4
26 Comments

What to build? Newsletter platform or community platform

Hey everyone! Trying to get some opinions on what to build here. My main goal is to create a main dish SaaS product. I’m debating between a newsletter platform (like Substack, ConvertKit, etc) or a community platform (like Circle).

I own a pretty solid distribution channel that’s focused on newsletters (https://newslettercrew.com/) and also acquired a project that has a good portion of the newsletter platform finished (https://tinylog.co). I didnt acquire it for lot of cash honestly, so I’m not worried if it doesn’t go anywhere.

I also run a community and have built and sold another community.

I’m planning on my next move and want to be sure I’m moving in the right direction.

The newsletter platform would probably have the best shot but there’s it’s getting harder and harder to compete in.

Wondering if anyone has any advice on what direction to go. It’s a big choice since it’s setting the course for the next 5 years.

  1. 4

    I think there is still room in both areas. Some thoughts:

    Newsletter platform space

    • a platform that treats subscribers as customers: I'd love to see a more CRM focused approach to managing subscribers. Something along the lines of Intercom inside my ESP. I think there's lots of opportunity in personalizing content based on subscriber behavior.
    • building or linking this with a digital product platform such as Gumroad to have a unified view and understand who your paying customers are, creating opportunities to upsell them etc.
    • This could be build as a standalone Newsletter SRM (subscriber relationship management) as well (with connectors to major platforms)

    Community

    • @jakobgreenfeld and @akinhwan talked about this in their podcast - community software still looks like forums from decades past with a better skin on them. There must be a lot of space to take a totally different view on what an online community could be.

    I don't know which one is more interesting and like others said here, this comes down to interest/passion. But I think both are great avenues and I would love to see what you come up with.

    1. 1

      Thank you @ondrej good to know the indie hackers are agreeing there's room for both. Great points you brought up there and gives me something to think about.

  2. 3

    competition isn't something i'd worry about at this point in time.

    rather, choose the one that you are more interested in... the problem that's more interesting to solve perhaps. you can always try the other one later if the first one doesn't work out!

    i get the point of trying to "set the course for the next 5 years" but that's a lot of time and you never know what's going to happen.

    i wrote this just last week about a few of my "5 year+ projects" that ultimately pivoted anyway... so, there's a good chance you're going to head down one route and end in another place anyways!

    good luck! i'm a fan.

    1. 2

      Thanks @8bit always appreciate your advice :) Yeah I agree with that. It's going to be some time for deep internal thought soon to figure out what I want to build next.

      Good point about the pivots over the years. I'm not opposed to pivoting either but want to be conscious of the time and money I'm essentially investing into these ideas.

      1. 2

        become a pivot expert... you'll have fun while you're at it.

        ... and that's the best part. make sure you're having a good time. otherwise.. what's the point?!

  3. 3

    Email courses.
    Please make it easy to make email courses.

    Something that is still hard to do with existing email platforms

    1. 1

      As a standalone product or integrated into other ESPs? I saw this idea when you posted about the 7 newsletter ideas worth building.

    2. 1

      I'm not very knowledgeable about this, but I do remember playing around with convertkit a few years ago.

      What is it about these platforms which still make it hard to create email courses?

      1. 2

        the tool available to create "email courses" is automation. Automated emails based on time since signup. Every single thing needs to be created from scratch. But if one were to assume "I want to make an email course" a lot of the logic and tediousness can be abstracted away from the email course creator. Also new and wonderful things can be added if the course is meant to end. Meaning the idea of "infinitely opted in subscribers" is not a thing. The course ends, and then what?

  4. 2

    I feel community is less commoditized and have a lot more degrees of freedom to work with, given the trend to more decentralization people are going to move off larger platform and build their own communities with a whole suite of tools supporting them, so I feel more excited about this then the newsletter platform thing (but the newsletter could be a near term revenue generation item).

    1. 1

      Yeah I think both areas are hot and will continue to be hot for the foreseeable future. Community platforms I feel have less potential customer bases currently. Running 2 communities, I also see a lot of the downsides that these platforms have.

      1. 2

        "Running 2 communities, I also see a lot of the downsides that these platforms have." 👍

  5. 2

    I feel like you'd be great at creating a community platform!

    1. 1

      Thanks @akinhwan I really appreciate that :)

  6. 2

    I'm creating a blogging platform specifically for developers. So I'm focusing on a subset of bloggers, and building some of the features and tools around them. In a world of competition, perhaps this can be an advantage in a newsletter or community platform as well??

    1. 1

      Could you elaborate on the last sentence a bit? Trying to fully understand what you mean here.

      1. 1

        Referring to building a newsletter or community platform for a niche audience. I suppose communities are already niche.

    1. 1

      Solid article :) It's already been many months and still many of these aren't solved.

  7. 2

    I like the idea of a "substack" for paid communities. I believe this was mentioned on a recent My First Million podcast.

    1. 1

      Yeah I listened to that episode too. Pretty interesting but also comes challenges as well. I feel someone could be subbed to way more newsletters versus communities. I think community fatigue can hit you as a subscriber quicker than with a paid newsletter. That being said, this is a legit idea that I need to think more about.

  8. 2

    Ahhh, I think it is pretty hard to comment on this based on limited knowledge we have. Even if we do give advice, if I were you, I wouldn't consider them too much.

    Your best path is going to be 1) what you're curious & have most fun with and 2) you have a good understanding of the users.

    1. 1

      For sure I totally agree. That’s the hard part. I have a good understanding of both and both are curious for me! I’d realistically like to do both haha

  9. 1

    Facebook just got into newsletters category https://www.indiehackers.com/post/whats-new-substack-welcomes-facebook-and-twitter-to-the-newsletter-biz-9e87583ba3

    So I at least would be aware of that when creating another substack

    1. 1

      Yeah the positioning would be different in the end. I did see this and also a reason to be turned off in building a newsletter publishing platform. Facebook also has FB groups which many communities use. Seems they’re trying to own the creator economy.

  10. 2

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 3

      Possibly, but not necessarily. Community platforms have been around since the beginning. I think we’re going to see the creator economy be strong for 5+ years. I think carving out a slice is still viable.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 55 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 18 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments