How to Build and Grow a Newsletter as a Business Model

[MTF]

Newsletters have been a stable online business model ever since the Internet became popular. For some time overlooked because of social media, they're now making a big comeback.

There are a few reasons why newsletters are now hot:

• Writers are looking for new ways to make money without being dependent on someone else (like a newspaper, website, or Amazon).
• With big social media platforms censoring writers, many shifted to Substack (a popular platform for newsletters) which is committed to minimal censorship. But even if you're not using Substack, newsletters in general are resistant to censorship because you control them and can always take your list elsewhere (unlike with social media).
• Smart content creators realized they're only renting space from social media. A newsletter list allows them to have direct access to their subscribers.
• Big players invest heavily in this industry. Twitter acquired newsletter tool Revue while Business Insider bought Morning Brew newsletter for $75 million.

And here are a few reasons why newsletters as a business model in general are interesting:

• Newsletters are in essence customer lists. So while you're building a newsletter, you're also building a valuable asset.
• Newsletters require very little capital and can be easily managed by one person.
• Once you figure out how to grow a newsletter, it's easy to start another one and scale to a few newsletters or more. The Agora is an example of a big publishing business mostly built through various newsletters.
• Newsletters on topics that appeal to many people can grow into lucrative businesses. Example: mentioned before Morning Brew or Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter recently acquired for $27 million.
• Newsletters have their own ecosystem. If you're in a popular niche, you can build and grow your newsletter by only interacting with other newsletters, similar to podcasting.

Newsletters can be monetized in many different ways:

• Directly, called premium or paid newsletters. This is most common for finance/industry newsletters where you're writing content that can make people money.
• Through sponsorships. Depending on the niche and your list size, you can make anywhere from a few dozen bucks to a few thousand dollars or more per one ad placement.
• Through affiliate marketing. You have a list and (hopefully) you have their trust so you can recommend products and make money from commissions.
• Through selling your own products and services. As above - you build trust with your audience so it's easier to sell.
• Through creating communities or organizing events - once you have enough subscribers, a newsletter can easily turn into a community. You can sell monthly or yearly access to it or organize events for your subscribers.

In this thread I'll post resources, news, tools, and other stuff related to newsletters. Feel free to contribute!

Note: this thread is ONLY about newsletters as a business model. If you use a newsletter as a traffic channel for your business that's cool but that's not the topic of this thread.

 

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[Andy Black]

My biggest weakness is finding stuff to write about. My mind goes blank when I try to come up with topics. I've tried to implement systems I found online (including those in Nicolas Cole's book) to no avail.

I'm trying to write about stuff I know quite a lot about.

I don't know if my brain is trying to sabotage me, or if I'm just approaching it from the wrong perspective. Probably a mix of both.

Any ideas?

Help people in online communities. Repurpose for your newsletter.

That way you’re not “finding stuff to write about”, you’re “finding people to help, helping them, and then helping your subscribers”.

 

[MTF]

Types of Newsletters

Here are some different types of newsletters:

• Curated newsletters. By far the most common type of a newsletter these days. The editor provides a weekly (or more frequent) roundup of news from the industry/niche, interesting articles to read, etc. This type of content is easy to produce since your job is to find, read, and filter the best resources for your subscribers. You don't have to be an expert and you don't have to write much except for a paragraph or two explaining why you decided to share it. Example: Midlife Health, Wealth, and Personal Growth | Further (in this case the editor expands more on the links he shares)
• Expert newsletters. Also a very common model. If you're an expert in something, you write for your newsletter as if you were to write for your blog or another platform. You can write your commentaries on the news, provide how-to articles, or report your own stories like journalists do. Example: Marketing Examples - The finest real world marketing examples
• Hybrid curated/expert. You share links to third-party articles/news and give your take on them. With this type, you don't have to be as knowledgeable about it as if you were the "proper" expert. Just enough knowledge to understand the industry may be sufficient. Example: The Publish Press
• Research newsletters. You share with your subscribers your own analysis of something. What's more important here than understanding everything about a certain topic is your ability to synthesize knowledge. This is a very popular choice for business newsletters. Example: Trends.vc — Discover new markets and ideas
• Opportunities newsletters. Usually in finance/business, you share with your readers new opportunities, such as new opportunities to invest money, new business models to explore, etc. This is similar to expert newsletters, only more focused on a specific theme (like a new business idea each week) and not general how-to advice. Example: Contrarian Thinking
• Student newsletters. You can become an expert in something by launching a newsletter in which you'll share how you're learning a given topic. Instead of pretending you know all the answers you're sharing your challenges, book notes, successes and mistakes, etc. Eventually you may transition from this type into a "proper" expert newsletter. Example:
• Discomfort Club (this is my new newsletter; instead of pretending I'm an expert I'm providing book notes and my thoughts as I learn about this topic).

