How would people feel about me setting up paid subscriptions?
Hi all, I’m considering setting up paid subscriptions for people who want to support the blog.
I put 40 hours a month into this blog, easily, it’s a part time job at the least. Many people would need a full time job to write as much as I write here. However because I write about things I’m extremely passionate about, it’s hard for me to stomach not trying to get it to the biggest audience possible, hence thus far it hasn’t been possible for me to charge. “Everything I write must be available to everyone to read” is quite egocentric, I’ll admit, but that’s the predicament I’m in.
So for a long time I resisted the idea of setting up subscriptions till I learnt that some creators have successfully asked for money as a kind of donation despite not offering extra content.
If I turned on subscriptions, no extra content would be provided to subscribers, although there’s a small chance, if I started earning a lot of money and had time to regularly write things that were lower stakes, that might become possible.
What should the price point be, given that it’s on a donations only basis? Would anyone feel offended? Would a members only open-thread be apropos?
What would be the revenue maximizing price?
Any thoughts?
There is no definitive answer to this. Your audience is different to anyone else's. I think more people generally are now willing to pay for quality content, but how many of your audience fall into this category? The only way to find out is to set up paid subscriptions and see. Make sure you inform your readership of what you are doing and why.
Another consideration is maybe you can reward paid subscribers with something extra. In my case I am about to set up a paid and free alternative. Everyone gets to read all the content. Paid subscribers get to be featured on my separate website. This might work for me as many of my readers are in associated industry. Try to think laterally about this for your niche. Maybe just an honour roll of supporters published say annually.
I'd be happy to give some amount up to around $5/month, but probably not more than that. I'm happy with a plan that doesn't have any extra content for subscribers (and personally prefer that, though I understand when authors prioritize income over sharing content widely).