How to Build and Grow a Newsletter as a Business Model

[Madame Peccato]

I had typed a long winded response, but you know...this.

The only question that remains is whether you'll stick with it or find a way to talk yourself out of it. I'm happy to keep you accountable to pursue this.

Some parts of my answer felt like resisting / talking myself out of it.

Let's go.

 

[Taktik]

If it's a topic new to you, there's a risk you'll get bored of it. For example, a couple of months ago I got interested in Web3. For a couple of weeks I consumed content about it obsessively. But then I realized 99% of it is irrelevant to me and I'd rather focus on other things. So if I were to start that newsletter in the first few weeks, I'd be making a big mistake caused by overexcitement.

In most cases, I'd recommend picking a topic that has been your consistent interest for at least a couple of years.

That's a good point. I often dive deep into topics for a couple of weeks or months, only to then completely abandon them. Most of the time there is a point, where I feel like i have learned enough about that specific topic. Then I move on to another one. Other people might think, that I am jumping around, never really comitting to anything. But that is not the case. I just don't see a reason to invest my time into a thing, that I already learned enough about.

For me, curated newsletters are harder to produce because you'll spend a lot of time looking for new content to recommend. And since you're looking for news, you can't prepare your emails in advance. This is much less flexible than when you're writing evergreen content.

I had one curated newsletter, mostly posting recently published articles/videos, etc. and it was frustrating to have to prepare each issue the day before publishing it. Now if I want, I can write several articles in advance, and that's super helpful to have more peace of mind.

After writing my post I thought about that and came to the same conclusion. You cannot prepare a curated newsletter in advance, but you can do that with a student newsletter. I like to have flexibility so I am going to take the student newsletter route.

 

[Andy Black]

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.

It’s not about email. It’s about people subscribing to get regular information sent to them. The medium would be whatever folks want to use. Will people ever not want to get information sent to them?

 

[EPerceptions]

I have a question about monetising a newsletter if you start from scratch and don't have an audience yet.
Would you start monetising the newsletter from the get go or would you write for free for a set period of time? (But how can one then transition to a paid version, if you ever only wrote for free?)

Once upon a time I custom-coded a solution in WordPress. It wasn't technically a newsletter but it incorporated email announcements with the posts. It was paid subscriptions though. I posted content onto the site, and anyone could read a certain percentage of the beginning of the article/book/newsletter. Similar to the Amazon preview feature on Kindle books.

Readers could also see the Table of Contents to get a taste of what else was behind the paywall. Then they were presented with a subscription button. If they wanted to read the rest of the content that hooked them in, or anything in the ToC, they had to pay to access it.

Free samples work. Particularly when you cover content people really want to access.

 

[MTF]

I always heard that Redditors are quick to lament those who link externally?

Props for your success there, though. If you can get a few more popular posts going, it could be a nice little faucet for your newsletter.

I'm promoting very rarely and very carefully. And the subreddit where I participate is thankfully not like stereotypical Reddit (I guess hard to be a David Goggins fan and whine about everything).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[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.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[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.

 

[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!

 

[Andy Black]

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).

Targeting only men with my newsletter makes advertising a bit more complicated since there are very few men-only newsletters (and none of the ones I pitched to are for men only).

Maybe I should ask my audience whether they'd want more inclusive content or stick with the men-only idea? My gut tells me it's a bad idea to broaden my target audience as I think the content (and potential future community) is way stronger if it's aimed at men only.

Any thoughts?

Are newsletters a channel to get off the ground and maybe achieve critical mass? I’m wondering what happens after you’ve advertised in all the newsletters.

I’m curious whether there’s decent daily search volume on Google (and maybe YouTube) you can tap into. What search terms indicate the searcher might be interested in your content?

If there are searches on Google, then is it only men doing the searches?

What are people selling to those searchers?

What proportion of your current subscribers are women?

Currently:

1. Who do you help?
2. What do you help them with?
3. How do you do it?

 

[Andy Black]

I agree with the advice for less CTAs. But we can use multiple channels and have one CTA for each piece of content.

I like the advice from “Ready, Fire, Aim” of “one avatar, one channel, one product” if we’re under $1m/year. I was reminded of it by a Alex Hormozi video and it’s helped me focus better this year.

At the start we’re figuring out our one avatar, one channel, one product, so could test different channels.

