Since I've gone through this gauntlet as well now in 2022 with my own
subscription newsletter blog and am now cranking it down a notch (for the time being, to get my app out), I thought I'd share some of my findings here for anyone wanting to start one in the new year 2023, and not wanting to
read my 20 min long escapades,
oof.
So here's a 5:48 minute summary of my findings instead.
Note: If you go through the same path yourself, you'll likely come up with conclusions and results that might be totally different from mine. So take these as what they are-- one point of reference.
Although, most of them are actually quite similar to what MTF has noted in this thread above.
1) I've come to realize that subscriptions are not that great of a primary business model. Regardless of how good the content is, people aren't in the mindset of becoming paid subscribers for newsletters so much. Pair that with the flood of newsletters out there. This becomes a very long-term game just to stand out and make 'good money.' I've noticed that most paid subscribers do so because they like the author rather than wanting to read the paywalled content. People
are fine paying for one-off stuff (e.g., pdf, courses, books, etc.) but less so when buying a recurring subscription (as of now). So, this is similar to the Patreon model and more about building fans/trust, which takes time.
I think I read somewhere that some of the top newsletters on Substack have about a 10% rate for paid subs. The average is supposed to be 5%. Mine is currently even lower but slowly creeping up. I made the HUGE mistake of putting my "best" content behind the paywall. That means more than 95% of my readers don't even read it. That's the content that will get you subscribers and shares in the first place. So there's really a chicken and egg problem with the standard approach. The better way to do it is probably to keep all or most of your content free and then have some other paid content or companion products for subscribers. I'm experimenting with different approaches now.
The even better model is probably to start a free
newsletter and sell ad space to sponsors. If you pair this with a referral network (like beehiv), plus paid one-off products, you
can make some money. I've seen some free ones grow quite fast on there. There is a downside to referral systems, however. People share your
newsletter for rewards rather than because they like your content. So you get huge growth but might end up with a not-so-engaged audience and low open rates. This is different from a
productocracy. A
productocracy is organic, where the content is so good that people want to share it themselves and are also highly engaged. That's what we like to aim for over here. Here's one way to do that:
2) Only write about something you are genuinely excited about and want to grow in. It will get too much otherwise and shows in the quality. It's fine to mix things, also. For me, that was a mix of entrepreneurship, creativity, and mindfulness (and now fiction). That's where I wanted to grow the most, so it's more of a lifelong learner type of newsletter, with me also being an end user of the product. MTF did the same with Discomfort Club because he wanted to improve his life. If I wanted to actually make big money with this project, I could have gone with coding, which is something I know quite well and can monetize easily and fast with companion products. But it's starting to interest me less and less now from a technical point (other than creating stuff), and I can't see myself writing about it for a long time. I would have ended up just abandoning that business had I started it. Follow your interests. It will keep you going in the long run. The more interests you can combine, the more fun you'll have and the more unique the product (i.e., relative value).
3) The voice really matters - I've realized that newsletters (of any kind) are very personal. It's kind of like sending an email to a friend, but in bulk (literally). So you have to bring your personality out and let people get to know you. I shied away from this for a long time and then just ended up sounding like the books I was reading. But that's not how I talk in real life, so why am I writing like that? I've started using my voice now and getting much better feedback. MTF does this quite well in his newsletter as well. An example of how to do this well-- take a bunch of your interests/research, combine them with your experience, and then wrap it up in a story. That's unique. It took me 6+ months to get here, and I'm still learning, but I didn't have any writing experience before this, so it might be a faster learning curve for you.
4) Add a feedback widget - I just used the one MTF mentioned earlier in this thread -
FeedLetter. Total game changer. It's super nice to see people commenting, and that other people are actually reading your stuff and getting value out of it. It definitely makes it easier to keep going and improve. Not many people like to leave public comments for some reason, but they are happy to do so anonymously. That's what this widget is. I found this to be way more inspiring for my feedback loop than someone becoming a paid subscriber. If there's one thing I wish I had done sooner, it would be this. Helped me find my voice as well.
5) It's fine to migrate platforms or even change directions. I started on Revue, am now on Substack, and will likely move to beehiv or ghost soon. Just start somewhere and figure things out along the way. I might even end up changing the newsletter title. I added 'Startup' in there because I thought it would be a hit with the Twitter crowd (it wasn't really), but now I've been writing about a bunch of other things, and I don't even really talk about startups in the traditional sense (i.e., huge teams, raising venture capital, not making any money, etc.), so I might end up changing the title as well. If you are building fans, they won't mind, and it's better to have less of the right audience rather than more of the wrong one. One caveat-- create your own URL from the start so any external references stay valid (most newsletter platforms support custom URLs). Even if you change your brand, the old landing page can redirect to the new URL with a message.
6) Keep it as a side hustle / creative hobby, and don't obsess too much over the numbers. It makes it much easier to enjoy the process and focus on quality. This isn't really a great primary business model, as MTF discovered as well. But if you keep going, integrate feedback, and continuously improve, it will
slowly build up into something great, perhaps even a
productocracy someday. And you'll have much more fun in the process.
If you are wondering whether it's worth getting into and starting one from scratch. I'd say go for it and try it out for yourself. There's not much money here, but it might just change your life (Or, if nothing else, it will definitely make you a better writer)
Hope this helps.
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And now, as a corollary to everything above — If you do, on the other hand, want to go all in and make some money fast using this model, here's another way —
Take something you know deeply about. The more focused/niche, the better. Hire a bunch of writers and get them to write the content at a high frequency. You act as the director of the whole movie. Build a social media personality for yourself as the founder. Scale using google+fb ads, social media, newsletter sponsorships (swapstack, paved), billboards even. Keep the newsletter free and charge for ad space yourself and companion products (digital or physical). Integrate a referral system (sparkloop, beehiv) for explosive growth. Give people rewards (digital or physical, the more, the better) as incentives to grow. Launch your newsletter on product hunt and other aggregators and get your readers to upvote it. Build your own community, or even better, host a conference and sell merch. Keep going for a few years and then exit. That's how you end up with something like 'The Hustle.' But that's a multi-million dollar media/drop-shipping business, not a peaceful long-term one-person writing hobby that also happens to generate revenue.
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Or, you can always find your own middle ground. It's up to you.
