How *exactly* to go reader-funded

Can you really make a living from readers paying you?

I’m getting a healthy level of skepticism about how much you can make from your readerbase. When I was at the ONA conference a couple weeks ago, three different journalists told me they thought I was overselling the cashflow.

But they probably hadn’t given it a real shot.

It’s not enough to just flip on paid subscriptions. You’ve got to learn the reader-funded game. I see it as the most rewarding revenue game to play.

A whole lot better than having cocktails in a dark bar with a stodgy old “philanthropist” or worse—selling out to private equity. Oh wait, it’s the same dudes!

So that’s what this issue is about. How to go big with your reader-funded venture in 10 steps complete with examples from some of the best in the biz.

How *exactly* to go reader-funded

Most of us will have a publication in place before we start offering subscriptions but you actually can go reader-funded before you have anything published. The 51st just proved this by raising $275k from their audience to fund their launch.

I’m not covering the basics in this article but to run a reader-funded operation, you’ll also need: a website or landing page, a newsletter platform, social handles, a bank account and of course, a good concept.

That said, you can absolutely charge from Day 1. Here’s what you need to do.

1️⃣ Package your subscriptions

🖐️ Type: Manual
⏱️ Timing: Once, Pre-Launch
🗞️ Related: 9 Easy subscriber perks that don't waste your time

What is included in your paid subscription? Go easy on yourself in the beginning and consider launching with just a paid support tier (meaning no extra value for paid subscribers). I did this when I launched LA Pays Attention’s paid tiers (acquired by LA Public Press) and 50 or so people supported it without much effort on my side.

If you don’t get takers or once you’ve tapped out your early supporters, you can add perks. Keep these simple and avoid creating new projects for yourself like shipping hats out of your garage to every new subscriber.

2️⃣ Price your subscriptions

🖐️ Type: Manual
⏱️ Timing: Once (Check it 1x a year)
🗞️ Related: How to price your subscriptions

Most indie outlets start between $5-10/month but I loved Matt Brown’s take in the beehiiv Slack this week that it’s not worth having a subscription below $7. I gravitate towards $9 as the starter (which is where I’m setting mine very soon) because it’s still below double digits and I know how hard it is to convert a reader (might as well get 4 extra bucks a month for it).

You don’t want more than three tiers, especially in the beginning. Two or three is the most common and one is fine too. I wrote a series on how to price if you want a framework.

Your lower tier is for price conscious readers but your highest tier is for your biggest supporters so that really can be fairly high.

3️⃣ Use a known-to-work upgrade flow

⚙️ Type: Automated (or manual)
⏱️ Timing: Once
🗞️ Related: Are you slowing down upgrades?

Ghost, beehiiv and Substack all have upgrade flows we know work.

We know this because lots of other publications are making 6 and 7 figure revenue with them. If you’re not going to use one of those three, look at how they do it and make sure you do something similar. beehiiv and Substack, in particular, do heavy testing on these mechanics and you should benefit from that by using them!

Take it from me—a person who has been paid a lot of money to help companies fix their custom checkout flows—you absolutely can fumble the ball and lose a lot of revenue at the upgrade moment even with a very motivated reader.

4️⃣ Turn on revenue recovery in Stripe

⚙️ Type: Automated
⏱️ Timing: Once

Stripe is the underlying payment processor most of us use in the United States.

In your Stripe settings, they have a feature called Revenue Recovery. Turn this on and Stripe will chase down subscribers whose payment fails due to expired credit cards or who missed a trial conversion. I see absolutely no downside to this but if you do, I want to hear it!

5️⃣ Onboard your new paid subscribers

⚙️ Type: Automated
⏱️ Timing: Once (Check it 2x a year)
🗞️ Related: The 5 email sequences you need

Make sure you give a warm welcome to your paying subscribers! Often we put all our energy into promoting the paid offer and we forget to put effort into the paying readers. Do not forget that your most valuable audience is the one you already have—they are easier to get to stick around, upgrade and refer than new free readers.

Set up a welcome sequence for paid readers. This should be 1-5 emails thanking them for their support, showing them how to use subscriber perks and asking them for a testimonial. You need at least one email that’s not just a Stripe receipt but the more you do, the better. You’ll guide them to actually use their subscription which is what will keep them around longer.

6️⃣ Start collecting social proof and motivations

⚙️ Type: Automated
⏱️ Timing: Once
🗞️ Related: Your subscribers are your best marketing channel

To sell anything without a phone call, you need social proof. Social proof is a psychological term that describes the herd like behavior we all have when others say something is good. Think TikTokers blowing up the local BBQ spot or how you use reviews on Amazon before you buy something.

I recommend you collect testimonials right after someone joins as a paying subscriber. Put it in your welcome to paid sequence (step 5) with a “Tell us why you subscribed!” call to action. You will also start to surface different motivations you can use in your messaging.

Try Senja for testimonials (this is my affiliate link because I’m a huge promoter of theirs and I could go on and on about how much money Senja has made me personally but I’ll do that in a separate issue).

7️⃣ Add automated upsell sequences (email)

⚙️ Type: Automated
⏱️ Timing: One Time (Check it 2x a year)
🗞️ Related: Stop promoting at the wrong time

To get more people going paid, you’ll need lots of upselling. I know this makes journalists uncomfortable so that’s why you should put in some automations!

Add at least one upsell sequence 6-8 weeks after someone joins your mailing list. 6-8 weeks is a data-informed recommendation but it’s only based on one publication so you can fine tune that if your average conversion time is different.

In this upsell sequence, you’re going to make the case for becoming a paying subscriber. Use your social proof to build these messages (i.e. lean on what your existing subscribers love about your work).

8️⃣ Add automated autoplugs (social)

⚙️ Type: Automated
⏱️ Timing: Once a month
🗞️ Related: Automate more upgrades

You can use a social media automator to consistently plug your newsletter and your paid subscriptions after or in addition to your posts. Hypefury is one I use for X and if my tweet gets more than 5 likes, it posts one of my autoplugs after it. You write these and you can set the threshold of likes or reposts.

Hypefury works on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads and there’s so many tools in the social space now you could pretty much do this everywhere except TikTok.

9️⃣ Make a living library of manual plugs

🖐️ Type: Manual
⏱️ Timing: Once a month
🗞️ Related: How to convince readers to pay you

I want to steer you towards as much automation as possible but you’re (probably) a reporter and breaking news makes for great upgrade material.

Start a spreadsheet of “plugs that work” and track bits of messaging that hit well. Some may be evergreen and others may be more tied to a particular story. It’s helpful to track this even if you can’t reuse all of it because you’ll be able to draft and improve those messages much faster over time.

🔟 Plan subscription promo campaigns at least 4x a year

🖐️ Type: Manual
⏱️ Timing: 4x a year (or 6x if you’re energetic!)
🗞️ Related: Inside RANGE's drive for new members in August

A lot of your upgrade work should be automated and happening through small plugs year round BUT you’ll also want to do some bigger promotions. These can be sales or they can just be campaigns where you tell readers why they should upgrade. Try it both ways and compare them.

Promo campaigns will be cross-channel (website, social, email, podcast, etc) and they should be 5-10 messages per channel at least in a short period of time (usually two weeks).

Our Takeaway

Automate as much as you can and be aware that it’s going to take a bit of testing and iterating to get your promotions cooking. But they will cook if you put these ingredients in place!

The factors that get people going from free to paid are starting to become patterns. You’ll adjust these but there’s no need to reinvent the whole system all over again. A bunch of publications have found functional growth recipes. Build on what’s working for others, make sure it works for you and let it fly.