Matt Giaro – The Substack System

Published by MLCH on July 8, 2025July 8, 2025

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Key Takeaways

• If you can build your subscribers before you launch paid products, that’s best.
• Concentrate on addressing actual issues for your readers with practical, well-crafted copy that satisfies their requirements.
• Master Substack’s tools and features to amplify your publication’s impact and delight readers.
• Build community with your subscribers through interaction, feedback, and engagement to cultivate loyalty.
• Be patient and approach things with a long-term mindset — steady growth results in deeper connections and success.
• Let audience signals tell you when to monetize and what to offer your subscribers.

Matt Giaro – The Substack System is an incremental course that walks you through creating a winning newsletter with Substack. My course teaches you how to start, grow, and monetize a Substack newsletter, providing practical advice and resources for every phase. Users will discover tips on how to choose a topic, post and set up paid subscriptions. The course provides tips for attracting more readers and maintaining their engagement over time. Matt Giaro provides pragmatic, not theoretical, techniques and dissects every step into actionable activities. A lot of users sign up for the easy, replicable method that works for newbies and veterans. The main body examines the core modules, advantages, and candid user reviews.

The Premature Monetization Trap

The premature monetization trap is a significant concern for many writers. It occurs when you attempt to monetize your newsletter before you have a loyal or engaged audience of email subscribers. This can decelerate growth, plummet engagement, and engineer stress. Premature monetization can incentivize creators to center themselves only on profit, not the quality content or what their readers truly need. This, in turn, leads to burnout and unsustainable growth in your substack publication.

Attempting to monetize prematurely without a healthy base of free subscribers is dangerous. Research indicates that only around 3–5% of free subscribers ever transition to paid substack subscribers. If you have 1,000 free subscribers, maybe only 30–50 will pay. In other words, focusing on paid content too early may lead you to write for a minuscule audience. What you get is low revenue and high stress as you try to satisfy both paying and non-paying readers simultaneously, which can affect your overall content creation strategy.

Another danger of early monetization is skipping the opportunity to cultivate trust and community among your substack readers. If it’s paywalled upfront, new readers might not experience enough value to stick around. They might never be exposed to your unique thoughts or voice. Sometimes, profit-first creators are left with a business model that flops. The emphasis on rapid returns could imply less attention to content or genuine interaction, leading to a decline in your audience’s engagement.

Plenty of top content creators emphasize that cultivating a dedicated following requires patience, persistent work, and a consistent content schedule. Premature monetization can harm this process, creating a death spiral of low engagement and flat growth. Others have heeded the lessons, pivoting back to free content to regain trust and scale their subscriber base. By postponing monetization until you have a solid foundation, you position yourself for more sustainable long-term growth in your online business.

Build Your Foundation First

A robust foundation is the core to Matt Giaro’s Substack publication method. By building your foundation first, you not only save time but also establish an email list that puts your audience just a finger press away. This step is speedy—usually under an hour—and provides you with a framework for focused, quality content creation, allowing you to grow, pivot, and innovate without burning out.

• Build your foundation first with a platform and a simple template.
• Build a straightforward email list to collect new subscribers.
• Brainstorm a list of relevant content ideas.
• Write your first post to set the tone.
• Create a content calendar to stay on track.
• Take advantage of social media to promote your work, connecting with new readers.

1. Solve Real Problems

To solve real problems is to first know what your readers care about.

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Identify these problems by reviewing comments, polls or direct messages. When you publish posts that provide explicit answers, you assist your subscribers and they return. For instance, write tutorials that take readers through obstacles or provide actionable tips that can be implemented immediately. Sprinkle in stories of your life or others demonstrating how these solutions play out in the real world. This grounds your advice and builds trust.

2. Master The Platform

Spend time to master Substack’s core functionalities such as email automation, analytics, and design tools.

Employ to your posts therefore become learned and accessibly readable. Straightforward site designs, obvious calls-to-action, and intelligent tagging make your content appear for more individuals. Follow your growth figures weekly. If you notice a drop in open rates, experiment with a new subject line or post form. Small data-driven changes can make a huge difference in reaching additional readers.

3. Create Valuable Content

Great content gets noticed, even in a noisy inbox. Concentrate on concise writing and useful specifics.

Alternate formats—interchange deep-dive articles with short status updates or Q&A sessions. This keeps your posts fresh and your readers wondering. Give away value in your free posts, but share special insights with paid subscribers. Stories, case studies and examples glue it all together and allow readers to visualize the real-world impact.

4. Foster A Community

Invite your readers to comment, share, or ask questions.

Start group threads or run polls for feedback.

Host live chats, workshops, or webinars.

Celebrate milestones or spotlight your subscribers.

5. Earn Genuine Trust

Be open about what you offer and why.

Keep your word every time.

Share your wins and losses.

Write personal replies.

The Substack System Mindset

The Substack system mindset focuses on slow, consistent growth, not quick rewards. It works for writers who want to cultivate a genuine audience over time. It prefers small steps and fast action—only 45 minutes a day can be enough if you’re persistent. Consistency is at its core. The system emphasizes the importance of showing up every day. As Matt Giaro notes, “those only exist because I showed up daily.” Growth is slow, but the right habits make it achievable for nearly anyone.

To do well with this mindset, it helps to change old ways of thinking:

• Focus on long-term results, not quick wins
• Show up every day, even when it gets dull
• Stay patient—big numbers do not show up overnight
• Keep things simple and move fast
• Use the platform’s tools, like notes, for better reach
• Face tough times (like “The Dip”) and keep going
• Hold to your plan and pivot as the platform evolves

Building a Substack requires patience. The system demands that you abandon magic bullets and commit to sustained effort. Most new writers experience growth to be slow initially. Matt Giaro relates that his subscriber count was flat before it jumped by minimum 500 every month. This leap followed his posts a day starting to accumulate. The beginning days can exert your will—this what he terms “The Dip.” It’s a rough patch where most people give up. Persistence is what distinguishes the victors.

