3 ms·

I quit my job to run a developer newsletter full time. Now it makes $3k/mo

robesrobes 8y ago
Yooooo! Founder/newsletterer/~curator~ here - happy to talk this through, answer questions etc! With the caveat that I live in Melbourne, Australia so I may not be around immediately. Thanks!
- sireat 8y ago
  Good to see that you made a success of the newsletter. Your newsletter was one of the few that I tried to read at least weekly. That said I did not subscribe despite enjoying the free subscription: The value proposition was not there in my personal case: * I get dozens of newsletters in my inbox daily, so paying for one would feel really weird, I'd almost feel forced to read it daily. * Your curated content while generally of high quality also has their own ads/promotions, so it is like paying for Netflix and getting broadcast TV commercials. Happens when you pay for cable. * big overlap with HN and appropriate subreddits, I was getting maybe 20-30% new content. Psychologically the biggest aversion to paying was because it was a heavy upsell from a formerly free product. I've seen free -> paid conversions happen to many online services over some 20+ years and it always feels a bit of a deception. I thought that Versioning was a completely SitePoint owned product and that normal cross-sells with their affiliate web hosts would ensure that you the curator would get paid appropriately. By comparison I binge buy Udemy courses on their never ending sales because the value proposition feels higher.
  - robesrobes 8y ago
    Ah thanks for the feedback. I understand the free->paid aversion, espec with an emerging product type like paid newsletters. It’s always hard when these monetisation models change. Hopefully the paid model will give me the ability to add even more value without ads, via additional curated content like deeper dives into relevant subjects, plus some original content. Still early days but going well so far. But I’m glad you enjoyed the newsletter - worth saying you can still sign up (or stay signed up, in your case) for occasional free updates. Thanks!

Yooooo! Founder/newsletterer/~curator~ here - happy to talk this through, answer questions etc! With the caveat that I live in Melbourne, Australia so I may not be around immediately. Thanks!

sireat 8y ago
Good to see that you made a success of the newsletter. Your newsletter was one of the few that I tried to read at least weekly. That said I did not subscribe despite enjoying the free subscription: The value proposition was not there in my personal case: * I get dozens of newsletters in my inbox daily, so paying for one would feel really weird, I'd almost feel forced to read it daily. * Your curated content while generally of high quality also has their own ads/promotions, so it is like paying for Netflix and getting broadcast TV commercials. Happens when you pay for cable. * big overlap with HN and appropriate subreddits, I was getting maybe 20-30% new content. Psychologically the biggest aversion to paying was because it was a heavy upsell from a formerly free product. I've seen free -> paid conversions happen to many online services over some 20+ years and it always feels a bit of a deception. I thought that Versioning was a completely SitePoint owned product and that normal cross-sells with their affiliate web hosts would ensure that you the curator would get paid appropriately. By comparison I binge buy Udemy courses on their never ending sales because the value proposition feels higher.
- robesrobes 8y ago
  Ah thanks for the feedback. I understand the free->paid aversion, espec with an emerging product type like paid newsletters. It’s always hard when these monetisation models change. Hopefully the paid model will give me the ability to add even more value without ads, via additional curated content like deeper dives into relevant subjects, plus some original content. Still early days but going well so far. But I’m glad you enjoyed the newsletter - worth saying you can still sign up (or stay signed up, in your case) for occasional free updates. Thanks!