How to Build and Grow a Newsletter as a Business Model

[MTF]

Done it

Postscript's ponderings - Issue #1

Photo by Markus Winkler from PexelsAre you just dreaming?Do you have goals and dreams that remain just that, dreams? Are you not sure what you want in life? How do we know our goals are what we really want? The simple answer is, we are actively involved in getting them, otherwise we are just...

www.getrevue.co

I've used Revue, but also signed up for Substack so may try it on there to see which is best.
I am doing this for self-development at the moment, getting out of a comfort zone and taking action on something I don't like doing, viz. writing, with no thought yet of taking it further.

Thank you one and all for the push.

That's awesome. Glad to hear the thread inspired you to start your own newsletter.

 

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[GSF]

How to Turn a newsletter Into a Fastlane Venture

To exercise my idea muscle, I brainstormed a list of thoughts on how you can take a newsletter and grow it into a proper Fastlane business. It's not super well organized since the idea was just to get me thinking but I hope it'll be useful.

1. In its essence, a newsletter is a vehicle to create a customer list. This isn't always a person who's going to buy something from you but they trusted you enough to give you their email address. And if they stay on your list, this means they trust you even more and find value in what you send them. This is a strong foundation for a business relationship, arguably more than just having a blog reader (without a newsletter), let alone a social media follower.
2. A newsletter by itself can be a Fastlane venture. You turn it into a product by offering a paid tier. I'd argue, though, that most newsletters (apart from finance/investment/B2B), no matter how good, won't be able to get many paying subscribers just for the content alone. So this means that a newsletter alone in most cases is NOT a business.
3. Another common way to make money from the newsletter in itself is to sell advertising. Some newsletters turned into multi-million-dollar businesses this way. To make this work, your topic needs to be broad enough to appeal to thousands of people (since you'll need probably 100,000+ subscribers to make good money off advertising) and attract big advertisers willing to pay at least a few thousand dollars per spot. If you can get a sponsor to sponsor you long-term, it can be a nice, simple way to run a business since your only concern would be to keep growing your newsletter.
4. Instead of selling advertising spots you could partner up with a brand and sell their products/services for an affiliate fee. Affiliate marketing in general works pretty well for newsletters. Instead of spending time building your own product (and potentially neglecting your newsletter) you can keep doing what you do best.
5. A natural progression for a newsletter is a private community. Instead of asking people to pay for your content you ask them to pay to get access to an exclusive group. This may be a private forum alone but to make it more valuable, it can also feature other benefits like discounts, additional content, and maybe live calls as well. Something like Circle: The all-in-one community platform for creators and brands to set it up would be best. A private community could eventually also grow into a yearly live conference.
6. Not ready to have an online community? Maybe a cohort-based course would be a better idea. This way you can test your material without committing to the project long-term. For example, for my newsletter, instead of a private community with yearly access I could start with a 6-week discomfort challenge. People would set a specific goal and during the 6 weeks they would, along with other participants, work on it. Since it would be a more specific outcome than for the online community and would be more hands-on, I could charge more for it. The difference would probably be something like $100/year for an online community vs $500 for a 6-week cohort-based course.
7. What if you hired a person respected in your niche to present for your audience live on Zoom for an hour or two and answer some questions? For example, imagine you can hire an expert for $1000 for a 2-hour Zoom call (one hour presentation, one hour Q&A). You could sell tickets to your newsletter list to attend that call. If you failed to collect enough to cover the costs and make a profit, you'd refund the money.
8. An even faster way to turn your newsletter into a business is to offer coaching. Coaching may not be super scalable at first. But eventually, once you create your own teaching method, you can teach others how to teach and stop coaching yourself, except for perhaps super high-ticket coaching (this is Tony Robbins's model).
9. You could survey your subscribers about their problems/needs and then start a brand selling what they need/want to buy (digital or physical products). People who have been signed up to your newsletter for months or years are immensely valuable early adopters. They can also help with a Kickstarter campaign, a book launch, etc.
10. If all else fails for your newsletter, you can still turn your newsletter experience into a Fastlane business. As a newsletter creator, you understand how the industry works. You know about the most common problems of newsletter creators. You can teach people how to start with their newsletters (not everyone wants to build a huge newsletter to make tons of money) or create a product/service for newsletter creators that you yourself would use.

