In partnership with: Outpost for Ghost publishers
Some people pay you right away. Others take months to warm up.
What’s going on there?
Your readers have different levels of trust and motivation to buy in. For readers who do not know you yet, seeing a bunch of subscription tiers with little context is not gonna work very well.
That’s where an Upgrade Page can help.
An Upgrade Page is an in-between layer that persuades a reader who is thinking about paying you to actually do it. It’s for your harder sell readers. The ones who toil over whether to subscribe or not. The ones who need more reasons.
Today’s Paid Sub Play is what to include in your Upgrade Page, where to promote it and some examples from journalists doing it well.
P.S. Coming Saturday: choose your level of selling out. The next issue is inspired by something JD Shadel said that got me thinking about the limits of growth that we self impose, often for very good reasons.
In this play
- What’s an Upgrade Page
- Why you need an Upgrade Page
- What to put into your Upgrade Page
- Where to promote your Upgrade Page
- More great examples of Upgrade Pages in action
Find this in your Foundation Map
If you’re following along on our Foundation Map workbook, this is on page 3 under Website Pages.
The Foundation Map for running a paid subscription business
And don’t think adding an Upgrade Page is a whole project. It’s quick.
Community members Bryan Vance and Andy Dehnart made changes to their Upgrade Pages live on our session yesterday. I bet you can add yours or fix yours up in less time than it takes to watch an episode of The Rehearsal. Read on for what to do!
What’s an Upgrade Page
An Upgrade Page is the page where subscribers decide to buy a subscription or contribute financially to your publication.
For the purposes of this post, I’m making a distinction between the Upgrade Page and the Pricing Page, but they can be the same thing.
An Upgrade Page is basically a sales page for your subscription or paid support. Like this example from Max Read’s About page.
The Pricing Page is where your reader chooses their price and hits buy, as in this example from Luke O’Neil’s Hell World.
This can all happen on one page, but if you can’t control the design of your Pricing Page, you might want to add another page to do some of the persuasion lift for you.
That’s where the Upgrade Page comes in.
Why you need an Upgrade Page
You may need to spell out why someone should pay you.
It’s hard to do this on the Pricing Page because you have limited space there and also because adding more to that page can get in the way of converting ready-to-buy readers. I’ve learned this lesson on many a checkout experiment, including one I ran with Hell Gate last year when we tried adding testimonials to their Pricing Page and saw new paid subscribers tank BY HALF.
There’s a lot of benefit to having two pages here.
The Upgrade Page for your slow sallies who need a little hand holding and the Pricing Page for your fast flynns who are already ready to jump in.
Your Upgrade Page should:
- Explain the options your reader has
- Highlight the value of those options (OR the value of paying in general)
- Overcome hesitations that might get in the way for them
- Answer any questions you know they could have
- Offer a path to buying/paying/contributing
What to put into your Upgrade Page
You can choose from these sections or use them all! Make sure to add buttons to pay throughout the page, especially if it gets long.
Section 1: Why Pay opener
Open with a couple sentences about why you produce this work or why readers should pay for it. No more than a paragraph.
Andy Dehnart’s opener on the support page for reality blurred
Section 2: Why Pay specifics
Explain the options for paying here and share any perks. Make sure to spell out why these are valuable to your reader (or why others appreciate them). You can also include value anchors like (a $99 value!).
Lucy Werner’s upgrade page for Hype Yourself
Section 3: Testimonials from paid subscribers
Testimonials are a major lever for selling at scale. I’ve done a ton of conversion work using testimonials and they’re much more powerful than people realize. I’ve seen first hand the difference in my own sales before/after testimonials so I include a BOATLOAD of them. But 3-5 really good ones can do a lot of selling for you.
They help your reader see your subscription through the mindset of other readers, which can trigger a similar motivation inside them.
Snapshot of my upgrade page where I use a “Wall of Love” style onslaught of testimonials
Section 4: Milestones
I don’t think we’re using these enough! Think GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Buy Me a Coffee. Watching that ticker move up towards a goal can really activate your base. I haven’t seen many publishers use these on their Upgrade page, but the Aftermath team has used them successfully in standalone blog posts. I would definitely consider adding this. You can go much simpler—including just the next 2-3 goals.
Aftermath’s milestones for this year
Section 5: Frequently asked questions
Head off any remaining hesitations with a FAQ section. Include this once you know what these FAQs might be—careful not to raise a bunch of extra questions people aren’t actually asking!
Check your DMs and emails for questions readers have asked you OR scope out what other publishers have included to spark ideas. Typically this will be less persuasion and more logistical or advance option kind of things.
Simple FAQs on the RANGE team’s upgrade page
Where to promote your Upgrade Page
Think of your Upgrade Page as the slower, more persuasive path for people not-yet-sold on supporting you financially.
- Use in Welcome emails and sequences
- Pin to your navigation as “Support” “Contribute” “Why Pay” “Why Upgrade”
- Use in regular newsletters ONLY IF you find your Pricing Page doesn’t work on its own
- Use in social media plugs (alternating with newsletter subscribe and ideally automated using a tool like Publer)
- Add it to your Link in Bio or bonus links on YouTube, TikTok, etc.
- Embed in your About Page (or build into your About Page)
- Use it during Sales or Promo Campaigns, especially if you have public milestones
- Post it in relevant communities where you’re active whenever you’re doing a big promotion and want more eyes on your subscriptions
More great examples of Upgrade Pages in action
I pulled several examples for you and stashed them in our Swipe Files. Scroll or filter to “Upgrade and pricing pages.”
Hearing Things, Extra Points and Swindled in our swipe files
Got questions? Want to share breakthroughs or blockers?
I’d love to hear from you! You can comment on this post or reply to this email. I’d love to see your Upgrade Page.
What's missing from this play?
Nothing, I got it! One thing, I'll share it! A lot, I'm lost!
