Interview Date: June 8, 2025
Table of Content
- Meet Amber Katz
- Newsletter Identity Card
- Tools she uses to run her newsletter
- Why she started her newsletter
- How she grew over 4,300 subcribers
- Her strategies to find affiliate links
- Strategies she used to reach 100+ paid members
- Personal & professional impact of running a newsletter
MEET THE CREATOR
Amber Katz is a copywriting business owner, freelance journalist, and longtime beauty insider whose bylines include Marie Claire, Glamour, Time, and The Seattle Times. While she runs multiple newsletters, her breakout success is Things I Buy As A Civilian, a Substack Bestseller that began as a reaction to overly sponsored influencer culture.
This passion project started in 2021 has grown into a thriving publication with over 4,300 subscribers and a loyal paid community. Amber’s honest reviews, product flops, and giveaways have built her a niche all her own, supported by both her longtime blog audience and 30K+ Instagram followers.
In this interview, Amber shares:
- How she grew her newsletter and monetized through subscriptions and affiliate links
- Why she waited a year to turn on paid, and what she’d do differently if she were to start over
- The secret power of Instagram Stories for promoting a Substack
- How she keeps paid content special and her audience engaged
- Her advice for anyone with a topic they can’t shut up about
Enjoy!
NEWSLETTER IDENTITY CARD
TOOL STACK
- ESP: Substack
- Curation & Note taking: iPhone Notes
- Visual design: Hiring Francesca Fagnani-Coor as a designer
- Affiliate: Amazon, Shopmy, LTK
- Payments: Stripe
- Mini site builder: Linktree
START
How and why did you start Things I Buy As A Civilian in the first place, and how do you position it within your professional life?
I started it because I was disillusioned with the flux of influencers on Instagram whose content was more than 50% sponsored. I wanted to read what they were buying with their own money and what wasn’t sponsored.
Relying on paid subscriptions helps mitigate the costs of running a Substack where I buy the items I write about, but in the last couple of years I’ve partnered with select brands I use and love on sponsorships. It’s never more than once or twice a month.
GROWTH
Which strategies did you use to grow over 4,300 subscribers?
For me, I had a built-in audience from my blog I ran from 2006-2020 and my Instagram, which has 30K followers. That said, content is key. If you write good content and you’re passionate about your subject, the readers will come!
Could you share a few specific strategies or examples of how you converted your blog readers into newsletter subscribers?
A lot of it is promoting my newsletter several times a week on my Instagram stories and offering giveaways for free and paid subscribers. I aim for once a month giveaways. I also don’t share every single newsletter on Instagram and let my readers know they’ll miss content if they don’t get it in their inbox.
Another tip is to tell my readers they’ll miss out on the products I buy and don’t like—which I only share in my paid newsletters.
You have a strong presence on Instagram with around 30,000 followers. (see here) How do you leverage this platform to convert your audience into newsletter subscribers? How do promotional posts helps you gain new subscribers?
It’s funny, I mostly only share my Substack links on Instagram stories. I don’t tend to do much in the way of Reels, but that’s definitely to my detriment. I’m just more of a writer than a video content creator, which is why Substack resonates with me so much more.
Regarding growth efforts, what would you do differently if you had a chance to start over?
I would have promoted my Substack more from the beginning. I’d have included it in my email signature, my bio, my LinkedIn. I didn’t do any of those things until a year in.
MONETIZATION
How long did it take for you to become a Bestseller? When did you launch your paid subscription and how did you decide that it was the right time for you to activate it?
It took me three months from the time I turned on my paid subscriptions.
I had a built-in audience from my previous blog and Instagram, but I’d say promotion on Instagram stories and giveaways helped move the needle too. I also got an organic shout-out from things.i.bought.and.liked on Instagram early on, which helped immensely.
I launched it one year after starting the Substack. That felt like the right time to me. I still offer 2-3 free posts a month and 2+ paid ones.
What are your strategies to convert free subscribers into paid ones or gain new paid subscribers? Among various strategies you’ve tried so far, which ones work best to grow your paid subscribers list?
In this economy, it’s tough. Many people are canceling their paid subscriptions because of layoffs, tariffs, etc.
But I’d say I remind beauty industry people that a subscription is a business expense, I offer sales a few times a year and offer giveaways to free and paid subscribers, with paid subscribers getting 2 entries.
How did you decide what to offer differently to paid subscribers to make it compelling for them to join as paid members?
I share more personal stuff and I talk about the products I’m not loving exclusively for paid members.
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned from running a successful paid subscription? What would you do differently if you had a chance to start over?
You have to be consistent with your paid content and it has to be a little more special. I’d have introduced paid memberships 6 months in rather than a year.
You include a number of affiliate links in your newsletter issues. How do you find new affiliate partnerships, and how significant is their contribution to your overall newsletter revenue?
Those are significant! My ShopMy and Amazon links account for about 50% of my Substack income.
You can always reach out to brands you really like and ask to apply to be a member of their affiliate network. Another idea is emailing publicists you work with regularly to find out the process for sponsorships and affiliate marketing for their clients that you like the most. It helps to share some content you’ve already written organically about these brands!
IMPACT & LEARNINGS
How did building Things I Buy As A Civilian newsletter contribute to your life professionally and personally?
In the age of e-commerce stories and SEO everything, I find a lot of joy in continuing to write just for me, and I love the community on Substack.
What would you do differently if you had a chance to start over Things I Buy As A Civilian?
I would have started it when I actually started the Substack! I created it in 2019 but didn’t find the time to write posts until 2021. As of 2023, everyone and their grandmother was on Substack so it would have given me more of a leg up than I had even when I did start creating content.
What would it be if you had the right to give one piece of advice to aspiring newsletter creators?
If you love writing and have a subject you can’t shut up about, that’s Substack-worthy! If you do what you love, the money will come—but I don’t recommend starting a Substack to make money. It takes time to build an audience and readers can tell when you love what you do.
Where to find Amber Katz
- “Things I Buy As A Civilian” Newsletter
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