DOLLA for Writers — Skip the Substack 10%
Your readers pay $1/month. You keep 100%. No Substack take. No Patreon split.
Substack takes 10% of every reader dollar. Patreon takes 8–12%. Medium pays a fraction of a cent per minute read. Beehiiv has lower fees but locks you into their ad network. None of them are 0% — and at writer-economics, every percentage point matters.
The math of $1/month, applied to your work.
DOLLA's $1/month follow puts the full $1.00 USDC in the writer's wallet. For a writer with 5,000 paid subscribers, the difference between Substack's 10% and DOLLA's 0% is $500/mo — a meaningful chunk that compounds over time. The 3-page architecture also fits writing naturally: Free Page = the public essays, Monthly = the deeper archive + member-only pieces, Weekly = the inner circle who gets first read on drafts.
Free → Monthly → Weekly. The funnel built in.
Public essays, weekly column, opinion pieces, free archive of older work, link drops.
Full archive of paywalled pieces, member-only essays, monthly Q&A, audio versions of every piece.
Drafts before they publish, voice memos thinking through arguments, the writer's-room thread, direct DM access.
What would your audience pay you?
Move the slider. The math is simple — that's the entire pitch.
Share of audience on the Weekly Page ($1/wk ≈ $4.33/mo).
Same audience. Same unit price. The take rate is the difference.
1,350 Monthly followers + 150 Weekly followers = $2,000/mo on DOLLA, paid the day they follow.
On Patreon at 8–12% + payment processing, the same audience nets ~$1,350/mo. The platform takes ~$150/mo of that gross — that's where the Patreon fee shows up.
What this looks like at different scales.
800 paid followers = $800/mo on DOLLA vs $720/mo on Substack (10% take). Over a year that's $960 in writer's pocket vs platform's pocket.
5,000 paid followers ≈ $5,000/mo on DOLLA vs $4,500/mo on Substack. $6,000/year delta.
12,000 paid followers = $12,000/mo on DOLLA, vs $10,800/mo on Substack. $14,400/year saved on platform fees alone.
Common questions from writers.
Can I email subscribers from DOLLA?
DOLLA has in-platform notifications for new posts. For email-style delivery, most writers cross-post to their own email list (Buttondown, ConvertKit, or Beehiiv free tier) for free, and use DOLLA as the paid-membership and direct-support layer.
How do I migrate from Substack?
Most writers run both during the transition: announce DOLLA on Substack, set the new pieces to publish on DOLLA's Monthly Page first (with a 1-week embargo before they hit Substack), and let readers self-migrate. The 10% fee gap is the easy pitch.
Can I import my Substack archive?
DOLLA doesn't yet have a Substack import tool. Most writers manually port their best 20–30 pieces to the Monthly Page over a couple weeks; older archive can stay on Substack as a free read.
Does DOLLA support paywalled posts?
The whole 3-page model is paywalled by structure: Free is public, Monthly requires a $1/mo follow, Weekly requires a $1/wk follow. Writers don't have to think about per-post paywalls — the model handles it.
Start free. Keep 100%. Forever.
No platform fees on your $1/month follows. No minimum payout. USDC settles to your wallet the moment a fan follows.
Create your DOLLA — it’s free →