How to Build and Grow a Newsletter as a Business Model

[woken]

That's such a simple fix.

Beehiiv only allows you to have one active offer. You can't edit it, only remove it and replace it with a new one. If a publisher sends the current deal, then it's treated as such. The advertiser can't scam the publisher. It's strange that SparkLoop still hasn't fixed it.

In my opinion they are quite aware of it — it is what keeps people subscribed and they want to keep it that way.

If i’m not mistaken you have to deposit the funds with them before you can advertise.

 

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[Andy Black]

i’ll be back to this with something more concrete once I have some more automated growth.

What are you looking at to automate growth? PM me if you prefer.

 

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[Andy Black]

i’m looking into typeform with zapier & beehiiv integration.

Someone submits a form via typeform, zapier then automatically creates a new subscriber & beehiiv sends a personalised welcome email.

Yes, you can do the same via landing pages but I much prefer it this way due to customisation options on typeform.

At the moment, beehiiv can be customised but not as much as I’d like to with drag and drop.

Interesting. I have a thread where I was running Google Ads to a Google Form to get people into a Google Sheet in the first instance.

We then switched to our own dynamic landing pages with leadforms that send people to Google Sheets. (That's what we do for clients anyway so I wanted to use our own tech. Plus the Google Forms aren't customisable enough.)

I then want to send people from Google Sheets to whatever email service provider we pick (or a client uses). I find all the landing pages builders by the ESPs to be poor.

EDIT: Found where I talk about it:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...aigns-for-fun-and-profit.107172/#post-1050748

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...for-fun-and-profit.107172/page-2#post-1055913

@MTF
If you could outline the process in the book in a couple sentences that would be lovely(rough idea)

+1. I was tempted to get it as I like Brennan Dunne but it's too damn long.

In my second newsletter I summarise the lives of successful entrepreneurs and highlight an important lesson / principle derived. More recently I started creating visual timelines.

I then create a 3 sentence summary of what I wrote and that is post #1.
The lesson/principle is post #2.
The visual is post #3.

So on LinkedIn it's like a short post, then a medium post, then a carousel?

I get feedback on my carousels (because they have a CTA to reply if interested in the lead magnet), and I could use that to improve the carousel and repost.

I also think a carousel is practically a short video so it could be a way of honing the content that will become a short video.

 

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[MTF]

Just resurrecting this post. An email newsletter can be as simple as alerts.

I like this idea.

What kind of alerts could it be besides flight deals or stock alerts, though?

 

[Andy Black]

I'm reminded of the video linked to in this post:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ee-email-newsletters.83312/page-5#post-777119

 

[MartinG]

I like this idea.

What kind of alerts could it be besides flight deals or stock alerts, though?

Use Google Trends to provide alerts to internet entrepreneurs about rising trends before their mainstream and hijacked by the make money online gurus and Youtube.

...which is demonstrated ironically in the last few pages about new and upcoming newsletter platforms.

 

[MartinG]

I like to catch up on Newcastle United video blogs on YouTube every Sunday evening before I hit the hay. Some are from journalists who've just come from press briefings or chats with players at the training grounds. Some are by bloggers who travel with the fans and talk to opposition fans in pubs etc.

I haven't gone looking, but what if there was an email newsletter that summarised the overall theme for the week and linked to all the videos that were released that week?

I could probably do it as I watched them all, but could it be done programmatically? Could it be done for every football team? What about other sports?

What about other subjects with a news component that have videos uploaded every week?


EDIT: I'm tempted to do the one for Newcastle United since I seem to be subscribed to all the channels and watch everything anyway.

Interesting. And would you use Sparkloop specifically for getting traffic and subs?

 

[MTF]

Use Google Trends to provide alerts to internet entrepreneurs about rising trends before their mainstream and hijacked by the make money online gurus and Youtube.

...which is demonstrated ironically in the last few pages about new and upcoming newsletter platforms.

There's a lot of tools like that already. They're far more sophisticated than just a newsletter, though.

 

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[Andy Black]

Great thread, thank you all for sharing so much - especially the open discussion.

Yeah, I like progress threads, and I like discussion threads.

 

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[conti]

10% easily trading with options???

 

[Cameraman]

Good sign that they do care.



The network effects. Look at my posts in this thread which discuss how list building on these platforms has become scammy.

I promoted newsletters to my 100K+ subscribers and got paid for virtually none of them, and yet, those newsletter owners will fully monetize those unpaid subscribers.

As a newsletter owner trying to build a list, that's very powerful. Most people won't see through the BS, and IMO, its longevity ranks up there will peeled fruit.

Thanks. I just realised my typo. I was trying to say that I can't understand what I'm missing by not using a network. I'm negative on a lot of the newsletter activity I see going on. My approach is trying to build a community where I'm a trusted voice.

