What would happen if you turned the prevalent practice in your market on its head?
Everyone has a blog offering free content, so instead you start a paid newsletter. Drop.io founder Sam Lessin is now giving you that opportunity with Letter.ly, a simple way to sell email subscription newsletters.
Would people pay for your content?
How it works
You create a free Letter.ly seller account, name it to receive a unique Letter.ly URL and set a price per month. You can also connect your Facebook account to post the subject lines of their letters as status updates, or a Twitter account to tweet them.People can subscribe to the email newsletter at the associated URL and pay through Amazon. You choose the frequency of publication, and interact with readers by email. As part of the account set up, you can also give away free subscriptions.
The process to cash out your earnings through Amazon is reportedly quite simple.
Is it for you?
I'm reminded that Barbara Corcoran started with a simple newsletter, which she made super useful, and got her started in real estate.
A paid newsletter would put you on the spot to deliver value. It would also make readers accountable for wanting to pull your content -- after all, they'd vote with their wallets. I rather like the idea. More paid newsletters would help do away with the multitude of free subscriptions few read, whether they're voluntary, or volunteered.
If you've been thinking about testing some form of paid subscription, you may want to take a closer look at this new tool. Apparently, there are already more than 500 paid Letter.ly newsletters. Think beyond making your product or service information compelling.
Think about developing a must read that provides context to the industry, or exclusive news. How else would this tool be used?
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