Hit 200 subs this week! Looking for advice now...
Hello NLC! My project management centric newsletter, The Stakeholder Report hit the 200 sub milestone! This week I put out issue #5 and now I'm looking for advice on how to plan for monetizing after issue #10 is out.
I was thinking of offering daily-new round-ups, but I'm not sure if people would pay $3-5/month for that. I've found myself in a challenging position as I didn't think this one through when I started.
Thoughts/advice are welcome.
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Thank you all. I'm going to launch paid on Monday... 😬
I wondered the same thing but since I try to not overthink things, so I launched my Substack newsletter, Blogging Guide and enables monetization very quickly. To my surprise people signed up! So I say to for it! I’m at over 200 paid subscribers! I’ve documented this a bit on indiehackers.
Best of luck!
Mostly you have the choice to keep doing what you are doing for free, then add something else on top for an extra fee.
Or just start charging it, and maybe give one free per month.
I started a paid Substack. I wasn't sure if people would pay. I was going to charge $10, put then I said sod it, I'm worth more. So I went with $20p/m, with a launch price of $15.
You can read about my progress here - https://www.indiehackers.com/product/rosie-land
At the end of the day you will only know when you start charging.
Substack have some pretty decent guides on helping you decide what to charge. If it's a consumer type thing, charge less, if it is more professional focused then you can get away with charging more.
“I’m not sure if people would pay $3-5/month for that”
Find out. You could ask but you’ll only know when they pay.
So can you offer that option and see what happens? If it’s not worth doing for only a handful you could make it contingent on getting a certain number of subscribers and refund if you don’t hit the target.
Also that price point seems incredibly low. This is for professional project managers I think? Pricing that low might be perceived as low quality and result in less subs.
Thanks @pauldmet, I thought about the price point too, I think it may be low. Further, I don’t know if anyone would want to pay for that- but I may try to find out.
I really wanted to monetize this, but I don’t think it’s truly viable. I may have to just continue with selling ad space as a means to make any money.
Nothing to lose by making an offer in your newsletter. You could offer a special deal for the pioneers who get in first. Say you think it’s worth $30pm then offer a $15 or $20 deal. Available for fixed period to add some scarcity. Mention it a lot in your newsletters. Each time you mention it, tease a bit of what they’re going to get so it’s not the same “ad copy” in every issue. Keeps it interesting. And gives them a taste.
See what happens. Make sure to raise the price to what you said when you said.
Something to think about, thank you.