I think I shared this business model with you @MTF a year or 2 back in a dm, it's where you provide exclusive bundled deals to your email subscribers. Companies who use this model include appsumo, stacksocial, ultimate bundles amongst others. Bit more to it than a newsletter, almost part newsletter, part affiliate network, part marketplace.

 

[MTF]

I think I shared this business model with you @MTF a year or 2 back in a dm, it's where you provide exclusive bundled deals to your email subscribers. Companies who use this model include appsumo, stacksocial, ultimate bundles amongst others. Bit more to it than a newsletter, almost part newsletter, part affiliate network, part marketplace.

It's a complicated model but definitely very lucrative if done right.

 

[MTF]

Not yet that big of a concern for me to scale it fast as I still need to find my unique voice for this project but here are a few ideas:

• Promoting my newsletter a bit more often in the David Goggins subreddit where I'm active.
• Using Reddit Ads for bigger subreddits where I don't want to post but where an ad could work.
• Buying more ads in relevant newsletters.
• Sponsoring YouTube creators in my niche.
• Sponsoring podcasts in my niche.
• Play with SparkLoop — The #1 Referral Tool For Newsletters (referral marketing). At $99/month it doesn't make sense now but may be useful in the future.
• Google search should account for some traffic soon as my articles are very long and should be eventually found when people search for the books I cover.

I also just answered all Reddit posts I could find in the top results of Google where people ask for books similar to David Goggins's Can't Hurt Me and linked to my heavily upvoted post in r/davidgoggins. That post in turn leads to my website. Since I linked to this Reddit post and not directly to my website I hope my comments won't get removed and will drive some consistent traffic.

I think that the biggest challenge for newsletters is to get to 1,000 people. After that, word of mouth should help grow faster.

I might have been a little too optimistic about this.

I recently researched similar newsletters and found nothing. I even bought access to Newsletter Spy and promptly refunded it after realizing I couldn't find any newsletters even remotely similar to mine (plus it was terribly frustrating to use). And it's a list of 10,000+ newsletters.

I then researched similar blogs and realized that most blogs for men are low-quality Men's Health/GQ/Men's Journal copies with stuff like "7 BEST Abs Exercises to Make Her Drool" or mostly feature buying guides for gadgets, fashion, etc.

I made my newsletter for men only because I understand men better (and a potential future private community for men only would be more enticing to join) but it seems like it's limiting my options as the "masculinity" niche is either toxic masculinity on Twitter (hating women, being a jerk, etc.), vain low-quality stuff, or buying guides.

It's silly because I have money to invest in this project but there's no place where I can actually do that (except for Facebook Ads which I don't want to use because they'll probably ban me like every other time before).

I think I like subniching too much and it's leading me to problems. If I were to start, say, a marketing newsletter for solopreneurs, I'd have hundreds of newsletters in which I could advertise.

 

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[Andy Black]

I might have been a little too optimistic about this.

I recently researched similar newsletters and found nothing. I even bought access to Newsletter Spy and promptly refunded it after realizing I couldn't find any newsletters even remotely similar to mine (plus it was terribly frustrating to use). And it's a list of 10,000+ newsletters.

I then researched similar blogs and realized that most blogs for men are low-quality Men's Health/GQ/Men's Journal copies with stuff like "7 BEST Abs Exercises to Make Her Drool" or mostly feature buying guides for gadgets, fashion, etc.

I made my newsletter for men only because I understand men better (and a potential future private community for men only would be more enticing to join) but it seems like it's limiting my options as the "masculinity" niche is either toxic masculinity on Twitter (hating women, being a jerk, etc.), vain low-quality stuff, or buying guides.

