Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
If you can make enough money on Substack to pay your bills and then some, good for you! But the promise of accumulating six-figure paychecks from affiliate links, brand deals, and paying subscribers doesn’t always pan out. Most newsletter writers, even those with a decent following and serious credentials, are still doing it as a side hustle. They’re making money, but nowhere near enough to quit their day jobs — and they’re waking up at 5 a.m. to do it.
Here, three women with corporate jobs in the fashion industry share how their personal newsletters pad their regular income and clear up misperceptions about how much they’re really earning, how they’re earning it, and how much work it takes (all have pseudonyms to protect their privacy).
— a 33-year-old making $9,000 from her Substack and close to $200,000 in her day job at a fashion brand
I started my newsletter a year ago at the urging of colleagues and friends who either had a newsletter themselves or subscribed to other newsletters. They were all like, “People always come to you for recommendations. Why don’t you make some extra money doing it?” So I figured, Why not. I’ve never had the desire to be an influencer, but the newsletter format felt more in line with my comfort level.
Around the same time, the company that employs me was starting to work with ShopMy, a platform for influencers to earn commissions off products they recommend through affiliate links. So I was seeing how much money all these influencers were making from brands like the one I work for. I’d never thought that was something I could do — like, I’m not going to start sharing links on Instagram or Tiktok or text people links of things to buy. But in the newsletter, where I’m recommending things I like, it’s easy and it makes sense. So I set up a ShopMy account.
I don’t charge anything for subscriptions. Maybe I will down the line, but for now, the newsletter is free. At first, it was really slow to gain followers. And then I had a semi-viral post about four months in. I now have about three thousand subscribers, and in total, I’ve made about $8,000 or $9,000 off the affiliate links. It’s nice to have an extra $500 every month. It definitely doesn’t compare to my income from my regular job, which is close to $200,000. Any money that I make from the platform, I put into savings.
I never want to anticipate making money from my newsletter — the income is too uneven. I noticed a massive spike around Christmas and the holidays. There was a lot of chatter on the platform about how it was oversaturated with gift guides, but I put mine out anyway and it did really well. January and February have been slow, but I’ve worked in-house at a fashion brand for long enough to know that that’s always the case.
So far, there haven’t been any conflicts with my day job. It’s not like I’ve been poached by another brand to write their newsletter or do a paid partnership. My boss has her own newsletter too. I follow her lead. She plugs our brand, but she also talks about other things she likes. So I do the same. She follows my newsletter and has been really supportive.
Putting myself out there and writing about my life is occasionally weird. I was once harassed by a super-right-wing person about something I’d posted. Overall, the biggest cost is how much time I spend on it — an hour or two most nights after work, probably at least five hours a week in total. But that’s time I previously spent watching TV or scrolling, so it’s worth it to me.
— a 38-year-old making $50,000 from her Substack and $100,000 in her day job at a fashion retailer
Most people I know who have their own newsletters are doing it either as a side hustle in addition to a day job, like me, or it’s part of freelance work they’re cobbling together. It’s definitely not a main source of income. I was not planning to make any money from my Substack when I started it about two years ago. I had zero expectations. I already had a nine-to-five, and my newsletter was a passion project I wanted to do on the side, mostly as a creative outlet.
I turned on paid subscriptions after I got to 500 followers. When you get over 100 paid subscribers, you are technically a “best seller,” which doesn’t really mean anything except that people assume you’re rolling in it, and that’s absolutely not the case — for me, it meant I was making about $600 a month from subscribers. But so many writers I know want to get that “best seller” badge. I’ll admit that it was exciting. It felt good that my work was paying off. I don’t think it comes with any algorithmic benefits that I’ve noticed. It basically means that I get invited to parties that Substack throws on occasion.
I charge $6 a month for subscriptions, and I’m going to make about $20,000 this year from subscriptions alone. It’s paid out in small chunks, so it doesn’t always feel like it’s moving the needle, but it’s not nothing. Increasingly, more of my income from the newsletter comes from affiliate links. I got on ShopMy less than a year ago, and that has quickly grown into the larger source of income from the newsletter. It varies wildly based on season and month and what’s going on in the world and things like that. But so far, it’s made about $30,000. So I’ll make around $50,000 from my newsletter in the past year, before taxes.
