That's true. I think it would be even harder for someone that doesn't have readers from another platform.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the paid subscribers can be misleading unless I'm doing something wrong.

I only say that because I added a couple of writers to my publication and now it says they are paid on my profile, even though they just get access to the publication for free since they are a writer.

So, that might be why some accounts look like they have a ton of paid subscribers, but I'm not 100% sure. Either way, I still think it's possible to build up a paid subscriber list over the long term.