Matt: Welcome back everyone. Today we are going to be talking about turning your recurring content into revenue using, obviously, print-on-demand. And what we mean by that is, primarily people who are utilizing subscription type services, whether it's for their newsletters or anything else, using tools like Substack, Patreon, beehive, any of the other, various tools out there that allow creators and authors and other people to do subscription services. Whereby they get paid a monthly fee, and they, in turn, provide content. 

Lauren: Yeah. I think there's a lot of different ways people are doing that. And it continues to be a very popular content model. And obviously, I mean, kind of inherently built in within that is the idea that it's already monetized for some people. But we're talking about additional ways that you can monetize your content with that. And also support your subscribers. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: And also maybe even get new subscribers. So many different things you could do. 

Matt: Yeah, I love the idea of extra revenue, but. 

Lauren: Well, yeah. You know. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I mean that's always the primary. 

Matt: For sure. 

Lauren: Gotta be able to afford all those Disney trips somehow. 

Matt: Are we coming back to this now? 

Lauren: Always. 

Matt: Good lord. I used to feel good, because I felt like we were on a pretty even cadence, of how many times each of us would visit a Disney park throughout the year. But I've fallen way behind. 

Lauren: You have fallen way behind. 

Matt: And so now I find myself getting a little bit bitter. 

Lauren: You have to get – You have to get on my level. It's partially the annual pass's fault. 

Matt: No, that's great. 

Lauren: But... 

Matt: And I don't think you're actually going more, necessarily. 

Lauren: You're just going less. 

Matt: I think I'm just going less. And that's the real problem. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: So I need to, I need to rectify that. I need to remedy that. But in the meantime I'll try to maintain a very happy and positive vibe towards your trips. 

Lauren: So should I or should I not tell you that I literally already have another trip booked? 

Matt: You just did. So, you know. 

Lauren: But I'm going to Disneyland this time. Just for a day. 

Matt: Great. 

Lauren: Single day. 

Matt: Happy for you. 

Lauren: Tacking it on the end of a trip. 

Matt: Very cool. 

Lauren: You're welcome. 

Matt: Love that. 

Lauren: I'm just trying to motivate you. 

Matt: You know, what's really cool is I love that throughout this outline, you've decided to use the Disney Food Blog as – 

Lauren: I have. 

Matt: – one of your examples. 

Lauren: And I will. 

Matt: That will also keep all this front and center which is great. 

Lauren: Yeah, exactly. This is not just a Disney aside for the sake of being a Disney aside, it's actually relevant to the episode topic. 

Matt: This might be the episode where we need a little button for me to censor myself, or it just goes beep as I profusely drop f bombs and shoot daggers your way with my eyeballs. 

Lauren: That's fair. 

Matt: Okay. 

Lauren: That’s okay. 

Matt: No. It's fine. Let's move on. 

Lauren: All right. 

[3:13] - Today’s Topic: Supporting your subscription content with print-on-demand products. 

Matt: All right. Anyways. So, yeah, subscription based services are really big right now. I, I and I think they're pretty cool. And yes, I think the implication there or what we're to assume is that, as we're talking about subscription services, you're already charging some amount of money on a monthly basis for your content. But what we have noticed, and what we talked to creators and authors about a lot, especially at events, is finding other ways to monetize their content, or finding ways to inject their books and other content into their subscription channel and to provide passive streams of revenue or even active streams, depending on how much they generate from them. 

Lauren: I think that kind of the point here is that we're talking about different ways that you can support your audience while also supporting yourself. And also, I mean, we'll get into the whole why print products in general. But I think that the two key points that I want to highlight up at the top before we get into it are, number one, we're not saying that print is better than digital content. 

Matt: You’re not saying. 

Lauren: You're right. You're right. 

Matt: I will forever have print over digital. 

Lauren: I mean, so will I – 

Matt: That'll probably be the last tattoo I ever get, will be print over everything. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Matt: So.  

Lauren: Last one? 

Matt: I mean, I don't have room for anything else. 

Lauren: That's true. 

Matt: I'm going to have to make room for it somewhere. 

Lauren: You're just going over top of them though, so, at this point. 

Matt: That's true. 

Lauren: Yeah. We will make the case that print is equally valuable, maybe, to digital. I don't know. But the point is that I'm not saying that if you are doing a digital magazine, that you shouldn't be doing that anymore and you should be doing a print magazine instead. I'm saying it is a nice thing to offer your subscribers the option of getting your digital content in print format. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So that's kind of what we're talking about throughout this episode. And I also kind of want to differentiate between the ideas of like a really polished, published, professionally edited, put together book. And just like some basic print collateral. I think that – 

Matt: What do you mean by basic print collateral? 

