How to Build and Grow a Newsletter as a Business Model

[Madame Peccato]

What's the first step?

The next step is...I guess actually writing and publishing something? I'm going with Substack, I don't want to agonize over little details.

What is stopping me? I can see myself agonizing over which topic to write about, but I guess that's to be expected at the beginning.

 

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[Private Witt]

• Gambling (lol)

There is still significant affiliate marketing money making to be made off gambling with online poker, casino and sports betting content. I was involved with poker when it was much bigger the last decade and that continuous rake percentage adds up with players that you bring to the room. Easy to establish a persona in forums if a real player and funnel to your content and rooms with your code when the time is right.

 

[CharlesFinley]

I'm wondering about approaching this market from a different angle, the Scott's Cheap Flights model. While not quite a newsletter, SCF provides value to his email subscribers by finding flight deals from the subscribers list of preferred airports and sends out daily emails. His monetization strategy is offering a premium subscription which gets access to the amazing fares like price mistakes.

 

[GSF]

I'm wondering about approaching this market from a different angle, the Scott's Cheap Flights model. While not quite a newsletter, SCF provides value to his email subscribers by finding flight deals from the subscribers list of preferred airports and sends out daily emails. His monetization strategy is offering a premium subscription which gets access to the amazing fares like price mistakes.

Reminds me of this great article I have bookmarked, some great newsletter article examples;

Get the SEO Secrets Our Industry-Leading Clients Pay Us to Find

I hope you’ll be inspired by the potential of this business model and see an opportunity for something you can build in your preferred industry.

gaps.com

 

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[MTF]

You know what, I'm in. Ever since I joined the forum, I couldn't stick to one idea. There were always things, that bothered me a lot. This happened with every idea I ever looked into. But with a newsletter it suddenly feels as if a lot of things are already going for me. That's incredible.

Super happy to hear that.

One is an overarching theme, under which I could write about a couple of different topics that I find interesting. In this newsletter I could write about the things I learn along the way, so this would be a student newsletter.

I think that this is one of the easiest paths, if not the easiest.

The other one is about a topic I was looking into lately. I found, that there is a lot of noise in this sphere, but that really good content/information is rare. So this could be a curated newsletter, that shows the best news in this specific area.

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.

This could be a classic case of FOMO. Or maybe the reason I am thinking of starting both is, that I don't really know, how much work it would take to produce a newsletter on a regular basis.

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.

 

[MTF]

The next step is...I guess actually writing and publishing something? I'm going with Substack, I don't want to agonize over little details.

What is stopping me? I can see myself agonizing over which topic to write about, but I guess that's to be expected at the beginning.

Write your first issue this week. Post it in this thread.

I'm wondering about approaching this market from a different angle, the Scott's Cheap Flights model. While not quite a newsletter, SCF provides value to his email subscribers by finding flight deals from the subscribers list of preferred airports and sends out daily emails. His monetization strategy is offering a premium subscription which gets access to the amazing fares like price mistakes.

That's an excellent model as well. I also read the article @GSF posted. The author lists some other similar models.

 

[Andy Black]

I may look into Ghost if I’m to create a free newsletter.

I like the idea of the email content being published online too.

This was good:

What I learned from James Clear on list building

createandsell.co

 

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[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.

 

[StrikingViper69]

I've been lurking on this thread and quite like the sound of this.

I'm thinking over doing something based on creativity / learning / my journey with composing music as I go.

Does Ghost also deliver email to your subscribers, or do you need a service such as MailCheat(Chimp) to do that?

 

[MTF]

I may look into Ghost if I’m to create a free newsletter.

I like the idea of the email content being published online too.

This was good:

What I learned from James Clear on list building

createandsell.co

That's one of the reasons why I like Ghost. It automatically publishes the emails on the website and it looks super clean and very professional without being so samey as Substack.

I've been lurking on this thread and quite like the sound of this.

I'm thinking over doing something based on creativity / learning / my journey with composing music as I go.

Does Ghost also deliver email to your subscribers, or do you need a service such as MailCheat(Chimp) to do that?

Ghost delivers email to your subscribers. It doesn't have autoresponders but it works very well for regular newsletters.

 

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[Andy Black]

That's one of the reasons why I like Ghost. It automatically publishes the emails on the website and it looks super clean and very professional without being so samey as Substack.



Ghost delivers email to your subscribers. It doesn't have autoresponders but it works very well for regular newsletters.

New Zenler has an autoresponder but doesn't make it easy to publish content to the website. Maybe I use New Zenler for the paid stuff only, and Ghost for the free stuff.

This seems very affordable to dip your toe:

 

[Andy Black]

Just signed up to Ghost.org 14 day free trial.

 

[MTF]

Just signed up to Ghost.org 14 day free trial.

Let us know how you like it.

