Services & pricing
Everything we make, and what it costs.
Three rungs, in order. The Founding Build decides the position and builds the publication around it. The Signature Build adds your first 90 days on top. The Growth Retainer is where it compounds — a publication that stops moving stops earning attention, and the third rung is what keeps it moving.
Most start with the Founding Build, because the audit inside it makes the call before anything is built. If you want support carrying it through launch, choose the Signature Build. Prices below are in US dollars.
At a glance
| Rung | Price | Billing | Delivery | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founding Build | $2,250 | One-time | About 4 weeks | Deciding the position and building around it, once |
| Signature Build | $3,250 | One-time | About 5 weeks + support to Week 12 | A build with the first 90 days handled |
| Growth Retainer | $850/mo | Monthly | Ongoing | Keeping it shipping without you |
The three rungs in detail
Rung 1
Where most people start
Founding Build
$2,250 · One-time · About 4 weeks
You've built real credibility elsewhere, and your publication isn't showing it. You want the position decided first, then the publication built around it — properly, once.
What's inside
- Intake & data pull
- Your existing content, analytics and access gathered and organised before the audit starts, so we know what we have, what is missing and what needs following up.
- Substack teardown
- One complete audit from first impression to the reader's next action: name, homepage, About page, Notes, every published post, the subscribe journey, welcome emails, settings and visual identity. The full data read is built in — subscriber quality, cohorts, retention, revenue and at-risk readers — with what works, what leaks trust and what to fix.
- Audience growth read
- Who already reads you, who you need to reach, which groups respond, what's helping growth and where it's stuck.
- Authority Audit Scorecard
- Seven dimensions, 100 points, the evidence behind the score, your single biggest authority leak and the fix that moves it most.
- Positioning Verdict
- Working positioning notes first, for you to challenge. Then one clear, defended decision — a position, not a list of options.
- Ranked build blueprint
- A clear mission, then 10–15 concrete moves ordered by impact, so you always know what comes first, next and later.
- Audit walkthrough
- A 60-minute live call where we present the findings, hear your reaction and confirm the key decision.
- Positioning & Brand Pack
- One chosen language and editorial system: your positioning sentence, three-length introduction, voice profile, editorial rules, house words and signature framework.
- Visual Identity Options + Guidelines
- Three distinct directions to compare and choose from. Then the final guidelines and asset pack: colours, fonts, logo files, profile and section images, Substack mockups and the image direction.
- Substack design & clean-up
- Your About and Start Here pages, welcome emails, publication settings, CTAs, promo cards, subscriber blocks and profile bio — with your identity placed across the publication. Optimising old posts is part of the Signature Build.
- Notion Command Center
- One place for your goals, this month’s focus, the operating rhythm, a master calendar, story bank, drafts, published work, assets and results — shaped around how you actually work.
- Analytics Dashboard
- Subscriber growth, reads, engagement and strongest themes in one view, turned into plain keep / watch / change decisions and a next move.
- 90-Day Content Calendar & Editorial System
- A cadence recommendation, a long-form runway and 90 written Notes, placed into your master calendar so the plan is ready to use. Loading the Notes into Substack’s scheduler is part of the Signature Build.
- Build Review Call + QA
- A 60-minute walkthrough where we show the work and confirm the decisions, plus checks across desktop, mobile, links, settings and templates.
- Final walkthrough & handover call
- A live handover covering the command centre, calendar, Substack setup, ownership and next steps.
New long-form drafting is separate, at $150 a piece.
Rung 2
The first 90 days, handled
Signature Build
$3,250 · One-time · About 5 weeks · support to Week 12
You want the build and the weeks after it looked after. Someone in your corner through launch, while the audience is still forming, so you're not left running it alone.
What's inside
- Everything in the Founding Build
- The full Audit and the full build, from intake to handover.
- Audience Analysis
- The deep version of the audience read: who already reads you and who you should reach — their needs, motives, behaviour and language — plus an Audience GPT that simulates a likely reader, which you can question and run ideas past, and a one-page reader profile.
- DM Template Library
- Ready-to-send messages for a new free subscriber, a new paid one, a renewal, a reader going quiet. You send them yourself from Substack's own chat.
- First 90 Days Companion
- Three 45-minute check-ins at weeks 2, 6 and 12 after launch, each with a light performance review beforehand and written next steps after.
- Substack Note Scheduling
- Every Note in your 90-day calendar loaded into Substack’s own scheduler for you, note by note, at optimised posting times.
- Writer's Desk Sessions
- Three focused 45-minute live editorial sessions on one specific question each — an angle, a draft, a plan, a snag in the system — every one followed by a short written recap with next steps.
- Existing-Post Optimisation
- Up to 13 existing posts brought in line with your new positioning and identity: a refreshed cover, opening and ending, the right CTA, content room and tags.