Lauren: We've talked a lot about the value of turning your content into a book. We've done that episode topic before, about the idea of taking your blog and publishing it into a full book. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Great. Love that. Not saying that you shouldn't do that. But also saying that you can do something as simple as… I create a bunch of downloadable PDF printables, and I want to create a very simple, 8.5” by 11” perfect bound book or a coil bound book that is putting all of my printables together from one year, binding it, and just sending it out like that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It doesn't have to be the most beautiful book you've ever seen. It can be something as simple as, I'm just helping my subscribers out by instead of them having to go print the content out, I'm offering to print it for them and have it shipped to them directly. 

Matt: Yeah, I gotcha. 

Lauren: Yeah. Keep that in mind too. Every idea that we have in here is not us saying, spend the next six months editing and formatting the most beautiful book possible. And then as soon as you're done doing that, you're going to just start it all over again. 

Matt: But that is a great idea. 

Lauren: It is a great idea. And you can do that if you want to. But if you don't want to, there are ways to use print-on-demand as a simple like, I'm just printing a basic bound copy of something.

Matt: Yeah, that makes complete sense. And like you said, we have talked about this on several occasions. Episode 67, there's probably a couple other episodes where we talk specifically about turning digital content into printed content and how to capitalize on that. But as I noted earlier, it looks like we're going to be referring a lot to the Disney Food Blog, as our headlining example throughout this episode. 

Matt: You want to tell us why? 

Lauren: I mean, I guess not why, but they were just the first example that came to mind for me as a creator that… If you're not familiar, Disney Food Blog is an account that – a blog, obviously, but also social media account – that is kind of a catch-all for all different types of Disney World news. Their primary focus and their point of origin was food reviews, restaurant reviews, things like that. But they now, they're kind of now my go to source for any news about Disney World. But one of the things that they do very often is any time that there's a new restaurant, anytime that a menu was updated, they've updated the offerings of the snack cart. They are the first to report on it. They are the ones that are sending people into the park immediately to go do a review of it, post it, tell you where you can find it in there. So their content is something that I personally am referencing constantly, especially when I'm in the parks. But it's also content that is constantly being updated, edited, becomes outdated because something new happens or this is a limited time experience or whatever. 

[8:02] - Why Print? Books are easier to reference than many content platforms.

Matt: So to get to our first real benefit of print. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: And why having a print product, available through your subscription and your content delivery, sounds like ease of use? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So you are at the park. Parks, plural. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Quite often, as I've already noted. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: A lot more than me lately, as I've already noted, that I'm not bitter about at all. If you can't tell. And it sounds like you probably have your phone out quite a bit. 

Lauren: Yeah. You know, one of the –  

Matt: You're one of those people that frustrates me when I'm walking behind you at the park, and you're –

Lauren: Absolutely not. 

Matt: I'm just kidding. I know you're not. 

Lauren: You walk with me through all kinds of cities and airports and places. I walk like a New Yorker and you know it. 

Matt: That's fair. Upstate New Yorker. 

Lauren: No, but it is, you know, it is a common problem, complaint, whatever at Disney right now is that you do have to spend a lot of time on your phone as you're navigating the parks. And if you are also not familiar, EPCOT is one of the parks that does frequent food events. 

Matt: Events in general, but yeah.  

Lauren: So they have the festivals three times a year where there are pop up food vendors and stuff like that. There's also constantly like, new snacks and things being introduced there. And if you're somebody who's walking around and saying, like, gosh, I really I, I want to try all these new things that are here, but I'm only here for one day. There's only so many snacks that I can eat in one day. 

Matt: Well, first of all, sorry about your bad luck. 

Lauren: I know. Fair. And also, that's quitter mentality. 

Matt: Exactly. 

Lauren: But if I, if I say I want to, highlight the best of the best. I don't want to waste my snack allotment on a mediocre snack. But I also don't want to be walking around EPCOT on my phone, scrolling through the Disney Food Blog Instagram, trying to find their individual posts about what the best things are at each of the festival booths. If I had a little printed book that they did, that was like, here's our guide to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival 2025. And it's got our highlights and recommendations of like, if you're eating one thing from this festival booth, get this one. And I can just pull that out of my backpack instead of having to constantly go back and forth to my phone. To me, that ease of use? Hands down. Ten out of ten. 

Matt: Yeah. So. And we've touched on this ease of use concept before for content creators. So again, things like workbooks and stuff like that where yes, we understand that, you know, if they're subscribing to your blog or your newsletter, then they obviously have access to all of your content digitally. Or, maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe once you send the newsletter out, that's it. It doesn't matter. But the point is, for people who create content that is educational in nature, something somebody might want to use for reference later on, giving them a source that is easily reviewable, something that they can have on their desk or a bookshelf where they can just turn around and grab it, and they don't have to go back through your blog and do keyword searches to find the things they're looking for, if it's right there in front of them, right? 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: It's just much easier to access. And then sticking with the Disney thing, our friend Stephen did his pocket sized digest book, of how to basically keep yourself limber and healthy while you're at Disney, right? And so you can toss it in your backpack. It's full of all kinds of really cool little stretches and pre-park workouts and post-park sort of things to make sure you don't wake up the next morning feeling like a zombie. So again, ease of use, having something handy, something that's potentially a reference material. This is one of the things that print is really good for. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: And again, you don't have to feel like you're on your phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Which is a problem. 