It's silly because I have money to invest in this project but there's no place where I can actually do that (except for Facebook Ads which I don't want to use because they'll probably ban me like every other time before).

I think I like subniching too much and it's leading me to problems. If I were to start, say, a marketing newsletter for solopreneurs, I'd have hundreds of newsletters in which I could advertise.

Could your niching down be discomfort, growth, etc for entrepreneurs?

Check out YouTube channels along those lines too.

 

[MTF]

Could your niching down be discomfort, growth, etc for entrepreneurs?

Check out YouTube channels along those lines too.

I think that would be niching down even more. But it's a good suggestion nonetheless as most entrepreneurs are into self-improvement, too (and most entrepreneur communities are mostly men).

At the moment, my assumption is that most readers want to or already have their own businesses but I don't want the content to revolve entirely around this as I also like to write about pushing physical limits.

At least the name of the newsletter permits potential changes though for now I'll stick with what I have and see how it goes. I can always edit past issues in the future if necessary to make them appeal to a wider audience.

 

[MitchC]

David Goggins has found a place in the mainstream, could you dig around and try and work out what his followers have in common and what sort of niches they are in? I see you post in his subreddit so maybe you already know what sort of niches they are all in. Maybe click some active people in there’s profiles and see where else they post. Even better if you can find some of your subscribers on there and see where else they post.

Andy Frisella with his 75 Hard challenge is another.

I forget who runs it but The Daily Stoic has a massive audience and funnel. Maybe hit some stoic subreddits and see what the people are into.

Maybe you need some kind of claim? “A weekly newsletter for men who pursue excellence through discomfort” could become “How to pursue personal excellence through discomfort - a weekly newsletter for men”.

Now you’re hitting personal excellence niche not the discomfort niche.

I think that would be niching down even more.

Sort of. Andy hits the whole entrepreneur niche, his method just happens to be discomfort and hard work.

I don’t think that’s what you want to do with this newsletter though, and personally I don’t think you should either. I think it’s cool and stands on its own how it is. Maybe you need different landers for different niches.

Maybe it needs podcast hosts to endorce and explain it a little better than just a simple ad can.

I can imagine Sam Parr or someone on their podcast saying “I’ve been reading this really cool newsletter and it’s made my life better”, so it’s like hitting the entrepreneur audience because they are into self improvement, but not with an entrepreneur focused offer.

There’s actually a platform that lets you run ads on podcasts too, you could spend some money on that rather than Facebook. Decibel it’s called.

The art of manliness is a cool blog, a little better than the gq rubbish.

I wouldn’t get disheartened there’s definitely a place for this, I think it’s just the messaging that needs work, rather than trying to find a super relevant audience you can target.

You just need to work out how to get someone who’s interested in self improvement or pursuing excellence as your landing page puts it, interested in your newsletter and discomfort. Rather than trying to find people who are into discomfort.

 

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[Andy Black]

On a separate note @MTF

I got issue 10 of the Discomfort Club in my inbox yesterday.

Here's my thoughts. Obviously I'm a sample size of one, and might not even be your target market anyway, so take with a pinch of salt.

I was flicking through my emails on my phone and found it too long to read, certainly at that moment in time. It could be because I was reading on my phone, or more likely because I was in "get to inbox zero" mode rather than "sit down with a cup of tea to read" mode.

Could you email shorter pieces that maybe link to the longer issue on your blog? Maybe the emails have extra info or related personal stories?

Each of these sections could be a great little piece of content in its own right:
(Screenshot taken from my computer, not my phone.)


There's another benefit of shorter content. You can focus on ONE thing, and give people ONE thing to take-away. I prefer to focus on changing or learning one thing at a time.

How can you test whether people prefer longer emails or shorter emails?

How can you cater for both?

Even if you keep emails the length they are, can you add a link to the end of the email that points to the URL of the issue that's on your website? I sometimes want to share the contents of an email and I often prefer to share the URL. I like it when emails have a note at the end that tell people how they can read it online at a given URL.

