The AI Edge
Weekly AI newsletter for freelancers and solopreneurs.
Newsletter: 10 subscribers. Open rate holding above 43%. Issue 008 went out today covering Superhuman, Copy.ai, and Typeform. LinkedIn: 108 followers. Reddit karma: growing. Revenue: $0. What worked this week: Improved newsletter format with personal story intro and better CTA. What I'm changing: Subject line testing, direct outreach to people I know personally. Week 10 plan: LinkedIn newsletter feature activation. Direct ask campaign to personal network.
Newsletter: 10 subscribers. Open rate 43%+. Issue 009 went out today covering Otter.ai, HeyGen, and Miro AI. LinkedIn: 108 followers. Reddit karma: 200+. Revenue: $0. What worked: Newsletter format improved with personal story intros and better CTA. Reddit engagement solid. What I'm changing this week: Direct outreach to people I know personally. LinkedIn newsletter feature activation. Week 11 plan: First direct ask campaign. Target 15 people I know. Goal: 25 subscribers to unlock Beehiiv Recommendations properly.
Still building. Still free. Real numbers below.
Newsletter: 11 subscribers. Open rate jumped to 43.24%. Issue #006 went out today - Claude, Durable, and Riverside.fm.
LinkedIn: 99 followers. One post hit 300 impressions this week.
Reddit: First post on r/freelance stuck in moderation for 2 days. Moving to r/AIToolsAndTips next week.
Revenue: $0. Still in growth mode.
What worked: Beehiiv Recommendations activated this week. Partnered with 4 newsletters in the same niche. Expecting first cross-promo subscribers soon.
What didn’t: Reddit post moderation is unpredictable. Lost a week of potential traction.
Week 8 plan: Two Reddit posts instead of one. Push harder on LinkedIn CTA. Hit 25 subscribers to unlock Beehiiv cross-promotions properly.
Still building. Still free. Here are the real numbers.
Newsletter: 11 subscribers (+3 this week)
Open rate: 41.38%
LinkedIn: 84 followers
Reddit karma: ~200
Revenue: $0
What worked this week: Reddit post on r/solopreneur hit 237 views in the first hour with 2 solid comments. LinkedIn post about the 5-week update got good engagement.
What didn’t: Converting any of this into subscribers. The product works, the distribution doesn’t yet.
Honest moment: 11 subscribers after 5 weeks is humbling. But a 41% open rate means the people who do subscribe actually read it. That’s the foundation worth building on.
Issue #005 went out today - Loom, Grammarly, and Calendly. Free as always.
Week 6 plan: Reddit post on r/freelance, push LinkedIn harder, stay consistent.
Newsletter: 10 subscribers. Open rate 43.9%. Issue 007 went out today covering Perplexity, Canva AI, and Toggl Track. LinkedIn: 108 followers. Reddit karma: 197. Revenue: $0. What worked: Reddit engagement is real. Getting quality comments and direct messages from people in the space. What didn't: Converting engagement into subscribers. The gap between "people reading my comments" and "people clicking the newsletter link" is still the problem. Week 9 plan: Direct outreach to people I know personally. LinkedIn newsletter feature. Sharpen the positioning to lead with the 3-week testing angle as the main differentiator.
Newsletter: 10 subscribers. First issue went out 3 weeks ago, fourth one dropped today.
Reddit: First post this week on r/AIToolsAndTips. 2.6K views, 16 comments, 2 upvotes. Didn't expect that on the first try.
LinkedIn: 50 followers. Posting 3x a week, comments daily.
Revenue: $0. Still in growth mode.
What's working: Reddit engagement is real. People are actually reading and responding with thoughtful comments, not bots.
What's not working: Converting any of this into newsletter subscribers. That's the gap I'm focused on next.
Week 5 plan: Stay consistent, test a direct newsletter CTA in Reddit bio.
Week 3 update for The AI Edge.
Numbers:
9 subscribers (up from 6)
Reddit karma: 132 (up from 25)
3 issues published
0 revenue
What worked this week:
One Reddit comment hit 14K views and 78 upvotes on r/ChatGPT
LinkedIn unlocked after ID verification
Issue #003 went out automatically on Friday
What didn't work:
LinkedIn got locked for 2 days due to too much activity. Max 3-4 comments per day going forward
X still at 0 followers after 30+ replies
What's next:
Starting Reddit posts, crossed 100 karma this week
Testing Whop Public Forums as a new channel
Target 20 subscribers by end of May
Building in public from Montenegro. Zero budget, zero team.
Week 2 update for The AI Edge.
Numbers this week:
7 subscribers (up from 3)
2 issues published
Reddit karma: 25 (up from 3)
0 revenue
What worked:
InboxReads brought 2 passive subscribers
LinkedIn comments driving consistent profile visits
Daily Reddit commenting building karma slowly
What didn't work:
Newsletter landing in Gmail Promotions tab. Added a note on landing page asking subscribers to move it to Primary.
Reddit karma still too low for posts, targeting 100.
What's next:
Medium article every Monday repurposing newsletter
Hit 100 Reddit karma to unlock posts
Target 20 subscribers by end of May
Building in public from Montenegro. Zero budget, zero team. If you're building a newsletter from scratch, happy to compare notes.
Day 1. 3 subscribers. $0 revenue. 3 karma on Reddit.
That's the honest starting point for The AI Edge — a free weekly newsletter where I review 3 AI tools every Friday for freelancers and solopreneurs.
I'm based in Montenegro, building this solo with zero budget. No team, no funding, no audience.
The format is simple: tool name, best for, free plan yes/no, what I used it for, what impressed me, what annoyed me, rating out of 10. Plus one workflow tip and one prompt per issue.
Issue #001 went out today. Tools covered: Perplexity AI, Gamma, and Otter.ai.
Goals:
100 subscribers by end of May
First $9 product at 100 subs
500 subscribers by month 6
I'll be posting updates here every week. Real numbers, no vanity metrics.
If you're building something from absolute zero too — I'd love to follow your journey.
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