Start a Paid Newsletter Without Substack (Full Setup)

You don't need Substack to run a paid newsletter. In the next couple of minutes I'll set up a paid tier, connect Stripe, write the first paying issue, and show you the subscribe page your readers land on — all on your own site, where the audience is actually yours.

Step one is the paywall, and it's just a tier. Under Settings, then Membership, I add a new one — Garden Society, six dollars a month. This is what readers pay to get the paid issues; free readers still get your public posts. A name and a price, and the hard part's already over.

Payments go straight to you, so you connect your own Stripe account right here. No middleman skimming a cut of every subscription — VeloCMS takes zero percent, and your payouts land in your bank, on your schedule. Connect it once and you're taking money.

Now the fun part — write. I open a new campaign, drop in a subject, and here's the trick: the audience picker lets me send to everyone, free readers, or only paid members. I'll pick Paid, so this planting guide goes just to the Garden Society. Then send now, or schedule it.

Here's the reader's view. They hit your subscribe page — your tier, your price, your branding — and pay right there on your own site. No detour to a platform that owns the relationship. Sign-in is a magic link, so there's no password for anyone to forget.

And this scales the smart way. You keep publishing free issues to build the list, then send the good stuff to paid members — same audience picker, one click. Your free readers see what they're missing, and some of them upgrade. That's a paid newsletter that funds itself, no Substack in the loop.

A paid newsletter, your Stripe, your subscribers, your site. Start your free trial at velocms dot org.