Planning is important as well. You need a direct route that aligns with your target and the evolving landscape of digital publishing. The Substack system notes that there’s a “good 6-12 month window” for actual growth, as Substack is still fresh. For writers who use this time wisely, they can experience robust, durable growth.

The system advocates using platform features wisely. For instance, Substack notes outlive posts on other sites—a note can remain fresh for days. This in turn implies writers can access more readers without additional work.

Signals for Smart Monetization

Timing is everything, as the Substack System by Matt Giaro highlights. Audience signals are not simply open rates or raw subscriber counts. Real preparation is evident in engagement with your content and reaction to offers. For instance, if your newsletter receives replies, shares, or stable clicks, it indicates readers are engaged and believe in what you present. Social media counts as well. Threads on X (Twitter) receive 54% more engagement compared to single posts, suggesting that more in depth conversations are what create loyalty.

A simple table can help spot these signals:

Monetization is at its best when it’s addressing your audience’s needs. This might look like premium newsletters, online courses, or consulting. As an example, a creator with 2,216 subscribers has exceeded $5,000/month, but it required patience and persistent work. If you can grow your list by 500 subscribers a month — just 10 readers a day — you’re looking at a full-time income when you hit 2,000 subscribers. Because it can be done, from scratch, in only 45 minutes of work per day—it’s not about speed, it’s about consistency.

Here’s what you’ve got to keep listening to. Subscriber feedback, direct and indirect, helps you tweak your offers. If users overlook a new paid level, examine what’s absent. If engagement dips, see if your subjects or styles require switching. Algorithms can provide a temporary lift, but real growth occurs when you develop processes and discover what your audience appreciates. It might take years to get good, but monitoring the right signals will keep your monetization on course.

The Unseen Cost of Impatience

Quick results seem appealing, when you’re in a hurry to monetize your newsletter it’s easy to overlook actual opportunities to build authentic, powerful connections with your readers. When the impulse to harvest early dominates, creators risk missing out on trust-building or finding out what the audience values. This typically results in additional work correcting errors, wasted time and even frayed subscriber relationships. Numerous research indicate that impatience can induce strain and worry, damaging both mind and corporeal, and impeding the ability to maintain a wholesome rhythm.

Jumping into monetization prematurely can stymie growth. Impatient individuals often bypass processes such as soliciting input or extracting lessons from minor missteps. This can stunt development and prevent writers from observing what reads best. For instance, stuffing a newsletter with ads or paid offers before you’ve earned trust can result in lower engagement or unsubscribes. Slow, steady growth allows room to learn, to reflect, to make better decisions. It assists in identifying the fine points that make a difference, which are often overlooked in a furious pace.

Checklist for Monetization:

• Do: Take time to know your audience before offering paid options. Inquire, take advice, earn confidence.
• Do: Plan your monetization steps. Establish goals and consider what you’ll provide to readers.
• Do: Stay patient. Let your base fill and be loyal before you try to charge for content.
• Don’t: Rush to add ads, sponsors, or paid tiers right away. This can alienate readers who aren’t prepared.
• Don’t: Overlook the value of free content. Use it to demonstrate your trustworthiness and authority.
• Don’t: Ignore feedback or skip testing new ideas. Patience helps you identify what succeeds and what must shift.

Patience allows innovators to consider alternatives, identify hidden opportunities, and take intelligent risks. It results in more intelligent decisions and fewer errors. Building a dedicated audience before you monetize usually yields more enduring rewards for both the creator and the readers.

Your Long-Term Growth Engine

Your long-term growth engine is about way more than the occasional post. It’s a mechanism based on daily work, transparent steps, and consistent value for your audience. When you write or share something every day, you keep your email subscribers engaged and centered on you. Not like once a week or less, which is quickly forgotten and causes people to lose interest. For instance, a note or post on some social sites has a lifespan of hours or days before it gets buried, but a daily article keeps your work front and center for much longer. Just by writing one long-form article a day, even just for 45 minutes, you’ll gain about 10 new substack subscribers a day. This easy habit can translate to hundreds of new readers every month.

Your email list is your long-term growth engine. Unlike social followers, your email list is yours. You can access your readers directly, without it being throttled by algorithm or platform rule changes. It doesn’t take long to establish a robust email list-building infrastructure. In fact, you can construct a content creation system in approximately 45 minutes that continues generating new subscribers daily. Once it’s in place, this system can run with under 45 minutes a week of work, making it easy to maintain without burnout.

Keeping current is key. The online space shifts constantly. What works today won’t be as strong next year. A willingness to learn, experiment with new tools, or switch up your approach keeps you on the cutting edge. That could involve experimenting with alternative content forms, platforms, or polishing your prose to suit your audience’s preferences while ensuring you cater to your niche audiences.

Below is a table that shows a few main content formats and platforms used for these growth strategies:

Conclusion

To build a robust Substack, begin slow. Concentrate on trust and some real talk with your readers. Matt Giaro’s system demonstrates that quick wins languish, but real growth clings when you do the fundamentals first. They see worth in rock-hard, slow work. Making money early, rushing to make money early, can actually hurt more than help. Focus on your signals, not your aspirations. Growth accumulates, day after day. A solid foundation gets you stress-free later. Spend time knowing your readers. Observe how your work comes across. Want to continue learning? See more of Matt’s advice or trade stories with fellow scribes. Every step you take from here forward sculpts your long game. Hang tough, inquire, contribute, and watch where your Substack can take you.