 

[Andy Black]

most entrepreneurs are into self-improvement

Self-improvement is massive. Self-improvement through embracing discomfort could be a good angle.

 

[MTF]

David Goggins has found a place in the mainstream, could you dig around and try and work out what his followers have in common and what sort of niches they are in? I see you post in his subreddit so maybe you already know what sort of niches they are all in. Maybe click some active people in there’s profiles and see where else they post. Even better if you can find some of your subscribers on there and see where else they post.

I used SparkToro | Audience Research at Your Fingertips to check shared interests but it wasn't very useful. I know that many Goggins's fans are into running and weightlifting but these are very general topics.

Andy Frisella with his 75 Hard challenge is another.

I explored 75Hard groups on Facebook and pretty much all of them (as all FB groups) don't allow any promotion.

I forget who runs it but The Daily Stoic has a massive audience and funnel. Maybe hit some stoic subreddits and see what the people are into.

Ryan Holiday. For now I'm only going to do four issues on Stoicism and then I'll explore something else to provide a variety of perspectives so not sure if this is going to be useful to focus that much on Stoicism.

Now you’re hitting personal excellence niche not the discomfort niche.

Yeah I actually included this in the description and elsewhere on the site to show that the point of discomfort is to grow and get better. But maybe it's not as clear to others as it is to me.

I don’t think that’s what you want to do with this newsletter though, and personally I don’t think you should either. I think it’s cool and stands on its own how it is. Maybe you need different landers for different niches.

Thanks. I think it's too early to make any strategic changes (like changing the style, targeted audience, etc.) so maybe once it gains some reputation it will be easily understood without creating specific landers. I can look into that, though that will be tricky with Ghost.

I can imagine Sam Parr or someone on their podcast saying “I’ve been reading this really cool newsletter and it’s made my life better”, so it’s like hitting the entrepreneur audience because they are into self improvement, but not with an entrepreneur focused offer.

Yes that's a great point and that's why I'm looking for influencers to endorse it so I can borrow their reputation and trust.

There’s actually a platform that lets you run ads on podcasts too, you could spend some money on that rather than Facebook. Decibel it’s called.

Home - Decibel Ads

Amplify results with audio ads Get customers and conversions from every streaming app and radio station with Decibel’s performance audio advertising platform. No minimum spend or credit details required. Join over 500+ brands that are getting results: Amplify results with audio ads Get customers...

decibelads.com

That's pretty cool, I'll look into that. Thanks.

Spotify Advertising may be another option, too.

The art of manliness is a cool blog, a little better than the gq rubbish.

Yes I researched options to get featured there but currently it's not possible in any way (no ads, no guest posts, no partnerships). I really like how single-focused they are and they actually have a product very similar to what I might launch in the future. It's called Strenuous Life:

Strenuous Life – The New Strenuous Age

strenuouslife.co

You just need to work out how to get someone who’s interested in self improvement or pursuing excellence as your landing page puts it, interested in your newsletter and discomfort. Rather than trying to find people who are into discomfort.

Yeah that makes sense, I should be selling the outcome and not the vehicle as it may sound like I'm targeting masochists.

 

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[MTF]

Here's my thoughts. Obviously I'm a sample size of one, and might not even be your target market anyway, so take with a pinch of salt.

I was flicking through my emails on my phone and found it too long to read, certainly at that moment in time. It could be because I was reading on my phone, or more likely because I was in "get to inbox zero" mode rather than "sit down with a cup of tea to read" mode.

Could you email shorter pieces that maybe link to the longer issue on your blog? Maybe the emails have extra info or related personal stories?

So the entire idea was to publish long form content because that's what I feel is lacking. There's a lot of short content already everywhere (both text and video) but much less long, thought-out content.

That's also what I prefer to read in my favorite newsletters (long content that feels like reading a short book).

I don't want people to read my stuff in 60 seconds and forget it like everything else they read on a given day. I want them to sit with a cup of coffee, read the letter, think about it, and act on it.

