Podcasters and Newsletter Creators Need to Seriously Consider Creating Digital Knowledge Products

Running multiple profitable business is a lot more doable than you think. Here is an example of where you just have to hire the right person to leverage all your existing resources to create a complete new revenue stream out of it.

Creator's Point of View

I recently spoke to some newsletter creators and podcasters in my network who have a decent following (> 8k) and asked them if their audience is merely hearing them or actively listening to them—a question that most of these creators had not previously considered.

The newsletter creators do try to create engagement, but mostly just look at open rates (and in some cases clicks). Podcasters mostly look at listens and downloads.

But, in this world of attention deficit and information overload, is getting just a read or a listen enough?

Audience's Point of View

Next, I went on to some forums including Reddit, Quora, and some podcast discovery platforms, and also asked around in my alumni/office channels. From the audience point of view, here are some common consensus:

1. Difficult to grasp everything you learn on a podcast
2. When it comes to actually implement something I learn from my favorite creators, its difficult as the information is so scattered and unstructured
3. Podcast and Newsletters are informative, gives me that intellectual stimuation, however, not sure I always engage with or implement the knowledge

Building the Bridge

That got me thinking, why are these knowledge creators not working on content engagement. Content creation and distribution is always on their mind, but why not engagement?

I pitched the idea of creating digital knowledge products to 1-2 of my favorite creators, and they actually agreed. They were onboard quite quickly as they see scope in it. I was also the perfect person to create these.

I come from a consulting and strategy background, and I have always been good with words. Creating these products felt like a natural fit for me. I am good at adding structure and functionality to the creators' existing content while making it interesting and fun. The combination of functionality and creativity is what I like to refer to as 'disciplined madness - my biggest strength.

We quickly created an MVP and asked some of our active readers for feedback regarding the product idea and content. Recieved very good feedback and we are prepping for launch.

The creator I am working for, made money only through sponsorship (like most early newsletter creators). However, now, with the response recieved so far, we are expecting about additional $15K /product. Took me about a month to create. Not bad at all, huh?

The Why

The idea is nothing out of the ordinary. When you are reading, have you noticed just having a pen or highlighter to mark some important text helps you focus better? Or if you are listening in a lecture, taking notes help you process better? These knowledge products (templates, guides, notion frames, etc) really help your audience actually take your content ahead and use it.

A lot of successful creators are already doing it quite well. You do not even need to have a big big following, even with ~5k readers/listeners, and a right product with a low price ($30- $35) - you can expect atleast 15k per product with 10% conversion.

You gotta nail the product idea, format, and the price. You already have the content and the audience to leverage. Not creating a digital product is like sitting on a treasure chest and not opening it.