Paid Newsletters: Million-Dollar Newsletters, Smart Paywalls, Freemium

“A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.” – Ramsay Leimenstoll

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❓ What You’ll Learn

• How to build reader habits?
• How to build a moat?
• What are examples of local newsletters?
• How many subscribers do you need?
• What are smart paywalls?
• How to get your first 100 subscribers?
  
  

💎 Why It Matters

People are willing to pay for quality content.

🔍 Problem

Paid newsletters help writers serve niche audiences.

Writing for their readers. Not sponsors.

💡 Solution

Paid newsletters help writers serve niche audiences.

Writing for their readers. Not sponsors.

🏁 Players

Paid Newsletters

• Trends.vc • Discover new business markets and ideas
• Rosieland • Learn how to build and grow communities
• Exploding Topics • Get market and startup trends
• The Browser • Daily writings on art, politics, science, history and more
• The Information • In-depth tech stories and news
• SHERO • News and events about issues facing women
• Scott’s Cheap Flights • Get cheap flight deals

Paid Newsletter Tools

• Rewardful • Start affiliate and referral programs with Stripe and Paddle
• Buy Me a Coffee • Accept donations, sell memberships and share exclusive content
• FeedLetter • Anonymous and instant feedback tool for newsletters and websites
• Grammarly • Correct and edit grammar mistakes and typos
• Memberful • Membership software for independent creators, publishers, educators and more
• MemberSpace • Turn any parts of your website in member-only areas

Paid Newsletter Platforms

• Gumroad • Payment processor with built-in newsletter tools
• MailerLite • Digital marketing tools designed for revenue and growth
• Ghost • Open source digital publishing platform with built-in paid newsletters
• Kajabi • Membership management automation tools
• Patreon • Membership-based website for content creators
  
  

🔮 Predictions

• We’ll see more local paid newsletters. Raising awareness of local social, political and economic issues.
  • City Hall Watcher covers Toronto City Council news.
  • The Daily Line covers Springfield and Chicago news.
  • The New Tropic is a paid newsletter covering Miami news.
  • Importantville writes about Indiana’s business and politics.
  • Local Authority covers Medway’s news, politics and culture.
  • The Mill is a paid newsletter for Greater Manchester’s residents.
  • The Goldenrod was a paid newsletter covering Kentucky’s news.
  • Axios launched paid memberships for Axios Local such as this one for Denver.
  • The Charlotte Ledger has 4 free and premium newsletters for Charlotte’s residents.
  • The Dog and Pony Show covers news and gossip on Tennessee’s events and politics.

• More journalists will start their own paid newsletters. Looking for editorial freedom and closer relationships with the readers.
  • Richard Rushfield is a former editor at HitFix who launched The Ankler.
  • Polina Marinova is a former editor at Fortune who launched The Profile.
  • Matthew Yglesias is a former journalist at Vox who launched Slow Boring.
  • Emily Atkin is a former writer at The New Republic who launched HEATED.
  • Alex Kantrowitz is a former reporter at BuzzFeed who launched Big Technology.
  • Matt Taibbi is a former author at Rolling Stone who launched TK News by Matt Taibbi.
  • Bari Weiss is a former journalist at The New York Times who launched Common Sense.
  • Bill Bishop is a former author at Axios and The New York Times who launched Sinocism.
  • Judd Legum is a former editor-in-chief at ThinkProgress who launched Popular Information.
  • Andrew Sullivan is a former journalist at The New York Times who launched The Weekly Dish.
  • Stephen Hayes is a former editor-in-chief at The Weekly Standard who launched The Dispatch.
  • Luke O’Neil is a former journalist at The Boston Globe who launched Welcome to Hell World which grew to $50,000 ARR.

• We’ll see new types of newsletters with unique formats.
  • GrowthList sends quality B2B sales leads.
  • Flow State sends 2 hours of music for work.
  • Drawing Links sends short illustrated stories.
  • Death to Stock sends stock photos and videos.
  • For The Record sends songs, beats, videos and more.
  • Daily Coding Problem sends coding problems and solutions.
  • What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking sends food recipes.
    
    

☁️ Opportunities

• Pick a niche. Cater to readers with long-tail interests.
  • Letters of Note shares the best letters in history.
  • Garbage Day shares fun things found on the internet.
  • The Half Marathoner shares insights on how to become a better runner.
  • Power Plays shares reports, interviews and analyses about sexism in sports.
  • Cleaning The Glass shares how NBA coaches and executives make their decisions.
  • The Food Section shares reports, reviews and analyses on the food-and-beverage industry and dining culture across the American South.

• Set a schedule you can stick to. Build consistent reader habits and anticipation.
  • Platformer has a public posting schedule.
  • ParentData sends bonus issues on Friday.
  • Austin Kleon sends paid issues on Tuesday and free issues on Friday.
  • The Warning sends daily subscriber-only issues as a bonus to occasional free posts.
  • Linas’s Newsletter sends daily issues on finance and tech in addition to occasional free issues.
  • Hot Pod sends 2 paid issues on Thursday and Friday as a bonus to their free Tuesday issues.
  • The Pragmatic Engineer sends paid issues every Tuesday and Thursday in addition to their free monthly newsletter.