Lauren: For sure. And it's also something that depending on the type of content you're creating, the searchability of these things suck sometimes, you know? 

Matt: Sure. 

Lauren: Like, stepping away from the Disney example, if you are just an Instagram content creator and you are somebody… You know, this is another Instagram account that I follow. That is… I can't think of the name of it, but it's all just like things to do around the Raleigh Durham area. And that content is really cool. And I do try to like, save videos that I see – 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – when I see them. But –

Matt: I see where you're going. 

Lauren: It's not easy. There's no – there is no Instagram feature to search a specific account. Like, you can search…

Matt: Right.

Lauren: Instagram. 

Matt: Sure. 

Lauren: But I can't say I want to search this specific account's content –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: On Instagram. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So if I'm looking for something that they recommended or referenced, it's not easy to find it. 

Matt: It's funny, I was just doing that over the weekend. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: I went back to an account where I know that within the last couple of weeks, they posted this thing that I wanted to go back and read and review, and I didn't bookmark it. And even if I had my bookmarks on my Instagram are not –

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: So that's not even a thing that's possible right now. My bookmarks are a mess. But I was just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I was like, did they delete it? Is it not even? And unfortunately, some accounts will delete stuff after it's been up for a little while. I didn't even think about that. You're right. Sometimes searching through content – 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: – on digital channels is not always as easy as you would think. 

Lauren: Even newsletters, like just regular email newsletters, no matter what email provider you're using, searching your inbox is never… you never get what you want out of it. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It's so frustrating sometimes. 

Matt: We're already moving into one of the other benefits of print. But, you know, having something that's accessible and can be used as a reference. And the last example I'll give on that one and then we can move on to another benefit of print is Lenny Rachitsky, who's a pretty well-known podcaster. He has a really great podcast where he interviews a lot of, you know, people in tech, especially as it pertains to, early startups and, project management and stuff like that. But he published a book recently and ran it through Lulu. It was basically the best of his newsletter, volume one. So he basically was a book of just all of his best newsletters, I'm assuming ranked based on open rates, read rates, things like that. I don't know, but. Nonetheless, it went really well for him. He basically said, listen, I'm gonna do 4,000 copies of this thing and that's it. So, having a copy of that book where you have the best of his newsletters and podcasts to date in one single volume, where you could go back through, right? And look at, the best pieces of an interview with some tech person doesn't matter, really. It's just much easier than having to go back through all your newsletters in your inbox from Lenny Rachitsky and find which newsletter had that interview in it. And, I just thought that was really clever. And he, blew through the 4,000 – 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – very quickly. So, you know, it was a great source of revenue for him. But it was also a really good resource for his, his listeners and newsletter readers who clearly saw value in it because he blew through those 4,000 very quickly. And now they have that best of volume one on their desk or on their bookshelf, or easily accessible anytime they want to go back and refer to it, so. I love that example. Ease of use and having something that's accessible, as potentially a reference, I think is one of the – or two of, potentially, if you split them out – the biggest, I think, benefits of having content in print. 

[15:10] - Why Print? Books make great gifts and impulse purchases.

Lauren: One of the other reasons that I think that print books can be so valuable, depending on the type of content that you're creating, is that print content is giftable, impulse purchasable, and or memorialized. 

Matt: Impulse. Purchasable. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: And memorialized. 

Lauren: Yes. Three different – Three different ideas. 

Matt: Impulse. Purchasable. 

Lauren: Yeah. I was trying to find a like a, a one word way to say that…

Matt: You're just making stuff up now, aren't you? 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Alright. 

Lauren: Yes. Always. But I mean, no, think about something like… this is a bad example because it could never happen. 

Matt: We're going to give you an example, but this is a bad one because it can never happen. 

Lauren: Just go with me on this one. 

Matt: Okay. Let's go. 

Lauren: Let's say the Disney Food Blog did put together their ultimate guide to EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and somehow managed to work out a deal with Disney where people where Disney was selling copies of that book in the gift shops in EPCOT. That is something that you don't know you need it until it's in front of you, and then you go, oh yeah, that would be a great thing to have right now. I do want that. And that's a bad example because Disney's never going to let that happen. But let's say that you are a travel creator that is doing a… a book that is. Here's a guide to the 20 best restaurants in Boise. And there are a few Airbnbs or boutique hotels or even like, chain hotels or whatever, in Boise that are willing to stock your book in their gift shop. That is, that is an impulse purchase thing. That is something that maybe people are not going to think ahead of time, you know what I'm going to do before this trip is buy a restaurant guide to this city. But when they see it in front of them, they'll go, yeah, that is a really cool reference guide for me to have right now. And it's something that's going to add value to my trip. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So, you know, that's what I mean by impulse purchase. 

