Milestone: My archaeology newsletter just hit 1K subs - next stop, monetization

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32890617

12 21 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

So excited! I'm having a ton of fun with it and growing organically (mostly reddit). Woohoo!

Next stop, monetization. I think I'll make the current format paid, and offer a truncated version to free subs. Pricing this type of thing is really hard, but I'm thinking $8/mo. Would really love feedback/thoughts if any of you have done this type of thing before!

ancientbeat.substack.com

radiojasper3• 4 years ago

Congrats on the 1k subscribers! I personally would feel violated if i subbed to a newsletter and suddenly it was behind a paywall of $8 a month.

Brand New [0] did the same a while back, but for a much much lower price. And they offer their whole website with a massive history and daily updates for $2 a month or $20 a year.

I would personally try to find a sponsor instead of hiding your content that your 1k subscribers signed up for behind a paywall. A sponsor for a newsletter is IMHO a very normal thing.

[0] https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/subscribe

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! I've thought a lot about sponsors and ads, but I don't know where I would find people who want want to sponsor a newsletter on archaeology/ancient news. If you have any ideas, I'm all ears!

radiojasper3• 4 years ago

Museums?

softwaredoug2• 4 years ago

I love your newsletter!

Particularly I love reading the most interesting headlines to the kids at the dinner table. Keep it up!

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Whoa, so awesome that this newsletter is being read around the dinner table to kiddos! Really glad you're liking it :)

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Btw, since you're subscribed already, do you mind me asking what you think about the $8/mo? I'd really value your opinion.

softwaredoug2• 4 years ago

I would think about it for sure.

My comparison point would be a Patreon podcast membership that’s $5 a month for weekly bonus podcasts.

I would do this ASAP if you plan to. As in the “podcast” model you’re getting more than what youre used to receiving for free. Here you’d be restricting free content to something less than people have gotten used to.

asdefghyk• 4 years ago

Why not a survey to ask current subscribers this question?

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

I mentioned it a few issues ago but didn't get any responses about it. Maybe I wasn't explicit enough in my ask. Something to think on - thanks for the feedback!

exolymph• 4 years ago

Congrats, that's awesome! Simon Owens has many articles about this – paywalled, ironically, but worth it IMO, and you could just pay for a month and then cancel. His case studies based on interviews with media entrepreneurs are especially good.

Link: https://simonowens.substack.com/archive?sort=new

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Nice - that's really helpful, thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

cercatrova• 4 years ago

Trends.vc does this, it works very well for them. I think they make mid 5 figures a month. If people want, they can unsubscribe but honestly I doubt most would.

Sponsorship could work, which is why you should add it in addition to, not instead of, a paid newsletter.

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Yeah, I agree, that makes the most sense — paid tier has paid subscriptions, free tier has sponsorships. Thanks for the feedback!

skymer• 4 years ago

What's your barrier to entry that supports charging money? An equivalent list of articles seems like it could be generated in a few hours a week from the content on r/Archaeology. Maybe that could even be automated.

jamesofthedrum11• 4 years ago

Fair question. There are some other newsletters that have links... I don't know of any who summarize the content into bite-sized but reasonably comprehensive snippets. Those summaries, as well as the curation itself, are where the value is IMO. I'm a professional writer and it takes quite a while to put it together each week. Might also be worth nothing that much of what I find never makes it to r/Archaeology (until I post it there in my weekly roundup).

Milestone: My archaeology newsletter just hit 1K subs - next stop, monetization

Related Stories