UPDATE: I created a cheap flights email list and generated $120,013 in 9 months (5x growth in 3 mos) thanks to your help. AMA!

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Dearest r/entrepreneur,

Back with the 3rd update on my cheap flights email subscription service. For the curious, here are updates 1 and 2.

Tl;dr: I run a freemium email list that alerts people when a really good international flight deal pops up. I started it by popular demand from friends after I used my cheap-flight-finding-obsession to get $130 roundtrip flights from NYC to Milan in 2013. (you can check it out here if you're interested, but zero pressure!)

I owe so much to this subreddit's continued support (especially u/exitstrategy1 whose repeated advice has been invaluable) that I wanted not only to keep you guys updated, but also solicit advice on a few vexing issues moving forward.

General updates:

• 5 months ago: 652 premium subscribers, 3,178 free subscribers, and $6,188 in revenue. 2 months ago: 1,687 premium subscribers, 7,847 free subscribers, and $24,376 in revenue. Today: 6,230 premium subscribers, 53,547 free subscribers, and $120,013 total revenue. As you can see, it's been an AWESOME past few months for growth.

• MailChimp was great as a beginning email server, but as the number of subscribers multiplied, it became unwieldy. Tons of accidental unsubscribes, for instance. Huge shout out to u/jeremythepope who recommend we check out Active Campaign in the last update. It's been our new email client for the past month and it rocks.

• My business partner Brian overhauled the website. Old one // new one. The new site not only looks way spiffier, imho, but is also much more optimized for conversions than the old one.

• We posted an ad on r/forhire and brought on a Redditor as our 3rd employee! This business would seriously be a fraction of what it currently is without Reddit.

• Given that the average savings are $607 per flight, numerous people have advised us to increase subscription prices. They're currently at $9/three months, $15/six months, or $29/year. On June 1, going to be increasing to $15/$25/$39. Thanks for the advice, y'all!

Major sources of new subscribers:

• Free flights giveaway. We decided to give away two free flights to Europe, Latin America, Hawaii, or the Caribbean. The way it worked was people got one entry for putting in their email address, and five additional entries for every person who entered the contest through that person's referral link. We had 43,852 people enter (and thus join the free version of Scott's Cheap Flights unless they opted out) all for a cost of about $1,400 in free flights. Since then, premium signup #s have been double what they were before the contest.

• Media appearances. Had a few new hits in places like the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, the Clark Howard Show, as well as ongoing appearances in Conde Nast Traveler. Each one gives a nice bump in traffic/new subscribers. All have come organically from the reporter reaching out; we haven't made much effort pitching...yet...

• Reddit. Ahh Reddit, you fickle mistress. Though it might seem odd to some people to so publicly lay out the internal workings of this start-up, doing so has also helped publicize the business and introduce to new people. A sizable percentage of the current subscribership (is that a word?) is due to posting on Reddit. I try to regularly give back by periodically donating my time to help people find cheap flights, but I'll never be able to fully repay the favor to you all.

Advice needed

• As Scott's Cheap Flights grows, we're also getting more copycats trying to steal our content. Not going to link them, obviously, but would love to hear your thoughts on how to handle the imitators, flattering as they may be.

• We're weighing whether or not to start a referral program. If we do it, the structure would most likely be if someone signs up for a paid subscription via your referral link, you'd each get 1 free month added to your account. Pros: incentivize more shares and thus more customers. Cons: could piss off people who have been referring friends for past few months and got no reward for it. Thoughts?

• Lastly, we're looking to hire another flight searcher to expand into Australia. Ideal candidate doesn't have to live in Australia, but could work a good chunk of Australian work hours. PM if interested :-)

Proof: total revenue -- http://ift.tt/1TStvfV entry stats -- http://ift.tt/1s5nPsw me and my puppy mean muggin http://ift.tt/1TSu7Cl

P.S: If you are interested in making money on-line, there are many avenues you can explore. Click here to get my step by step guide on how to this. I break down all the details for you and give you some useful resources and tools