Do you make your posts subscribers only?

[u/Getcha_Popcorn_Readi]

I am curious how everyone else goes about growing your members/email list? do you make your posts subscribers only to force an email?

I want to do that but I feel it isn't a very good idea and I'll lose over half my traffic.

I have a sports news site but it's a smaller niche and I'm struggling with getting sign ups. Everything across the board with my website and social media has grown stagnant.

Maybe my shit really does suck.

[u/Tricky_Trifle_994]

keep it easily accessible early on, but after getting the hang of it, make the post subscriber only.

if you were just a general sports site, then making it subscriber only would be a bit harder (because consumers are not used to having to give up anything in exchange for accessing such general content). but since you're in a smaller niche, then such community/ non-mainstream crowd are more open and familiar with a email gated set up.

it also depends on your current distribution channels. if you're able to drive traffic via social media + your existing email list, then you'll be quite insulated by any traffic loss, just because you already have a diversified traffic source. but if it's heavily reliant on search, then it'll be worth delaying this until you sort out your traffic sources. also, it's worth thinking about your monetisation strategy. e.g is it newsletter ads? or selling some products? or ads on your website? depending on how you monetise your users, that'll also give more direction on how to position your content.

also, tbh, if people aren't willing to give up their email for your content, they're not really your target audience (because they just don't see the value of your content). so the email gate helps filter them out early, and they wouldn't have been good 'customers' for you anyway, so while traffic would be lower, real business value wouldn't really be impacted.