Matt: Gotcha. Okay. 

Lauren: But also giftable in the sense that, if your content is something that people can either like, support a friend. If someone's saying like, hey, I'm really excited about…I think I'm going to write a book this year. And you wanted to say, I signed myself up for this newsletter that I find really valuable for writing and editing tips. What are you going to do? Subscribe them to the – like, you're gonna just be like, here. I also signed you up for this free newsletter. But maybe –

Matt: You could. 

Lauren: – they have. I mean, you could. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You know, and – 

Matt: I don't know if I would recommend that. 

Lauren: Yeah, may or may not be a  move for a good friend. I don't know. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I don't, I don't need any more, uh… 

Matt: Stuff in the inbox, yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah, exactly. But, you know, they say, hey, I'm subscribed to this newsletter that I really like that has a bunch of great editing and writing tips. They also have a print version of some of their best content all rounded up in a book. I ordered you a copy and it's coming your way, and if you like it, you should subscribe to their newsletter. 

Matt: I would agree that's a better gift for me. 

Lauren: I know 

Matt: For sure. I do not like when people just put stuff into my inbox that I did not ask for. 

Lauren:  Who does? 

Matt: I think some people don't mind, but. Well, yeah, they're called psychopaths. They exist. 

Lauren: Okay. 

Matt: Yes, I agree, I, I think the giftable nature of, obviously, printed stuff versus digital stuff, in my opinion, is a little more meaningful. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: It does show that, some thought was put in there and some effort was made. But, at the end of the day, again, depending on what your content is, what your goals and purposes are for your content, it may be a great gift-type product. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: It may not be, but it's still another benefit of having content that's already set up for print form or printed form that can then be utilized in a way that maybe you didn't originally intend. But again, revenue’s revenue. Right? 

Lauren: Right. Right. Just make it available. You know, we're not saying you have to make everybody buy a copy of this. But if it's available, you might be surprised –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – by how often people make use of it. And then for the memorialized part of it, depending on what kind of content you're creating, the people included in that content might want to own a physical copy of it. There's a magazine that we've referenced before, I think, the Black and White Minimalism Magazine, or Minimalist Magazine. And they do recurring issues throughout the year, and they do print copies of those issues, but they also do an annual award. They do like a best of photos for the year, and they print that as well. So the people that are included in that, maybe if it is just a digital edition and it was just something that was here's our favorite photos of the year, and we're including that in this nice email roundup or whatever. Like that's cool. Whatever. But if I, if I was included in a best photos of the year or best short stories of the year, I would want that. Or if my restaurant was included in the here are my top 25 favorite restaurants I've eaten in throughout the country this year... 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I would want a print copy of that, and I'd maybe even buy a few to keep in my restaurant – 

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: – for other people to buy too. 

Matt: Agreed. 

Lauren: You know? 

Matt: Yeah, that's a good one. 

Lauren: Yeah. Thanks. See, I have some good ideas. 

Matt: I don't know if anybody's ever argued that you have some good ideas. 

Lauren: That's was nice. 

Matt: Well, I gotta balance out my bitterness at your Disney escapades for a little while, so.

Lauren: That's fair. 

Matt: I'll throw a couple of compliments your way. 

Lauren: I appreciate it. 

Matt: Yeah, we'll see how the rest of the episode goes. 

Lauren: Okay. 

[20:30] - Why Print? Books stand out at in-person events. 

Matt: Another, I think, benefit of print…it really helps you show up for in-person authority building types of activities and events. Right? So showing up at an event or something like that with printed copies of your content, whether again, you did, you know, similar to Lenny Rachitsky, maybe you did the best of the Lauren Vassallo blog for 2024. And you show up at an event and you've got copies of that. That's going to be a lot cooler than if you showed up, sat down at your booth or table, flipped open your laptop, and just said, here you go, check out my content. Magazines, books, things like that, they make for better in person content exchanges, it's much easier to monetize, potentially, there. I think what's really cool about using print products, at an event or something like that, is that there's a longevity and a legacy that goes along with something like that. When they leave that event, maybe similar to really cool swag, potentially. But leaving an event with a book, a piece of printed content that you find value in… I think you're gonna get home and treat that differently than had somebody given you a business card with a QR code on it and said scan this later for some really cool downloadable resources. Or some sort of digital content that maybe you scanned or consumed to a degree at an event versus bringing home something tangible. It's just going to provide longer lasting value. I can tell you right now that again, the ratio of times that I will go to a printed piece of content in my home office or here in the office, versus when I might go scan somebody's blog or website or newsletter. It's disproportionate, to the side of print. Showing up at an event or some other type of activity with printed copies, that's a much baller move than just saying, hey, go check out my website. 

Lauren: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it's authority building in more ways than one. 

