It's decision time
Tomorrow, my free trial of Beehiiv expires, and I’ll have to decide on the next steps. These are my current choices.
The business model
I’ve finally settled on a business model for this project. Instead of my first idea of being a print-on-demand-only shop; instead, I’m going 100% digital. That means digital graphics and other assets, books, essays, training, and anything else I come up with that doesn’t require a shipping label or sales tax.
Whatever of these choices I go with, I’m thinking about them in terms of the deliverability of the digital goods and services I’ll provide.
Side note: This doesn’t include anything I produce through The Hungry, which is also a 100% digital service.
Stick with the free plan
Beehiiv has three pricing tiers, and the free tier is generous compared to many competitors. I can stick with the free tier until I hit 2,500 subscribers, which is quite a ways off.
However, the free tier does not include many key features that would make growing this letter easier and more profitable. The most significant ones for me would be:
Custom domains
Premium subscriptions
Create segments
Audience polls
Survey forms
Exclusive Newsletter Community
Referral program*
Automations*
Boosts*
3D Analytics*
A/B Testing*
(*) Only available in the Scale Tier ($99 a month)
Move to a paid plan
If I jumped to the paid tiers, I wouldn’t bother with the Grow (middle) tier ($49 a month) because if I’m trying to build something and earn revenue, the Scale Tier ($99 a month) gives me essential tools.
However, this platform doesn’t allow me to sell individual products directly through the platform, which means another monthly expense for e-commerce.
Rebuild my Shopify site
I already have an account on Shopify, even though I’m not using it right now. I could open that shop up again fairly quickly, and maybe using it in conjunction with Beehiiv would be a good way to market and sell.
Shopify’s blogging platform and email service are horrible, so I wouldn’t dare use them to help grow the business.
Move to Squarespace
I already host The Hungry over on Squarespace and easily add a second site to manage from a single hub. I could also integrate my Beehiiv efforts into what I’m doing on Squarespace.
I don’t know if I have complete faith in Squarespace’s email program, and once you go over 500 names on your email list, they’ll start charging a minimum of $10 a month.
The most significant difference between Squarespace and Substack is the dashboard and site aesthetics. Do I want a prettier site with less functionality (Squarespace) or a more rigid e-comm appearance with more overall functionality (Shopify)?
The debate is not settled yet.
The low-cost option
An additional idea is to open a Gumroad account and sell my digital products through that platform (at a fairly high commission of 10%) and make that the e-commerce home for whatever digital products I want to sell.
This option isn’t ideal because it’s harder to migrate customer data from Gumroad to my email list and analytics.
The Beehiiv-only plan
I will go over this strategy in more detail tomorrow. Still, that strategy is to offer up a subscription where I provide all these digital assets as an archive for anyone who pays a monthly membership.
Yes, I did that already, and then I pulled it back, but I learned a lot from that experience, and I know I would do it differently and better this time.