Actionable lessons from the world's greatest creators

The Creator Archive

“There were so many people writing about technology, but they were all writing about products. No one was really writing about the business side.”

As Thompson explains, you want to take a niche and own it:

“The internet enables niches in a massively powerful way where you can focus and be really good at one thing, and because you're not constrained to a geographic area you can reach the entire world.”

And the key was to build a business model with it—it had to be subscription. He writes four times per week: 1 free and 3 paid. He also has a podcast.

The free article is text-based which spreads easily and gets a ton of readership. And then his hand-drawings are part of his branding strategy:

“I liked doing them, but it's very distinctive. When people come to my site, they recognize it. If you consider they come there again and say, ‘Oh, I think I've been here before. This is good.’ Maybe they follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, wherever it might be. And then maybe eventually they are introduced to the podcast—podcasts kind of build this sort of relationship I found between like listeners and the speaker where they feel like they know me a little more. Then they feel a little more trust.”

Most people aren’t going to pay $10 when they first hit the paywall. But after hitting it a few more times, they finally say:

“You know what? I'll try it. It's only $10. And then they go in and they do it.”

Ben also purposefully doesn’t do free trials because it gets the reader invested and motivated to read it every day.

Watch the full interview with Ben Thompson here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUsoGDqjVsQ

Quote of the Day

“Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. The more I paint, the more I like everything. Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.”

― Vincent Van Gogh

“There were so many people writing about technology, but they were all writing about products. No one was really writing about the business side.”

As Thompson explains, you want to take a niche and own it:

“The internet enables niches in a massively powerful way where you can focus and be really good at one thing, and because you're not constrained to a geographic area you can reach the entire world.”

And the key was to build a business model with it—it had to be subscription. He writes four times per week: 1 free and 3 paid. He also has a podcast.

The free article is text-based which spreads easily and gets a ton of readership. And then his hand-drawings are part of his branding strategy:

“I liked doing them, but it's very distinctive. When people come to my site, they recognize it. If you consider they come there again and say, ‘Oh, I think I've been here before. This is good.’ Maybe they follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, wherever it might be. And then maybe eventually they are introduced to the podcast—podcasts kind of build this sort of relationship I found between like listeners and the speaker where they feel like they know me a little more. Then they feel a little more trust.”

Most people aren’t going to pay $10 when they first hit the paywall. But after hitting it a few more times, they finally say:

“You know what? I'll try it. It's only $10. And then they go in and they do it.”

Ben also purposefully doesn’t do free trials because it gets the reader invested and motivated to read it every day.

Watch the full interview with Ben Thompson here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUsoGDqjVsQ

“Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. The more I paint, the more I like everything. Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.”

The Creator Archive

How Ben Thompson built his newsletter into a multi-million dollar business