Stable sounds about right, David; if you add taxes and overheads such as staff (even if it’s the occasional contractor), marketing costs, etc, it all adds up. And if the owner lived in London, that would make him less than stable, in fact.. Not enough to quit other income streams.
But, oh my, it is an impressive number of earnings coming from a newsletter!
I believe there's a psychological perspective of success as well. When do creators start viewing themselves as truly successful? Perhaps it's not just about the numbers but also the sense of security and future prospects that come with it.
I guess you need to consider costs but there must be an element of human nature here. When I had 20 subscribers I thought those on 100 were in a different league. When I hit 500 I looked to those on 1000. Now, at over 1600 I’m looking up again. I wonder what I’d do at 10,000! Let’s find out! 😀
This is a really interesting question. Like maybe they have part-time employees they're paying from that amount? Maybe they live in a really expensive area? There's also the pure psychological moment of not wanting to brag, and thus not being comfortable saying 'yeah we're rolling in it, totally making more than we ever imagined'. Especially when you're talking to the same people who are supposed to be chipping in towards that payment. I have to confess I have looked up Patreons of creators I really love, noticed they're already getting more than 8000$ per month in subscriptions, and decided I'd be better off giving my measly 5$ per month to someone who was making much less.
Yeah, makes me wonder what “stable” means. Is that break even, or barely profitable? For me I know what my “magic number” would be financially, but I’m a ways off from that at the moment.
It depends on what they mean with stable: breaking even? Or "making a comfortable leaving off of it?"
Anyway, this is a reminder of a couple of usually ignored truths:
- very large media businesses have huge costs compared to solo businesses,
- financial success is relative.
Stable sounds about right, David; if you add taxes and overheads such as staff (even if it’s the occasional contractor), marketing costs, etc, it all adds up. And if the owner lived in London, that would make him less than stable, in fact.. Not enough to quit other income streams.
But, oh my, it is an impressive number of earnings coming from a newsletter!
I believe there's a psychological perspective of success as well. When do creators start viewing themselves as truly successful? Perhaps it's not just about the numbers but also the sense of security and future prospects that come with it.
I guess you need to consider costs but there must be an element of human nature here. When I had 20 subscribers I thought those on 100 were in a different league. When I hit 500 I looked to those on 1000. Now, at over 1600 I’m looking up again. I wonder what I’d do at 10,000! Let’s find out! 😀
This is a really interesting question. Like maybe they have part-time employees they're paying from that amount? Maybe they live in a really expensive area? There's also the pure psychological moment of not wanting to brag, and thus not being comfortable saying 'yeah we're rolling in it, totally making more than we ever imagined'. Especially when you're talking to the same people who are supposed to be chipping in towards that payment. I have to confess I have looked up Patreons of creators I really love, noticed they're already getting more than 8000$ per month in subscriptions, and decided I'd be better off giving my measly 5$ per month to someone who was making much less.
I agree - I would rather support someone who is not already raking in the £££, as its going to do much more good.
Yeah, makes me wonder what “stable” means. Is that break even, or barely profitable? For me I know what my “magic number” would be financially, but I’m a ways off from that at the moment.
Maybe by stable they mean they have an amount they can pretty much count on being paid for a while?
I'd be stable on a lot less though 🤣