This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Welcome to Cynessal School. Chris Guillebeau, your host here. We recently had a question from a listener who had a blog or website, Unsustainable Living. They were trying to figure out how to introduce ads, like advertising, you know, to that blog. Today we've got a similar question, similar situation, but this person has a membership model.
Wait a second, it's the other way around. The blog currently relies on ad revenue, but she's contemplating introducing a membership model for exclusive content. So this is Hannah from Missoula. Hannah's concern is how do you do both, or can you in fact do both? Like can you have ads and a paid subscription model without alienating the audience?
You know, your audience is like, hey, I'm paying for this subscription, why are there ads here? But as I'm gonna explain, lots of businesses do this. Lots of content companies, very large content companies that you probably have subscribed to, or at least you have consumed content from, they do this. So you just have to think about what is the overall strategy. You can in fact manage these dual revenue streams effectively.
And of course getting paid twice is better than getting paid once, right? That's what I wanna help you with this year, growing your business, diversifying your income. So let's talk about Hannah's question, balancing ads and membership models, coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hey, my name's Hannah, and I'm reaching out from Missoula, Montana. I run a wellness blog that's grown significantly over the past year.
Currently ad revenue is my main income source, but I'm thinking of introducing a membership tier for exclusive content. I'm worried though that combining ads with a subscription model might push my readers away. How can I balance these revenue streams without alienating my audience? And what are some successful examples of this dual approach? [Music]
All right, I've got some great news for Hannah and anybody else out there who is interested in doing more than one revenue source with a blog website, YouTube channel, podcasts, et cetera.
The good news is this is a very common business model. Like no one minds that there is more than one way for you to make money. In fact, there is a well established, well trodden path. Well trod, well trodden, let's just go with it. A common path that a lot of businesses have followed.
Let's talk about some big businesses here. The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired Magazine, Business Insider Prime, National Geographic, Cook's Illustrated. I just kind of ran through a whole bunch of there. All of them in different ways offer free news content or other content supported by ads, but they also encourage gently or otherwise readers to support them through various membership tiers. So, there's a way to be a free subscriber, have certain access, but if you want to have more access, you need to pay for it.
In some cases, you can pay to have a no ad version. In other cases, there's still some limited ads. It's more just like you can access the content, but there will also be ads. So, as I said, well established, no need to worry about doing something that nobody else has done. It just comes down to communication and delivering value.
As long as you are communicating clearly with your readers, your followers, subscribers, and mostly as long as you are delivering value, then anything else is possible, right? No one's going to disappear, or at least very few people will, just because you have introduced either a membership model or an advertising model. So, make sure your value proposition is clear. Segment your content wisely. Keep a balance between the free and the paid content, if that's the direction you're going.
Do anything you can to reward your loyal readers, your most loyal followers. Give them a discount, give them bonus content, go above and beyond, and just kind of keep an eye on things as it goes, right? If you see a dip one way or another, an engagement or an increase in the bounce rates, just be ready to adjust your strategy. Could mean tweaking the ratio of free to premium content or adjusting the types of ads or number of ads. All of these things are possible.
You are on the right track. Good luck. I'm cheering you on as always. Listeners, cheering you on too. New episode every day.
This has been episode 2,614 of Side Hustle School. More coming up tomorrow. It's always free. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Once again, you're listening to Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
