A Product-Management Newsletter Grew Into $156,960 a Year, Run Alongside Other Work
4 min read · RealCase summary
Pawel's newsletter, The Product Compass, reached 92,000-plus free subscribers by January 2025 and 106,000 by April 2025, with 1,962 paying subscribers (a 2% conversion rate) generating $156,960 in annual revenue -- 61% growth year over year.
Pricing started at $8 a month (70% of subscribers were on a $7/month legacy tier as of January), with an annual tier priced 36% cheaper than paying monthly, plus a $250/year "founding" tier marketed as "I can expense this" and valued at $447-plus a year in bundled courses and resources. He publishes once a week, on Saturdays, running 2,000-3,000 words a post, unlocking roughly one post a month for free readers and keeping about three locked behind the paywall, typically placing 1,000-plus words or three-plus charts before the paywall hits.
His biggest traffic source is LinkedIn, where he has 181,000 followers, plus 2,000-plus daily search-engine visits; Substack Notes drove lower-quality conversions -- "Most of those readers just clicked 'Follow' without the intention to subscribe," he said, arguing audience quality matters more than raw reach. Paying subscribers get access to a private Slack community of more than 1,000 members.
Key takeaways
- ›Publishes about 3-4 long-form posts a month (2,000-3,000 words) for product managers
- ›Grew to over 92,000 free subscribers and 1,900+ paying subscribers as of January 2025
- ›Estimated annual revenue of $156,960 at $8/month (or $250/year), driven mainly by a 181,000-follower LinkedIn presence and organic search
Original source
Read the original (Pub Stack Success)
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