A lot of B2B creators try to charge upwards of $20 to $40 a month for what they market as “premium” content, but the patronage model is subjected to a lot more price sensitivity. I doubt that many creators could get away with charging much more than $5 a month, and my gut feeling is that $10 represents the upper limit.
Source: https://simonowens.substack.com/p/do-your-subscribers-actually-want
Simon’s articles are a great read, especially as they relate to the business side of the creator economy. Remember: A lot of these folks don’t have business experience, and they are going into business for themselves.
That’s tough.
(And it’s a great learning experience, if you can leg out the economics.)
On the B2B side, there’s much more upward pricing options with annual renewals (v. monthly), which is great.
The challenge with being free to everyone, as I learned when I worked at a coffee shop in California, is that people want to belong. They want to be a member of something. Part of a group.
At the coffee shop, it was those buy 10 get a free coffee cards. It showed they were regulars, when others weren’t.
And that was important. To them.
(In general, for-profit businesses don’t like to give things away for free.)
Which brings us back to the quote above.
Patronage models are great in a creator/consumer world.
Do they work in a business-focused world? I don’t know. However I’ll reference Ben Thompson’s line at the end of each of his Stratechery podcasts…
The Daily Update is intended for a single recipient but occasional forwarding is totally fine. If you’d like to order multiple subscriptions for your team through a discount, please contact me directly.