 

[Andy Black]

Newsletters have been a stable online business model ever since the Internet became popular. For some time overlooked because of social media, they're now making a big comeback.

There are a few reasons why newsletters are now hot:

• Writers are looking for new ways to make money without being dependent on someone else (like a newspaper, website, or Amazon).
• With big social media platforms censoring writers, many shifted to Substack (a popular platform for newsletters) which is committed to minimal censorship. But even if you're not using Substack, newsletters in general are resistant to censorship because you control them and can always take your list elsewhere (unlike with social media).
• Smart content creators realized they're only renting space from social media. A newsletter list allows them to have direct access to their subscribers.
• Big players invest heavily in this industry. Twitter acquired newsletter tool Revue while Business Insider bought Morning Brew newsletter for $75 million.

And here are a few reasons why newsletters as a business model in general are interesting:

• Newsletters are in essence customer lists. So while you're building a newsletter, you're also building a valuable asset.
• Newsletters require very little capital and can be easily managed by one person.
• Once you figure out how to grow a newsletter, it's easy to start another one and scale to a few newsletters or more. The Agora is an example of a big publishing business mostly built through various newsletters.
• Newsletters on topics that appeal to many people can grow into lucrative businesses. Example: mentioned before Morning Brew or Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter recently acquired for $27 million.
• Newsletters have their own ecosystem. If you're in a popular niche, you can build and grow your newsletter by only interacting with other newsletters, similar to podcasting.

Newsletters can be monetized in many different ways:

• Directly, called premium or paid newsletters. This is most common for finance/industry newsletters where you're writing content that can make people money.
• Through sponsorships. Depending on the niche and your list size, you can make anywhere from a few dozen bucks to a few thousand dollars or more per one ad placement.
• Through affiliate marketing. You have a list and (hopefully) you have their trust so you can recommend products and make money from commissions.
• Through selling your own products and services. As above - you build trust with your audience so it's easier to sell.
• Through creating communities or organizing events - once you have enough subscribers, a newsletter can easily turn into a community. You can sell monthly or yearly access to it or organize events for your subscribers.

In this thread I'll post resources, news, tools, and other stuff related to newsletters. Feel free to contribute!

Note: this thread is ONLY about newsletters as a business model. If you use a newsletter as a traffic channel for your business that's cool but that's not the topic of this thread.

You know I’m a fan of paid email newsletters (even though I’m not running one currently). I think they’re a great MVP for a subscription product, as well as being a product themselves.

They’re so simple to setup.

They’re also one-to-many communication. No worrying about subscribers spamming other subscribers. No having to moderate comments or vet new members.

They don’t have to be a formal “newsletter” in the sense that it’s published to a schedule, or has great formatting and/or graphics. I had a little $5/mth email newsletter that was like a progress log of me growing my business. I’d update that like I was updating a progress log in the forum.

Something I found refreshing was just posting to my paid subscribers, without wondering how I should try to monetise. They’re already paying, no need for me to sell anything. (I don’t have a free email list as I can’t be bothered sending free emails.)

Looking forward to seeing where you take this @MTF.

 

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[Andy Black]

This is an interesting idea. As I said earlier, my biggest hurdle is that I don't really care about any subject in particular. I have a lot of horizontal knowledge so to speak, but in-depth...meh. Maybe in content marketing, but even then I'm not a fan of it.