I'm probably underselling myself and my products. I'm also limiting myself by trying to grow organically as I don't do much paid advertising (yet). I do have brands contacting me regularly to promote their products, but I cherry pick and limit myself to the ones that I would happily pay for.

I'm just trying to understand if I'm genuinely missing out on benefits by having built my own newsletter solution. At the moment I can't see that I am.

 

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[Andy Black]

Another great example of SparkLoop allowing their "partners" to legally steal.

"Most" -- wow, I wonder what those terms are.

View attachment 53173

And how many emails have to be sent in those 15 days?

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey guys! I'm new to the forum but having read MJ's book Millionaire Fastlane (after my boss' recommendation which might sound odd) and now reading The Great Rat Escape I decided to join the forum and this thread stood out.

I'm writing here because my job is to manage and grow a newsletter (email list) of one of the biggest education creators (5M on YouTube, 700,000+ subscribers on the email list) but I now want to create my own newsletter-based business.

That being said, I read about all your frustrations around picking the right software. I personally (and for that mentioned 700k+ newsletter) use ConvertKit and if anyone has any questions about that particular tool, I'd be happy to help! (doesn't matter if it's something basic or more complex like liquid statements, etc.)

Welcome to the forum! I love how you're going to directly use the learnings from your day job to grow something on the side.

What subject will you start a newsletter about (you can be vague if you prefer), how will you get subscribers, and how do you plan to earn from it?

I may start a newsletter again on ConvertKit. Now I know who to ask questions of.

Oh, and I insta-followed you based on your one short intro post.

 

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[woken]

Hey guys! I'm new to the forum but having read MJ's book Millionaire Fastlane (after my boss' recommendation which might sound odd) and now reading The Great Rat Escape I decided to join the forum and this thread stood out.

I'm writing here because my job is to manage and grow a newsletter (email list) of one of the biggest education creators (5M on YouTube, 700,000+ subscribers on the email list) but I now want to create my own newsletter-based business.

That being said, I read about all your frustrations around picking the right software. I personally (and for that mentioned 700k+ newsletter) use ConvertKit and if anyone has any questions about that particular tool, I'd be happy to help! (doesn't matter if it's something basic or more complex like liquid statements, etc.)

Is the Sponsor Network worth it? I’m trying to justify the prices as $1k/month for a decent sized list seems excessive to me.

Do you know any sponsorship agencies that work on commission?

Thank you

 

[Andy Black]

You can also find an affiliate offer and test it with that before building an info product. I did it with a newsletter idea I had - 500 subs, 0 sales. Saved me a ton of time I would have wasted creating the product.

The key thing is that the subscriber flow must be dialed in. Start with the offer, then create a lead magnet that is a natural extension of that offer, and then create a Facebook ad that is a natural extension of the lead magnet.

Could try PLR content too I guess?

I start with the visitors first then figure out the offer.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

This is what happens when I fail to login to Sparkloop to monitor their fraudulent scammy partners.

Guess how many of these I'm getting paid for?

Zero.

 

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[woken]

Edited. Will come back to this later when i have something concrete.

 

[Fox]

This is what happens when I fail to login to Sparkloop to monitor their fraudulent scammy partners.

Guess how many of these I'm getting paid for?

Zero.


View attachment 53462

@MJ DeMarco - what has been the average price you have paid (or would pay) for a legitimate subscriber so far?

 

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[woken]

The search volume is ridiculously crazy for newsletters about AI, though:

View attachment 53677

80% of them are the newsletter operators ripping off each other’s content .

 

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[Amin Purshottam]

I just found this thread today and just finished working my way through it. Thankful that I did.

I am starting a newsletter and had chosen Beehiiv but after reading all the bad press in this thread I may have to pause. I had already added my first draft but was planning to start posting this week. Looks like I am going to have to start investigating Convert Kit.

I have the first three newsletters ready to go and was going to start writing the fourth this week. It’s going to be a weekly thing. I am starting from scratch, zero subs. I plan to post daily on twitter using tweets and threads and start joking some communities to help answer questions. Then I plan on adding other social platforms in due time.

i have also created a list of over 30 Ebooks that I plan on creating and selling (my goal is to produce one every 2 weeks) as well as initially rolling out upto 5 courses. I have a host of other things I also want to do to add to that already mentioned.

This has been a really informative and educational thread. Thanks to everyone!

Once I am ready to post, after deciding on the platform, I will post the information in the thread. Hopefully very soon as my original plan was to already be live but the holidays were not the most productive.

I look forward to continue to read about how everyone else is getting along on their newsletter journey and to getting and, down the road, giving tips to help others.

Looks ConvertKit is going to be my platform . I am finding it better even though you basically have to start paying right away($29/month). There are lots of options to add digital products and so on. Hope to launch next week.

