19 Ways To Monetize Your Substack—Even If You Think You Have Nothing to Sell

Building a Thriving Online Business With the Audience You Already Have.

How do I make money when I don’t have anything to sell…

Circled and underlined it stared at me from the blank piece of paper before me.

These thoughts began to swirl around the time I realized I didn’t want to run ads for others for the rest of my life.

While the work paid well, and supported my family, it also required calls, checking ads on the weekends, and fielding the occasional “what the hell happened” email which was generally the result of the natural ebbs and flows of consumer buying behavior.

I needed my own offer—except I had nothing to sell.

Not surprisingly, as I began down this rabbit hole, I saw other Substack’ers asking the same series of questions in my comments, DMs, and emails.

“How do I monetize?”

“What should I sell?”

“How do you balance growing on Substack and monetizing?”

The second half of 2024 was spent on answering these questions.

The 8 revenue streams I developed through 2024.

In 2024, I fumbled my way into 8 revenue streams.

My diversified business now consists of the following:

• Paid advertising services.

• Marketing audits and strategies.

• Profit share partnerships.

• 1-1 Mentorship and coaching.

• Book sales.

• Digital products.

• Medium.

• Affiliate revenue.

Now, to be transparent…

Some of these are a trickle that may (or may not) build with time.

• I’ve only generated a few Amazon book sales.

• I have 1 digital product (so far).

• Medium revenue has ranged from $50-$200/Month.

But here’s the part I find exciting.

Nothing inherently changed with my day-to-day work adding 7 revenue streams.

• They all stem from writing and my core skill set.

• None of them have increased my workload beyond my boundaries.

• And even small revenue streams, when they don’t require time, become leveraged income streams that can compound with time.

These were not forced, they naturally came into existence.

You don’t need a product to make money on Substack, but here’s what allows you to monetize anyways.

It’s a trap I fell into.

We often overcomplicate monetization.

The “What” (to sell) is not reserved only for digital products or paid subscriptions. I quickly realized that I didn’t need a product, or at least, I didn’t need one to start expanding my streams of income.

I uncovered many ways to monetize—and integrated 8 of them just last year.

Here’s the thing.

My ability to do this was predicated on two things:

• Reach.

• My skill set.

I speak about this concept in a letter about becoming a full-stack creator.

Speaking with writers, coaches, and creators looking to monetize I will ask them about their goals, and the size of their audience, and discuss their unique skill set.

Without reach—an audience, network, or email list to place a message in front of…

Without a skill—something you can teach, or assist people with…

It becomes more difficult to monetize.

However, all it takes is one. You don’t need both.

You can even build them while monetizing.

Let me show you how.

19 revenue stream ideas to add to your business this year.

I pull all my ideas down on paper.

Even if you work in marketing all day, it’s surprisingly easy to forget to apply those same strategies to your own business. Once I finished putting my list together, I sent it off to a few trusted marketing friends for feedback.

Here are a few of the ideas I came up with (in no particular order)

Affiliate marketing: Link to or promote other people’s products and receive a commission from each sale.

I’ve referred clients to the Substack Mastermind I’m in, to friends/colleagues who can offer services I do not, and to various software platforms I use—in return I get paid.

Sponsorships: Sell sponsorships for your newsletter or Suback publications.

Run live trainings—convert them to products: Run a live training or workshop and convert the recording into your first (or next) digital product.

Free Q&A calls—convert them to products: Offer a free Q&A call on a specific topic and convert the recording into your first (or next) digital product. Alternatively, use it as the basis for your product.

Paid live workshops: You don’t need a product built, you can run a live paid workshop or training and then convert the recording into an evergreen product.

Build a digital product(s): While you don’t need one, you can work towards developing them over time or in the background. Or, use the ideas here to turn your content and training into your first product.

I provide you with a step-by-step framework for doing this inside my mini-workshop Subliminal Selling on Substack.

Create a workshop: 30-60 min mini workshops that solve specific problems are often just as valuable as full-fledged courses filled with dozens of lessons and much simpler to create.

Compile Substack articles into a book or ebook: Convert a series of your articles into a product people can purchase. They may need to be edited or you may find gaps that can be filled in but you might be closer to a product than you think.

Ebooks and mini books: Expand your top posts, write them from scratch, or use them to validate ideas, then create an ebook or mini book.