This is how I want to make impact through my writing. With some exceptions, short content—in my opinion—is usually forgettable. It doesn't allow you to go deep enough and explore different angles of the same topic.

It's like the difference between fast food (perhaps tasty but neither memorable nor healthy) and a nice, hearty meal where you take the time to enjoy it.

How can you test whether people prefer longer emails or shorter emails?

I can run a survey and ask people. There's a risk I'll draw wrong conclusions as you can't really run a proper survey with just a little over 100 people (and probably actually maybe 5-10% participating in it).

How can you cater for both?

The question is whether I want to do that. As you know, I prefer simplicity. Catering for both needs splits the newsletter into two different things.

Even if you keep emails the length they are, can you add a link to the end of the email that points to the URL of the issue that's on your website? I sometimes want to share the contents of an email and I often prefer to share the URL. I like it when emails have a note at the end that tell people how they can read it online at a given URL.

If you click the title of the article in your inbox it'll redirect you to the article on the website. That's also how it works on Substack. I thought it was intuitive but maybe I should add a link or write "click the title to read the article in your browser."

 

[Andy Black]

I can run a survey and ask people. There's a risk I'll draw wrong conclusions as you can't really run a proper survey with just a little over 100 people (and probably actually maybe 5-10% participating in it).

Are there any other ways?

Maybe a CTA near the bottom of the page could help you see how many get that far and click?

I often have something to click at the bottom of my emails, just to get people to do something, and so I can see how active people are. My email list is about the same size as yours too.

 

[MitchC]

Are there any other ways?

Maybe a CTA near the bottom of the page could help you see how many get that far and click?

I often have something to click at the bottom of my emails, just to get people to do something, and so I can see how active people are. My email list is about the same size as yours too.

Hot jar is good for this and if you have a small amount of visitors the free plan is enough. Still good to have a cta at the bottom though so they have somewhere to go when they reach the bottom

 

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[Andy Black]

Hot jar is good for this and if you have a small amount of visitors the free plan is enough. Still good to have a cta at the bottom though so they have somewhere to go when they reach the bottom

Does Hotjar work for emails too? I didn't know that.

I think we're using Lucky Orange. I'm not sure the difference between that and Hotjar.

 

[MitchC]

Does Hotjar work for emails too? I didn't know that.

I think we're using Lucky Orange. I'm not sure the difference between that and Hotjar.

Sorry I didn’t realise you meant the emails.

I wonder if you could tag them with google analytics.

I guess if there was a way klaviyo and the other software would already have it built in, or at the very least it would be common knowledge how to do it.

I don’t believe hotjar tracks emails

Here’s a cool survey format at the end of an email I subscribe to, no doubt you’ve seen it before a lot use it.

 

[MTF]

Are there any other ways?

Maybe a CTA near the bottom of the page could help you see how many get that far and click?

I often have something to click at the bottom of my emails, just to get people to do something, and so I can see how active people are. My email list is about the same size as yours too.

I added a Feedletter.co feedback form at the end of every letter. It's simple reactions and you can add extra feedback once you cast your vote. You can check it for example at the end of this issue:

#10: How to Deal With Strong Emotions Like a Stoic. Practical Stoic Wisdom From "How to Think Like a Roman Emperor" by Donald Robertson (Part 1)

I rarely read books that I cover with highlights on almost every page. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius by Donald Robertson is such a book. It’s not only thought-provoking but also recounts in a captivating way Marcus Aurelius’s life and how he practiced...

www.discomfortclub.com

 

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[MTF]

Another from 0 to 1,000+ subscribers guide:

Foster's Real-World Guide to Getting Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers

Real-world stories from 12 online writers on how they got their first 1,000 subscribers.

www.foster.co

The advice to add friends and family always irks me as it's spammy, annoying, and not applicable for many newsletter creators. I don't write in my native language and none of my friends or family would ever read my stuff in English. But other than that, there are some useful tips in there.

 

[Zwelethu]

Great Stuff. Very valuable info from responses also.