I worry you’re both writing too much in your newsletters @MTF @JoeyF, and maybe not spending as much time getting that content in front of new people?

How can you get the content you’ve already created in front of more people?

“Don’t tell different things to the same people. Say the same things to different people.”

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Great work @Supa and @MTF.

I like this sort of joint progress thread. I’ve not seen one like this in the forum before. It almost creates a small community within the community.

@MJ DeMarco … are there any other threads that multiple people update with progress? Could this be a thing for the forum?

 

[JoeyF]

Just secured my first YouTube sponsorship / a "brand ambassador"

I'm really curious whether it will translate into any growth for the newsletter since these are two different mediums.

Still, I think it's a pretty rewarding kind of marketing as you're working directly with a fellow creator instead of a faceless corporation.

Also, I had a plan to hire someone to customize my Ghost theme once I hit 500 subscribers since the website looks basic and perhaps a little cheap. Maybe I'll do it sooner as I think that my opt-in rates could be much higher. A more professional custom brand design would help build more trust and show that it's not just another similarly-looking newsletter.

Fun experiment! Hope it goes well!

I'm currently pondering how best to deal with my website, it looks like trash and if it's already getting some organic traffic, I should put some more effort into it and double down on SEO.

90 organic visits in the last 28 days through the long tail keywords I set out last year, not exactly hitting the big time yet but cool to see something happening.

 

[Andy Black]

I just sent an email to my handful of subscribers to my new $5/mth newsletter.

It was literally bullet-points of my progress and thoughts growing my business this week. It's like a journal so really easy to come up with the content (although it took time to summarise it so it was easy to read).

I consider that time well spent because it helps me get clarity anyway. It's probably something I should do every Sunday evening.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[JoeyF]

I'm still working on my newsletter idea/format.

I've now written 3 newsletters in total - content curation with commentary style.

I'm trying to figure out a way to do this where it's fun to write for me and I'm not quite there yet.

The way I see this working is, If I can get to a place where I have fun writing the newsletter and there is strong interest in the topic for the reader, that's where the magic will happen.

But it has to be fun to write otherwise I know I'll struggle to keep it going and really invest the time and effort into making it a great newsletter.

I'm going to experiment with some other avenues of attack this week on the same subject matter to see if I can make it a bit more fun both to write and read.

What makes writing your newsletter enjoyable?

Is it giving your thoughts in your own style?
Working on your writing and seeing that improve?
Knowing you're delivering value and building relationships?
Entertaining people?
The subject matter is super interesting to you?

 

[MTF]

Brilliant update. It's quite inspiring to see how you're working your way through the ups and downs of getting a newsletter off the ground, testing new things and sharing results here.

Got me fired up reading this.

Cheers

Thank you. I'm honored to hear that it fired you up.

I love how this thread turned into a joint progress thread as @Andy Black mentioned. I have a few progress threads on the forum and they're very me-focused. This thread is cooler because we get to try different things together, post updates, and inspire each other.

By the way, if there are any lurkers in this thread (hi!) come forward and introduce yourself. You have nothing to lose. Start your newsletter if you're on the fence and learn as you go.

 

[DrSac]

Well, it's my first post here since I joined so here I go:

This thread has been fascinating to read and I am eager to see everyone's newsletter ideas unfold. I have in mind a newsletter but, like some here, get stuck on a topic. Based on my cursory research, the major niches are ones that I am not as well versed in. I have some interest in them but definitely not an authority and not sure I have enough interest to sustain a newsletter to get to the pay-off phase. Thanks for all the information here. I have more digging to do.

 

[MTF]

Well, it's my first post here since I joined so here I go:

This thread has been fascinating to read and I am eager to see everyone's newsletter ideas unfold. I have in mind a newsletter but, like some here, get stuck on a topic. Based on my cursory research, the major niches are ones that I am not as well versed in. I have some interest in them but definitely not an authority and not sure I have enough interest to sustain a newsletter to get to the pay-off phase. Thanks for all the information here. I have more digging to do.

Welcome!

Not being an authority is primarily a psychological problem. You can curate stuff (no need to be an expert as long as you're curious and take time filtering to only share the best stuff) or share your lessons as you learn (be the opposite of an expert: a student).

