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Newsletters, writing and media

Which posts turn readers into paying subscribers.

A paid newsletter lives on free issues that earn trust and a few moments when a reader decides to pay. Tally ties each paid subscription to the visit that led to it, so you can tell which posts, mentions and cross-recommendations pay for the writing.

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01How they sell

  • SubscriptionMonthly and yearly paid tiers, often with a founding-member tier above them; yearly plans bring a lump of revenue each renewal month.
  • FreemiumMost issues are free and a share of posts or the archive sits behind the paywall, so the free list is the funnel and the paywall is where it converts.
  • One-offSome writers sell a guide, a report or a back-issue bundle once, beside the subscription.

02Payments it reads

  • StripeSelf-hosted newsletters and Ghost sites take subscriptions through the writer's own Stripe account, so renewals, upgrades to yearly and refunds come in with the first payment's source.
  • Lemon SqueezyWriters who sell a paid tier or a one-off guide through Lemon Squeezy checkout links get each order and renewal, linked through the link's custom data.

What Tally can't read

  • A publication hosted on Substack can't run the snippet, so Tally can't count its visits or tie its subscriptions to them.
  • Sponsorships paid by bank transfer, or invoiced outside a connected provider, aren't read.
  • Opens and clicks inside the email itself aren't counted: Tally sees the visit only once a reader lands on your site.

03Where buyers come from

  • EmailMost paid upgrades follow a free issue: a reader clicks through to the site, reads, and pays. Tag issue links with UTMs and each campaign shows its own revenue.
  • X and BlueskyA thread that quotes an issue sends readers who often subscribe free first and pay weeks later, which path to purchase makes visible.
  • RecommendationsOther newsletters recommending yours arrive as their own referrers, so you can see which partner sends readers who go on to pay.
  • SearchEvergreen posts keep bringing readers from search for years, and their buyers' revenue sits beside each post.

04What Tally answers

  1. How long do readers take to go from a first visit to paying?

    Path to purchase gives the median time from a buyer's first visit to their first payment and how many visits it took. A long path means the free issues do the selling; a short one means a single post converts on its own.

    Path to purchase

  2. Which source brings subscribers who stay?

    Lifetime value counts each subscriber under the source of their first visit with every renewal since, so a source whose readers cancel after a month stands apart from one whose readers renew for a year.

    Lifetime value

  3. Do paying readers read the free posts differently?

    What they read compares how far buyers scroll on a page with everyone else. A post that buyers finish and others abandon is the one to send new readers to.

    What they read

  4. Did that podcast mention really sell yearly plans?

    Each sale's receipt shows the visits behind it and what tied the payment to that browser, so a spike you credit to a mention can be checked sale by sale rather than guessed from timing.

    Receipts

  5. When do readers actually pay?

    Peak hours shows sales by weekday and hour, which often differs from when issues are opened; it names the busiest three hours only when there are enough sales to say so.

    Peak hours

05Numbers worth watching

Revenue per visitor
Revenue divided by visitors for each source tells you whether a big referrer of free readers is worth more than a small one of paying ones.
Renewals
Renewals by first source show whether the readers a channel brings keep paying after the first month.
Visits before buying
Visits before buying measures how many free issues it takes; if it climbs, the paywall offer may be landing too late.
Refunds and chargebacks
Refunds and chargebacks against their source flag a promotion that brought impulse buyers rather than readers.

06An example

Example

Path to purchase

Last 30 days · 105 of 124 new sales, the ones linked to a visitor

Median time to buy

3days

from their first visit

Median visits

3visits

the one they paid in included

Bought on the first visit

12%

13 of 105

Pages before buying

11

median pages viewed

Where buyers came from, and who closed the sale

105 new sales: where each buyer first came from, and the source credited with the sale.

50% of new sales were credited to the source that first brought the buyer in. Hover or focus a flow for its numbers.

  1. Googlecredited toGoogle26
  2. x.comcredited tox.com10
  3. Other (3 sources)credited toOther (3 sources)10
  4. Directcredited toOther (3 sources)9
  5. ChatGPTcredited toChatGPT9
  6. Other (3 sources)credited toNewsletter9
  7. Redditcredited toReddit8
  8. Googlecredited toNewsletter6

6 smaller flows in the table below.

Show the flows as a table
105 new sales: where each buyer first came from, and the source credited with the sale.
Brought them inCredited with the saleNew salesShare
GoogleGoogle2625%
x.comx.com1010%
Other (3 sources)Other (3 sources)1010%
DirectOther (3 sources)99%
ChatGPTChatGPT99%
Other (3 sources)Newsletter99%
RedditReddit88%
GoogleNewsletter66%
DirectGoogle55%
x.comGoogle55%
RedditGoogle33%
DirectReddit22%
ChatGPTGoogle22%
Other (3 sources)ChatGPT1<1%

Time from first visit to purchase

  1. 13Same visit: 13 sales (12%), bought in their first visit
  2. 13Same day: 13 sales (12%), a later visit, under 24 hours after the first
  3. 301–3 days: 30 sales (29%), 1 to 3 days after the first visit
  4. 194–7 days: 19 sales (18%), 4 to 7 days after the first visit
  5. 151–2 weeks: 15 sales (14%), 8 to 14 days after the first visit
  6. 102–4 weeks: 10 sales (10%), 15 to 28 days after the first visit
  7. 51–3 months: 5 sales (5%), 29 to 90 days after the first visit
  8. 03+ months: 0 sales (0%), 91 days or more after the first visit

Pages buyers saw before paying

Share of the 105 buyers who viewed each page before paying

  1. /pricing96%, 101 of 105 buyers
  2. /71%, 75 of 105 buyers
  3. /signup63%, 67 of 105 buyers
  4. /docs38%, 40 of 105 buyers
  5. /blog/stripe-fees26%, 28 of 105 buyers
  6. /compare21%, 23 of 105 buyers
  7. /changelog8%, 9 of 105 buyers
  8. /blog/launch-week5%, 6 of 105 buyers

Only new sales count here. Renewals and upgrades belong to the visit that won the subscription, so counting them would count that journey again.

Fig. 1Path to purchase on the example site. For a newsletter, read the left column as where readers first found you and the right as the visit that came just before they paid.

07Setting up

  1. Any HTML sitePut the tag in the head of your site's template, so issue pages, the archive and the paywall all carry it.
  2. StripeConnect the Stripe account your subscriptions run on with a restricted key; renewals then follow the first payment's source on their own.
  3. On Ghost, the tag goes in Code injection's site header, and a theme line can call tally('identify') with the signed-in member's email, so their Stripe subscriptions link by email.
  4. Add UTM tags to the links in each issue, so every send shows up as its own campaign with its revenue.

08Questions

  • Can Tally track a Substack newsletter?

    No. Substack doesn't let a publication add the snippet, so there is nothing for Tally to count there. It works for newsletters on your own site, on Ghost, or on any platform that lets you add a script to the head.

  • How are yearly renewals credited?

    To the visit that won the subscriber in the first place. A renewal takes the link of the subscription's first payment, so a reader who came from a recommendation two years ago still counts for that recommendation.

  • Does a reader who clicks from the email count as a visit?

    Yes, once they land on your site. The email itself isn't tracked; tag your issue links with UTMs and each send shows as a campaign.

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