Ask IH: Growing a Newsletter past initial launch?
Hi IH, Long time lurker so apologize if I get the posting wrong.
I recently launched a blockchain/cryptocurrency focused newsletter (blockchainrundown.com). The initial launch went well and I got to 100 subscribers pretty quickly but growth has stalled to a halt. Here are my current plans for growth:
- Join a bunch of topic related forums and post there (hopefully I won't get banned)
- Get guest posters to write (I think I need more subscribers before I can credibly ask someone to guest post)
Any other tips/tricks? Anyone have any luck growing a newsletter with advertisements? Also feedback on the webpage/writing is welcome. Thanks!
I recently got to 1000 subscribers and I wrote a blog post on how I did it: https://www.starterstory.com/blog/how-i-hustled-my-way-from-0-to-1000-email-subscribers
TLDR:
Awesome write up. Thanks!
This is amazing Pat! As someone whose also recently reached 1k subs, great to see how others are doing it too!
I like the purple in your theme. I think 100 is enough. If you can make them engaged enough, they'll share. Don't stop!
Thanks :)
1.) Incentivise current subscribers for sharing and getting new subscribers onboard.
2.) Use instaaa.com
Three years ago I launched a newsletter for founders and got to 1,300 subscribers in the first 24 hours.
I wrote how I did that here: https://medium.com/baremetrics-founders-journey/from-0-to-1-300-subscribers-in-24-hours-cb160371e92a
(The newsletter itself doesn't exist anymore, but the learnings from launching it are still applicable.)
The biggest source for me was putting it on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/founder-s-cabin
The lay of the land is a bit different on PH now...I'm guessing lots of newsletters get posted there now and they may not perform well anymore, but at the very least it's worth looking in to.
What made you shut down the newsletter? Did you find a different medium or get busy or did you end up communicating pretty much all you had to share with less experienced founders?
I hated curating the thing. 😛 We still have a company newsletter that we send out to ~20k people when we post new content, but I just don’t do the curated one anymore purely because I didn’t enjoy it.
That totally makes sense. The only things I've enjoyed "curating" online were my delicio.us and my blog roll :D
Love your work at baremetrics Josh!
By any chance, considering the level of competition at the likes of Product Hunt, what do you think is the best alternative when in the early days of a newsletter? Thanks in advance!
I'm in the same boat right now - just launched my first business in my "12 months/12 businesses" project and it's a subscription service for now, but I'm thinking I might to change it to a free newsletter starting out.
I managed to get 126 subscribers in week 1 and that was due to a tactic similar to what @Adith described - I got a bar to donate a $50 gift certificate to use as an incentive, then I rewarded more entries for shares.
In a previous business, I used partnerships a TON of grow email list - totally free. I'd find people marketing to a similar audience, also trying to grow their biz/sell, and I would include them in my newsletter for inclusion in theirs. maybe find a similar hacker and see if you can co-market?
I've been thinking about trying to co-market with someone in the space. Good luck growing your newsletter!
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Just read through your interview. Very cool. I'm partly doing this to improve my writing so I guess I can measure # of subscribers partway by how my writing increases.
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