PUBLISH A SUBSCRIPTION NEWSLETTER

Some of the most fulfilling projects that I’ve ever produced were subscription newsletters. They are a lot of work and take time to build a subscription list, and should only be undertaken if one has the motivation to keep marketing and promoting them.

My first newsletter was called Home Office Opportunities and was written for those who operated a business out of their home. I started it in the eighties during the last major recession (or was it the one before) when millions of people lost their jobs because of mergers and corporate downsizing. The economy seemed hopeless at the time when millions of talented people were out of work. In my case, we had been transferred to the Northwest and I couldn’t find the type of job that I really wanted—although I soon realized there was no such thing. I had been unhappy working for others for a long time, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to start my own business. The mid-eighties was the point when I decided on a new career as a fulltime writer. Of course, at first it was anything but full time, but I quickly got into the habit of either promoting or writing for eight hours every day. It was either that or look for a job--ugh!

I immediately joined a home based business association and was soon serving as a board member. Then I joined another and very shortly became president of it. So I had an insider’s view of home businesses from both my own endeavor plus from the people I met who had lost their jobs and managed to survive on their own talents and motivation. That gave me plenty of subjects for articles!

I don’t know how long I owned Home Office Opportunities, but it wasn’t long before another publisher came along and wanted to purchase it. Luckily, I had decided to transition over to a newsletter for those operating businesses or trying to earn income from a hobby while traveling in their RVs, so I immediately switched gears and started publishing Rolling Ventures.

This was the perfect newsletter for me to produce. I had an interest in RVing and of course, experience operating a business, so it was easy for me to watch the magazines to which we subscribed to find RV rallies and show up to interview people. We didn’t have a motorhome yet, but we rented a couple for trips and soon bought one. I immediately sent news releases to the RV magazines, and in turn got lots of publicity for the newsletter. I could never have made it without that free publicity, because advertising in those publications would have been cost prohibitive!

I never developed a huge subscription list, but it was large enough, and soon we were traveling and producing it on the road. Unfortunately, some health problems plus problems we ran into at RV parks with storms and power outages made me realize that I couldn’t keep it up. And this was before the Internet, which would have made the logistics a lot easier. But we ran into someone I had interviewed at the start of the newsletter, and he was interested in taking it over.

My experience shows that it can be done as long as you are willing to keep at it and seek out publicity. Paid advertising is great if you can afford it, but free publicity is greater, although the publisher must have a slant that is unique to get a steady supply of media attention.

There are so many topics that are suitable for newsletters, and they don’t have to be lengthy publications. Rolling Ventures kept growing in page numbers, but that was because advertisers kept contacting me and wanting to run ads in it. At first I was hesitant because it was subscription based, but finally realized that by adding more pages I could still keep the same word and page count for informational and newsworthy articles. I never had a subscriber complain about it, and received wonderful complimentary letters from all over the U.S. and even from some foreign countries. I’m not sure how those readers stumbled onto it.

Now the Internet is the source for many newsletters, but there are still people who want something they can hold in their hands and pick up to read in spare moments. I’ve seen newsletters that charge more than $100 per year for a subscription (usually for financial information) down to about $20. Remember that if you decide to produce a subscription pub, you will have mailing costs in addition to advertising or promotion costs, and the price for your time spent gathering information and writing, getting it printed, and sticking on address labels and stamps. The latter can be done by other family members, such as responsible kids.

Decide in advance how many pages you want to produce, then get quotes from two or three printers to compare costs. A subscription newsletter is not the path to riches, but it will open up many more opportunities. You may be able to find other publications that will pay you for your previously published newsletter articles, and the experience will certainly get your foot into the door for more newspaper and magazine articles.

Oh, and you might be lucky enough to find a grant that would cover your start-up costs. The publisher that bought Home Office Opportunities had secured a small business grant for $10,000. I have no idea how she got it, but I believe it was because she was located in a tiny rural town that had no hopes of future economic growth. Small business grants were a big part of the economy during the late eighties, but the only businesses I knew who received them were either located in rural communities in the middle of nowhere, or were woman or minority-owned (preferably both) in low-income areas of big cities. Although mine was woman-owned, we were considered middle class in a more-or-less affluent neighborhood, which was not where the government was seeking to stimulate the economy, although unemployment was rampant there, too.

I don’t know if those same sorts of grants are still available, or will become a part of future economic plans from the government, but if so, you might want to check into applying for one to cover start-up costs for your own writing business.