or like or whatever. Spending time here isn't the same thing as spending money, but it does help build the community and make Substack more desirable.
Also, interaction keeps me in the game., and I'm sure that's true of a lot of people. Success in writing isn't easy, and getting discouraged along the way is common. Feeling supported is a good remedy for discouragement.