Maybe you're like me and care more about helping people instead? If so then lean into that.

I've written about this a lot.

Some of those threads:

• How to use forums (and Facebook groups)
• Who have you helped?
• Clarity of Purpose
• Content Marketing - Kinda

 

[MTF]

Regarding the successful newsletters already cited, does anyone know what their traffic generation methods were/are?

Did they have YouTube channels, blogs, or did they venture more into paid advertising?

I assume the methods were more written-based, given so many subscribed to an email newsletter.

For The Hustle:

The Hustle Founder Sam Parr: Attract Attention | A Newsletter Crew Blog by Yaro Bagriy

Sam Parr founded The Hustle newsletter in 2014. In 2020, he sold the business — with over one million subscribers — to Hubspot for an undisclosed amount. But how did Parr become a newsletter writer? Here, he shares his strategy for growing an initial subscriber list, creating viral blog content...

www.newslettercrew.com

(mostly blogging)

Morning Brew:

How Morning Brew Became a $75 Million Company in 5 Years

A deeper look into the company’s road to success

bettermarketing.pub

(word of mouth and referral program)

Here's an article written by a guy who grew his newsletter to 130k subscribers in 20 months:

How I grew my newsletter to 130k subs in 20 months

Since starting TLDR (a tech newsletter targeted towards the kind of people who read Hacker News, Slashdot, Indie Hackers etc.) in August of 2018, I've b...

www.indiehackers.com

Here are some ideas as well:

21 ways to grow your newsletter faster in 2021

The top tips, strategies and channels that'll help you get more subscribers this year!

sparkloop.app

 

[MTF]

They’re already paying, no need for me to sell anything.

This makes paid newsletters a joy for writers who simply want to get paid for writing, without having to monetize it another way. Your only concern becomes to write good stuff.

They eliminate a lot of the upfront time/financial investment compared to other online models. That said, I suppose this also makes them a low barrier to entry?

IMO a barrier to entry is the least important of the commandments. There are so many business models that are easy to start, yet it doesn't mean someone who copies you will "steal" your subscribers.

It's also important to determine whether you want to create a personal or corp brand. Both have pros and cons (particularly if you want to exit).

I'd personally go with a business brand so that you can replace the editor of the newsletter if necessary (for example, when launching a new newsletter but still wanting to grow the old one) or sell it. Personal newsletters may be easier to grow in some industries (like journalism) but in general I would always go with a brand.

 

[MTF]

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.

 

[MTF]

What an awesome article:

35 Lessons from 35 Years of Newsletter Publishing

My first newsletter was about ninjas in 1987. I was 12. Since then, I’ve been obsessed. I’ve created small newsletters for my own projects, and big newsletters for corporations. What ties them all together? Probably hundreds of things, but I’m lazy, so let’s start with 35.

www.cjchilvers.com

Here are the ones that resonated the most with me:

• There is no competition for your personal voice.

• Build relationships. That’s what it’s all about. Anyone trying anything else is lying to themselves or their readers. All you need is one relationship to change or save your project, career, or life. Why not establish more? This is also what separates the wealthy from the successful.

• New idea? Just start. You can’t establish relationships if you’re not out there. Whatever it takes, get your idea out there now. Course correct, if and when needed. Every failure is possible entertainment for your audience. So, just ship.

• Keep track of what delights you about other newsletters — not what engages you (that’s too easy — A.I. can do that). Engagement is good for a few sentences. Delight builds anticipation for the next issue. You’re probably not producing enough delight. You probably should be.

• Subject lines don’t matter anywhere near as much as your From line. Trust is the only thing that improves your From line.

• Monetization is a byproduct. If you build an audience to serve that audience, monetization will present itself. You don’t need to chase it. You don’t even need to accept it if you don’t want the added responsibility.

 

[Andy Black]

Your threads are always a delight to read,

Thanks!

I found out the clarity of purpose one the other day. If I had to describe my thinking on this subject, I'd say...very muddy.

Maybe I can unmuddy it for you.

Business is simple:

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.

Start. Sell. Scale.

