Have you started a newsletter lately? How is it doing?

I am running Micro SaaS Newsletter with close to 30K subscribers.

• Without ads
• Almost with zero social media followers when I started

Some tips:

• Make it crisp
• Post to Reddit, IH
• Pick trending topic
• Help other creators
• Leverage PH, BetaList
• Word of mouth is powerful

You must know:

1. There is no 80/20 rule. You have to hit 100% every single time.
2. You are as good as your last newsletter issue for existing subscribers
3. Longer newsletter doesn’t mean always good content
4. Make the issue crisp, and easily digestible.
5. Even for a free newsletter, your reader is paying their time and attention.

⚡️I occasionally write on tareksway.com on equipping founders with power skills (leadership, persuasion, social IQ...)

Make sure your writing is extremely high quality to get good traction (read: you have deep expertise in your topic and are extremely good at conveying it in writing)

So, I have been writing on Substack for a short period.

https://yoeddie.substack.com/

On the positive side, creating this newsletter has been an incredibly enriching experience. I've had the opportunity to dive deep into strategic planning and project management, exploring innovative ideas and sharing insights I'm genuinely passionate about. Researching, writing, and sharing this content has helped me solidify my understanding and, hopefully, provide value to those who read it.

However, let's be honest—it's been a grind. While I'm proud of the consistency I've maintained, posting twice a week, the road to building an audience has been slower than anticipated. I haven't seen significant traffic or a flood of subscribers yet. But here's the thing: I'm okay with that.

Building something meaningful takes time. It's about the long game, not quick wins. I'm learning that staying committed and persistent is essential even when the results aren't immediate. Consistency is the name of the game.

I just started one Sunday, tabletopmarketplaces.substack.com (no need to look, chances of it being relevant to IH folks is low).

I don't want to be a hit newsletter. The goal is a better relationship with my business partners. Whenever I send them a short update email, I kind of can't help but add "btw have you seen this? I think it could be useful for another sales channel." Now I'll get that energy out in newsletter format. Part of my pitch to each of them was my niche expertise, which was decisive for closing deals. So maybe it gets me more high-quality leads too

I am also starting a newsletter, in my case I am going to experiment with : 1)youtube + newsletter 2) learn from other newsletters(how they got their first 1000 subscribers) 3) be consistent + deliver value 4) observe the data and multiply what works.

My old newsletter got 6K subscribers and they come on autopilot thanks to a video I made that got a lot of attention on YouTube and had a solid lead magnet. But I launched a new one in something completely not related this summer and at the moment struggling to get subs constantly, tried paid ads but felt I was wasting money so now I'm looking to validate the idea first using the organic way, at the moment I see more engagement from instagram and twitter but not that much subs, Sam Parr said he got 100K using reedit, I'm testing it at the moment any tips ?

been writing our build in public newsletter on substack for almost two years!

https://build.typogram.co/

the growth is slow, but I like it keeps me motivated working on my product.

It's a grind for sure, and some days I have writing block

one tip I have is always keep a running list of ideas and topics to write about.

a blank document can be a huge motivator for procrastination XD

I'm writing The Developer Tools Index (https://newsletter.developertoolsindex.com) last few months. It covers public developer tools companies and their performances.

It's doing fine and I enjoy writing it! only written 6 edition, and I'm planning to change the content format a bit and reduce the posts length.

What I've learned:

• You need to clearly defined who is your reader. My reader is investment professionals who research topics they are not expert in (Developer Tools)
• Like startups, if you write a newsletter people won't come. After you know who your reader is, you need to actively go and find where he is and engage with him. I've found a social network for investors called Common Stock which is a great place to know those people.

Hope that helps!

I've been working on a newsletter curating/summarizing the latest archaeological and (ancient) anthropological discoveries. I launched it about 1.5 years ago and it's at ~2600 subs and ~$250/mo from the paid tier.

It's a passion project and I'd do it for free... otherwise, I would have chosen a different topic! But I do hope to increase the MRR. I'm currently putting in about 8 hours/week. If I invested more time, I think I could grow it a lot faster.

Reddit was my main acquisition channel in the beginning but for some reason, that has slowed down a ton. Luckily, Substack's network (stack recommendations, etc.) is bringing people in passively now. I traded recs to make that happen. It hasn't yet matched what reddit did for me though.

My only advice is to write about something that you love, or that you want to learn about. That way, it doesn't matter if it "fails". I feel like I'm becoming an expert just by writing this newsletter, which feels good. Basically, my coffee is being paid for while I learn about something I love. Good luck!

Not yet but I have started a Newspaper :D

https://www.tubertimes.com

It's a YouTube newspaper (based on youtube videos) and the next step once I get to an MVP content stage is to do a newsletter.

Any suggestions on improving it welcome!

I'm trying to start and It's a grind.

There's tons of competition and noise in the newsletter "industry". It's hard to stand out when so many people are signed up for 10 or 20 newsletters already while being marketed yet another at every turn.

If you have a novel idea that is already getting traction, just keep going. If enough time goes by without any movement, pivot.

Also, consider your marketing channels - are you targeting your niche everywhere? Where are current signups coming from and can you double down?

Not started yet

I've been writing about System Design for a while now. The growth is consistent although not as much as I'd love. But it's something I enjoy so I'm regular haha.