1-1 Calls: Sell 1 off coaching or consulting calls.

Throughout 2023 and 2024 this began a service I offered for people that needed assistance.

Consulting/Coaching packages: Sell a package of 4 or more calls offered over a specific timeframe to help someone work towards a specific goal. You don’t need a fancy offer—just a problem you can help solve.

This became a core offering of mine near the end of 2024 ranging from on-going marketing consulting, mentoring media buyers, and offering coaching services to coaches building their businesses.

Turn your skill into a service: Offer your unique skill set to others as a service. This could be running ads, ghostwriting, marketing, consulting, etc.

This is what my paid advertising services are and have been the cornerstone of my business.

Create (or sell) templates: Simple solutions can save people a lot of time and stress. You may be able to develop a template to solve a problem. Or, you may have already created something for yourself and never realized others would pay for it.

Partner with others: Collaborate with someone and take a cut of the revenue. This can be service-based, high-ticket offers, or even collaborating to build a product. Creativity is the only limit to the opportunities.

I spent a couple of years helping someone build a business that I now take a % of profits and I am in talks with other creators who I may be collaborating to build products that combine our unique expertise.

Develop a high-ticket offer: If you can help someone solve a problem faster, or by doing it for them, you may be able to craft a high-ticket offer. These may have curriculum but they don’t need to. Often these arrangements lay the foundation for curriculum or courses to create.

Repurpose content to Medium: I began repurposing my Substack articles to publications on Medium and now generate $50-$200/Month without doing any extra work. It’s a nice piece of side action that doesn’t require any extra time.

Paid community: Launch a paid community and develop assets as you go.

Live cohorts: Run live cohorts or “beta” group coaching programs where you teach material live—not needing it beforehand—using it to refine your material, see what people need, and develop your core curriculum.

Pre-sell a digital product: You don’t need a product built before you make money from it. You can pre-sell it to validate the market desire, build it, or build it as you go.

I could continue to come up with new ideas to monetize every day.

Instead of trying to fill this with a ChatGPT generated list of “ideas” I’d rather shift your perspective on what is required to monetize.

You don’t need digital products to make money.

And even if you want to create one, the products don’t need to be complicated as I outline in Subliminal Selling—sometimes it’s as simple as asking your audience what they want and then making it.

If you have the reach, the skill, or the gusto to build them? You can start making cash.

Now, let me provide you with some clarity on where to start.

Personally, I find too many options overwhelming.

It’s like trying to find a movie to watch on Netflix, there are 1,000 options—not to mention Prime, Disney+, and the rest. I can scroll for an hour and struggle to choose but if I had 3 options? I bet I’d pick one.

Let me simplify things for you.

You have Reach.

Reach: An email list, social media following, captive audience, or network.

Affiliate marketing and sponsorships are great options as they do not require skill or creating any asset of your own.

If you have reach AND skill then all options become a possibility.

You have a Skill.

Skill: A specific high-value acquired skill with proven results that people actively pay someone for.

Some of the fastest ways to monetize a skill without a product are selling 1-1 calls, consulting, or turning it into a service.

If you desire to build a product, I’d start with the aforementioned ideas to generate cash flow and then look at running a live workshop and turning it into your first mini-product.

And if you have a skill without an audience the ideas mentioned about allow you to generate revenue while you build your audience.

Use this as your quick start guide.

As always business does not operate in absolutes and this is designed to stimulate thoughts, shift perspectives, and get you thinking about your business—it’s not a “this is the only way to do it” prescription.

If you scroll to the bottom and take nothing else from this article…

I’ll leave you with this.

If you have reach, start making offers.

If you have a skill, start building your reach.

Hope this helps.

Landon

PS.

Want to turn your Substack publication into a monetization machine? Even if you have no idea what to sell yet?

Inside my new workshop Subliminal Selling, you'll learn the 3-step process to validate, create, and deliver your first digital product, and make your first dollar, using zero-cost tools.

More than 17,000 writers are already getting paid on Substack. Imagine waking up to Stripe notifications while sharing what you love. Subliminal Selling is your guide to breaking out of the echo chamber and creating a real, sellable product that your audience needs, without the complexity of expensive software or paywalling your content.

You can get access right here.

https://landonpoburan.gumroad.com/l/subliminal-selling-substack