And start by following Mother Theresa's quote:

"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person closest to you."


I don't like or understand LinkedIn. It's not my kind of platform, although I do interact with people on it.

Communities work best for me.

• Make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins

 

[MTF]

I recently found a newsletter targeting a similar audience to mine. I asked the newsletter owner if he offers sponsorship. Turns out he does. I paid $50 for a shoutout to his 5,000+ list.

So far, 24 hours after he sent it, I got 44 subscribers from it (out of 66 visitors so a super solid conversion rate). I think that at least a few more people should sign up over the next 24 hours so in the end I'll probably acquire 50 relevant high-quality subscribers for $1 per person.

Unfortunately in my niche there aren't countless similar newsletters so this strategy is limited. But even if I can find a few more such newsletters, I'll be able to get to a few hundred subscribers relatively easily and with very little work and financial investment.

A cool thing about newsletters is that word of mouth may eventually account for a lot of growth so the hardest job is probably the first 1000 subscribers or so.

 

[MTF]

What keeps me from paying for the premium content, is that there is so much high-quality, free content out there. Maybe if it was super niche I would pay for it.

I pay for three crypto newsletters (paid for a year in advance) but next year will only keep paying for one as it's not just crypto but also a bit on business/lifestyle/investing/macro trends.

Like I mentioned in the first post, I'd have no problems paying for a newsletter that would help me make more money. Otherwise I'd pay if it gave me access to an exclusive community but not just a newsletter.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MTF - In my opinion you should remove "Join 178 members" as this number is not large enough to imbue social proof. When it goes over 1000, then I think you can add it. Until then, I'd use something ambiguous like "Join an exceptional group of men" or something that compels someone to say, "Yea, that's me!"

 

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[Madame Peccato]

My biggest weakness is finding stuff to write about. My mind goes blank when I try to come up with topics. I've tried to implement systems I found online (including those in Nicolas Cole's book) to no avail.

I'm trying to write about stuff I know quite a lot about.

I don't know if my brain is trying to sabotage me, or if I'm just approaching it from the wrong perspective. Probably a mix of both.

Any ideas?

 

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[MTF]

I'm more of a "know a little bit about everything" person.

I'm like that, too which is why I found one topic that relates to a lot of stuff I do and sort of connect everything back to it.

In your case, something related to philosophy could work well as it's a broad subject that allows you to explore whatever you're interested in.

Other than that, you can also pick a topic you'd like to study and use your newsletter as a tool to document your journey. Maybe it'll take off. And if it doesn't, you'll still at least do something and learn.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

I'm alive. What a PAINFUL process, good grief. Yes, I'm 2 days late, but...it was either this or nothing.

It was pure agony to power through all the objections my brain was throwing at me. I have written 3 different articles and deleted all of them. Not fun. I was VERY close to deleting this one too

I finally settled on a topic and powered through it. I'm satisfied with the result (mostly because I hit the publish button, lol). But dear Lord, it took me sooo much time. Now I feel like I know better what was stopping me, so next issue will be easier for me to produce.

Here it is:

Words, Words, Words!

Language controls your thoughts – but you control your language

waltermoraschinelli.substack.com

Things I've figured out:

• I need more notes - I recently deleted all of my old notes because they got too messy. I restarted about a month ago with Obsidian, but I'm still building a knowledgebase.
• I've done 0 editing and re-reading. There will be the occasional typo as I'm human, but I know how it'd end if I were to edit my writing. I'd publish my 1st issue in 2030. I'm ok with the current writing quality, so that's a relief.
• Self-sabotage is not cool. I need to listen to my brain less.
• I should dedicate 10 or so minutes every day to reflect on topics. I feel like I rushed through it all in the last 2-3 days. I guess what I need is to actually manage my time in regards to the newsletter.

Things I want to figure out:

• The optimal length. This first attempt is at ~1.000 words. I just wanted to get it out. I'll experiment with different lengths now that I have a better idea of what goes into the project.
• Have an idea of topics I want to talk about. Right now I plan to go very wide and see if there's anything I enjoy writing about in particular.
• You know...get some subscribers I want to write at least 2 more issues, maybe 3 before I look into promotion. I want to have at least have 2-3 extra issues ready to publish so I know I'm committed.