Six additions worth $1,300 on their own, for $1,000 on top of the Founding Build. Existing-post optimisation beyond 13 posts is $20 a post.
Rung 3
Keeping it alive
Growth Retainer
$850/mo · Monthly · Ongoing
The system exists. You want it to keep moving without you carrying every week of it — and you'd rather write than manage a machine.
What's inside
- A monthly planning session
- Sixty minutes to review the last month, choose the main growth experiment and set the long-form and Notes priorities — then a short written plan. A decision-making session, not an open brainstorm.
- 30 Notes a month
- Written from the approved direction: lived scenes, reader prompts, useful ideas and lifts from your long-form, each with a clear job.
- A designed asset batch
- Long-form covers, Substack headers, Note cards and supporting graphics, batched once a month in your existing identity.
- A living editorial calendar
- Long-form posts, Notes, assets, CTAs, owners, status and live links in one current calendar, with the next 30–90 days always visible.
- Long-form editorial support
- Angle, title, outline, hook and CTA, plus focused editing direction on one draft or section. You still write the essays.
- Monthly growth & engagement review
- Subscriber growth, where readers came from, opens, clicks, replies, restacks and top posts — carried into the next planning session.
- A monthly Authority Pulse
- A light check across the same authority dimensions to see whether the publication is getting clearer and more trusted, with a deeper comparison each quarter.
- Automation & template upkeep
- Small fixes to your Notion, automations and templates as they get used and worn in.
- Async delivery support
- Light weekly support that keeps deadlines visible, flags what is blocked and answers quick questions, so a week never disappears quietly.
- Warm intros & cross-promotion
- When there's a genuine fit across the Home Abroad network. A perk of being in the room, never a guaranteed output or a billed line.
The rate you start on is locked for 12 calendar months from the day you buy.
Add-ons
The pieces that take it further.
These are the things clients ask for most often — priced up front so it's a decision rather than a negotiation. Some sharpen the build, some take more off your plate. Add them at kickoff or a year in, and we'll tell you which ones we'd actually recommend for where you are. Five of them are already included in the Signature Build; the rest are sold on their own.
Alongside a build
Archive Rescue + Resource Map
$1,160Your existing body of work — books, course files, worksheets, audio, emails, PDFs, older articles — preserved in a searchable Notion archive. Every asset is indexed by format, era, audience and next use, and the Resource Map names the strongest piece when several answer the same reader question.
Discovery Call Engine
$880A strategy for turning the right free readers into well-qualified discovery calls, without leaning on subscription revenue: the reader journey, fast and slow paths, calls to action, response rhythm and how to measure it. Strategy only — building it is a separate add-on.
Recommendations Strategy + Outreach
$680A recommendations growth plan. We research and score 40–60 suitable publications, build a ranked shortlist with short blurbs, prepare your first 10 personalised approaches, set up tracking and support the first outreach and follow-up round.
Business Command Space
$360A second Notion workspace for the business around the publication: direction, CRM, finances, SOPs, client delivery and dashboards. For when the Substack is one part of a larger operation.
LinkedIn → Substack Bridge
$320Turns an existing LinkedIn network into a clear path to your Substack: a full profile update, a repeatable posting pattern with a self-serve guide, six worked example posts, and a check-in after your first two posts go live. LinkedIn stays the discovery layer; Substack stays home.
Publication Tune-Up
$250An async review of recent posts, structure, calendar, analytics and your whole command centre. Comments left directly in-system, the calendar lightly adjusted, and a written verdict on what to keep, what to change, and the three moves that matter most. Best booked quarterly or twice a year.
One post → one week engine
$240A workflow that turns a single strong idea into a week of supporting Notes, social posts and visual assets. We map it, build the template, run one real idea through it end to end, then train you to run it yourself every week.
Pinterest Top-of-Funnel Starter Kit
$220Pinterest as a front door to the publication: a full strategy with a cadence you can keep, the keywords your readers actually search, 8–10 named boards with search-friendly descriptions, a bio rewritten from those keywords, and 10 pin templates — five formats, two variants each. Modelled on the Home Abroad Pinterest strategy, scaled to one account.
Audience Analysis
$200Included in the Signature Build
The deep version of the audience read in your audit: the people who already read you and the people you should reach — their needs, motives, language and buying signals — plus an Audience GPT that simulates a likely reader, and a one-page reader profile. A strategy tool, not proof of what every real reader thinks.
Paid Tier Strategy
$200A paid-tier plan built around your real goal: whether a paid tier supports it at all, what stays free, what paid members get, what to charge and when to launch. Sometimes the answer is to keep it quiet for a couple of quarters while the right audience builds.
Substack Note Scheduling
$160Included in the Signature Build
Every Note in your 90-day calendar uploaded and scheduled into Substack’s own scheduler, note by note, at optimised posting times. It sits outside the Founding Build, so you only pay for it if you want it. Also available alongside the retainer.
