Are You a Salesperson?

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I've seen my conversion rate go down even though the free list goes up because these are people who are maybe they're not signing up because they've come to my content. And that isn't necessarily bad, but it's a different kind of customer. It makes finding a way to then sell advertising in a product that fits for these people makes a lot of sense if your goal is to maximize your revenue.

Bill Bishop likes to make clear he’s not a journalist. Instead, he’s a China analyst who brings his deep understanding of the country to an English-speaking language through his newsletter, Sinocism. In 2017, Bill became the “original Substacker” after teaming up with Substack’s co-founders to be the first newsletter on the platform.

On this week’s episode of The Rebooting Show, Bill and I discuss his independent path, and how a subscription model has created different dynamics as opposed to his experiences in the dot-com era as a co-founder of Marketwatch. What’s telling to me is that Bill is also now considering advertising. The Substack model of “only ads” doesn’t make much sense long term for most writers. Even if they convert 10% of their audience, they’re making no money from 90%. Most businesses don’t operate that way.