 

[MTF]

I got my logo and brand identity designed. I'm very happy with the results. Now it's time to design a custom Ghost theme to have the entire design reflect my brand's pursuit of excellence.

Here's the logo (it has various color versions):



Here's the concept (I'm impressed by the story; the designer came up with it):

 

[MTF]

People love following journeys. Add personal touches to your stories. Photos and maybe even videos.

Let them know they’re following a fellow human being.

Think about the progress threads you enjoy following in the forum. Which stand out to you and why? The trials and tribulations draw us in and have us cheering them on from the sidelines. Those threads can be so much more engaging than a “Here’s how to do XYZ” post.

And vulnerability makes you more relatable.

You're not that experienced guy who already knows everything about everything. You're someone similar to your audience. That makes you a "real" person and someone they can emulate easily.

I have no problem admitting I'm a student and make mistakes and fail all the time. Way better to be a student than a fake expert.

 

[MTF]

Wow I didn't notice this thread is now marked GOLD. Thank you!

I am curious: How long do you think will this business model be viable in the future?
After all, technology is changing faster and faster. Email won't always be around.

As @Andy Black said. But also, consider that there's no viable alternative for email for the foreseeable future. Nothing whatsoever. Perhaps over the long term crypto wallets may replace email but it's a wild speculation.

You need email to create accounts on most websites. You need it for shopping in most places. You need it for work.

Also, don't forget about the Lindy Effect. Email has been around since the seventies (and more commercially, since the mid 90s).

Would you care to share the newsletter?

BowTied Bull | Substack

The #1 Paid Crypto Substack. No non-sense writing style covering: 1) Crypto, 2) Tech Stocks, 3) WiFi money and 4) Real Estate. Written by anon Ex-Wall St and Tech Individuals. SPONSOR FREE. Click to read BowTied Bull, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

bowtiedbull.substack.com

 

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[MTF]

4 weeks since I officially launched my new newsletter, I now have 116 subscribers. Here's how I got them:

• roughly between 30-50 people subscribed from this forum,
• roughly 50-60 people signed up because of an ad in a newsletter I sponsored,
• roughly 15 people signed up from Reddit where I soft promoted my website,
• a couple of people signed up from a LinkedIn post published by my subscriber (thank you!),
• there may have been a few word of mouth sign-ups as well.

As you can see, even without this forum, as a guy with zero authority in this niche I was able to gain at least 75 subscribers for just $50 in total.

I haven't focused that much on marketing yet since I wanted to add a few more issues. Now that I'll be at issue 10 this Sunday (and each issue is up to a few thousand words long), I think I'll have enough to be considered a "serious" newsletter so I'll have to think of ways to promote it better and more consistently.

 

[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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[redshift]

Since I've gone through this gauntlet as well now in 2022 with my own subscription newsletter blog and am now cranking it down a notch (for the time being, to get my app out), I thought I'd share some of my findings here for anyone wanting to start one in the new year 2023, and not wanting to read my 20 min long escapades, oof.

So here's a 5:48 minute summary of my findings instead.

Note: If you go through the same path yourself, you'll likely come up with conclusions and results that might be totally different from mine. So take these as what they are-- one point of reference.

Although, most of them are actually quite similar to what MTF has noted in this thread above.

1) I've come to realize that subscriptions are not that great of a primary business model. Regardless of how good the content is, people aren't in the mindset of becoming paid subscribers for newsletters so much. Pair that with the flood of newsletters out there. This becomes a very long-term game just to stand out and make 'good money.' I've noticed that most paid subscribers do so because they like the author rather than wanting to read the paywalled content. People are fine paying for one-off stuff (e.g., pdf, courses, books, etc.) but less so when buying a recurring subscription (as of now). So, this is similar to the Patreon model and more about building fans/trust, which takes time.