• Build communities for your readers. Content is a magnet. Community is a moat.
  • Corbett Barr is planning to launch a private community with live office hours in 2023.
  • Trends.vc has Trends PRO, a private community of successful founders.
  • Degen Code has a Discord community for automated crypto bot builders.
  • Lenny Rachitsky has a private Slack community for Lenny’s Newsletter.
  • Rosieland has a Rosieland — Community Builders space on Twitter.
  • Bankless has a community of crypto enthusiasts and professionals.
  • Internet Princess has a private community of paid subscribers.
  • Culture Study has a Culture Study Discord community.

• Add unique offers such as office hours, online courses and merch.
  • Exponential View has exclusive commentary and weekly charts.
  • Invincible Career® has office hours, podcasts and course bundles.
  • A Media Operator has member-only events and 1-hour consulting calls.
  • The Glenn Meder Newsletter has webinars and upcoming book previews.
  • Puck has live interviews, exclusive podcasts, live calls, in-person meetings and merch.
  • The Defiant has a premium newsletter DeFi Alpha, unreleased issues, exclusive interviews and community.
    
    

🏔️ Risks

• Key-Person Risk • Readers subscribe for your unique perspective. They will be disappointed if you can no longer deliver the value you promised.
• Piracy • People can copy or share your paid content for free.
• Burnout • A lot of newsletters are run by solo authors. Juggling research, writing, editing, publishing and more.
  
  

🔑 Key Lessons

• Your content archive is a marketing asset. It’s good for SEO. Trends #0014 — Paid Communities ranks #1 for ‘paid communities‘ on Google.
• Small, supportive audiences power niche newsletters. You don’t need thousands of supporters. 1,000 or 100 true fans will do.
• Paid newsletters open doors to new opportunities. Dan Runcie founded Trapital. Which led to Trapital strategy services.
  
  

🔥 Hot Takes

• Paid newsletters will use smart paywalls. The Globe and Mail built Sophi, an AI-powered paywall engine. Which uses data to gate certain content or show it for free.
• Paid newsletters will get grants for future growth. Føljeton received a $680,000 grant from the Danish government and undisclosed amounts from private sources.
• Paid newsletter platforms will offer additional services. Substack offers writing, tech and legal support for independent writers.
  
  

😠 Haters

“What about newsletter fatigue?”
You underestimate the scale of the internet. Which is full of niches in which you can succeed. There are 51,000,000 Youtube channels. Have you heard of “YouTube fatigue”? Subscription fatigue is overrated.

”You told me to write for readers, not sponsors. Then you told me to run ads in the free version.”
Sponsorships and direct support models have misaligned incentives. But we shared a lot of successful examples using both business models.

“I need a large following to succeed with a paid newsletter.”
What’s your definition of success? There are paid newsletters with hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of paid subscribers. Abigail Koffler grew This Needs Hot Sauce to hundreds of paid subscribers from scratch. Terry Godier shut down “Conversion Gold” with 18,000 subscribers.

“I can only monetize a fraction of my audience.”
Yes, the average free-to-paid subscriber ratio is 5-10%. It’s a matter of incentives. Do you want to write for sponsors or readers?

“Going paid limits growth. Not everybody is willing to pay.”
Try freemium. Where paid subscribers subsidize content for free readers. Lenny Rachitsky moved to a paid newsletter and grew from 8,000 to 58,000 subscribers in 1 year.

“Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi have teams. These are not one-person paid newsletters.”
They do now. Both started as one-person, paid newsletters. Then built teams to ramp up their publishing cadence and improve research, writing and editing.

🔗 Links

1. Looking for examples of paid newsletters • The tweet behind this report. 
2. Getting Your First 100 Signups • Quick tips on how to get 100 first subscribers.
3. How To Get Newsletter Subscribers • Collection of the most valuable advice on how to get newsletter subscribers by Josh Spector.
   
   

📁 Related Reports

• Freemium • Let readers get a taste of your writing
• Audience-First Products • Paid newsletters are audience-first products
• Build in Public • How to build a paid newsletter in public
• Paid Communities • How to build, grow and monetize communities for your subscribers
• Digital Products • Paid newsletters are digital products
  
  

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Uwe Dreissigacker, David Klingbeil, Soma Mandal, Victor Park, Tom Maciejewski, Krish, Swapnil Puranik, Ralph Quintero, Stewart Townsend, Maciej Cupial, Richard Reis and Felipe Collins. We had a great time jamming on this report.

✏️ Emin researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.

📈 What else?

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What you’ll get:

• 37 Paid Newsletters (429% More)
• 27 Paid Newsletter Tools (350% More)
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• 13 Predictions (334% More)
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• 6 Risks (100% More)
• 9 Key Lessons (200% More)
• 8 Hot Takes (167% More)
• 10 Links (233% More)

With Trends Pro you’ll learn: 

• (📈 Pro) What are token-gated paid newsletters?
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• (📈 Pro) How to build strong bonds with readers?
• (📈 Pro) How to gain lifelong subscribers?
• (📈 Pro) How to monetize free subscribers?
• (📈 Pro) How to increase your conversion rate?
• (📈 Pro) How to diversify your revenue?
• (📈 Pro) How to lower platform risk?
• (📈 Pro) How to get readers to share your content?
• (📈 Pro) How to build your top-of-funnel?
• (📈 Pro) How to price your paid newsletter?
• (📈 Pro) What are interactive paid newsletters?
• (📈 Pro) What are newsletter fellowships?
• (📈 Pro) How to grow your paid newsletter?
• (📈 Pro) How to build a referral program?
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• And much more…

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