Was looking into podcast archives and stumbled on this great post https://www.indiehackers.com/post/7-newsletter-product-ideas-for-indie-hackers-041b39e5d0 and realised Newsletters might need better archives too!
Super early stage but would love any feedback on https://frontcatalog.carrd.co/
Does it make sense? Is it interesting? Am I missing something? I'm not so worried about the design etc. that can come later :)
Cheers
It does make sense. Through Substack's "Let me read it first" there is a growing need for showing the archives in a proper way. Searchability is a plus too.
And although most ESPs are offering some way to re-use the archives, I think there is room for improvement, yet only for people how focus on "newsletter only".
But from a monetization pov, I really ask whether people would want to pay a lot for this, especially when sites offer elements of their newsletters as separate posts on their website as well... which in itself acts as a double-edged sword at low effort/cost.
There might be extra value in the reader data... but I do not easily see users give that up.
What is the bigger idea here?
Hi janvaniperen
Thanks for taking a look. You’re right to question the monitization, i don’t think in its initial incarnation people would pay a huge amount for it. Better archives are not a major pain point. But growing your audience is.
The bigger picture… to help people find value in a creator’s work so they can grow their audience.
Podcasts and newsletters directly address information overload. You find a source you trust instead of just googling. But google is better at surfacing the value. I’m aiming to combine both. Trusted sources and ease of discovery.
So a beautiful and rich back catalog is a stepping stone. Test the market and find more ways to add value.
I’m not wed to this solution. But I do want to help people find more useful content from sources they trust and to help creators grow their audiences. Love to hear if you have other ways I could achieve this.
I hear you... and to have your archives indexable by search engines will surely yield positive effects.
Personally I see that there are certain "add-on" services that have real benefits, but for users it is another add-on cost as well... quickly surpassing the costs of the newsletter itself.
There might be a another route here where you offer that the archives become available for niche audiences: For instance that give access to all newsletter archives that are in the Cryptokitten niche...
There is something here, but difficult to pinpoint... good luck!