I always knew you'd be a success Simon, Your writing tone was always so natural. A bit like The Rebooting guy, a voice I could come back to without any worries, regrets or inhibitions. I actually wish I could afford to join your live events.
You know it's a good newsletter when you ponder the topic during the week in your free time or spontaneously.
You have certainly built solid foundations with the live event and the ads diversifying your revenue. My biggest takeaway essentially from my first year was that paid subs alone scaled too slowly. Have you considered a pallet? Those media jobs could use your support.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve been thinking about a lot of the same ideas and it was helpful to hear how you’ve been thinking about everything!
"The math here is pretty simple: when I set my current prices, I had 4,000 subscribers to my newsletter. Now I have over 8,000."
So, I thought this might suggest that you have a revenue of $400000 by the time of writing this article. However, a few other parts of the article suggested strongly enough that you aren't making nearly that much, and this figure of 8,000 refers to free subscriptions.
Just about nobody makes decent money with this model, though everyone who tries thinks somebody must.
Thanks for taking me into the boiler room. I’ve been kicking around starting a Substack and these details are hugely helpful, particularly when it comes to managing expectations. Will take advantage of the current rate to subscribe today.
Thank you for this transparency and honest reflection, it’s so helpful!
From the ad page - I am curious how you know where your subscribers work? Did you survey them? I like the simplicity of subscribing to Substack, but I wish I had more demographic info on my subscribers. Thanks!
This is encouraging! I started a Substack about best practices for streaming audio and video a few months ago, and subscriber growth has been slow.
I’m still feeling my way around and really like the platform, so I’m hoping SEO around the apps I’m covering will lead to more mentions in similar newsletters.
Great article, agree with all. NOTE: Twitter should now allow links to other social media (just a 24hr-ish policy, like most of the gut reaction randomness going on....).
This is a GREAT article, Simon. Thanks for sharing so much detail. And congratulations on raising your subscription price - it’s been crazy cheap relative to the value you deliver. Re your proposed new annual price of $100, did you consider experimenting with numbers like $99 or $95?
I always knew you'd be a success Simon, Your writing tone was always so natural. A bit like The Rebooting guy, a voice I could come back to without any worries, regrets or inhibitions. I actually wish I could afford to join your live events.
You know it's a good newsletter when you ponder the topic during the week in your free time or spontaneously.
You have certainly built solid foundations with the live event and the ads diversifying your revenue. My biggest takeaway essentially from my first year was that paid subs alone scaled too slowly. Have you considered a pallet? Those media jobs could use your support.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve been thinking about a lot of the same ideas and it was helpful to hear how you’ve been thinking about everything!
Congratulations on your newsletter's growth Simon. Just upgraded to paid. Happy new year.
"The math here is pretty simple: when I set my current prices, I had 4,000 subscribers to my newsletter. Now I have over 8,000."
So, I thought this might suggest that you have a revenue of $400000 by the time of writing this article. However, a few other parts of the article suggested strongly enough that you aren't making nearly that much, and this figure of 8,000 refers to free subscriptions.
Just about nobody makes decent money with this model, though everyone who tries thinks somebody must.
Have you considered making the podcast a premium offering? Seems like some natural synergy with the live office hours / webinars
If you're looking for some topics to cover, doing overviews/history of some of the biggest pubs would be interesting
Thanks for taking me into the boiler room. I’ve been kicking around starting a Substack and these details are hugely helpful, particularly when it comes to managing expectations. Will take advantage of the current rate to subscribe today.
Thank you for this transparency and honest reflection, it’s so helpful!
From the ad page - I am curious how you know where your subscribers work? Did you survey them? I like the simplicity of subscribing to Substack, but I wish I had more demographic info on my subscribers. Thanks!
This is encouraging! I started a Substack about best practices for streaming audio and video a few months ago, and subscriber growth has been slow.
I’m still feeling my way around and really like the platform, so I’m hoping SEO around the apps I’m covering will lead to more mentions in similar newsletters.
Great article, agree with all. NOTE: Twitter should now allow links to other social media (just a 24hr-ish policy, like most of the gut reaction randomness going on....).
This is a GREAT article, Simon. Thanks for sharing so much detail. And congratulations on raising your subscription price - it’s been crazy cheap relative to the value you deliver. Re your proposed new annual price of $100, did you consider experimenting with numbers like $99 or $95?
Your ideas for 2023 sound very well thought out. Happy Holidays!