I think I read somewhere that some of the top newsletters on Substack have about a 10% rate for paid subs. The average is supposed to be 5%. Mine is currently even lower but slowly creeping up. I made the HUGE mistake of putting my "best" content behind the paywall. That means more than 95% of my readers don't even read it. That's the content that will get you subscribers and shares in the first place. So there's really a chicken and egg problem with the standard approach. The better way to do it is probably to keep all or most of your content free and then have some other paid content or companion products for subscribers. I'm experimenting with different approaches now.

The even better model is probably to start a free newsletter and sell ad space to sponsors. If you pair this with a referral network (like beehiv), plus paid one-off products, you can make some money. I've seen some free ones grow quite fast on there. There is a downside to referral systems, however. People share your newsletter for rewards rather than because they like your content. So you get huge growth but might end up with a not-so-engaged audience and low open rates. This is different from a productocracy. A productocracy is organic, where the content is so good that people want to share it themselves and are also highly engaged. That's what we like to aim for over here. Here's one way to do that:

2) Only write about something you are genuinely excited about and want to grow in. It will get too much otherwise and shows in the quality. It's fine to mix things, also. For me, that was a mix of entrepreneurship, creativity, and mindfulness (and now fiction). That's where I wanted to grow the most, so it's more of a lifelong learner type of newsletter, with me also being an end user of the product. MTF did the same with Discomfort Club because he wanted to improve his life. If I wanted to actually make big money with this project, I could have gone with coding, which is something I know quite well and can monetize easily and fast with companion products. But it's starting to interest me less and less now from a technical point (other than creating stuff), and I can't see myself writing about it for a long time. I would have ended up just abandoning that business had I started it. Follow your interests. It will keep you going in the long run. The more interests you can combine, the more fun you'll have and the more unique the product (i.e., relative value).

3) The voice really matters - I've realized that newsletters (of any kind) are very personal. It's kind of like sending an email to a friend, but in bulk (literally). So you have to bring your personality out and let people get to know you. I shied away from this for a long time and then just ended up sounding like the books I was reading. But that's not how I talk in real life, so why am I writing like that? I've started using my voice now and getting much better feedback. MTF does this quite well in his newsletter as well. An example of how to do this well-- take a bunch of your interests/research, combine them with your experience, and then wrap it up in a story. That's unique. It took me 6+ months to get here, and I'm still learning, but I didn't have any writing experience before this, so it might be a faster learning curve for you.

4) Add a feedback widget - I just used the one MTF mentioned earlier in this thread - FeedLetter. Total game changer. It's super nice to see people commenting, and that other people are actually reading your stuff and getting value out of it. It definitely makes it easier to keep going and improve. Not many people like to leave public comments for some reason, but they are happy to do so anonymously. That's what this widget is. I found this to be way more inspiring for my feedback loop than someone becoming a paid subscriber. If there's one thing I wish I had done sooner, it would be this. Helped me find my voice as well.

5) It's fine to migrate platforms or even change directions. I started on Revue, am now on Substack, and will likely move to beehiv or ghost soon. Just start somewhere and figure things out along the way. I might even end up changing the newsletter title. I added 'Startup' in there because I thought it would be a hit with the Twitter crowd (it wasn't really), but now I've been writing about a bunch of other things, and I don't even really talk about startups in the traditional sense (i.e., huge teams, raising venture capital, not making any money, etc.), so I might end up changing the title as well. If you are building fans, they won't mind, and it's better to have less of the right audience rather than more of the wrong one. One caveat-- create your own URL from the start so any external references stay valid (most newsletter platforms support custom URLs). Even if you change your brand, the old landing page can redirect to the new URL with a message.

6) Keep it as a side hustle / creative hobby, and don't obsess too much over the numbers. It makes it much easier to enjoy the process and focus on quality. This isn't really a great primary business model, as MTF discovered as well. But if you keep going, integrate feedback, and continuously improve, it will slowly build up into something great, perhaps even a productocracy someday. And you'll have much more fun in the process.

If you are wondering whether it's worth getting into and starting one from scratch. I'd say go for it and try it out for yourself. There's not much money here, but it might just change your life (Or, if nothing else, it will definitely make you a better writer)

Hope this helps.

