Flipping Advisorator’s free and paid versions

This might be a bad idea, but I’m going to try inverting the format of Advisorator’s free edition.

Previously, it went like this:

Quick tip

An upsell for that week’s feature story, which appears atop the paid newsletter

News roundup

A useful app to try, sometimes with an upsell for my ultimate list of awesome apps

A truncated version of the deal list I usually send out to paid subscribers.

Another upsell for the paid edition, referencing the omitted deals.

Sign off.

Now it looks like this:

The feature story that I used to reserve for paid subscribers

An upsell for the news, quick tip, useful app, and deal list that now reside only in the paid edition

Sign off

At minimum, it’s a lot less convoluted, but I’m also hoping it makes the newsletter more enjoyable and shareable for free subscribers. You might be more excited to share, say, an article about an inexpensive AirTag alternative or the best ad blocker than a grab-bag of other stuff. It’s certainly easier for me to share on social media.

At the same time, that grab bag is easier to talk up as a benefit for paid subscribers. They’re not just getting one extra article per week, but rather a whole bundle of useful intel. And that’s in addition to other benefits like my online guides and Slack channel.

If all goes well, this may even allow me to produce one canonical version of the newsletter—and therefore a single archive page—instead of separate free and paid versions. Still, it’s nerve-racking to give away the part of the newsletter that takes maybe 60% of my time each week.

As I mentioned in this week’s issue, we’ll see how it goes and adapt as needed.