Paid newsletters are a slower, steadier business

A product launch is a spike. A paid newsletter is a floor. Most creators who earn a living from a link page have one of each.

Grow the free tier first

The free list is the thing that converts. Creators who opened paid tiers with fewer than a thousand free subscribers mostly closed them again inside six months.

Publish free for long enough that a reader can tell what they would be paying for. Three months is a reasonable floor.

Price it once and leave it alone

Monthly prices between five and nine convert similarly, so pick one and stop thinking about it. Offer an annual option and roughly a third of subscribers will take it.

Churn is normal. Watch the trend over a quarter, not the number this week.

Export your list every month. Your subscribers are the asset, and they should never live in one place only.