Matt: If your thing is, let's say consulting. Or maybe you've got a mastermind that you're pushing a cohort starting in a few months, them walking away from an introduction with you with a book in hand or something like that, a nice piece of printed collateral like that. Versus just a short conversation or a, hey, check out my website, you've got a way bigger possibility or chance that they're going to convert into somebody that's going to come into your mastermind or your community or whatever that might be, so. 

Lauren: Right. And especially if, because again, we're talking about subscription based content right now, if you're somebody that has your content behind a paywall, it's hard to show that off to people that are not subscribed to you. 

Matt: Yeah, it can be. 

Lauren: You might have some content that's free and accessible that people can see. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: But maybe you do want to have some things that are not just the things that they can find just by googling you and seeing some free content available, but they can access some of – not all of, but some of – your paid content by seeing your book. And also, again, to the point of a very basic book versus a fully polished, published book. We were also not necessarily talking about printing a 200 page book. You can print a little 30 page –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: –pocket book that is just like, here are my top five most referenced blog posts that have been included in my email newsletters before.

Matt: I somehow got my hands on… I don't, I don't even remember how I got my hands on it, but it was a project. It was run through Lulu. I don't remember, but it's basically, the pocket book MBA. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Have you seen that? 

Lauren: The Tiny MBA. 

Matt: Yeah. The Tiny MBA. 

Lauren: Yup.

Matt: Yeah, it's actually really cool. It is, you know, digest or pocket sized. But it's really cool. Again, I don't know how it came across my desk, but now I actually flip through it on occasion. And, you know, or if I'm looking for something or I just thought it was a really cool piece of content. It wasn't something that, you know – it's well done. But, it's just meant to be a little pocket sized reference book.

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: So they didn't spend a ton of money or time on it, but I thought it was really cool. 

Lauren: Yeah. It's a, it's a lead magnet. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It's just saying, hey, here's a sample of my work. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Dive deeper into it by subscribing to my Patreon or signing up for my Substack, or maybe even signing up for my masterclass. But, you know, that's…

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That might be a next step. But yeah, it's just a way it's a different way to show off your content. It's different gateway to entry for people. 

[24:51] - Why Print? POD projects can be easily updated and retired.

Lauren: I do, before we get – I was going to say before we get too far into this, but we're already 30 minutes in. So at this point, maybe we should have made this point 28 minutes ago. Not just print, but specifically POD. One of the incredibly valuable things about Print-On-Demand is that it is super easy for you to update this content. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: If your subscription content is also something that is timely, time stamped, or otherwise relevant to a specific date. 

Matt: Time boxed, yeah. 

Lauren: Yes. So if it's something that becomes outdated – you know, again, Disney Food blog, if they did a guide to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2025. When that festival is over, that content is no longer relevant. 

Matt: Yeah. I mean, this is especially important for people who create content around social media or things like that, right? 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: You could put something out today about how, you know, to best navigate Twitter or X, whatever, whatever. And tomorrow you're going to have to change it. 

Lauren: Right.

Matt: You know, because somebody woke up there and decided they wanted to change how the platform works or – 

Lauren: Somebody’s listening to this podcast and decided that they didn't like me talking shit about Instagram not being searchable. And they've created and they've changed that. 

Matt: Well. 

Lauren: That would be the best thing. That would be the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I would literally put that on my tombstone. 

Matt: I mean, let's be fair, that'd be the best thing that ever happened to this podcast. That'd mean that somebody influential was listening. 

Lauren: Fair enough. 

Matt: So we stray. 

Lauren: Yeah. You know, whatever. 

Matt: Yes. Print-on-demand specifically. And, and again, you probably wouldn't want to do most of this stuff, outside of print-on-demand and in, in a traditional offset, you're just going to get stuck with a ton of inventory that you gotta keep in your garage or a guest bedroom. Copies will definitely get wasted because of what we just referred to. So if that's your business, information and educating people, then you know just as well as we do, if not better, that that stuff has a shelf life. Sometimes. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Depending on what that information is. So, being able to easily update, like you said, and change that so that every copy after that has the most up to date. Or you can do revised editions very quickly and easily. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: It is super easy to update that stuff. So, that is one of the bigger benefits of print-on-demand, a speed to market and flexibility. 

Lauren: Yep. And then of course, the – like Matt said, with the inventory and storage, you don't need to order a print run of several thousands of copies of books. If you are just doing something you know, a best of retrospective of the last year worth of newsletters, but I don't know how many people are going to be interested in this. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: If only ten people wind up buying it, you haven't wasted thousands of copies of books because they’re just print-on-demand.

Matt: Experimentation. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt:Yeah. So, you know, again, I before POD was a thing, to do a book. There was no… like, you had to be pretty solid that you were gonna sell the 5,000 copies that you were about to order from an offset printer. 

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: Because that was not going to be a cheap upfront investment. and the same goes for traditional publishing companies. There's a lot of emphasis placed on projecting sales and things like that. Whereas with print-on-demand, you can run experiments all day every day. You can literally create a piece of content, upload it. One person buys the book. Great. That person got it. You might not want to sell that book anymore. Conversely, if, if 75 people buy it on the first day you uploaded it, you know you're on to something and you keep moving. So experimentation again, that flexibility I think is key. 

