As a publisher, you can offer benefits as a thank-you to your members. These benefits are part of your plans and help motivate your community to support you.
There are so many different things you can offer. Some publishers are able to collect members without having to offer any benefits. Others offer their members a little thank-you in return, like a personal shout-out in a podcast. Other publishers want to be a little more exclusive, asking visitors to become members in order to access their content.
Which strategy you pursue depends entirely on what will suit your publication best.
A good place to start is by asking yourself what you can realistically achieve. Does exclusive content make sense for your publication? How much dialogue are you prepared to have with your members? Should they be able to have a say in the content you produce?
On the other hand, you need to think about your members and their likely motivations. Are they people who would become members in order to gain access to exclusive content? Or might they support you even without any concrete benefits, simply because they want your publication to continue?
Once you've got these questions answered, you can match your publication with one – or more – of the following strategies:
Benefit | What members | Steady Features used | Example Steady Publishers |
Content | Exclusive content behind paywall, exclusive podcast episodes, exclusive newsletters, Access to archived articles | Hard paywall, Exclusive RSS audio feed, Hover button | Krautreporter, Social Media Watchblog, Postillon, Prenzlauer Berg Nachrichten, Physio Meets Science, The Pod, Titanic, Bürgerportal |
Early Access | Get exclusive content before everyone else gets it | Hard paywall, removed 2 weeks after publishing article | |
Empowering the publisher / Continuity of service | allow publisher to continue their work / support an important cause | Hover button, Banners | |
Comment / Vote | Participation/Comment feature, having a say in content direction | Hover button, Steady Switch | |
Community | Access to exclusive Slack channel or Facebook group | Members CSV export, Zapier integration | |
Features | Exclusive features | Steady Switch | |
Remove Ads or remove Soft Paywall | No ads on website, ad-free podcast feed | Soft paywall, Steady Switch | |
Commercial Sponsorship | Have your name/logo mentioned | - | |
Print materials | Postcards, books, or print magazine | Members CSV export, get shipping addresses from members | |
Invitations / Events | invitation to exclusive events or free event tickets | Members CSV export | |
Mentioning of Benefactors | Name mentioned in article | - |
The benefits should not be based on your goals, but on how you want to engage your members and what you can realistically achieve.
You shouldn’t offer physical items, but focus on digital benefits, like early or exclusive access to content, an exclusive hangout or something similar. (Small physical gifts like postcards or printed versions of what you offer digitally are fine).
Competitions and lotteries are not permitted as benefits.
