🏔️ Notion Ecosystem

Hey there,

Welcome to the SaaS Hill, a weekly newsletter that tries to predict the future of SaaS.

Let's discuss Notion Ecosystem 📝.

⭐️️ Intro

Notion has come a long way from being a simple note-taking tool. Over the years, it has evolved into a simple yet powerful product that is trusted by millions of businesses and individuals: communities, newsletters, content creators, micro-SaaS, wikis, guides, productivity hacks.

Here is what we will discuss today:

• 10 predictions about Notion Ecosystem

• 15 micro-SaaS products around Notion

• 8 Notion metrics

• 8 stats about Notion

• 7 experts to follow

• 8 useful links (like, really useful)

• 5 related trend reports

• How easlo and Pascio make $$$ selling Notion templates

🤔 Predictions

1. The Creator Economy will be a hot trend of this decade. There are tons of smaller trends that are shaping this meta-trend: building in public, side hustles, solopreneurship, micro-influencers, newsletters 2.0, podcasts 2.0, links in bio, consulting, micro-consulting, gig economy, digital nomads, productized services, and communities. Notion is already a huge part of this trend.

2. This happens because Notion did a great job of becoming one of the biggest productivity apps out there, covering thousands of use-cases: journaling, blogging, personal notes, company wikis, project management, documentation, trackers (habits, finance, expenses, health, books, hobbies, etc.).

3. Thus, we will see a rise of creators who purely rely on Notion as their main tool that helps them generate income.

4. Notion did a great job of building a rich ecosystem around their product:

   1. Notion Community

   2. Notion Consulting Partners

   3. Notion Templates

   4. Notion’s Affiliate Program

   5. Notion Ambassadors

   6. Notion API

5. Thus, this community-driven GTM fuels Notion’s growth, so creators, builders, indie-hackers and entrepreneurs are building other businesses around Notion ecosystem:

   1. micro-SaaS > Super at $40-50K MRR (Create websites with Notion)

   2. consulting services > William Nutt, Founder at Notion VIP

   3. affiliate and reselling > Thomas Frank, Author, YouTuber, and Notion expert.

   4. paid Notion templates > Jason Chin (Easlo), makes $200K+/year selling Notion templates

   5. Notion experts > Notionland and NotionEverything

6. Like many other companies (Airtable, Canva, Grammarly, Slack), Notion introduced Notion AI: it’s an AI-powered assistant and tool that helps you with writing, editing, and brainstorming in Notion.

7. Notion will strengthen another trend: the rise of micro-influencers. These creators will have 5-10K followers (followers on social media, newsletter subscribers), but these followers will be raving fans of these creators. So brands can cooperate with dozens of smaller micro-influencers, which may be a more effective strategy than relying on one well-known content creator.

8. The Notion ecosystem will boost influencer marketing. Brands will partner with Notion creators, influencers, and micro-influencers to reach their target audience.

9. The Notion ecosystem will keep growing. This growth will be supported by the rise of side hustlers, solopreneurs, and content creators.

10. For example, lots of creators build OSs for a specific use case; relying on Notion only:

    1. Second Brain > Capture and Organize everything in Notion

    2. Launch OS > Fastest way to launch your product

    3. Newsletter OS > Master the art of creating & running a newsletter

    4. Sales OS > Capture and manage your sales in Notion

    5. AudienceOS > Grow your business on Instagram

    6. Podcast OS > Notion dashboard that helps podcasters pitch, produce, publish, promote & monetize their podcasts

    7. Freelancer OS > Manage your entire freelance business in Notion

    8. College OS > Capture and manage your classes in Notion

🏢 Products

1. feather > Notion to Blog in minutes

2. notelet > Create a website or blog with Notion

3. popsy > No-code website builder for creators

4. Bullet > Notion website builder to build stunning websites

5. Potion > Create custom Notion websites in minutes

6. Super > Create websites with Notion

7. Simple.ink > Build a website with Notion

8. NotionApps > Convert Notion databases into tools and apps

9. notocat > Start writing your newsletters with Notion

10. ChartBase > Turn Notion databases into insightful charts

11. Tally > The simplest way to create forms

12. NoteForms > Easy to use form builder for Notion

13. Queue > Twitter Scheduling Tool for Notion

14. WidgetBox > Customizable widgets for Notion

15. Help Kit > Easily build your knowledge base with Notion

16. NotionPlus > Create sellable aesthetic notion templates

17. Check out even more products here

🔢 Metrics

📈 Trend Chart

How Notion fostered an avid community on Product Hunt (a Product Hunt article).

Products built on top of Notion became so bountiful that Product Hunt created a Category just for them.

📊 Statistics

1. Notion app was released in 2016, entitled "Notion 1.0".

2. Notion is estimated to make $67.2 million each year as of 2023.

3. Notion has 30-35 million users worldwide and growing.

4. The r/Notion Subreddit has over 300K+ members

5. As of Jan 2021, Notion had more than 20 million users.

6. Notion has more than 4 million paid customers.

7. Notion has raised over $200 million in funding.

8. Notion crossed $10 Billion Valuation.

📖 Experts to Follow

1. Ivan Zhao > Founder at Notion

2. Thomas Frank > Author, YouTuber, and Notion expert.

3. Jason Chin (Easlo) > Makes $200K+/year selling Notion templates.

4. William Nutt > Founder at Notion VIP is a Notion consultancy firm.

5. Nick Lafferty > Writes about his journey to building a $20k/month business.

6. Modest Mitkus > Founder at Notionway

7. Pascio > Launched 50+ templates and quit my 9-5 to become a full-time solopreneur

🔗 Useful Links

1. NotionEverything > Discover the best Notion templates, tools and resources

2. Newsletter OS > Master the art of creating & running a newsletter

3. 500+ Notion Resources > The world's largest Notion resources list

4. Notionland > Discover free & paid Notion templates, widgets for your workspace, tutorials.

5. Notionjoy > Level up your Notion using pre-built templates

6. Easlo > Discover Notion templates to help you be more productive and organized

7. How Notion fostered an avid community on Product Hunt

8. Notion Category on Product Hunt

🐦️ X Thread

How Pascio made $144,000 in the last 12 months selling Notion Templates

How Easlo makes $150-200K per year selling Notion templates

🤝 Related SaaS Trends

1. 🏔 Creator Economy > raise of small businesses built by self-employed creators

2. 🏔️ Solopreneurship > start and run your business independently

3. 🏔️ LinkedIn Ecosystem > grow your business with social media

4. 🏔️ Airtable Ecosystem > a no-code tool for everyone

5. 🏔 Micro SaaS > the future of niche software

Thanks for reading. See you next time 👋
Best, Vlad

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