Lauren: Yeah, I mean, experimentation also in terms of like, maybe this is something that you've been thinking about doing, doing a book that is a larger scale, like we've talked about in past episodes, where it is actually like a professionally edited, polished, put together version of your content with extra content, bonus chapters, whatever in it, and you want to test the waters and see if that's something people are interested in. And you start by doing just this kind of more informal version of, hey, I published a roundup of my top ten favorite blog posts from the past year. If you're interested in it, check it out. And if a bunch of people buy it, then you know that there's interest in that content. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And then lastly, of course, when it comes to just benefits of a print book, depending on how you choose to sell it or how you choose to make it available to your subscribers, it is something that can work as a discovery tool for you. If you choose to go wide with your book sales and have it listed on third party retailers –  

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That's another way for people to find you. And even if they don't buy the book, they might come subscribe to your Patreon or Substack or whatever. 

Matt: Yep. 

[29:13] - Implementation: Add new subscription tiers for print access. 

Matt: So we agree that print is the way. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: We agree the type of print i.e. print-on-demand that that model is the best suited for, for creators and subscriptions and, and those types of business models. But, what are some ways that we could put that into practice? 

Lauren: A lot of it has – 

Matt: So if I have a subscription –

Lauren: Yeah?

Matt: – for my amazing, super cool, informative, funny, charming newsletter. 

Lauren: Yes, all words I would use to describe you

Matt. That doesn't currently exist. 

Lauren: Yet. 

Matt: It should. How would I do this? What would that look like? 

Lauren: There are a lot of different ways that you can do this. And I think that's one of the things that makes this a really interesting monetization tool for people. There's a lot of different ways that you could approach how to use having print books available to help you boost your brand, or monetize your content, or whatever. One of the ways can be just adding a new subscription tier level to your content. If you think this is something that people would want regularly as subscribers, you can say, okay, my base level subscription is just what it's always been. You're getting a weekly, monthly, whatever newsletter. You're getting all that content still in it, but it is exclusively digital. However, if you wanted to update it or upgrade to a slightly higher tier, that's going to be a higher price point at the end of every month or the end of every quarter or year or whatever. I'm going to also send out a printed copy of everything that you've gotten this year. 

Matt: Okay. 

Lauren: That's one way –

Matt: Yeah. That reminds me of, like when you do a Kickstarter or something like that where you have a higher level tier that would include the print version of the book –

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – versus just the crappy little ebook, right? Or PDF. I like that idea. 

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about it, as I was writing this outline, I got the weekly email from one of our Lulu creators. She does these downloadable printables, sometimes coloring pages, sometimes like a, self-care checklist for the week, whatever, blah blah blah. And I love those. I think they're so cute. I love her art style. I love seeing them, whatever. I don't have a printer, so downloadable PDF printables only get so far with me. Because I don't have any way of printing them. But you know, if she said for an extra $10, 15 a month, I will send you a roundup of the printed out versions of these printables. My time and effort to go print this stuff out might be worth 10 or $15 a month. 

Matt: Yeah, that's fair.

Lauren: If it's content that I find really valuable and I want… could be worth it. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

[31:48] - Implementation: Reward loyal fans & customers or incentivize new ones.

Matt: It's a good way to also reward your subscribers for loyalty. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: So if you didn't want to create a different incentive tier, but you still wanted to incentivize people to subscribe, it is a great reward, I think. So, whatever format you decide to do. But offering that as something that can only get if they are a subscriber or, you know, if they've been a subscriber, recurring, right? Rebill is on, recurring subscriber for six months, a year, whatever. They get a printed copy of whatever the content might be, whether that's a new book or something else. So I like the idea of rewarding people for being subscribers. 

Lauren: Your two main goals with any kind of content creation should be monetization and loyalty building, right? I mean, that's – they go hand in hand with each other. That is how you build a loyal audience, is by providing them high quality content, and they turn around and give you money for that content because you have built up that established loyalty with them. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So, you know, if these are ways to do that, where you can say, like, let me remind you of why I've provided value for you. It can also be a way that you can incentivize new subscribers, potentially. 

Matt: That's a good one, because everybody wants to try and build more audience –

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: – especially owned audience, right? And if we're talking about subscription platforms, primarily we're talking about either blog or newsletter, and those are great ways to kind of, sort of own your audience and not necessarily be at the every waking whim of social media. So being able to build that audience using an incentive like this, that again, brings pretty multi-layered value to what you're doing, I think is really, really awesome. 

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, think of it as a way to… whether it's a new subscriber subscribing to a higher access point or a higher tier, or it's an existing subscriber that you're trying to motivate them to hit that higher tier subscription level. You can say, hey, you can subscribe to my newsletter for $5 a month. But if you do this one time $25, I'll send you a book of all of last year's newsletters, in addition to the content that you're going to start to get moving forward. 

