First 30 days of Building a newsletter community in public

Roughly 30 days ago I launched StackdIt - A community surfacing awesome newsletters. I like to read and I’m learning how to write, so I built it for readers (to find new things to read) & writers (to connect with and find readers). In the case of StackdIt, the aforementioned “things” are simply newsletters.

I’m writing this to build in public, hope I’m doing it right. I like how building in public helps people and I like to help people, so that is why I’m doing this.

Why I build StackdIt

• A lot of my friends are writers and they are always asking me and other groups of friends for feedback on drafts and things they are writing. This is what helped me base StackdIt around the community model. Launch your writings, get feedback from the community

• I’m selfish. Not in a bad way, in a “I can hack” so let me hack something together to help me find new things to read and for my friends to post things they write so they can get feedback from people.

• I built StackdIt because searching for interesting newsletters sucks, because Google sucks for searching. Why does it suck? Because people with money can manipulate it in terms of deep SEO, marketing and paid search.

• I built it for writers. Writing is hard and when you take the plunge, I wanted to create a space that writers could use, for free to shout it out to readers and other writers for free.

• I built it for readers. Specifically, readers who like newsletters. I have “tags” & Categories, that help readers narrow down the content and find letters they would like to read.

How is it going?

I have two channels, the StackdIt website & Twitter. Combined, I've had 9,826 impressions in 30 days, 97 Newsletters submitted and 26 community members join. Here is a breakdown of Twitter & Google data.

StackdIt Twitter

• I sent 59 Tweets

• 7,951 impressions

• Got 46 Likes

• 18 Replies

• 2 Retweets

• 73 Link Clicks

Twitter has been amazing for me. I’ve been able to connect with people authentically, by just helping.

• Being helpful in my replies.
• Not being annoying
• Letting writers know I listed them in the Community

StackdIt Website
I’m pretty much getting all of my traffic from Twitter. Here is a look at what the community is doing from a quantitative perspective:

• 1,926 views

• 228 Users

• Average stay: 5min

• 97 Newsletters posted in the community

• 26 Community members signed up

• 26 “StackdIt” Newsletter Subscribers

I have to be honest here. I have no idea how to use Google Analytics, outside of general, high level information. I’m basically using it as a “heartbeat” to determine:

• Are people showing up?

• If yes, from where?

• How long do they stay?

• Where are they coming from?

I’m not really concerned with GA at the moment because my whole goal is really optimizing around being a real person. Engaging in real communication and optimizing for connection and conversation over just robotic stats.

Seeding the community with content and sparking interest
When I first decided to put this out in the world, I figured I should have some type of plan. So my plan was:

• Find Newsletter writers
• List them myself and ping them on twitter with a link to their page
• Send DM's on Twitter.
• Be nice

Here is what that looks like:

Shout out to peeps like Kevin Conti of Software Ideas , Janel from Brain Pint & Richard Awoyemi for just being good humans. Some of the nicest people I have met on this journey. I wouldn't have had these interactions if it wasn't for Indie. All great makers, so definitely give them a follow. Kevin actually pinged me VIA email to update his header on his StackdIt Page.

What’s Next?

• Launch the StackdIt newsletter - a weekly wrap-up of trending posts in the community.
• Meet more writers & readers
• Connect with writers & readers
• Find awesome newsletter and post them
• Keep going

I'm on Twitter at @jval3nti & @stackdit if you wanted to come chill!