Comments on: Why I am Switching to a Paid Email Newsletter

By: David1860

David1860 — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:17:14 +0000

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By: amanda peyton

amanda peyton — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:04:07 +0000

I think his following is so rabid and his content is so good that he'd have a fairly decent conversion. It wouldnt be the 400,000 subscribers he currently has, but I think eyeballs is more important to his strategy than money.

Yes, content is difficult because it's so easily to duplicate.

By: amanda peyton

amanda peyton — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:01:11 +0000

This experiment has been totally fascinating – and more instructive than any paid vs. free content debate I've read (and believe me, it has been a lot). I guess I just got sick of the whole “largest megaphone = power” rule and wanted to explore what else was out there.

By: dherman76

dherman76 — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:18:48 +0000

Amanda, first time caller, long time subscriber.

I've been watching this trend closely. I even wrote about it here (with great debate in the comments): http://drrn.me/aoKsZd

Are you finding that the comments you are receiving back from people are wroth the paywall?

Darren

By: Nathaniel Whittemore

Nathaniel Whittemore — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:42:41 +0000

I'm in, both for yours and to try it myself. Fuck you better perform though, because if yours is shit I'm going to write about it.

By: gmbh news

gmbh news — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:56:41 +0000

wish you good luck on this way, it sounds very ambitiouas but as you said, 9000 subscribers is probably as much work as 3M PV.

By: Kevin Morrill

Kevin Morrill — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:43:48 +0000

Analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester are examples too. I think it would be interesting if more journalism was at or above that caliber of production value. Sadly most of it is recycling press releases and news conferences with little thought. Imagine if there was a newspaper so illuminating and relevant that you were willing to pay $1,000 or more a year to subscribe to.

By: Kevin Morrill

Kevin Morrill — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:39:20 +0000

Why you would hate admitting you're a capitalist? Producing a value that you trade for money deserves pride, not shame.

By: lessin

lessin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:15:57 +0000

amanda — love the perspective… and to ilamont, totally with you, but my view is that if someone else is writing something that is a substitute for your analysis, as a non-professional writer why are you writing in the first place?

generally, if ideas / analysis are unique, they are worth paying for — and if they aren't they they are not worth paying for… but also not worth writing

By: ilamont

ilamont — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:11:06 +0000

The tough thing about paid content on the Web (or via email) is that there are so many free substitutes out there. Gruber is good, but there are a lot of other analysts/pundits who write about Apple on a regular basis, and don't charge for it. I think it would be difficult for him to switch to a paid model. Sponsorship can be tough, too, considering the audience he attracts.

That said, there are exceptional blogs and online publications which have managed to make a paid content model work. If it's something that gives people a financial edge (such as Footnoted.com's freemium service), or is truly a niche that no one else can easily duplicate, I believe there will an opportunity to get people to pay for it.

Good luck with your experiment.