Matt: That's actually a really cool idea. Because I have – we've all done this – like I've started following somebody because I found, you know, a piece of the content. I was like, oh, I really like what they're, what they're doing, what they're saying, whatever. And I've wondered, like, what were the last 20 emails like? 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: There's really no way to do – like, you could email them and be like, hey, do you mind sending me your last 20 emails? That's probably not gonna happen. But chances are if you found value in something of theirs, if they've got a year's worth of content prior to that, you're probably gonna find value in that too. But like you said, like, how do you really get your hands on that? And then with podcasting. Yeah, you can go back and start listening to old ones. But a lot of us don't really do that, nor do we have the time. But, having something where at the point of subscription, I could get this thing whether it's, you know, for subscribing or for an extra ten bucks, whatever, I've got last year's worth of top content bound in a really nice book that we'll send your way. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: I'd be like, yeah, sign me up. Stoked. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

Matt: Very cool. 

Lauren: That I mean, that could also be the value add that because, I could probably find psychological studies to back this data up, but I think we all know this. People still subconsciously see, like a – there's a perceived value in receiving a physical product for something. 

Matt: Oh yeah, yeah.  

Lauren: For sure. As somebody who subscribes to a lot of free newsletter content, I might be like, a little like, you want me to pay for things that other people are giving me for free? Like, uh, I don't know. But if you turned around and said, subscribe to my newsletter, it's super cheap. It's just this amount of money every month. And as an added bonus, I'll send you a print book with a year's worth of content and information in it. That to me, that is something that I'm going to say. Okay. Actually, yeah, that does sound pretty good. And it probably is more expensive than me just subscribing to the newsletter. But it's going to, it's going to tip me over the edge anyway. 

Matt: It depends. I mean, we've also seen people, especially at events like Content Entrepreneur Expo and stuff like that, where the book is the lead magnet to get them to the newsletter, which is actually the bigger source of revenue –

Lauren: Right. 

Matt: – for the creators. So, you know, having a book that provides some value and then, throughout the book and at the end of the book, there's calls to action to go sign up for the newsletter where, a lot of the content generation is happening on a weekly basis, and then that newsletter is really the source of recurring revenue and a way to potentially sell other services and products to. So, it goes kind of both ways. But yeah. 

Lauren: Well, right. And we talked about that in the episode that we did on Justin Moore recently. He had talked about how he recognized the risk of publishing the book and how it would kind of cut into his course, his online course sales, and it would use a lot of the content that was included in that. But that for him, it wound up being worth it as a strategy, because instead it leads people to the higher priced, one-on-one coaching or masterclasses or mastermind groups or something like that, maybe even like an in-person event from seeing that. So, it is something that can be access to an even higher price point content. 

Matt: Yeah. 

[37:02] - Implementation: Turning your content into different book products. 

Lauren: I think there's a lot of different ways that you can use this to monetize your existing content. And different like, creative ways that you could do. I think we could spitball creative ideas for how to turn your content into a print book –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – forever. Like.

Matt: That's like six episodes worth of... 

Lauren: I know, yeah, I know. It's really fun. We've done a lot of content ideation already throughout this. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So is there anything that we didn't talk about that you think? 

Matt: I think again, just to reiterate, newsletters are an obvious one. It's already written content. It's very easy to repurpose that, whether you do that on a monthly, quarterly, whatever basis. But again, I always point to, I love the Lenny Rachitsky example. Podcasts and video transcripts always make for really good written content. Obviously, again, being able to compile those into some sort of a book, a compendium, a reference doc, something like that. You've talked a lot about guides and different types of content that are oftentimes fluctuating and, and how often their content needs to be updated, and the ability to create content from that and turn that into printed content. The list goes on and on. But I think as a content creator, as anybody listening that considers themselves a content creator or does a subscription service, there's just so many ways that you could create some sort of printed content that you can offer your readers, listeners, subscribers, whatever you want to call them, that really adds value to the chain and brings in some passive revenue for you. 

Lauren: Yeah, I think that that's kind of a really important distinction that I want to again reiterate with this. When it comes to this kind of content ideation: consider the different formats that you can use that are all still going to be print-on-demand book products, but there's different ways that you can do that. Whether that is something like –

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: – a fully published book versus just a coil bound, here are five episode transcripts of this particular topic. We printed the transcripts for you so that you don't have to go back and listen to the 27 tangents that are included in every episode, you can just skim through the transcripts. And then as a bonus, the blog content that we referenced throughout that episode, we also printed that and included that. And it's just – it's not formatted. It's an 8.5 by 11 coil bound book, but it is a quick reference guide for you. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That's different than us turning the podcast content into a book. Those are two different content ideas. Those are two different project ideas and two different forms of monetization. 

Matt: Yeah. 