Not having enough interest is definitely a problem, though. I'd keep looking for a topic that has always fascinated you (or for at least the past few years). I probably wouldn't launch a newsletter about a completely new topic to me as there's a risk you'll get bored in a few weeks/months. Or at least that's what happens to me—a new interest needs to "prove" itself to me over months/years before I consider it a potential business niche I could enter.

 

[MitchC]

I think the contents amazing and you should just stick to what you are doing.

All it needs was mentioned by me and Andy a couple of pages ago, just a pivot in the way you view it.

It’s a self improvement through discomfort newsletter, not a newsletter about discomfort.

That little pivot and change of messaging opens up so much more in terms of the offer and where you can market it.

People don’t do 75 hard because they want discomfort. They do 75 hard because they want to self improve and develop mental toughness through discomfort.

I think you’re early on what’s going to become a massive trend. 75 hard has blown up way beyond Andy’s podcast. I know so many people doing it who have no idea who Andy is and only know it as an app. Ice baths. Stoicism. Those mud run challenge things. Goggins. Self improvement through discomfort is going to be and already is becoming a big trend.

What sort of content does that youtuber make?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Earlier today I saw posts from @MTF and @Lex DeVille in one of Lex's progress thread.

I replied like so:

Media buying tips:

1) Be emotionally neutral. Be curious, not furious.

“Hmm. Why didn’t that work?”

vs

“Why the f*ck didn’t that work?!?”

2) Take GLEE when you encounter hurdles. When you get over hurdles they become barriers to entry for your competitors.

3) Big platforms do things for a reason. Figure out how to create a win-win and get their algorithms working for you, not against you.

I thought my list of 183 people might appreciate those tips:




EDIT: Whoa... someone just signed up to my $5/mth follow-along newsletter. It's only been a few minutes since I hit send. Only 17 people have even opened the email so far!

EDIT2: Sent a short Loom video from my phone to welcome my new subscriber. You can watch it here.

 

[Andy Black]

Sam is huge on copywriting and direct response and a massive tight arse

Lol. Are you from the UK?

Anyway, direct response beats branding imo.

 

[MitchC]

I don’t want you to feel left out MTF

 

[seraphine]

I used to write a column for my college newspaper and had quite a few people who sent me emails on articles I’d written, so I’ve been thinking of starting a newsletter for a while, and this was really encouraging! Thank you for the great information

 

[MTF]

As I was checking out Ghost integrations I stumbled upon www.beyondwords.io. It's an AI as a service software that converts text into AI-read audios. It works incredibly well and sounds like a human, not like a robot.

It automatically converts each of my new posts into an audio that's embedded at the beginning of each article (you can also create recordings manually). For example, check it out under the latest article:

#13: The Joys of Discomfort. Practical Stoic Wisdom From "How to Think Like a Roman Emperor" by Donald Robertson (Part 4)

Most people consider discomfort something bad. Few would consider it something useful. Very few would consider it something that can bring joy. If you’re reading this article, you’re in that crazy minority. And if you aren’t yet convinced that discomfort can bring fulfillment, today’s issue will...

www.discomfortclub.com

A couple of readers mentioned the length of my articles. I don't want to make the articles shorter so this is a solution to this problem. Instead of reading, the readers who struggle with such long articles can now listen to the article while doing something else.

BeyondWords has a nice article covering the 6 benefits of converting articles into audio:

7 Benefits of Converting Articles into Audio | BeyondWords

Why you should add narration to your articles.

beyondwords.io

The cool thing about it is that it takes almost zero work on your part, yet it repurposes your content into another medium. You can even let BeyondWords distribute it to podcast platforms.

The free plan allows 30,000 characters which should be enough for newsletters with short- to medium-length articles. I signed up for the $25/month plan as I need more characters.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

Last week I paused Google Ads. After spending $229 I got only 5 sign-ups.

When I switched to search only I barely got clicks and no sign-ups anymore.

I tried different keyword ideas and it seems like Google Ads just don't work well for my newsletter.

I'm testing Twitter Ads now (I just set up my campaign) and maybe will test Facebook Ads as well.

 

[MTF]

Twitter Ads Results

I spent 86.79 EUR on Twitter Ads. Got 57 link clicks and zero conversions. On Twitter I got 7 new followers, 8 likes of my tweet, one retweet and two responses.

I'm not sure if Twitter is even a good channel for me. David Goggins (people who are his loyal fans would definitely enjoy my newsletter) has merely 500k followers on Twitter while he has 1.4 million on Facebook and almost 5 million on Instagram.

