Swipe files: Over 100 examples of subscription upsells from journalists

“Upgrade to paid” is dead.

Writers on social media complain about how the reader subscription model can’t possibly work longterm. I don’t agree. I think that’s a problem that mainly plagues Substack and one reason it exists is that everyone’s promotions there look and read exactly the same.

"100% reader supported" ❌ Tired
“If you can, please become a paid subscriber" ❌ Overused
"For the full experience, upgrade your subscription" ❌ Totally meaningless

So much for Hamish’s magic dust. How about changing the button text every once in a while dude?

It doesn’t matter which platform you use. None of them will sell your subscription for you. But thankfully, since so many writers are still using “upgrade to paid,” it doesn’t take much to catch your audience’s attention.

To help you with this, I spent the weekend overhauling our Swipe Files collection.

Swipe Files are examples or templates you can reference when writing your own marketing copy. I added 30 new examples of “Why Pay Me” messaging that are WAY MORE INTERESTING than Substack’s tired buttons.

The collection now includes over 130+ examples of promotional emails, paywalls, sales, welcome emails, pricing pages, upgrade CTAs and more. AND I moved it to Notion so it’s much easier to browse, filter and search. I add to it every week, whenever I see something great in the wild that I think you should see too.

Whether you’re still leaning on “upgrade to paid” OR you just need a little inspiration for your next big promotion, the Swipe Files are standing by to assist.

This post is part of the Paid Sub Playbook