[39:27] - Fulfillment: Selling your books and fulfilling recurring subscription orders. 

Matt: If you decide to put out a piece of printed content, how does that work? How do I get that into the hands of my 500 readers? Do I have to go in and like, hand address 500 envelopes and stuff the book in there and send it to them? Like, what are the actual mechanics and logistics of me getting this new pocket guide or whatever it is I've done out to my subscribers? 

Lauren: Yeah, that's fair, because that also sounds awful.  

Matt: That sounds miserable. 

Lauren: Having to do it manually that way. 

Matt: And if you tell me that's how I have to do it, I'm leaving right now.  

Lauren: Great news. I, I promise I will not. 

Matt: Okay. 

Lauren: Well, you can use Lulu's Order Import tool to do that for you. 

Matt: What the hell is that? 

Lauren: It is a system that we have built into Lulu. That is just, you just have to go through and put together a spreadsheet of everybody that is getting a copy, everyone that's ordered a copy. 

Matt: So in other words –

Lauren: Or whatever. 

Matt: – I could just download a CSV file from my subscription tool. 

Lauren: You can.

Matt: Perfect. 

Lauren: You can just download that. And then we have a template that you can download a free template that just shows you all the information that you need. You upload that to your Lulu account. And we will print and dropship your books to each person on that list. 

Matt: Way better. 

Lauren: So yeah, you don't have to do any of the fulfillment. You don't even have to touch the books. They're going to go straight to your subscribers. 

Matt: Great. 

Lauren: There are also obviously other ways that you can do this too. If you choose to sell your books directly, you can. If you want to have something set up on your own website where you're selling direct, you can use the Lulu Direct plugin, Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, or our API to do that. We've talked about these before. You can also, if you don't have your own website because you're using Substack or Patreon or whatever as your platform. I mean, first of all, we've talked a lot about not building on rented land, so maybe reconsider. If that is something that you just haven't done yet, you can also use private access links and have your content available directly on the Lulu Bookstore, but only people that have the link to it can find it. So it's not something that anyone can just search the Lulu Bookstore and find your book. It has to be something that you are sending directly to your subscribers. 

Matt: Yeah. That’s a really cool feature.

Lauren: So if you want it – Yeah, it is. And it's something that if you want this print content to be exclusive to a certain tier of subscribers, or exclusive to all your subscribers, or whatever the case is, this is a great way to do it. But of course if you don't, if you want to use it like we mentioned earlier as a potential long tail discoverability tool. Then you can also go wide with your book sales and have your book listed on retail channels. 

Matt: That sounds fun. 

Lauren: Yeah. 

[42:06] - Final Thoughts

Lauren: We are not going to get into the whole, how to do this. We've done episodes on this. I will link it in the show notes. Episode 75 is the seven steps of publishing your book, and the first couple of steps in that do include choosing your content, organizing your content, figuring out how you want to do all that. So if this is something that you want to do, I would say go check out that episode. We also have a ton of resources on the website, on the blog, YouTube, whatever that will help you with the actual book production process. 

Matt: That's right. 

Lauren: So, if you want to do that – 

Matt: And if you have any questions, you can always email Lauren. 

Lauren: Yes, you can. 

Matt: Directly. 

Lauren: No – you can. I mean, you'll email podcast@lulu.com and it will come to my inbox, but Matt will see it too. So you can be sure to say hi to him in that as well. 

Matt: Sure. 

Lauren: Yeah. Why not? 

Matt: All right, I have to go plan my next Disney vacation, so I don't have to hear you anymore. 

Lauren: I really think you should. I think the time is way overdue. Is this because you stopped going out to California for tattoos? 

Matt: I mean, that certainly didn't help. 

Lauren: Yeah. It's okay. We'll get you back. We'll get you back on it. Now is definitely not the time, though, because I can confirm that Florida right now was like being directly immersed in a swamp. 

Matt: Oh, I miss that. 

Lauren: Like. 

Matt: Don't forget, I grew up there like I'm used to. 

Lauren: Yeah, but it's worse than, like, it's –

Matt: How is that possible? 

Lauren: I've. I've been to Florida in July plenty of times, and somehow it was worse. I mean, the heat wave we're having here right now –  

Matt: You know what we call people like you? Tourists. 

Lauren: That's fair. Can't argue with that. 

Matt: No. 

Lauren: Okay. Well, if you want to argue with that or with anything else, if you want to ask us any questions, if you have any ideas for episodes that you'd like to hear more about, anything like that, you can email us at podcast@lulu.com. Or comment on YouTube, comment on Lulu's socials. We see all those comments. We respond to them directly. We're happy to talk to you. Leave us a review. Like and subscribe. 

Matt: All those things. 

Lauren: All those things. Some of those things. We can yap forever. 

Matt: You can. 

Lauren: No, you can too. But if you want to yap back, there are ways for you to do it. So just give us a shout. Let us know. 

Matt: All right. Later. 

Lauren: Thanks for listening.