Writer's Desk Sessions
$120 / session · $300 for 3Included in the Signature Build
A focused 45-minute live editorial session on one specific question — an angle, a draft, a plan, a snag in the system — followed by a short written recap with next steps. Three sessions are $300.
First 90 Days Companion
$300 for 3 sessionsIncluded in the Signature Build
Three 45-minute check-ins at weeks 2, 6 and 12 after launch. Each comes with a light performance review beforehand, help choosing what to publish next, and written next steps after — plus brief email support in between.
DM Template Library
$80Included in the Signature Build
Ready-to-send messages for the moments that matter: a new free subscriber, a new paid one, a renewal, a reader going quiet. You send them yourself from Substack's own chat — no third-party tool, nothing to learn.
Existing-Post Optimisation
$20 / postIncluded in the Signature Build
Older posts brought in line with your new positioning and identity: a refreshed cover, opening and ending, the right CTA, content room and tags — so every updated post is a consistent front door for new readers.
Alongside the retainer
Long-form drafting, in your voice
$150 / postFor when you'd rather the essays came off your plate too. We draft; you edit and publish under your own name.
Ongoing Pinterest management
$150 / monthOnce the Starter Kit exists, we run the account: pins scheduled and loaded from your content calendar, keyword performance watched and board descriptions refreshed when they stop pulling, and content gaps flagged for next month's queue. The Starter Kit has to be built first — there's nothing to run otherwise.
Discovery Call Engine Build
$1,320The implementation of an approved Discovery Call Engine strategy: the discovery-call form placed where it belongs, the reader tools built, response triggers and tracking connected, and the full reader journey tested before launch. Customised to you and your capacity.
Paid-tier launch & management
$300We set up the paid subscription, build the path from free reader to paid member and run the launch. Afterwards we watch what people will pay for, what they won’t, and where the offer needs refining. Requires the Paid Tier Strategy first.
Editorial Conversion Budget
$1,760An approved budget for converting selected archive material into new, positioning-aligned work. You approve the audience, destination and priority for each piece, and nothing goes beyond the approved budget without your say-so.
Optional tools
Three tools we set up, and teach you to run
These are other people's products, not ours — so you buy them yourself, paid straight to the provider as a one-time purchase, and their prices are theirs to change. Setup, configuration and training sit inside your build at no extra studio fee, and we'll tell you which ones earn their keep for the way you actually work.
- Substack Control Center
- $25 one-time — paid to the provider
- An optional third-party dashboard showing subscriber growth, revenue and the activity driving results. Initial configuration and training are included. Custom reporting or continued studio management is scoped separately.
- StackContacts
- from $29 one-time — paid to the provider
- An optional third-party tool that combines subscriber data to flag likely paid conversions and churn risk. The $29 is the desktop app (Hobbyist edition); StackContacts Connect is a separate product at $20. Initial data connection, configuration and training are included. Continued studio management is scoped separately.
- Substack Pro Studio
- $79 one-time — paid to the provider
- An optional third-party tool for scheduling Substack Notes and posts in advance, alongside or instead of Substack's native scheduler. Initial setup and training are included. Continued studio management is scoped separately.
These are the providers' standard list prices. Provider prices may change — and because they use pricing parity, what you see at checkout can differ by country — so check the current price on Finn Tropy's Gumroad before you buy.
How pricing works
No quotes, no surprises.
- Published prices
- The Founding Build is $2,250 and the Signature Build is $3,250. Whatever price you start on is the price on your invoice.
- What the Signature Build adds
- The Founding Build plus six additions worth $1,300 bought on their own, for $1,000 on top: Audience Analysis ($200), DM Template Library ($80), First 90 Days Companion ($300), Substack Note Scheduling ($160), three Writer's Desk Sessions ($300) and Existing-Post Optimisation for up to 13 posts ($260). If you know you want the first 90 days looked after, choose it from the start. The same pieces are also sold separately, below.
- Your retainer rate locks
- The monthly rate you start on is held for 12 calendar months from the day your retainer starts. After that it moves to the current published rate. Start within 30 days of your build handover and the first three months are 20% off.
- Billing
- All prices on this page are in US dollars. The Founding Build and Signature Build are billed 50% to begin and 50% on handover; the retainer is monthly, and you can stop it at the end of any month. Add-ons are priced per client, or per session, post or month where it says so. Third-party tools are billed by the provider, not by us.
- Your system, on your platform
- We build command centres in Notion by default, because it's what we know best and what most people already have. If you'd rather live in Google Workspace — or anything else your team already runs on — we'll build it there instead. The platform is decided at kickoff and built once; moving it later is scoped separately.
Start anywhere
Not sure which rung is yours?
The Authority Scorecard reads your publication and tells you where it's leaking — free, and honest to a fault. Or just message us and we'll say plainly which rung we'd put you on, including when the answer is none of them.
Or write to atelier@homeabroadhq.com — a human answers.