 

[Andy Black]

I just posted this to MJ's thread. Thought it might be relevant:

It wasn't via a paid ad, but I got about 150 new subscribers in a 24 hours when someone emailed their list about 10 years ago.

There was a guy who did the copywriting module in one of Perry Marshall's Google Ads courses. I didn't buy Perry Marshall's course but that's how I ended up on the copywriter's newsletter. I think the copywriter's name was Bnonn.

Anyway, one of Bnonn's subscribers had asked him a Google Ads question and Bnonn sent an email out saying he wasn't a Google Ads expert but described what he'd do. I replied with some tips and Bnonn said he'd be happy to email something out if I sent him more details.

So I wrote this story and he said it was great but needed a CTA at the end to send people to a page where they could opt-in to get some lead magnet.

So I signed up to Aweber and then wrote this lead magnet and put it behind a simple opt-in page.

I promptly forgot about it and a few weeks later my inbox blew up with new subscriber notifications. I started sending personalised welcome emails and that's where I learned how they'd found my opt-in page. I had to stop sending those by the end of the day because too many were signing up.

One subscribers said he signed up with two different email addresses because he was so keen to get the lead magnet. If you check it above, you'll see the title was "The Single Biggest Reason People Lose Money With Google Ads". A different marketing coach I had at the time advised me to write that rather than "10 Reasons People Lose Money With Google Ads". Incidentally, I ended up emailing that guy back and forth a few times with advice about his Google Ads campaigns and he insta-hired me to do about $3k in consulting work.

I proceeded to write a new newsletter issue every Sunday evening till I had a library of content. I loaded all of them into the forum when I joined which explains why they come across like "articles". (You can see them as the first dozen or so threads linked to here.)


My learnings:

1) Bnonn's subscribers likely also came via Perry Marshall, who was known as The Google Ads Guy back then. So my content was different from Bnonn's but very much aligned with his subscribers' interests.

2) I didn't need to pay. I was already on Bnonn's list and I replied to him with helpful tips. Creators really want engaged subscribers, and it's easy to be engaged, say thanks, and be helpful - most will love it, including forum and Facebook group owners.

3) I created a win-win with Bnonn. I created some exclusive (at the time) content that he emailed his list to help them. He then showed me how to turn that into subscribers for my own list.

4) Have a CTA at the end of each email, and sell the click. Entice and teach people to click at the end of your email. (I didn't do that at the end of any of the emails I sent out. I slowly lost the will to live as it felt like I was talking to the void.)

5) Create a lead magnet highly aligned to what they've just read, and that only people who'd be interested in your content will signup for.

6) Don't turn people into consumers. I had amazing open rates at the start but it gradually dwindled as I keep sending info that people didn't necessarily act on. I had turned my subscribers into passive consumers.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

I'm not dead! (again)

I decided to move the publishing day to Friday/Saturday because it works best with my current life schedule. I haven't picked which day yet.

I already started working on the next issue, and I'm excited!

 

[MTF]

Ran some Reddit Ads (CPC). I spent $102.26 and got 4 sign-ups.

At least I got some instead of zero but since there's no way to optimize these ads (no demographic targeting and no ability to target the smallest, most relevant subreddits), it doesn't make sense to continue.

I get more subscribers from subtly mentioning my newsletter in a small subreddit than from running ads to thousands of people in big (still related, but a bit more general) subreddits.

Also, nobody but just one small website replied to me when I asked about advertising options. What's the point of listing your contact info for any business/advertising inquiries if you don't even respond?

Marketing has always been my weakness. Yet again it's annoying me to no end.

For this newsletter, it doesn't even matter if I have a marketing budget since I can't find any sensible place to invest it.

I thought that once you have money it's way easier to make money but this never works in my case. Maybe it's my ideas that are shit if I can't scale them even if I have money for that.

 

[Andy Black]

Ran some Reddit Ads (CPC). I spent $102.26 and got 4 sign-ups.

