Why I’m teaming up with Outpost to help you make more money this year

What’s the best way for indie journalists to get paid?

I asked this question at the beginning of last year when I started this project.

One of the first conversations I had around this topic was with Nick Pinto at Hell Gate. 

Hell Gate had already launched two years prior, and even though they and several others like them are successful (Hell Gate just started hiring), the worker-owned news movement has a lot of doubters.

Namely, other journalists.

“Well sure, Hell Gate can do that, but I could never.”

I asked Nick what he thought would make it easier for more journalists to see what they were doing as a viable path. Specifically, I laid out a few potential solutions like communities, live taught courses, templates and software.

Nick said he didn’t think journalists getting paid was a software problem.

He’s right to some extent.

But what I’ve learned in the last year is that actually indie news does have a software problem.

See there’s A LOT of marketing stuff that has been solved with tech and many of the journalists I talk to are either not leveraging the right tools or they’re underutilizing software. In particular: automation.

Also, I’ve found journalists are hesitant to talk with tech makers which, fair enough, the tech industry sucks, but some of these founders actually want to hear from you! They don’t know what you need and you’ve got to tell them.

A few months after that conversation, Hell Gate switched tech stacks. 

They moved to Ghost and Outpost and I got my first look at what Outpost actually does.

Everything that I thought was missing in the other news tech tools…

• Segmentation 

• Automation

• Targeted content

• Personalized calls to action

• Control over what to show where on the site

• Actually useful analytics

It was all right there in Outpost. 

Fucking brilliant.

As far as I know, Outpost is the only tool out there that focuses exclusively on growth and monetization. They’re not trying to replace your publishing platform. They work alongside it.

There’s so many great things about Outpost but three reasons I love it:

1. It is built for journalists, by journalists.

2. Literally every feature was created to help you grow and make money.

3. The team is super invested in indie publishers and their roadmap is informed directly by what publishers like you (maybe even actually you) are asking for.

Ever since that first look, I’ve been recommending Outpost to Ghost publishers nonstop.

I think it’s non-negotiable to include Outpost if you’re using Ghost as your platform. Can you make money without it? Yes, but you’ll hit a limit without their tools. Ghost is squarely in the CMS lane and it’s (purposely) not built for that much marketing or selling.

Outpost is also exactly the kind of tech we (independent business owners) want to support. We do need some software to make a living online and isn’t it better to have good software made by good people?

So I reached out to Ryan Singel, Outpost’s co-founder and asked if they wanted to team up this year and long story short, they said yes.

Outpost is my featured partner for 2025.

You’ll benefit from this collaboration in the following ways:

• If you’re already using Outpost, you’ll learn more about some of my favorite moneymaking features and how to put them to good use.

• If you’re not using Outpost, but you are using Ghost, you’ll learn where to start and get the most return quickly, should you want to try Outpost.

• No matter what tech stack you’re using, you’ll hear about what’s working for Outpost’s publishers, how to create automations that drive action and how to incorporate Outpost’s personalized-per-reader approach into your strategy.

Stay tuned for guides, quick reference and even some live sessions where we can dig into this automated stuff together, whether you’re using Outpost or not.

Ready to take Outpost for a spin right now? Go ahead! They have a generous free trial.

P.S. If you’re new to Outpost, I recommend starting with the Welcome Flow. You’ll find this post about Outpost helpful plus this one with Welcome email recipes (paid subscribers only)🪐 

P.P.S. Coming this Saturday: Our revenue series continues with Andy Dehnart who founded and has run Reality Blurred since 2000, covering reality TV. You’ll hear about why he landed on the ad-supported model, how he’s approached revenue and how to know if ad revenue is a good model for you! 📺️