—

And now, as a corollary to everything above — If you do, on the other hand, want to go all in and make some money fast using this model, here's another way —

Take something you know deeply about. The more focused/niche, the better. Hire a bunch of writers and get them to write the content at a high frequency. You act as the director of the whole movie. Build a social media personality for yourself as the founder. Scale using google+fb ads, social media, newsletter sponsorships (swapstack, paved), billboards even. Keep the newsletter free and charge for ad space yourself and companion products (digital or physical). Integrate a referral system (sparkloop, beehiv) for explosive growth. Give people rewards (digital or physical, the more, the better) as incentives to grow. Launch your newsletter on product hunt and other aggregators and get your readers to upvote it. Build your own community, or even better, host a conference and sell merch. Keep going for a few years and then exit. That's how you end up with something like 'The Hustle.' But that's a multi-million dollar media/drop-shipping business, not a peaceful long-term one-person writing hobby that also happens to generate revenue.

—

Or, you can always find your own middle ground. It's up to you.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My newsletter email inbox, 10 days of newsletters.

It will take me to 2027 to read every one of them, of which, I'm guessing 50% of them are trying to sell me something.

This is why if you're not in front of the trend and selling courses on the trend, you're fighting a natural unsustainability and a saturation point.

This trend is nearly identical to that of blogs from 2010. Back then, everyone was on the hype train for blogs. Back, then, the blogs that sold for $X millions made news and headlines. Just like blogs, your blog should NOT be the product. Your newsletter should not be the product. Podcasting? Same natural life cycle with a similar gold rush, hype train. THESE ARE SUPPLEMENTAL TOOLS to a bigger value proposition.

Trying to make "newsletters" YOUR BUSINESS might work out in the short term, but it won't in the long term.

 

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[MTF]

My nightmare with Beehiiv is over. They refunded my annual payment and the funds I had in their wallet so at least I give them that one point for being ethical.

I moved to ConvertKit and I'm loving it so far. Zero issues, super intuitive, nice interface, every feature I need is available.

ConvertKit and Beehiiv are polar opposites. Beehiiv feels like a bunch of kids playing business compared to ConvertKit.

With ConvertKit, support is available via live chat all the time. They're solving your problems very quickly or handing it to someone else who replies promptly, too. With Beehiiv, you wait for (an often unhelpful) email response up to 3 days.

Beehiiv lacks some ridiculously basic features like:

• Subscribers being able to update their email addresses - currently you can't do it even from your admin panel, you need to write to support.
• Basic segmentation like tag a person who clicked X with X tag and a person who clicked Y with Y tag.
• Remember your login option - lol this is my favorite. You have to log in again each time. Because who would need this feature, right?

Then there were other bugs and constant issues with things breaking (one time I was even locked out of my account for 2 days). My subscribers received emails twice, they didn't get them at all, they went into spam, or responses from my own subscribers landed into my spam folder.

After my experience with Beehiiv, I won't be surprised at all if they go bust within 1-2 years. They're busy doing stupid stuff like selling their own merchandise (who the F*ck cares about buying merchandise from a freaking newsletter software company?) but their support is the slowest and the worst I've experienced in a long time.

Feels like they got too much money from the investors and are too busy pretending they're cool rather than building a good, functional product.

 

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[Madame Peccato]

Thanks for your answers @MTF and @Andy Black, I'm way less confused now.

Maybe you're like me and care more about helping people instead? If so then lean into that.

I've written about this a lot.

Some of those threads:

• How to use forums (and Facebook groups)
• Who have you helped?
• Clarity of Purpose
• Content Marketing - Kinda

Yes, I'm definitely more interested in helping others. It's how I stumbled upon my current main source of income, freelance writing.

I have a hard time finding people to help, as I don't use social media. I have a LinkedIn account but I don't understand that place AT ALL.

Your threads are always a delight to read, I found out the clarity of purpose one the other day. If I had to describe my thinking on this subject, I'd say...very muddy.

Other than that, you can also pick a topic you'd like to study and use your newsletter as a tool to document your journey. Maybe it'll take off. And if it doesn't, you'll still at least do something and learn.

