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1/ So we hit $3k/mo in recurring revenue from Praxis this week, which was my stretch goal. I’ll take this opportunity to tweet my thoughts on membership strategy and what I see coming next. Stats via @memberful 
2/ I originally added a paywall to my blog for two reasons: 1) I wanted to create the incentive to write long-form, substantive, meaty posts, not short promo content or listicles. Paywall helps justify this investment in writing, signals quality, and qualifies customers
3/ Reason #2: I wanted to identify and actually collaborate with people most committed to implementing my work, instead of chasing vanity metrics. Both these goals have been achieved, and I’m very happy with the results
4/ With only ~450 paying members on average, I’m able to cover my living costs in Mexico City which is a tremendous relief, freeing me from constant promotional cycles and allowing me to focus on longer term
5/ Knowing I have a pre-committed audience willing to read/digest/provide feedback on articles also allows me to dive really deep, or take on really complex topics like this one on tagging praxis.fortelabs.co/a-complete-gui…
6/ As an extra bonus, long-form blog posts very easily become chapters in compilation ebooks, because they’re more timeless and right length. I have two compilations so far and current pace is about one per year. Still low revenue but eventually could be big
7/ I’ve largely subscribed to @benthompson ‘s ideas on potential of membership sites, but I’m not doing local news, or really even special interest or topical niche despite my typical “productivity” banner
8/ I think what ppl are actually paying for is coherence: of my ideas, of my learning journey, of the progression of ideas building on each other over time. They can get a ton of free content from any number of sites on all the same topics, but it won’t be filtered thru my lens
9/ So my curation is not just reducing the volume of info, but giving it meaning and a relationship to other bits of info. Basically weaving a story from the noise very much like @stratechery does with aggregation theory
10/This is why I can write about virtually anything I’m learning or discovering, and it adds color to this narrative. It’s a very personal narrative, which I think will make it hard to ever shift primary writing responsibility to anyone else. But it also justifies learning
11/ Some ppl ask me why I would paywall my best marketing channel, but Praxis membership actually functions as a great stepping stone to online courses. Paying $10/mo or $100/yr is a strong signal they might be willing to buy more
12/ At the same time, if you pay attention and do a little work you can pretty much piece together everything from my $500 course from Praxis posts. I like allowing ppl to “pay” in money or effort
13/ And it works in the other direction too: many course purchasers then become Praxis members as a “continuity” program. Each one supports the other
14/ I’m still barely scratching the surface though. Don’t do any promotion really, no free offers or bonuses, no conversion rate optimization, no cross-promotion with other sites. Right now my focus is on writing the book so it will have to wait
15/ But in the future I want to do a much better job of connecting members to each other, helping them help each other, supporting collaborations, sharing knowledge, etc. So many possibilities and ideas
16/ It seems like long term, the biggest asset is the shared knowledge, terminology, culture, perspective of such a large group of influential/effective ppl. Being able to coordinate & direct that energy would be huge (anti-book club was early experiment)
17/ Someday my writing pace will have to slow down and such community, collaboration, knowledge sharing benefits will have to take over as primary benefit of membership if it’s going to survive
18/ In general I think future of niche membership sites is very bright. Attention is getting too scarce to waste time with free content. Niches are highly profitable, with little competition. What it takes is someone willing to obsess about something for a long time
19/ I’d love to hear from Praxis members and non-members alike: what do you think we should add, remove, or change? What would it take for you to subscribe or stay subscribed?
