How Android Intelligence built a thriving paid membership

When JR Raphael launched his Android Intelligence newsletter in 2018, it was mainly a roundup of news meant to complement his Computerworld column of the same name. But as the newsletter amassed an audience, it began to take on a life of its own, so much so that JR eventually built a thriving paid membership that now provides the bulk of his income.

In a recent interview, JR walked through every aspect of his membership strategy, including why he lets in new members only a few times a year, how he built a thriving community forum where members interact with each other, how he reduces churn, and why he decided to launch two new newsletters focused on Windows and internet tools:

Part of what makes the whole paid community thing work is the fact that it is a small, tight-knit group. And it does exist without us. I mean, I can be away for the weekend and the community keeps going, which is awesome. But there's no denying a lot of appeal comes down to the voice of the writer being there. And so having it be a little more limited in size helps make sure that we can maintain that more intimate, interactive environment. If we suddenly had hundreds of thousands of people signing up, that'd be delightful. I would invite that problem. But it would really change the nature of the community if hordes and hordes of people were coming in every week and it lost that sort of intimate connection. Because that's what makes it special. The interaction and the access is what makes it more than just what any other place could offer.

Watch our interview in the video embedded below: