For me, the content producer would need to have something unique to offer, unique knowledge, content, delivery skills, training techniques, outcomes. That's a high bar. Universities from around the world are already years ahead, with free online course content on every topic imaginable, quality content delivered by qualified people. . I'm doing a couple of Harvard courses now. Zero dollars, unless I want a certificate at the end, which is low cost for those who like to have the piece of paper. I feel a bit sad for anyone paying to learn something that's freely available to them from qualified specialists and qualified teachers. People who pay for training from someone they 'like' decide based on something other than learning. Obviously, paid training continues to be very lucrative for content producers with large followings. It will continue to baffle me why people pay, even though I understand they're paying for something intangible, and paying willingly. You can't stop people acting on emotion or gullibility.
I think creators are getting better at having a few diversified streams of revenue. Counting on just paid subscriptions for the majority of the 17,000 substack paid writers isn't feasible.
I can bootstrap for a couple of years with the new newsletter with the chances of it ever paying me back are probably slim.
Truth be told, sponsored ads are probably better on networks with improved referral systems during those critical first two years where this size and paid subscriptions are correlated with each other.
I made $10k+ on a SEO playbook I did in late 2021. I don't have a huge audience and it was easier to bang it out once & then forget it. I don't really think I did a great job promoting it -- no complex email sequences or anything like that. Just LI posts.
I've always looked at the "1000 true fans" as just one of the ways writers can make money. If you put all of your eggs into the 1000 true fans basket, you'll probably be disappointed. But if you look at it as just one way for a writer to make money (and aren't glued to that $100/year per fan amount), it can be successful.
And what you say about recurring payments is so true. A lot of people just don't want to take that leap, or they let their subscriptions run out, subscription burnout, etc. It's one of the reasons (of many) I left Substack. No one-time payment option or flexibility with payments.
I swear this isn't a plug, heh, just good timing reading this just a month after I announced what I'm doing instead:
For me, the content producer would need to have something unique to offer, unique knowledge, content, delivery skills, training techniques, outcomes. That's a high bar. Universities from around the world are already years ahead, with free online course content on every topic imaginable, quality content delivered by qualified people. . I'm doing a couple of Harvard courses now. Zero dollars, unless I want a certificate at the end, which is low cost for those who like to have the piece of paper. I feel a bit sad for anyone paying to learn something that's freely available to them from qualified specialists and qualified teachers. People who pay for training from someone they 'like' decide based on something other than learning. Obviously, paid training continues to be very lucrative for content producers with large followings. It will continue to baffle me why people pay, even though I understand they're paying for something intangible, and paying willingly. You can't stop people acting on emotion or gullibility.
I think creators are getting better at having a few diversified streams of revenue. Counting on just paid subscriptions for the majority of the 17,000 substack paid writers isn't feasible.
I can bootstrap for a couple of years with the new newsletter with the chances of it ever paying me back are probably slim.
Truth be told, sponsored ads are probably better on networks with improved referral systems during those critical first two years where this size and paid subscriptions are correlated with each other.
I made $10k+ on a SEO playbook I did in late 2021. I don't have a huge audience and it was easier to bang it out once & then forget it. I don't really think I did a great job promoting it -- no complex email sequences or anything like that. Just LI posts.
I've always looked at the "1000 true fans" as just one of the ways writers can make money. If you put all of your eggs into the 1000 true fans basket, you'll probably be disappointed. But if you look at it as just one way for a writer to make money (and aren't glued to that $100/year per fan amount), it can be successful.
And what you say about recurring payments is so true. A lot of people just don't want to take that leap, or they let their subscriptions run out, subscription burnout, etc. It's one of the reasons (of many) I left Substack. No one-time payment option or flexibility with payments.
I swear this isn't a plug, heh, just good timing reading this just a month after I announced what I'm doing instead:
https://sassone.wordpress.com/2023/03/02/passing-fast-remarks/