[t0]

Would this work with ads? Organic, free traffic from HN and blogs is nice, but it seems more like a low probability gamble than something you could count on. Your growth is going to be random and you really can't do any projections.

The lifetime value of each subscriber is really high, so it seems to make sense that you could spend $XX in customer acquisition costs.

I've wanted to do something similar for a while, but this is really my only sticking point.

[bemmu]

Organic traffic from blogs, HN and Google is really the only thing I've found that works. I have tried several paid advertising campaigns, but they usually end up costing nearly $100 per conversion. Maybe the ad copy / targeting could be optimized enough to get below LTV, but doing those tests would be very expensive.

I've sort of abandoned the idea that there would be some easy way to just get traffic coming in. It's more a fight for finding and retaining each subscriber. Also ads aren't completely on autopilot either, as channels change. When you buy some ad space, it might work OK at first but then work less well in the future as visitors to those sites have already seen your ad. So have to keep following if each purchase still makes sense.

[curiousHacker]

$100 conversion cost isn't intractable.

Let's say you can optimize it down to $75 with better ad copy:

* Higher CTR -> lower spend

Then let's say you can optimize it down to $50 with better conversion funnel tracking

* You get their email and then send them a free eBook about Japanese candy or stationery, then you ask them if you have permission to keep contacting them. If yes, you keep providing value and eventually sell them on more Candy Japan packages.

* You include the video on your page

Then you instrument a referral incentive system

* You give someone double-candy if they refer a friend

Then you ask the people who aren't retaining why they aren't retaining. You bucket their complaints into categories and you provide solutions.

* "I only needed it for this one specific occasion" -> You sell them a gift subscription package instead, at a much lower price, so the recipient knows they are still thinking of them, with bigger upside kicking it at later months. i.e., month 1 = one piece of candy, month 2 = two additional pieces of candy, month 3 = 3 additional pieces of candy

Lifetime value could surpass conversion cost.

[Zarel]

Where have you been advertising? Places with NSFW content tend to have much lower ad prices because most advertisers won't touch them, but many of them (4chan and Danbooru come to mind) are probably pretty good for the audience you're looking for.

[spyder]

It may work with ads in Candy Crush :D