Re-launching Marketing BS+
And a 50% off forever offer
I launched Marketing BS in April 2019 as a way to build an audience for my book (which is STILL not published… But it is in final line editing now). The original version of this newsletters was one long (~3000-5000 word) essay per week. By the end of 2022 I had expanded that to four piece of content per week: The essay, a briefing (lots of links with commentary), and a two-part podcast with a CMO. I tried moving to a paid model where most of that content sat behind a paywall, with one post per week shared broadly with everyone. I picked up about 100 paying subscribers, for an annual “income” of about $10,000. The cost for the editor for the weekly essay and podcast was over $15,000/year. Clearly I did not have product-market fit.
I paused payments and went back to publishing “when I felt like it” without the pressure of being “always on”. There were sometimes some very long gaps between essays.
More recently I have changed my model again. Now, instead of a lengthy briefing, or a 3000-word essay I am trying to post something daily with “one short takeaway” per post. Usually I find a piece of news I find interesting, I share it with my commentary. It seems to be working. The most common “complaint” I was getting about earlier essays was that they were great, but very long and involved, and that many people were saving them in folders to get to them “someday”.
The new shorter posts are a lot easier for me to write, and feedback is positive. Anecdotally people are engaging with the posts more, they tell me they are reading them, and open rates are up. I have also consolidated my Startup.curated list here on Substack which saves the effort of editing the posts twice. $40/month AI has replaced $15,000/year human editors.
So I am going to try and move back to paid. I will try and keep writing at the same cadence, and, at least for now, alternate between free and paid posts. Free subscribers will now get ~2 posts per week, and those paying the premium will get an additional two posts per week (am going to “guarantee” one, but I expect to deliver two).
I have set the price for premium members to $100/year, $15/month. To celebrate re-launch I am offering 50% off those prices for new subscribers before May 5th (lifetime discount). I am also keeping two offers I experimented with last time:
Lifetime membership: $500 means you pay once and never again for any zero-marginal cost subscription product I create now and in the future (at up to a <$500/year price point)
Company Membership: $500 means you get a membership for everyone with the same company email address. Just send me the list. I will do this for educational institutes as well. If you want to “gift” memberships to every student and faculty member at your alma mater, you can do that
Tomorrow’s post (the first “essay” in a while) will be free as normal. The new “program” goes into effect on Monday (starting with another free post). If you want to get Tuesday’s post (and all future premium posts at 50% off forever), you can do that now:
Thanks for everyone who has supported me over the years, and for all the new subscribers that have come in in the last few months. I hope to keep creating content of value here.
Keep is simple,
Edward