At least I got some instead of zero but since there's no way to optimize these ads (no demographic targeting and no ability to target the smallest, most relevant subreddits), it doesn't make sense to continue.

I get more subscribers from subtly mentioning my newsletter in a small subreddit than from running ads to thousands of people in big (still related, but a bit more general) subreddits.

Also, nobody but just one small website replied to me when I asked about advertising options. What's the point of listing your contact info for any business/advertising inquiries if you don't even respond?

Marketing has always been my weakness. Yet again it's annoying me to no end.

For this newsletter, it doesn't even matter if I have a marketing budget since I can't find any sensible place to invest it.

I thought that once you have money it's way easier to make money but this never works in my case. Maybe it's my ideas that are shit if I can't scale them even if I have money for that.

Off the top of my head:

1) You could try Dynamic Search Ads where you point Google at each of your articles and let it come up with the keywords and ad headline. You create the ad description. These can work really well, and the search term data can uncover ideas you wouldn't have thought of (allowing you to create more articles and/or create normal search campaigns).

2) Do keyword research and create standard ads sending people to your articles too. This will take longer than the above, and I'd suggest starting with 1) to get going quicker. LOTS of people use Google to search for information, and if you can create campaigns to get visitors and signups then it can be incredibly consistent.

I had a thread here:

• EXECUTION - Growing an email list with Google Ads

3) Get short videos created of main points in your articles. I think you could probably create a dozen videos per article given how much work you've already put into each. You're a fan of Alex Hormozi... check out his TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts - I believe they're the same videos. And no, I'm not suggesting you get in front of camera and do talking head videos.

4) If you get videos up on platforms then test putting ad spend behind them.


Personally, I prefer Google Ads to social media ads. Paid search ads can run for YEARS unchanged.

 

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[MTF]

1) You could try Dynamic Search Ads where you point Google at each of your articles and let it come up with the keywords and ad headline. You create the ad description. These can work really well, and the search term data can uncover ideas you wouldn't have thought of (allowing you to create more articles and/or create normal search campaigns).

I assume for this I'd have to first edit my articles to remind people to sign up for the list? Because otherwise there's only one sign-up form and I guess most people will miss it. I'm not sure how effective driving traffic to an article instead of a sign-up form would be.

3) Get short videos created of main points in your articles. I think you could probably create a dozen videos per article given how much work you've already put into each. You're a fan of Alex Hormozi... check out his TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts - I believe they're the same videos. And no, I'm not suggesting you get in front of camera and do talking head videos.

Because of my location, TikTok wouldn't work as explained by @Xeon here:

SIDE HUSTLE - Starting Tik Tok Account To Make Money

Like the title says. After reading more than some Tik Tok related posts of people talking about how easy it can be to create a Tik Tok account and of course make money from it. Mainly from Black Hat World Forum This is not something full time but I will be dedicating some good time to it and...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

So this leaves only YouTube. I guess I could test it when/if I feel more optimistic about this. Not in the most productive mindset right now.

 

[Andy Black]

Not in the most productive mindset right now.

I figured that when you wrote this:

Marketing has always been my weakness. Yet again it's annoying me to no end.

For this newsletter, it doesn't even matter if I have a marketing budget since I can't find any sensible place to invest it.

I thought that once you have money it's way easier to make money but this never works in my case. Maybe it's my ideas that are shit if I can't scale them even if I have money for that.

Rub your hands with glee at this new challenge, and dive in.

Treat this as one of those discomfort things?

This might help too:

• MINDSET - What's Your Problem?

I assume for this I'd have to first edit my articles to remind people to sign up for the list? Because otherwise there's only one sign-up form and I guess most people will miss it.

Maybe test it instead of assuming and guessing?

I'm not sure how effective driving traffic to an article instead of a sign-up form would be.

Tip: Stop calling it traffic.

They're VISITORS to your website.

For paid search, someone searched for XYZ on Google, saw an ad promising them something related to XYZ, clicked, came through to the article, and SOME of them will read it all and think "Wow. Great site. Let me subscribe."

