Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he has made some big changes to the joint. One of the latest of it is the closure of the Revue newsletter service.
Without Revue, what alternatives are there that work well with Twitter? Let’s find out.
Revue is closing
Revue will close on January 18, 2023. “On that date, Revue will close and all data will be deleted,” reads a post on its help Center. You have until then to download your subscriber list, past newsletter issues, and analytics by following the instructions provided by the company.
Revue is heading to the exits as part of Elon Musk’s plan to restructure Twitter.
Alternatives to Revue
Revue may be in the past tense, but there are other platforms that newsletter creators can use as an alternative.
one. substack
Substack is perhaps the best known newsletter publishing platform in the world. It is very easy to use; You can set up your account using your Twitter or email and start posting immediately, once your account is fully set up.
You can charge a fee to your readers, in which case Substack will take 5% (and Stripe will take 2.9%). Or you can give readers free access, in which case there will be no fees.
Substack has no subscriber limit, and writers have full ownership of their IP and their subscribers, which means they can transfer their content and mailing list anywhere at any time. It is popular with top journalists, some of whom earn income from distributing their content on Substack. You can integrate Substack with Twitter by adding your Substack URL to your bio.
2. gum trail
Gumroad is essentially an online marketplace for creatives that allows you to list all sorts of downloadable products such as newsletters, apps, ebooks, videos, templates, karate lessons, digital and printable art, and all sorts of intellectual property. However, you can also list physical products like antiques and paintings on Gumroad, making it somewhat like Etsy.
Gumroad takes 9% of your trades until you win $1000. His commission drops to 7% on $1,000, 5% on $10,000, 3% on $10,000, and 2.9% on $1 million. Gumroad creatives have collectively earned more than $500 million since the platform launched in 2011. You can also add your Gumroad URL to your Twitter bio.
3. mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the best tools for managing email marketing campaigns and one of the best known. However, it’s optimized for businesses, not creatives. This means that it is designed as a tool to help entrepreneurs and companies create marketing or promotional newsletters.
You can send up to 2,500 emails to 500 contacts for free. The paid version starts at $11/mo and goes all the way up to $299/mo for Mailchimp Premium, which allows you unlimited contacts and allows you to send up to 150,000 emails per month. Mailchimp allows you to segment users by activity, interests, or location.
Mailchimp also allows you to integrate Twitter to automatically tweet links to emails or add content from your tweets to your campaigns.
Revue shutdown is not a problem
Revue was a relatively small operation in the newsletter world with just six employees, just over 30,000 users, and low revenue. With big independent players still in the game, even with Facebook getting into the newsletter game, there are alternatives available.
Musk has also confirmed plans to increase Twitter’s character limit from 280 to 4,000. Musk is also rumored to want to buy Substack.
Out of the three alternatives listed above, the best option for writers is undoubtedly Substack. Gumroad isn’t really a writer hub, though it works well enough in that regard, and Mailchimp is strictly an email and business affair that creators will find expensive.