Ask HN: What resources would you recommend to set up a paid newsletter? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What resources would you recommend to set up a paid newsletter?

5 pointsCoreSet3 comments

Hello.

I'm trying to monetize a blog by setting up a paid subscription tier for visitors who want scheduled, special content that goes more in-depth than the web material (and includes extra downloads like source code, images, etc.).

I currently have Mailgun set up for transactional emails (and frankly, absolutely love the routes system and the general robustness of the API).

Does anyone have experience with configuring a paid newsletter option on top of Mailgun? Or another service? (I'm willing to integrate another service, but would like to keep MG in the mix if possible)

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I'm working on something similar and I'll be using Memberful: https://memberful.com/

It might not be the perfect mesh that you're looking for, but I think it might be a useful patch. You would just ask folks to pay by filling out the memberful form (powered by Stripe) and then add their email address to the appropriate mailing list. If/When payment stops, pull their email and send them a message asking them to update payment information.

What are the specific things that you want to do that Mailgun won't let you do?

I'm guessing that you need a membership system and payment setup, for example?

Exactly. I understand how to set up newsletter mailing lists with Mailgun, but I'm not sure how to incorporate payment information/subscription data. I understand the API includes support for pretty thorough tracking, but right now everything I'm looking at seems more oriented towards transactional emails like errors, site updates, etc.

I'm sure I might be able to build something that glued together the Mailgun and Paypal/Stripe APIs, but my preference (since this is a side project, and one that's focused more on content at that) is to find an out-of-the-box integration if that's all possible. That's why I'm considering moving to Mailchimp. I'm just loathe to leave behind my beloved Mailgun!

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