Dear subscribers, This is not my usual deep technical post, it’s going to be a rant about the problems I (and many other Indian writers) have faced in monetizing their writing on Substack, even after being here for years, bringing in thousands of new readers and producing hundreds and thousands of articles collectively.
The irony is that India could be a huge market for Substack and one day is highly likely to be. However the issues you point out sound very complex. I'm saddened and distressed by your situation.
Can you monetize more with your YouTube channel? Really double down on that is it worth it? Would moving to another platform fix your issues?
Nowhere in the world is there as many English speaking young curious minds as in India about the things we write about.
You are obviously very passionate and talented about the topics you write about and I believe you will find a way and become more resilient due to these experiences. Please let me know what happens.
Thank you, Michael, for sharing this. I have replied with all the info I've been gathering and reporting since we saw The Last American Vagabond and others have their accounts "messed with" for lack of a better description. Maybe the alternative processors I suggested, or others I am not yet aware of, could be the solution here.
I know we've discussed this elsewhere, but I'll leave a comment here too. My reasons are different to yours, but I have now moved to either one-time contributions from readers or a one-time payment membership that includes more than just my written articles. As a result, I've made my Substack entirely free—there's still a subscription option for whoever wants to support this way, but monetisation is now either through one-time payments (that people can do as often as they want, for whatever amount they want), or through a full membership to The Python Coding Place (currently this is priced at $360—or PPP equivalent—that's a one-time payment, so no recurring payment issues)
For what it's worth, I enjoy your content so much that I'd follow you to a different platform. That said, I hope this post gains enough traction that the Substack team realizes the impact.
So sorry to see you going through this. It's incredibly frustrating. I have been writing about Substack's vulnerability when it comes to the Stripe monopoly for about a month after seeing it happen to several US creators, and have done a couple of livestreams talking about it. There have been small changes made so far, but they really need at least one more payment processor, and my initial article recommends a few potential suitors to support Substack.
STRIPE has TOO MUCH POWER: A Monopoly Over Content Platforms - from "How Did We Miss That" on June 16.
Kudos for writing such a detailed article but the issue is not just limited to Substack. It's arguably with every international platform. Indian card payments are being declined left and right and I have been tormented by this issue for years. My payments have been failing on services like Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, Canva, ChatGPT, you name it.
Also, I tried setting up a payment pipeline back in the day with a platform called Podia and wasn't able to do it due to the same customer name, email and other details reason. They said they cannot modify their system just for a single country.
Maybe we could start a petition or something to get this fixed. I am unsure if the RBI is even aware of the hassle Indian businesses are failing as a result of their rules.
The irony is that India could be a huge market for Substack and one day is highly likely to be. However the issues you point out sound very complex. I'm saddened and distressed by your situation.
Can you monetize more with your YouTube channel? Really double down on that is it worth it? Would moving to another platform fix your issues?
Nowhere in the world is there as many English speaking young curious minds as in India about the things we write about.
You are obviously very passionate and talented about the topics you write about and I believe you will find a way and become more resilient due to these experiences. Please let me know what happens.
Thank you, Michael, for sharing this. I have replied with all the info I've been gathering and reporting since we saw The Last American Vagabond and others have their accounts "messed with" for lack of a better description. Maybe the alternative processors I suggested, or others I am not yet aware of, could be the solution here.
I know we've discussed this elsewhere, but I'll leave a comment here too. My reasons are different to yours, but I have now moved to either one-time contributions from readers or a one-time payment membership that includes more than just my written articles. As a result, I've made my Substack entirely free—there's still a subscription option for whoever wants to support this way, but monetisation is now either through one-time payments (that people can do as often as they want, for whatever amount they want), or through a full membership to The Python Coding Place (currently this is priced at $360—or PPP equivalent—that's a one-time payment, so no recurring payment issues)
What country are you writing from Stephen? Are your subscriptions failing as well?
I'm not affected by the Indian rules, no… This was more a general comment on other ways of monetising without relying on subscriptions
Been trying to get this fixed for years now. Substack didn't care about Indian writers because I seemed to be the only one. Hopefully this changes now
For what it's worth, I enjoy your content so much that I'd follow you to a different platform. That said, I hope this post gains enough traction that the Substack team realizes the impact.
I will also follow you. Your content is unique. As a consumer, I don't like Substack....
Really sad to read this. More power to you!
Hi Abhinav,
So sorry to see you going through this. It's incredibly frustrating. I have been writing about Substack's vulnerability when it comes to the Stripe monopoly for about a month after seeing it happen to several US creators, and have done a couple of livestreams talking about it. There have been small changes made so far, but they really need at least one more payment processor, and my initial article recommends a few potential suitors to support Substack.
STRIPE has TOO MUCH POWER: A Monopoly Over Content Platforms - from "How Did We Miss That" on June 16.
https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/stripe-has-too-much-power-a-monopoly?r=539iu
The articles I wrote on June 6 and June 10 are also in the post linked.
I also appeared on a daily morning web show, Hard Lens Media, who also has a Substack, to talk about the problem on June 12
Indie joined Kit from Hard Lens Media to talk about the article "BIG Vulnerability For Substack & Creators, Stripe Payments"
https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/indie-joined-kit-from-hard-lens-media-061224
Available to chat or collab on some ideas about alternatives.
What about working with a UK or US company?
I'm curious to know how that works.
I've only read a few of your posts -- I'm new to Substack -- but I've enjoyed them. Good luck!
Kudos for writing such a detailed article but the issue is not just limited to Substack. It's arguably with every international platform. Indian card payments are being declined left and right and I have been tormented by this issue for years. My payments have been failing on services like Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, Canva, ChatGPT, you name it.
Also, I tried setting up a payment pipeline back in the day with a platform called Podia and wasn't able to do it due to the same customer name, email and other details reason. They said they cannot modify their system just for a single country.
Maybe we could start a petition or something to get this fixed. I am unsure if the RBI is even aware of the hassle Indian businesses are failing as a result of their rules.
If you are looking to run a subscription business you won't be able to pull it off with the existing Indian payment rules. This is a related read: https://inc42.com/features/recurring-payment-conundrum-how-guidelines-have-shaken-indias-subscription-economy/
Stripe has gone invite only in India and now WISE, I believe has also stopped working with Indian businesses https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/16de7uo/weird_issue_with_wise_money_transfer/