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.

Click Here for a free sample.