This article examines the differences between organic and subscriber traffic while highlighting the pros and cons of subscription-based platforms.
To determine the pros and cons of subscription-based platforms, it helps to understand the contrast between organic and subscriber traffic. So, let’s begin with that explanation.
Organic Traffic
Readers who come from search engine queries to content platforms that do not require payment to read as much as they desire. The platform receives revenue by selling advertising space.
Online content publishers who write on these websites do not need to worry about having a following. That is because they get their readers from search engines.
The traffic can be considerable when writers offer high-quality, useful information that answers the questions people search for online. That traffic can increase as search engine algorithms adjust an article’s ranking.
Subscriber Traffic
Platforms that limit readers’ views with a paywall require authors to build a following. These platforms expect readers to discover writers they like and want to follow for more content. Therefore, authors need to focus on attracting a following.
If a reader comes from an organic search engine and they are not a subscriber, they are limited to reading only a few paragraphs when an article is behind a paywall.
Google, for example, does index paywalled articles, but revenue comes only from subscribers who pay for access. A Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey revealed that only 20% of Americans pay to subscribe to online content.1
Subscription websites generate revenue from paid subscribers rather than from ads. This method avoids the distraction of advertisements.
That may entice some people to subscribe, especially when they see the quality of the content they read.
In addition, some people may appreciate not seeing ads all over the page and might be willing to pay for that privilege.
Writers who create content behind a paywall don’t make money from organic traffic (such as Google). They also need to target their content marketing toward the relevant audience.
Another problem is the limited revenue resources to distribute to the authors. The money paid to writers from subscribers who read many articles on a subscription-based platform is minimized by the distribution to all those authors.
If an author had a paid subscriber who didn’t read any content from other writers on the platform, they would receive a larger payment each time that subscriber read any of their articles. But that extreme case is unusual at best, and just doesn't happen in the real world.
Subscribers who pay for unlimited access are more prone to return for more reading material.
Subscribers can opt to receive email notifications when writers they follow publish new content. However, most followers don’t pay any attention to that and ignore all the notifications they receive in their email inbox.
Publishing under niche publications can attract readers interested in a particular subject.
In addition, readers find content by two methods:
Without ads, articles are free of any distractions. These platforms depend on paid subscriptions to run the business and pay authors.
Revenue is distributed from the pool of subscribers’ fees after business expenses and other platform fees are deducted.
Organic Traffic
For organic traffic, content needs to answer people’s search queries. That requires an understanding of SEO to be successful. Readers are people searching for something specific through a search engine.
Authors do best with attracting organic traffic when they create evergreen, magazine-style content that provides information people search for online.
Subscriber Traffic
When writing for subscribers, authors need to know their audience and provide content that followers want to read. Authors do best with subscriber traffic when they focus on a particular audience.
Google doesn’t like websites that combine unrelated content under one domain. These types of sites are considered content farms, and most of them have gone out of business. For example, Bubblews, InfoBarrel, Persona Paper, and Niume are all gone now.2
Even HubPages, which was once successful in placing authors’ content on 20 niche domain websites, was ruined when the Arena Group converted it into a content farm after acquiring the platform.
Followers might get confused with unrelated topics they were not initially interested in when they decided to follow a particular writer.
A solution for writers publishing on a subscriber platform is to separate their content into specific niche locations.
The choice of platforms boils down to two things: What writers prefer and what readers want.
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