Paid Promos with The Sample - Worth it or Not?
... it depends...
The Sample is a free directory site that sends newsletter samples to members with matching interests. It offers free and paid promotional options. The free service gives me about 10 new subscribers per month.
The Sample also has paid promotions, called Paid Forwards.
If you enable Paid Forwards in your The Sample account, your newsletter is forwarded more often to their list. You pay for each additional 1-click subscriber you receive.
How to enable paid forwards
Log in to your The Sample account, if you have one already. The easiest way is to click through from the weekly email report they send.
Add a payment method. Credit cards are accepted, PayPal is not.
Add a bid amount. this is the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a single subscriber. the higher you bid, the more subscribers you get.
Set a maximum weekly budget. This must be at least ten times your maximum bid.
Click ‘Update’.
Paid forwards are now enabled.
Calculate your ROI (return on investment)
If you want to know whether paying for new subscribers is a good investment, you need to know how much every subscriber is worth to you, in financial terms. Remember, one-click subscribers from The Sample will be usually be FREE subscribers.
How much is a free subscriber worth to you? This post explains how to calculate the dollar value of a subscriber.
How much can you expect to pay per subscriber? The Sample’s Paid Forwards page helpfully shares what other publication owners have been paying per subscriber.
At the time of writing, the average cost per subscriber was $4.64.
So, for example, if each new subscriber is worth $4.64 or more to you, then Paid Forwards are probably worth it. If not, then it probably would not be a good idea to activate Paid Forwards.
Important things to know
Your subscribers - your target audience - might be easier and cheaper to acquire than the average cost declared by The Sample. Or they could be more expensive.
You will only ever pay up to your maximum bid per subscriber.
You could try activating Paid Forwards with a low bid per subscriber to see whether you can acquire new subscribers for a low price. Who knows, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Why I don’t use Paid forwards with The Sample (but you could!)
Most people on The Sample’s email list are writers, podcaster and authors with their own newsletters. These are the people who will see paid forwards. They are not my audience.
The audience for my main Substack newsletter are food safety professionals. They are not writers and are not interested in the world of newsletters, email lists, marketing or podcasting. I haven't done any paid promotions with The Sample, because the people I want to reach are unlikely to be exposed to The Sample’s promotions.
The Sample's paid forwards could be effective for newsletters with wide demographic appeal, OR for newsletters that are aimed at other newsletter writers and podcasters, since these people are more likely to be on The Sample's list.
Share your experience
If you have tried Paid forwards, leave a comment and let us know how it went. Was it worth it for you?
If you use this link to submit your newsletter to The Sample, I will be rewarded with new subscribers (not money!) and this is at no cost to you. Here’s that link again.
Cover image: Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash
Thanks for this summary, really helpful.