This is something I can do. Do you have any example of newsletters / articles / social media accounts / YT channels of people sharing their learning? I only see people who are already expert at their craft, so I'm having a hard time imagining how to write what I'm learning about in an engaging way.

 

[Andy Black]

You inspired me to start another Follow-Along newsletter @MTF. Thanks!

 

[MTF]

Reposting my post from another thread here:

@MJ DeMarco just learned about another platform for advertising in newsletters:

Swapstack | Where newsletter writers and brands connect for sponsorships.

After browsing through their newsletter gallery for a couple of minutes, this looks way more promising than LetterWell. A much wider variety of newsletters and seems easier to use. If I find a relevant newsletter to advertise in, I'll post about my experience on the forum.

---

In their catalog, each newsletter comes with an exact subscriber count, open rate, and even prices. No need to guess or negotiate - you send them a pitch and I assume they either accept you or refuse you.

The prices aren't that bad - they're around a few hundred bucks for a list with 10,000-20,000 and open rate around 30%.

I've already found one newsletter in which I can advertise. Looks like this may be a pretty good way for me to scale my newsletter.

Edit:

There are currently 647 newsletters on their platform. I'll be going through them all today and will later post some observations.

 

[MTF]

I sent pitches to 17 newsletters on Swapstack, ranging from 21,000 subscribers to just 270. I have a few more, larger newsletters saved which cover broader topics but may potentially work as well (I first want to see how more relevant newsletters will perform).

Update on this:

Just 8 newsletter owners responded:

1. One newsletter didn't consider it a good fit.
2. One newsletter approved my pitch and then didn't reply to my questions (I just followed up).
3. Another newsletter also didn't respond until I followed up. But I'm not sure about this one as it's a very small newsletter and the owner doesn't seem to be particularly interested.
4. Discussing the deal with one tiny newsletter. Probably doesn't make sense considering low subscriber count and a terribly low open rate.
5. Tried negotiating with a newsletter that could be a good fit but the newsletter owner changed his prices and charges way too much.
6. One approved my pitch today and hasn't responded to my questions since (I followed up).
7. Almost done finalizing a deal with a newsletter with 7,000 subscribers.
8. One deal with a 9,000+ subscriber newsletter is finalized and ready to go this weekend.

All in all, Swapstack was very promising when I first saw it but now I see it's not as game-changing as I thought it would be. Perhaps it works better for bigger and sexier niches like marketing and tech.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I got inspired by this thread!

I've cleaned up my personal website, migrated old content to other services, and started a publication with Substack which will act as a student newsletter (I have extensive programming knowledge but I'm lacking first-hand experience in other important fields of running a SaaS business).

I'll be sharing my experiences and thoughts on producing a valuable product. It should help me beat multiple birds with one stone. I can market the product, build a personal brand, and monetize newsletter content this way. Substack allows making certain posts available only to paid subscribers. I'll soon share it with my network.

Now my biggest regret is not building a strong and large network earlier. I'll have to start showing up in relevant groups.

I'll share an update soon.

 

[MTF]

Update on my stuff:

1. I decided to hire a professional designer to design a professional logo and brand identity. I should have it ready within a week. It costs a few hundred bucks so I think it's sensible. The guy's portfolio is really nice so I hope he'll deliver for me as well.

2. Once that's done, I'll hire a developer to redesign the website according to the brand identity guide. I decided that since my newsletter is about excellence, everything needs to reflect that. This will be my single project for the foreseeable future. I want it to look legit for potential big name partners. I want to be proud of it. I want it to have everything it needs to help change as many lives as possible.

3. In the meantime, I booked two more Swapstack features. One went out today and so far looks like it generated at least one opt-in.

4. I also published a guest post on a blog for men. I don't think it brought any subscribers but at least it's a new backlink from a site with a strong domain authority.

5. I bought the premium version of Feedletter.co since I received more feedback than the free version allows to see.

6. I gained access to Paved.com marketplace (Swapstack competitor). Going through the newsletters listed there now.

 

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