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Free newsletter vs. Pay newsletters

by Chris Ramsey
6 replies
Something I'd like to test once I get a decent PPC campaign up and running. You might have tested it before though, so if you have, I'd like to know your results.

People often assume that free = crap. So what if you charged a nominal one-time fee to join your newsletter. Let's say between $1-$7? Let's also imagine that you've got a great squeeze page to go along with it.

I think you might get more qualified subscribers willing to buy what you are selling if you sell them on this first tiny investment. The subscriber rate may be lower, but you'll for sure have buyers on the list.

If you've tried this out, what were your results?
#free #newsletter #newsletters #pay
  • Profile picture of the author Chuck Evans
    I have not personally tried the "paid newsletter" but know someone that was in the tech industry and their newsletter was $197.00 per year. It generated around 2.5M in revenue annually...enough to pay for the majority of their marketing!

    chuck
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Ramsey
    Nice!

    This is definitely something I will want to split test once I get the hang of some PPC techniques to pull in some traffic then.
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    • Profile picture of the author angela99
      I offered a paid monthly newsletter for copywriters way back in 2003. It's so long ago I can't even remember what I charged -- the tape backup with that material choked and died. (NEVER trust a single backup.)

      Whatever I charged, it was too low -- I was providing 30 pages per month of top-quality information: guides and how tos.

      Hmmm... might be time to offer something similar again.

      Thanks for the idea -- I'll add it to my ever-growing New Products list for 2009.

      Quote from scheda: "People often assume that free = crap. So what if you charged a nominal one-time fee to join your newsletter. Let's say between $1-$7? Let's also imagine that you've got a great squeeze page to go along with it."

      This is way too low if you're providing top quality information people could get nowhere else, and which provided wonderful value.

      For my copywriting newsletter, I'd be looking at $49 a month; $490 if they signed up for the full year.

      Research it; see how you go.

      Good luck with it. :-)

      Cheers

      Angela
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      Everyone's a writer today. Get personal guidance from Angela.
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      • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
        You may have a hard life trying to get a decent number of subscribers ... in case you're not a known authority in a certain field. There are too many free newsletters out there and people know it.

        Originally Posted by angela99 View Post

        "Let's say between $1-$7? Let's also imagine that you've got a great squeeze page to go along with it."

        This is way too low if you're providing top quality information people could get nowhere else, and which provided wonderful value.

        For my copywriting newsletter, I'd be looking at $49 a month; $490 if they signed up for the full year.
        I don't fully agree with you.

        There are original works (books) written by famous writers that are sold for less than $20. Does this mean that the publishing houses don't know to market the books?

        There are newspapers that provide original content and they are sold for a few bucks or less.

        The money comes from the volume, not from the high price.

        Money coming from the volume is of course one marketing strategy. There is also the other one where the money is coming from the high prices.

        Originally Posted by angela99 View Post

        Research it; see how you go.
        That's right. Without testing you never know for sure. You can only make assumptions that may be right ... or wrong. Only the market can tell you the truth.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Ramsey
        Originally Posted by angela99 View Post

        This is way too low if you're providing top quality information people could get nowhere else, and which provided wonderful value.
        Well, my original idea is to have a standard newsletter with a very minimal up front fee. I think this would be a great way to qualify people who will become buyers of the larger products you are selling. A newsletter could be a great product in-and-of itself, but I was thinking of charging for the standard newsletter.

        I didn't think of having a newsletter as a big product though. I do like that idea, but it sounds like an awful lot of work to consistently, possibly daily, provide extremely high quality content. What I'm looking to do is much more automated than that. It's a great idea though!
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  • Profile picture of the author patfl
    You better give rich content, if not, a lot of people are gonna unsubscribe... or to keep them coming you'll have to invest a lot of money in advertisement.

    Most of the newsletter in this industry are free and are paid by promotion of affiliate products.

    Patrice
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