If you get enough visitors via certain search terms and ads then you've a business case to justify testing whether putting your article behind an opt-in page works better, or just creating a simple signup page works better, etc.


It sounds to me a bit like the disappointing performance from your Reddit ads has knocked your confidence and/or annoyed you. I suggest you "Get curious, not furious". Treat everything as a test.

Set a lower daily budget and watch the campaigns. There's learnings from everything that does and doesn't happen.


Get little win-wins, and celebrate them.

e.g.

1. Create a Google Ad. Yay! I've created my first ad and it's approved!
2. Get your first impression. Wow... someone (other than me or my mum) saw my ad!!
3. Get your first click. Oh my goodness. A real live person actually clicked my ad and visited my site?!?!
4. Get your first email signup. Holy smoke batman. Someone just signed up!!! Let me send them an excited video welcome.

 

[Andy Black]

Also... this is my personal definition of marketing. Maybe it will help you:

Marketing:

1. Find out what people want to buy.
2. Find out how to sell it to them profitably.
3. Do it.

I like marketing by actually running campaigns and/or engaging the market immediately (in online communites etc). That way, by the time you've done 1 and 2 you've already done 3.


This is my simple definition of business. Maybe it will help as well:

Business:

1. Help people.
2. Get paid.
3. Help more people.

 

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[MTF]

Thanks, @Andy Black, will get back to it later once I regroup.

 

[Madame Peccato]

I posted my 2nd issue last night at 11:30 PM. If you told me a month ago I'd spend my Saturday night writing a newsletter I'd have laughed at your naivety. Looks like I was the naïve one. Looks like I care about my newsletter more than I anticipated.

Some observations:

• Writing was way easier this time. I felt more comfortable with my thought process.
• It still took me too long to find a topic. Like last time, I started writing 3-4 different articles before settling on a topic. It's not the end of the world as I think the other topics have good potential, just need more thinking and research from me before turning into a published article.
• I need to figure out how Substack actually works. This time I sent the issue as an email, but the stats are different compared to the one I had access to with posts. I surfed around looking for more detailed stats but couldn't find anything.
• While writing on a Saturday night was unexpected and sort of cool, I need to organize myself better and not end up writing it all at the last minute, lol. Go monkey brain.

 

[p0stscript]

I need to figure out how Substack actually works. This time I sent the issue as an email, but the stats are different compared to the one I had access to with posts. I surfed around looking for more detailed stats but couldn't find anything.

Firstly, thank you for the recent newsletter it is obviously getting sent out OK.
Secondly, I was considering moving from Revue to Substack and may simply publish my first newsletter again to see the difference, have you found any other issues with Substack? I found with Revue how it looked in draft and the final publication had slightly different formatting.

I need to organize myself better and not end up writing it all at the last minute, lol. Go monkey brain.

Preaching to the choir with this.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Firstly, thank you for the recent newsletter it is obviously getting sent out OK.

That's great to hear, thank you!

Secondly, I was considering moving from Revue to Substack and may simply publish my first newsletter again to see the difference, have you found any other issues with Substack? I found with Revue how it looked in draft and the final publication had slightly different formatting.

Now that the post has been up for a bit I realized it's not an issue at all. Stats are working fine.

I have no complaints about Substack's editor, everything has been working out of the box for me. I recommend it if you are looking for a general newsletter tool.

Preaching to the choir with this.

Haha yeah, one day we'll get over it.

 

[MTF]

@Andy Black here's an article discussing why some creators go to the other extreme and do extremely long content:

The video essay boom

Hour-long YouTube videos are thriving in the TikTok era. Their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

www.vox.com

This part is particularly relevant:

“I think people have a desire to understand things more deeply,” Meadows told me. “Even with TikTok, I find it hard to unfold an argument or explore multiple angles of a subject. Once people get tired of the hot takes, they want to sit with something that’s more nuanced and in-depth.”

This is pretty much what I have in mind for my own newsletter and why I write such long articles. Short content doesn't allow you to do that.