Ghost Problems

I'm having trouble finding a Ghost developer. I won't bore you with details. Let's say that people are unreliable, unresponsive, or unprofessional.

In general, like I said before, Ghost is atrocious for customization. There's almost no customization possible in the admin panel (only colors and stuff but no way to add more text on the homepage other than the headline) and few themes to choose from with none of them allowing much customization.

What's crazy is that there's not even a search function available. I only realized this recently. If you want your site to be searchable, you need to use a custom integration.

There's also no comments system - that's another integration.

Leaving Ghost?

I'm debating whether it's worth it to keep using Ghost considering how limiting it is. I paid for a year in advance but after three months of using it I find it frustrating.

I can't edit the homepage myself. Even if I find a developer and they'll design a custom theme, any little changes mean either editing the code or paying a developer to do it (compared to dragging and dropping things in any modern CMS).

A developer will charge me about $3000 for a custom theme. And I just found a super professional (and customizable) theme for Webflow for $49.

It'll cost me a lot of work to move stuff from Ghost to Webflow but I think that in the long term it's probably the right choice. If I wanted to create any sales pages, I wouldn't be able to use Ghost for that anyway.

 

[MTF]

I launched 20 newsletters in 20 days - here's what I learned

These are the lessons I learned test-driving different newsletter software while launching 20 newsletters in 20 days.

kintu.co

An older article but you might find it useful as he tests different tools for newsletters, he came to a similar conclusion re ghost.

I'm back to WordPress. I discovered kadencewp.com (Kadence Theme and Blocks) and it's awesome. For email marketing, I'm debating between MailerLite and Sendinblue.

By the way, this guy you linked to is a scammer. I once bought his newsletter course, it was complete shit created in one hour and when I requested a refund, he ignored me (despite having a refund guarantee). I kept following up (via email and Twitter) but he never replied. So stay away from this F*cker.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

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

Very nice, can you recommend (or mention) that person (or company) here? No worries if not.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

The new version of my newsletter is now live. I moved from Ghost to WordPress (on Kadence Theme and Blocks) + MailerLite.

Here it is:

Home - Discomfort Club

Join a community of hundreds of men who are tired of status quo and want to push themselves through voluntary discomfort to get better.

www.discomfortclub.com

I just scheduled an email to all my current subscribers letting them know about the change.

I'm very happy with how the redesign turned out and super glad I moved away from Ghost and didn't waste $3k on a custom Ghost theme (in hindsight, my difficulties finding a Ghost developer made me find a much better solution).

I absolutely love the Kadence Theme and Blocks. It's BY FAR the best WordPress theme+plugin combination I've ever used and nothing comes even close to it.

So far, MailerLite is also pretty cool. I had some difficulties setting it up and learning a few things about it but in the end I think it's all set up correctly now.

The website looks best on desktop as it allows a bit more creativity with design but I think it turned out great on mobile, too.

Here's the before/after for desktop:




Any feedback is more than welcome

 

[Supa]

I don’t think anything on the homepage comes across as you pretending anything.

Why not swap that paragraph for something stating you’re a self-employed writer who enjoys exploring different parts of the world and pushing yourself in various sports such as X, Y, and Z?

You’re a great writer and a great researcher. Both are true, and both would likely encourage someone to signup.

On a separate note, I don’t think it’s healthy (or true) that you think you’re “nothing” compared to these “great men” you’re studying.

I agree with Andy.

As a writer, I could see myself as nothing compared to you. As I achieved nothing yet with it.

It‘s about perspective. Comparing oneself to those who achieved a lot more than oneself and seem so big to us, can easily make us feel really, really small.

Don‘t get me wrong, I really like your humble attitude. It‘s just that there are a lot of reasons that you can be confident about and still stay humble at the same time.

 

[MTF]

A reader sent me a message jokingly telling me to give him 100 lunges. After I completed my own workout I went outside, shot the video doing the lunges for him (it was the first time I did so many lunges in a row), and sent it to him. Here's his response:



This is such a simple thing, yet I think that going beyond expectations is what builds a loyal following - and that's what you absolutely need for a newsletter (or any other kind of a "creator economy" business).

As a side note, look how low the expectations of subscribers are: when you merely respond, you already stand out.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.