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I started a local newsletter 3 weeks ago - I now have 1,635 subscribers (a how-to guide)

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

gunhol

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This was made for Twitter: View: https://twitter.com/znorrih/status/1470700831121055749


I used @thesamparr and @andrewwilkinson framework to start a local newsletter 3 weeks ago. It currently has 1,632 subscribers and growing by 50-60 subs a day.

The best part? It costs $0.00 to get started.

Heres a step-by-step to launch a newsletter this week


Disclaimer: I will not be sharing the newsletter name, because you are not my target audience. I need to keep the email list free from subscribers not in target audience.



1/ FIND YOUR NICHE

Scratch your own itch. What information are you missing where you live? For me it was a clear overview of 5 cool things happening this weekend in my city. Come up with 2-3 ideas.

1.1/

Research if there’s anything out there that already scratches that itch by googling and searching on Reddit. See how others are scratching that itch.

1.2/

Take your best idea and post on Reddit to see if people are interested by asking them straight up: Would you subscribe to this newsletter if I started it?

Repeat process with different ideas until idea sticks and gets attention.

2/ CREATE THE NEWSLETTER

Brainstorm names, take the names you come up with and go to a Thesaurus and find cool synonyms, that’s where the brandable names usually are.

2.1/ CREATE A WEBSITE

Go to Webflow and use one of their pre-made templates with a subscription form. Write your brand name on the site, change the pictures and colors and BOOM you have a site.

3/ GET YOUR FIRST FOLLOWERS

How I bootstrapped my way to 340 followers: Go back to that subreddit you posted in, write your first newsletter and post the entire letter in the group with a link to your site.

Repeat 2-3x (until infinity if it works).

4/ HOW TO GET LOW-COST SUBSCRIBERS WITH FACEBOOK ADS

Now that you have a following, its time to pour some gasoline on your fire (momentum). Go to Facebook and create an account in Ads Manager and connect your Facebook pixel to your Webflow account.

4.1/

Create an ad. The ad image/video should look like something your friend could post to their feed. Go out and take an interesting but normal-looking photo in your city. I took a photo of a well-known street in my city with a beautiful sunrise in the background.

4.2/

Go to Instagram, insert your photo and put text on top of it explaining EXACTLY what your newsletter is. The less text, the better. No fluff or trying to impress anyone, just the exact itch your newsletter is trying to scratch.

4.3/

For example: If I would’ve started a newsletter telling people about great hairdressers, I would say: «Not happy with your last haircut? I created a newsletter where I send out 5 great hairdressers every week.»

4.4/

Select your target audience: location, gender and age group. Nothing more - let the pixel do the rest. Select your daily spend (recommend $15) and launch your ads.

4.5/

Keep an eye on your ads and see if they work. If its not converting, try to change the text and make it clearer, more fitting etc.

Repeat until it works.

5/ JUST START

Have a newsletter up and running before Sunday:

Come up with 2-3 newsletter ideas -> Post the best one on a fitting subreddit -> If attention, create Webflow site -> Post newsletter on Reddit with Webflow link -> GAIN SUBSCRIBERS
 
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MTF

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This is pretty cool. Thanks for posting that. Is that your Twitter profile or are you reposting someone else's content?

I'm wondering how to monetize this newsletter later. I can imagine you can do local ads but could be hard to find sponsors willing to pay consistent solid money (unless you're in a big city).
 

gunhol

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This is pretty cool. Thanks for posting that. Is that your Twitter profile or are you reposting someone else's content?

I'm wondering how to monetize this newsletter later. I can imagine you can do local ads but could be hard to find sponsors willing to pay consistent solid money (unless you're in a big city).
Thanks! Its my Twitter profile.

Yeah, I haven't really decided on that yet. But I live in a fairly big city (500-600k), so I think it could work.
 

Andy Black

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Thanks! Its my Twitter profile.

Yeah, I haven't really decided on that yet. But I live in a fairly big city (500-600k), so I think it could work.
There’s a local email newsletter for the village I’m from on the UK. It’s a population of 4K.

In the last issue they announced a new website: Discover Brampton - Beautiful Cumbrian town close to Hadrian's Wall

I don’t know if the newsletter and website are owned by the same person.

