18 Comments
User's avatar
Marianne's avatar

After following for a good while , owning some of your excellent books, using your detailed instructions for processing game as well as recipes and also greatly enjoying your writing, it seems only fair that I should subscribe!

I live in South east England in a semi-rural but increasingly urbanised area. Surrounded by people further and further distanced from my lifestyle- from the food they eat, the environment they inhabit and showing a disinterest and a carelessness about the natural world. It is inspiring and uplifting to read your work and also the comments from the community. I don't feel quite so alone or defeated! I look forward to reading more. Thanks Hank.

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Dani's avatar

Community always wins. You have one of the best my friend. Keep up the good work.

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Jacqueline's avatar

Hi, I just subscribed as a yearly today. (Got my pension payment on Friday.) I hope it helps! Keep up the good work, you have friends out here!

Jacqueline (aka Jacque)

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Denise's avatar

Happy to be a subscriber. I’m seeing people build volume then move to subscription. It’s a great strategy. You don’t need to give as many free recipes away!

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Debra's avatar

Hank,

We have been a followers for quite a while, and own several of your books, it’s about time I subscribed us to your site. You’re great, your recipes are great and I look forward to hearing what you’re up to next.

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Debra's avatar

Hank,

We have been a followers for quite a while, and own several of your books, it’s about time I subscribed us to your site. You’re great, your recipes are great and I look forward to hearing what you’re up to next.

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Michael Forbes's avatar

Hank,

Karen and I are avid followers. Just signed us up for real. Small thing, but could we get 2 of the “I eat, therefore I hunt” stickers? I feel kinda silly asking’ but Karen’s van would be jealous of my car if it didn’t have a sticker of its own.

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Hank Shaw's avatar

Yes. Send me a direct message or an email with your address.

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Dean Sherwood's avatar

This is the way to do it. A lot of "free" apps have been cutting features and including them only for users that pay. You are all carrot and no stick. That, sir, is genius.

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Nathan L's avatar

You can eat a carrot — you can’t eat a stick 😂

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Andreas Sundgren's avatar

Sounds like a very good move. A couple more membership tiers also…looking forward to the recipes a lot.

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Jericha's avatar

holy smokes I would LOVE to be a recipe tester!!

Also, thanks for the 5% code offer -- we often get your books as gifts for friends and that definitely makes it easier to do so more often.

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Frank H's avatar

I was born ready to test recipes, sir. Let me know!

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Tom Ritchie's avatar

I’ve coasted on the free stuff for long enough - just needed a bump to subscribe. Happy to support someone from whom I’ve gained so much.

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Jesse's avatar

Same here.

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Linda R's avatar

Just want you to thrive and keep us educated and laughing. Ty for your transparency. All the best!

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Vicky Davis's avatar

Hank, that’s my husband’s name too. I would love to be a paid subscriber but on fixed income I have to budget to the max. My husband will celebrate his 100th birthday this October. He married a youngster three years ago I’m in my 80’s.. I do so enjoy your stories and recipes and love eating the wild food that we are blessed with from my son. Mainly venison and fish. I do some foraging but am not able to do as much as I would like. Keep up what you are doing and enjoy your new digs in MN😎🌴

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Lee's avatar

Just a neat trick I learned about how to manage those who sign up just for rewards and then leave: keep an Excel sheet (or Google, whatever) of all paid subscribers with their sign-up date, tier, and time in tier (for those who change tiers but stay subscribed). The particular Patreon page I follow in this case has various rewards pegged to certain pledge levels that ALSO kick in only at certain numbers of months subscribed. As such, they are able to manage both the "redeem and churn" crowd, plus those who try to game upgrading in the same way (even if you have subscribed for X months, you don't get the higher-tier reward just for one month at the higher tier, you still need to put in time at the higher tier, though you still get cumulative credit for all of those rewards even if you downgrade later). The guy here periodically goes in and audits the list to catch up on missed reward disbursements (he ships a couple times a year but somebody always falls through), and culls those who no longer qualify.

There may of course be similar CRM-ish tools included with Substack on your admin console that I am not aware of, but wanted to share the tip!

It's a bit of work, but the basic idea I think is pretty sound for the issue you describe!

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