I make about $100,000 in my day job. By next year, if things keep going well, my newsletter income will surpass that. That said, it’s subject to self-employment taxes, which are high. At this point, it just about covers my family’s health insurance, which is $2,000 a month. It’s not actively adding to my quality of life in any meaningful way — it’s basically just helping us keep pace with the rapidly increasing cost of living.
It’s also really time-consuming — it’s basically a second job. I spend probably about 20 hours a week on it. I wake up at 5 a.m. every morning and work on it until 7 a.m., and then I’m kind of adding things to my notes all day and sometimes on the weekends. I’ve only once taken a week off, when I was on vacation last summer, and I noticed a change in traffic and engagement and subscriptions, which made me paranoid enough that I don’t want to step back at all, ever.
Probably the biggest financial boon is that I do get a lot of free stuff. I have enough face cream to last me pretty much a decade. I very rarely pay for clothes or makeup, which is huge. And a lot of what I’m sent has resale value. I’m not immediately turning around and selling it, but if something really doesn’t work or doesn’t fit, I’ll either give it away, send it to the RealReal, or fill a bag of stuff and send it to ThredUp.
The perception that I’m making more money than I really am is both flattering and annoying. I am happy to be perceived as successful — we all want that. But I also know that things can change. So my newsletter is partly a backup plan, not necessarily to replace my day job but to diversify my income and strengthen my employability. I’m acutely aware of how insecure jobs are at the moment.
— a 35-year-old making about $18,000 from her newsletter and $150–200,000 from her day job at a fashion brand
I started my newsletter in 2024, but I wasn’t consistent at first. Then, in 2025, I decided to take it more seriously and send it regularly on a weekly cadence. I turned on paid subscriptions this past September, almost because I felt like I had to. On Substack, there’s a leaderboard, and to get on it, you have to have paid subscribers. So I basically did it to be relevant in terms of my peers. I wanted it for the recognition more than the money.
So far I’ve only sent out two paid newsletters, and I have 50 paid subscribers. It’s $6 a month, or $60 for an annual membership. So I’m making a couple hundred dollars a month from that. There’s a lot of pressure — if I’m taking people’s money, I want to make it worth their while. So I’m trying to figure out what the paid tier will look like, what special access they could get.
I do feel like I need to keep a boundary between my day job and this newsletter. My day job will always take precedent. I never skip work to do things for my newsletter. My boss subscribes and she’ll comment on occasionally. I’m always featuring the brand I work for because I wear it all the time.
I spend about eight hours a week working on it, sometimes more. I usually do it on weekends, and it’ll take a full Sunday. But sometimes I’ll do it during the week, so I’ll get up early and do it from 6 to 7 a.m. before work. It can be stressful, trying to find the time. There are some expenses involved, too. I paid about $800 for graphic design, and I subscribe to Canva, which is about $15 a month, to make the layouts.
The biggest drivers of revenue from my newsletter are affiliate links. In the first year of my newsletter, I made $13,000, which was exciting. I put it all in a high-yield savings account. And at the end of last year, I was approached by a couple of brands that were willing to pay me to mention them in my newsletter. The ones I said “yes” to were ones I’m already talking about. If this were my full-time job, I probably would say “yes” to everything. All in all, I made about $3,000 to $5,000 from those deals. I’ve also created some content for other brands to use as ads.
My background is in PR, and now I run marketing in-house for a brand. So I’m used to being on the other side of this, helping brands court influencers who can recommend our products. And now I’m the one in that role, getting products sent to me. Sometimes I wonder if I actually sat down, made my own marketing strategy, and thought about how I could push myself to a higher standard — things that I do in my regular job — what is the potential? But I never have time to do that, so I haven’t gotten that far. The money that I make from my newsletter is nice to have, but my regular salary is much, much more.
I don’t think anyone assumes I’m making money from this. I don’t even talk about the stuff I get gifted — not that I’m hiding it, but I don’t want to draw attention to it. I get sent a lot of things that brands want me to feature. Since I used to work at a PR agency, I know how much brands send out and how much work and coordination goes into that process. So I’m meticulous about tracking it — I keep a spreadsheet of everything I receive, and I make sure to send a thank-you note. I post it across Instagram and my newsletter. Your average influencer is not buying one thing in their life — they’re getting it all gifted. I’m still a regular person, so I think that anyone sending me a piece of clothing is a huge deal. I still buy myself things and shop from brands where I’m not on their radar. I’d like to be, maybe one day. But I’m not yet.
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