I guess the hotels on the website are paying for a listing.

Me and @Lex DeVille have been chatting about local stuff in this thread:
 
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watchopt

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us
I used @thesamparr and @andrewwilkinson framework to start a local newsletter 3 weeks ago. It currently has 1,632 subscribers and growing by 50-60 subs a day.
Thank you for sharing. There might be a better place for this response and may be to start a new thread. But I was reminded of something. So my response to this is, I remember being the new kid in town some twenty-five years ago in a big company and doing something similar to this framework. My reddit at the time was some 60 employees, older and wiser then me, who worked on the same floor & reported to the same bosses I did. I had very little fear and justified my questions/efforts because of how much they were paying me and knowing the worst thing that could happen to me was to get fired. As I was reading MJs books I was relating a lot and remembering back about the interactions, processes, math, and principles. His words were telling a similar story, that I went through. To make a long story short, though my ideas ran out and I delivered interesting things, after five years I ended up being promoted. Looking back five years was to long but I wasn't looking for a reward ( at least can't recall my lambo). May be it was the purpose of my family. I remember I enjoyed the interaction, work, and satisfaction of pulling things off and learning new things. There was no Planasy or escape number. Just a vision and that I wanted to help. If I am being honest with my self, now-a-days the 'reward' is mostly in my sights( may be that is a clue to pursuing the math) with little bursts of energy to try this or that idea. Jaded? But most of the work I do is 'the process' for getting back to the enjoyment 'mode' I spoke about above. A Flow? From there I feel like I can move the world. Though I don't claim that a reward vision or the enjoyment mode are right or wrong, I just know that those five years felt like a day and life was happening without much thought.

Thank you for reading.

Please message me or comment, cus, and critique.
 

muv

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There’s a local email newsletter for the village I’m from on the UK. It’s a population of 4K.

In the last issue they announced a new website: Discover Brampton - Beautiful Cumbrian town close to Hadrian's Wall

I don’t know if the newsletter and website are owned by the same person.

I guess the hotels on the website are paying for a listing.

Me and @Lex DeVille have been chatting about local stuff in this thread:
Hi Andy
Just spotted your post. I work at digital marketing agency MUV, and we built and manage the Discover Brampton website, for the parish council. We also manage the newsletters.

The website is entirely free to be listed on, there is no charge at all. It was setup by the Parish Council in order to showcase local attractions, and local business.
 

CharlesFinley

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Nice execution so far, well done.

Your idea of '5 cool things to do this weekend' can be monetized in an interesting way. People are always looking for things to do, meeting new people, etc. Your newsletter made me think of a group that i became familiar with in Poland called 'Warsaw Social.' (The last event they hosted was March 2020 and looks like they haven't restarted. Website is gone, Facebook is gone but their meetup group has all of their past events.)

The concept was pretty simple. They organized free activities and premium activities at a discounted rate for people with a membership(full price for non members.) Browsing through their event history on meetup gives the following ideas:
  • Free game nights at local cafes: Poker, Cards Against Humanity, Taboo, Dungeons and Dragons, Monopoly, Risk, Chess, Settlers of Catan.
  • Sport: dance, badminton, bowling, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, ice skating, escape room
  • Bar: trivia, karaoke, drinks social, beer pong tournament
  • General: museum, networking event, language exchange
How much entertainment value can we provide for your subscribers for $50/month? $100/month? Nonpaying newsletter subscribers at $0/month?
 
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Andy Black

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Hi Andy
Just spotted your post. I work at digital marketing agency MUV, and we built and manage the Discover Brampton website, for the parish council. We also manage the newsletters.

The website is entirely free to be listed on, there is no charge at all. It was setup by the Parish Council in order to showcase local attractions, and local business.
No way! How cool. Are you based near Brampton? I’m travelling over tomorrow for a few days.
 

muv

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No way! How cool. Are you based near Brampton? I’m travelling over tomorrow for a few days.
We are a little South of Brampton (in Cark-In-Cartmel)....although a couple of the team will be in Brampton next week :)
 

Andy Black

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We are a little South of Brampton (in Cark-In-Cartmel)....although a couple of the team will be in Brampton next week :)
Nice. I lived and worked in Ulverston for a couple years. What a fabulous part of the country.
 
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