Paid subscriptions are down. It's time to explore other revenue options.

I moved to an audience-funded model last year when I launched Revenue Rulebreaker. I had shut down my membership, wrapped my only client project and leapt into the unknown, all because 40 people believed in me enough to give me $99.

Paid subscriptions (a.k.a. Legends) have been my main source of income since then.

I have loved subscriptions so much as a business model that I started teaching them and writing about them. Being audience-funded means you get to spend your time learning about your audience, building with them, catering to them and hanging out with them. It's an ideal model for anyone who wants to write, publish, host or create stuff that's worth paying for but isn't easily packaged for sale individually. The recurring revenue part is what makes it sustainable because chasing down a few bucks per post or per event does not add up to meaningful income, but having 500 paying subscribers at $9 does.