Latka Magazine
A magazine featuring founders and their stories.
The breakdown:
320 customers at $7 = $2,240
619 customers at $29 = $17,951
36 customers at $47 = $1,692
344 customers at $76 = $26,144
1 customer at $104 = $104
33 customers at $126 = $4,158
3 customers at $197 = $591
5 customers at $297 = $1,485
These are all people who bought annual $300/yr plan + an upsell (excel files and/or event tickets):
45 customers at $300 = $12,500
32 customers at $304 = $9,728
55 customers at $347 = $19,085
7 customers at $397 = $2,779
11 customers at $997 = $10,967
My focus now is to build to 200 customers paying $300/yr. This would mean $60k/yr in revenue which is the breakeven point for the magazine.
Our costs per issue:
$1,500/mo on design (fired old designer at $2k/mo and went to a faster designer who does better work)
$5k/mo on printing/shipping
We don't incur writing costs because most of the content is taken from our blog/podcast episodes.
Upsells are driving lots more sales.
In this month, here was customer breakdown:
91 paid $29 totaling $2,639. This was just to get the physical magazine mailed.
71 paid $76 totaling $5,396. This included the $29 magazine plus a $47 excel file upsell with more company stories/data.
1 customer paid $997 which included the magazine + an event ticket.
Noticing that several customers are buying every issue each month for $29.
Thinking of cold emailing them seeing if I can sell an annual plan at $300/yr. Stay tuned!
We couldn't afford to print and ship profitably to customers only paying $7/mo.
We gave them the choice to either cancel or move to a digital only version.
300 stayed on the digital only version paying $7/mo.
Monthly revenues hit $2,100/mo.
Costs still at ~$4,000/mo.
I wanted to get a fresh take on the cover design.
I was getting feedback that the dark black version felt super busy.
Ran a FB poll and audience ended up picking this new design:
https://nathanlatka.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IMG_7750.jpg
Its much cleaner, and allows me to hyper focus on one person/story on the cover.
Here's what the final product looked like: https://nathanlatka.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IMG_8076.jpg
42 customers purchased just the $29 one time option.
Total: $1,218
14 paid $126. This option included a $97 upsell on the magazine checkout page where readers could purchase an excel file full of data on how founders hit their first $100k in revenue.
Total: $1,764
2 paid $197. This option included a $71 upsell that included a call with me.
Total: $394
1 paid $997 which included the magazine plus an event ticket.
Total: $997
$1218+$1794+$394+997 = $4402
Next goal is to hit $5k so that the magazine is breakeven!
Going to keep experimenting with upsells to increase average checkout price.
The $29 for just the magazine is a good hook to pull folks in. Mine as well try to sell them more while they're thinking about founder stories/data!
We needed to introduce a price point that enabled us to:
- Design/create the magazine
- Print it
- Ship it internationally
... and not lose a bunch of money.
Even if we were shipping half way around the world, $29 an issue gave us enough margin to work with.
Question I was nervous about: Would folks actually pay $29 per issue?
It'd be the most expensive magazine in the world!
New I'd have to pack the magazine with unique data to justify the price point.
They each pay $7/mo.
Continued to market the magazine on my podcast.
Used Paved.com to find email partners to help promote.
Started featuring founders with big twitter followings in the magazine so they would share.
Our next goal is to get enough customers to cover all monthly magazine costs.
Goal: 500 paying customers at $7/mo
We shipped the first magazine out to about 100 paying customers.
The hardest part was formatting. I spent about $1,500 on a freelance designer to format my podcast episodes into magazine articles.
Spent way too much time getting the cover right. Here's what it looked like: https://nathanlatka.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IMG_3310.jpg
Michael at Archdesk and Isaac at SalesInsider signed up for $7/mo!
The heard the advertisement we put on our podcast talking about the new magazine we were launching.
Planning to email our list next. Have built about 5,000 founders on this list from GetLatka.com
Going to see if we can charge $7/mo and still deliver the magazine profitably.
Sales page at: https://nathanlatka.com/magazine
1 Comment
Hmmm, sounds kinda weird. In Pomp's interview published in May 2020 Nathan says the cost per magazine including production and shipping is around 4USD. He claims that magazine is profitable and profit margin is crazy high keeping in mind the price per issue is 29USD. And here we see that it's not even breakeven. Hmm... I wonder what is the truth and current situation.