Start a Paid Newsletter
One of the most interesting trends I’ve seen over the past few years is the rise of paid newsletters.
Not nearly a week goes by that I don’t run across a new paid newsletter that people seem to be excited about and are keen to join.
And for good reason. It’s one of the most attractive models I’ve seen over my two decades of building and marketing internet products. Given the choice between blogging and starting a newsletter, I think the decision is pretty obvious.
Blogging used to be the old standby. If you liked to write and could finagle a website, you could develop an audience and probably figure out a way to make an income. It’s not that way anymore. Blogging is heavily saturated, and the SEO environment on Google is less than friendly to new startups.
I should know, I’ve spent the past 7 years in house at a major media company helping their brands stomp others without the advantage of trust and authority (and links) established overtime periods measured in decades.
So what does a paid newsletter operation look like?
A typical model is beginning to emerge. Most major newsletters, such as Ben Thompsons’ Stratechery, and Bill Bishop’s Sinocism, follow a repeatable pattern. They write fairly long-form editorials covering news events 4-5 days per week. Normally one issue is made free and public, as a way to acquire new readers and let people see what they’re buying into.
- Monthly membership prices range from $3 per month to well over $100.
- Many offer discounts for paying for a year upfront.
- Some offer team-based pricing options.
- Some offer communities and additional private sections of their websites.
- Topics range from startups and tech to personal blogs, to treatises on China and economic analysis. There’s also a fast-growing segment of sports-related newsletters, too.
- Most paid newsletters do not offer sponsors. I think that’s the right move, and I’ll go further into that in the future.
Check out the full blog post here: https://newslettercrew.com/start-a-paid-newsletter/
Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Curious about your last comment - "Most paid newsletters do not offer sponsors. I think that’s the right move, and I’ll go further into that in the future." I am building sponsorgap.com and would love to see you thoughts about the sponsor comment.
Well if the sponsor/ad really does fit into the newsletter. Also if the sponsor/ad service is offered at a discount, then I think it'd be OK. And I wouldn't do it every issue. I think there's a fine line between sponsors/ads in a paid newsletter.
That being said, magazines do this all the time and no one complains. It's something to think about. I'll write more about it in a later post.
I find the newsletter trend so fascinating. My email inbox is such a cesspool of work tasks and spam i loathe to consciously add to it...
That's the newsletter fatigue. Clean it up. Only have what you ready on a consistent basis. Everything else just delete.
Hey. Do you have any good examples of at the high end? Near the $100 and more.
Yes! There is an amazing newsletter about Iraqi oil that's well over $100/month. Ari Lewis talks about it more on episode 11 of the Newsletter Crew podcast.
Link: https://newslettercrew.com/podcast/newsletter-bundling-with-ari-lewis/
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Thanks