Impostor Syndrome and Business Acumen
Thanks again for reading Jacob’s Tech Tavern 🍺. My writing journey has been a 2 year fight against monetising my hobby. I enabled payments a year ago, but didn’t launch a paid offering until last Autumn. I’d finally found a way to create value for paid subscribers without doubling my overall workload or losing flexibility*. *I have 2 young kids, so severely doubt my ability to commit to delivering livestreams or, god forbid, a Discord. I value my sanity. I landed on my core offering:
In some ways I did a great job: I recently passed the 200 paid subscribers milestone, so I must be doing something right. In other ways, I did an awful job, because these days my “Quick” Hacks often run as long as my regular posts. I suffer for my art. When I launched, I started with the Substack default pricing of $8 per month. I tweaked it several times before landing on $7.50, because, y’know, impostor syndrome. But recently I have devised a business strategy to rival the army of MBAs at Netflix: Raising prices. My new price point drops me on the low-end for similar professional-oriented blogs, while remaining affordable for individuals (or L&D budgets). I guess I think it’s still worth it, but I’m profoundly biased. Paid subscription prices will go up by 60% on May 15, 2025. Anybody who subscribes before then will lock in $7.50/month forever. The new prices will be $12/month (or $110/year). All existing paid subscribers will keep their current prices. Freebies, discounts, or get someone else to payWhy not try a 2-week free trial? If you like it, you will keep the current lower pricing when you get charged. If not, feel free to blast through my Quick Hacks back catalog—just don’t forget to cancel! I offer concession prices for students, developing country residents, or layoff victims—just message me and ask! If your company has an L&D budget, you can use this email template and ask your manager to expense membership. If you want membership for your whole team, I offer a 40% group discount for 3+ seats.
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