Monetization: Paid Subscriptions

Buzzly lets you earn money from your newsletter by charging readers for premium content. This page explains how paid subscriptions work and how to set them up.

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Related: Creating Posts · Managing Subscribers · Your Settings · FAQ

How it works, in plain English

1. You offer one or more paid plans (called tiers) — for example "Supporter — €5/month."
2. Readers pay to join a tier through a secure checkout.
3. Some of your posts can be marked premium, so only paying members get the full issue.
4. The money goes to your own bank account, handled securely by Stripe (a trusted global payment company). Buzzly never touches your funds directly.

What you need before you start

To turn on paid subscriptions, two things must be true:

1. You're on the Premium plan. Monetization is a Premium feature. Check or upgrade in your Subscription settings.
2. You've completed Stripe verification. Because real money is involved, Stripe needs to confirm your identity and bank details (a legal requirement called "Know Your Customer"). It's a one-time guided setup — you'll fill in some personal and banking information, and Stripe handles the rest.

This connection uses Stripe Connect, which means you get paid directly and Buzzly simply passes buyers through to your secure Stripe checkout.

Setting it up

1. Go to Monetization in your dashboard sidebar.
2. If you haven't connected Stripe yet, follow the prompt to verify your identity and link your bank account. Complete every step Stripe asks for — payouts won't start until it's finished.
3. Create your paid tier(s): give each a name, a price, and how often readers are billed (e.g. monthly).
4. Save. Your paid options now appear to readers at checkout and on your site.

Getting paid

• Readers subscribe and pay through Stripe's secure checkout — you don't handle any card details yourself.
• Payouts go straight to your linked bank account on Stripe's schedule.
• Your readers can manage their own subscription (update payment, cancel) through a self-service portal, so you don't have to handle billing questions manually.

Marking a post as premium

When you write an issue, you can choose to make it premium so only paying members receive the full content. Free readers can be shown a preview that invites them to upgrade. You set this while creating the post — see Creating & Publishing Posts.

Tracking your revenue

The Monetization page gives you a revenue overview so you can see how your paid subscriptions are performing. For audience and engagement numbers, see Analytics & Statistics.

Two kinds of "subscription" — don't mix them up

This trips people up, so here's the difference:

Next: Grow the audience you'll monetize with Referrals and your public website.