Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How Newsletters Use Community Comments To Boost Engagement
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, if you get a newsletter in your inbox and you have a thought about it — do you reply to the email, or do you just move on? Luna: Honestly? I almost never reply to the email. But if there's a comment section attached, I'll absolutely chime in. It feels lower stakes. Lucas: That instinct is exactly what a growing number of newsletter writers are banking on. The idea that a newsletter doesn't have to be a one-way broadcast — it can be a conversation starter. And the place that conversation happens is increasingly the comment section. Luna: But not all platforms make that easy. Substack has had comments from the beginning. Beehiiv added them more recently. And a lot of independent writers are embedding comment widgets or building their own mini-forums. Lucas: Right. And the data is starting to show that this isn't just a nice to have. In a survey from early 2026, newsletters that actively fostered comment discussions saw paid conversion rates roughly 20 percent higher than those that didn't. The logic is pretty straightforward: when a reader comments, they're invested. They've moved from passive consumption to participation. Luna: Twenty percent is significant. But I wonder — is there a selection bias there? Maybe the newsletters that already have engaged audiences are the ones that add comments? Lucas: That's a fair point. But some of the most convincing data comes from writers who added comments later. Take Lenny's Newsletter — Lenny Rachitsky wrote about how adding a simple 'reply to this email to comment' feature on Substack increased his total comments by over 300 percent in three months. And he didn't have a huge engaged audience beforehand — he built it with the feature. Luna: Wait — so you reply to the email, and it goes into the comment thread? That's smart. Low friction. Lucas: Exactly. Substack's design does that well. But a lot of writers on Beehiiv are experimenting with embedding a discussion widget from a service like Commento or even a simple Google Form that feeds into a public page. The key is making it feel native to the newsletter experience — not like you're being redirected to a separate forum. Luna: You know what's interesting? The Browser — that daily digest of curated articles — has a comments section that's almost as famous as the newsletter itself. People go there to debate the selections and recommend further reading. Lucas: Absolutely. And The Browser's founder, Robert Cottrell, has said that the comments are a major driver of paid subscriptions. Because you can't just read the comments for free — you need to be a subscriber to participate. So the comment section becomes a gated community, literally. That's a clever revenue model. Luna: Gated comments — that's a bold move. It could backfire if your community isn't active enough. Lucas: It can. But for established newsletters, it works. The data from Substack's own research shows that newsletters with gated comments convert free subscribers at a rate about 15 percent higher than those with open comments. The logic: if you want to join the conversation, you pay. Luna: I wonder about moderation, though. Once you have a lively comment section, you need someone monitoring it. Especially if it's tied to your brand. Lucas: That's the hidden cost. A popular weekly newsletter with active comments can generate hundreds of comments per issue. Moderation takes time. Some writers use AI moderation tools like Perspective API or even simple keyword filters. Others hire part-time moderators — one writer I know pays a freelancer fifty dollars per issue just to read and flag problematic comments. Luna: But if you're doing it right, the community can also police itself. I've seen threads where regular commenters correct misinformation or welcome newcomers. Lucas: That's the ideal. And when that happens, the newsletter becomes more than a newsletter — it becomes a hub. Which brings us to something I've been thinking about: the idea of the newsletter as a 'third place' for a specific audience. Luna: That's an urban planning term — places that aren't home or work, where people gather. Lucas: Right. And for a lot of niche professionals — marketers, startup founders, policy analysts — their inbox newsletter can be that place. The comments section is the water cooler. And the more you invest in that water cooler, the harder it is for readers to leave. Luna: So the retention play is real. If someone has built relationships in the comments, they're not going to unsubscribe casually. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where we see writers experimenting with things like comment-only posts — where the newsletter itself is just a prompt or a question, and the real content is in the discussion below. It's almost like a Reddit AMA but inside the inbox. Luna: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — a new way of thinking about comments, a tweak to your own newsletter — and you want to support the show staying ad-free, you can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that makes a big difference for us. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate that. And we keep the show free for everyone. So now, let's talk about what happens when the comments get too good — because there's a flip side to engagement. Luna: What do you mean? Lucas: I mean the 'success trap.' When a newsletter's comment section becomes wildly active, the writer can feel pressure to respond to everything. That can lead to burnout. Or worse, the writer starts shaping the newsletter content around what gets the most comments — which isn't always the most valuable content. Luna: So you're saying the comments can distort the editorial direction. Lucas: Exactly. There's a term for it: comment-driven editorial. It's when the loudest voices in the comments — not necessarily the most representative ones — start dictating what topics get covered. And that can alienate the silent majority of readers. Luna: So how do savvy writers avoid that? Lucas: A few tactics. One is to separate the comment section from the editorial calendar entirely — treat comments as a separate product, not a feedback loop. Another is to schedule dedicated 'comment reading time' rather than checking throughout the day. Some writers use a weekly comment digest post where they highlight the best threads, rather than responding in real time. Luna: That last one is interesting — it turns comments into content. You're basically curating the conversation for everyone who didn't have time to read all the threads. Lucas: Precisely. And it works well for newsletters that publish daily or multiple times a week. You can have a Friday 'mailbag' style post that's entirely built from the week's comment threads. It's low effort for the writer, high value for the reader. Luna: What about using comments as a source for future editions? I've seen writers ask in the comments: 'What's your biggest challenge right now?' and then write an issue addressing the most common answers. Lucas: That's a great approach — but it's different. That's using comments as research, not as editorial pressure. The writer is still in control. The key difference is intentionality. Are you asking for input on a specific question, or are you letting the comment section set your agenda? Luna: So the best practice seems to be: have comments, but manage them deliberately. Don't let them run the show. Lucas: Exactly. And the newsletters that do it well — like The Marginalian, or Stratechery from Ben Thompson — they have a clear policy. Stratechery's comments are gated behind a subscription, and Ben rarely participates in the threads. He reads them for feedback but doesn't engage. That keeps the boundary clear. Luna: But that's also a choice. Some writers thrive on being in the comments. I'm thinking of someone like Anne Helen Petersen, who's very active in her 'Culture Study' comments and has built a real community there. Lucas: And that's fine too. The point is, it's a strategic decision, not an afterthought. So whether you're gating comments, moderating them, or building a whole community around them, the newsletter comment section is a tool — not a feature that comes for free. Luna: I want to circle back to a data point you mentioned earlier. The 20 percent higher paid conversion for newsletters with active comments — is that correlation or causation? Lucas: It's likely both. But a controlled experiment by a writer named Jason Kottke is instructive. He ran his newsletter for years without comments, then added them. Over six months, his paid conversion rate went from about three percent to four and a half percent. That's a fifty percent relative increase. He controlled for other variables — same content, same audience, same pricing. Luna: That's convincing. Fifty percent relative increase is huge. And it suggests comments themselves drive conversion, not just selection. Lucas: Right. Kottke wrote about it on his blog — he attributed the increase to the 'social proof' of seeing other people engaged. When a free subscriber sees a lively comment thread, they want to join. And the only way to join is to pay. Luna: So it's like a preview of the community. The free subscriber sees what they're missing. Lucas: Exactly. And that's a powerful retention tool too. Once you pay and start commenting, you're less likely to cancel because you'd lose access to that community. The comments become a switching cost. Luna: But what about newsletters that don't have a high volume of comments? Is it still worth having them? Lucas: I'd say yes, as long as you set expectations. A comment section with one or two thoughtful comments per issue can still build connection. It shows readers that the writer is listening. And over time, the volume grows. The key is to start early and be consistent — even if it's just you replying to the first commenter each time. Luna: So the advice for a new newsletter writer would be: add comments from day one, even if you only get a handful of responses. Lucas: Absolutely. And engage with those first commenters personally. That builds the culture you want. Because once the culture is set, it's hard to change. If you want a respectful, thoughtful community, you have to model that from the beginning. Luna: I think that's the big takeaway. Comments aren't just an add-on — they're a culture-building tool. And the best newsletter writers treat them as such. Lucas: Well said. And as the newsletter space gets more crowded, that community connection might be the thing that keeps readers from hitting unsubscribe. So it's worth getting right.