 

[MTF]

@MJ DeMarco these are my Upscribe stats so far after about a month:



So about 25% is accepted. Better than nothing but I have no idea how they verify that the newsletters don't choose arbitrarily which referral is accepted and which isn't. It sure isn't a breakthrough income stream as newsletter gurus portray it. But I bet that Beehiiv's program is even shittier. Promising potential $1-2k a month but in reality getting $50.

 

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[nicheevolution]

Looks ConvertKit is going to be my platform . I am finding it better even though you basically have to start paying right away($29/month). There are lots of options to add digital products and so on. Hope to launch next week.

It's free up to 1k subs but you don't get the automations. That's what I'm planning on using if I decide to launch my paid newsletter. Try to up to a certain amount of paid subs before I pay for their monthly fee.

 

[nicheevolution]

Would you guys say based on the time and effort, that paid newsletters is a viable option? I'm hesitant to trust articles written by convertkit and substack. They like to quote 10% conversion rates from free to paid but based on what I researched, its more like around 2-4%, with a few hitting 5%. Also convertkit says the average price of a newsletter is $11 which I think might be a bit high.

 

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[Amin Purshottam]

It's free up to 1k subs but you don't get the automations. That's what I'm planning on using if I decide to launch my paid newsletter. Try to up to a certain amount of paid subs before I pay for their monthly fee.

I realize there is more to this now, I have 4 issues written so far and started a fifth but realized there is a whole sequence of emails to set up when you are welcoming new subscribers and how often do you send those over a certain period of time. You can automate that as well so working on that currently.

 

[nicheevolution]

I realize there is more to this now, I have 4 issues written so far and started a fifth but realized there is a whole sequence of emails to set up when you are welcoming new subscribers and how often do you send those over a certain period of time. You can automate that as well so working on that currently.

How are you getting leads and what is your conversion percentage? I'm considering using my yt channel to pitch a lead magnet to get them to signup for my free newsletter where I then pitch the paid one.

 

[Andy Black]

The current model is a daily newsletter sending traffic to a website which is monetized with ads.

That seems a strange strategy to me. How many people click links in newsletters? Why not just have the ads in the newsletter?

I can understand sending people to a social media post to get initial traction on that post. I'm testing that at the moment.

A denial of the fact that content-based businesses are going to fail over the next few years due to AI?

Is this a fact though? The world will be awash with samey content, but I think the cream will always find a way to rise to the top. I suspect people will crave content that couldn't have been created by AI.

 

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[MTF]

This whole idea gives me a world of anxiety... what a F*cking grind.

It gives me this a little, too, which is why I'm hesitant about it. Still, the guy who uses this strategy is legit and has sold websites for $10 million following a similar template.

I'd much rather just focus on creating a better product with better marketing which is a direct approach that reflects relative value. I feel all your actions are always indirectly "round-about" and beating around bushes -- why not focus on creating a quality product and selling it to the right audience instead of these ridiculous arbitrage number games?

Because I like math and simple, repeatable "do X of this to get Y of that." Creating a better product is very nebulous and so is better marketing. There are so many variables. The product may not be needed. It may not be sold for the right price. It may not be the right targeting. It may not be the right timing. It may not be the right copy. And so on and so on.

I find it extremely hard to sell products because I don't need or buy much besides stuff I couldn't sell myself (like groceries and education from specialists). I don't have anything of value to offer besides being able to create content (which is getting less and less valuable).

This is why I prefer somehow delegating the marketing and sales to someone else, either through ads or a platform.

 

[Andy Black]

This was good as well:

Google Podcasts

With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

podcasts.google.com

 

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[MTF]

I know you're not into podcasts, but I think the flywheel Sahil Bloom has setup is interesting.

They're discussed in the two podcasts here:

CHAT - Figuring Out Flywheels

Thought I'd create a thread where we can discuss flywheels and how we're applying them to our businesses. I'll keep this opening post updated with a summary and insights. A simple flywheel to get more clients: One of my friends has a simple flywheel to grow the small carpet cleaning business...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

I saw this but I don't understand how this is any different from gurus guruing as always with the same crap of "post on social media, magically get traffic from it as a nobody with zero followers, then monetize it."

All the guys you mention are Twitter gurus from the right country club. Their advice is useless for a nobody since they can get off the ground whatever they want through their fame and connections alone. Sort of like Leonardo DiCaprio giving pick-up advice.

 

[Andy Black]

This was good too:

View: https://youtu.be/KcgHadHgs2Y?si=VAsxJo5ezEFpKd2T

How This Sneaker Newsletter Was Acquired in Less than a Year

Leqwane Lynch’s Story: Zero to 35,000 Subs & Selling the Newsletter

creator-spotlight.beehiiv.com