 

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[Andy Black]

Let us know how you like it.

I was going to ask where your Ghost site was then figured it would be in your signature. It looks nice and simple, and I signed up. Not that I'm into comfort vs discomfort. More to follow along.

Is it possible to send people to a Thank You page instead of it just saying "Email Sent"?

 

[MTF]

I was going to ask where your Ghost site was then figured it would be in your signature. It looks nice and simple, and I signed up. Not that I'm into comfort vs discomfort. More to follow along.

Is it possible to send people to a Thank You page instead of it just saying "Email Sent"?

View attachment 42248

Thanks for signing up!

The thank you page is after confirming the subscription. I don't think you can change this in Ghost. This also means no real welcome email (I use the thank you page for that).

 

[The Questioner]

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.

 

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[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?

 

[Vas87]

next year will only keep paying for one as it's not just crypto but also a bit on business/lifestyle/investing/macro trends.

Would you care to share the newsletter?

 

[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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[Andy Black]

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

Had to Google that one! Makes sense.

Lindy effect - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[MTF]

The next step is...I guess actually writing and publishing something? I'm going with Substack, I don't want to agonize over little details.

What is stopping me? I can see myself agonizing over which topic to write about, but I guess that's to be expected at the beginning.

Progress report?

 

[Madame Peccato]

Progress report?

It was a hectic week between Ukraine and my mom breaking her foot, but I managed to pick a topic and have an outline ready. I'll write the full thing tomorrow.

 

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[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.

 

[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.

 

[p0stscript]

Thank you for your update @Madame Peccato , have subscribed and will follow with interest.

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.

Not only have I found this helpful, I also realise I need to get myself into gear and start a newsletter, get out of my comfort zone, darken the page as @Andy Black once wrote, and develop my skills.

Thanks once again for posting.

 

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[Andy Black]

Just signed up to Ghost.org 14 day free trial.

I cancelled Ghost.org, mostly because I haven't got round to doing anything with it yet.

I also don't like that it doesn't have an autoresponder, or a ThankYou page when people signup. They seem like obvious things to have and it makes me wonder what else is missing.

If I go down this route I think I’ll just use Wordpress for public facing articles, and New Zenler for free and paid newsletters. I’m already paying for New Zenler after all.

 

[redshift]

I tried a few different solutions and I haven't found better software for my needs than https://www.ghost.org.

The platform/software seems very nice but their pricing model seems a bit steep though. i.e - They increase the monthly fees based on the number of subscribers (including free ones) rather than a % of paid profits. So if you get a few thousand free subscribers and don't have any monetization channels in place, you'll end paying them a large monthly cost. Has this been an issue for you since your newsletter doesn't seem to have a paid subscription either ? I know some tech startups who got into trouble with this model because of using a service which charged based on the number of signups (including free ones) and the app going viral.

 

[MTF]

The platform/software seems very nice but their pricing model seems a bit steep though. i.e - They increase the monthly fees based on the number of subscribers (including free ones) rather than a % of paid profits. So if you get a few thousand free subscribers and don't have any monetization channels in place, you'll end paying them a large monthly cost. Has this been an issue for you since your newsletter doesn't seem to have a paid subscription either ? I know some tech startups who got into trouble with this model because of using a service which charged based on the number of signups (including free ones) and the app going viral.

This is the same model used by all email marketing providers like ConvertKit, AWeber, etc. They're a bit cheaper than Ghost but don't offer its most important newsletter publishing features.

I don't think it's that expensive to pay $99/month for 10,000 subscribers. Even if it's a free list, if you can't generate at least $99 a month from your list then it means it's probably a bad business.

I think that the percentage of profits is terrible for newsletter creators as platforms that do that (like Substack) don't help you with marketing. They get a percentage for doing nothing. With Ghost, you're paying for more subscribers but it won't get more expensive just because you make more money.

 

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[Andy Black]

I think that the percentage of profits is terrible for newsletter creators

I think it’s terrible for the platforms too. As their most successful publishers grow so does their business case for leaving the platform.

 

[MTF]

I cancelled Ghost.org, mostly because I haven't got round to doing anything with it yet.

I also don't like that it doesn't have an autoresponder, or a ThankYou page when people signup. They seem like obvious things to have and it makes me wonder what else is missing.

If I go down this route I think I’ll just use Wordpress for public facing articles, and New Zenler for free and paid newsletters. I’m already paying for New Zenler after all.

Yeah it doesn't offer an autoresponder as it's not useful for weekly newsletters so why ship a feature that wouldn't be used by most people.

As for the thank-you page, in my mind the thank-you page is the page after someone confirms a subscription (which Ghost does have). Otherwise they can get access to a page with some subscriber-only resources and never actually confirm.

But yeah, like I said, it doesn't have tons of features though they're adding new features regularly.