MEMBERSHIP TIERS — 40K list

REALISTIC MATH FIRST
Newsletter paid-conversion runs 2–5%. At 40K that's 800–2,000 members.
Design for 1,200 at a $12 blended ARPU = ~$14K MRR. Every tier below is
sized against that, not against a 10% fantasy.

FREE — stays genuinely good
The weekly essay, in full, forever. Paywalling your best writing caps
the list, and the list is the asset. Free readers are the top of the
funnel and the reason anyone finds you.

SUPPORTER — $7/mo · $70/yr
Expect ~60% of paid members here.
  Full archive · comments · monthly subscriber-only thread
This tier is people paying because they want to, not for perks. Don't
over-engineer it — adding features here doesn't move conversion, it
just adds work.

INSIDER — $18/mo · $180/yr  ← design everything around this one
Expect ~35%. This is the tier that pays the bills.
  Everything above · the Tuesday deep-dive · monthly live Q&A ·
  the private community · templates
The Q&A is the retention driver. Recurring live access is the single
strongest anti-churn perk in newsletters, well ahead of extra writing.

PATRON — $60/mo · $600/yr
Expect ~5%. Cap it at 40 seats.
  Everything above · quarterly small-group call · direct email access
The cap is what makes it sell, and it's also what protects you: direct
access at 200 members is a job you didn't mean to take.

DELIBERATELY ABSENT
No 1:1 coaching at any tier. It doesn't scale, and the moment it's in a
tier you're selling your calendar rather than your writing.

ANNUAL
Two months free. Push it hard at signup — annual members churn at
roughly a third the monthly rate, and the cash lands upfront.

LAUNCH
Open all three at once with founding-member pricing for two weeks. A
tier ladder added later reads as a price increase; launched together it
reads as a choice.