Hey all,
I'm launching my newsletter next week (feel free to sign up ๐ ) but just started sharing in anticipation.
Got a few people trickling in via Twitter, but curious how everyone got their first 100 subscriptions?
Would be great if we can share tips, thanks!
I launched my newsletter (theknowhow.substack.com) just about one month ago, and I passed 100 signups nine days after I sent my first email. Many of those early adopters were friends and professional contacts (Iโm a journalist).
Self-promotion is not my forte, but I shared the newsletter on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and also added the link to my email signature. I also shared it to a few private Slack groups and similar communities.
To my surprise, LinkedIn has proven most effective so farโit's currently ranking as the number one source of new visitors to my Substack. It helped a lot that a few other people shared my newsletter on LinkedIn, too.
I havenโt yet tried cross-promotion with similar newsletters, but thatโs next on my list!
Congratulations!
This is precisely the kind of thing I was looking for, thanks! I never considered LinkedIn, that was a great tip.
My newsletter has slightly over half that many subscribers. I got them by emailing friends and colleagues, tweeting, and submitting my newsletter to several directories.
Ooo, what directories did you submit to?
I maintain a list of newsletter directories I submitted mine to.
Brilliant
Thanks!
Currently at 93, so almost on my first 100 ๐ฅณ
All of these should be effective enough to get the first 100, after that not sure yet ๐
P.S. If anyone wants to check out, here is my newsletter: https://benasdigital.com/
Congratulations! Hopefully, you can hit 100 shortly. When you find out what to do after 100, drop me a DM ๐
Will do, but I think it may take a while ๐
I wrote a whole blog post on how I got 200.
TD;DR
Substack wrote about this here.
Really important to keep in mind that when you're first starting out, your goal is not to get to 100 or 1000, but to go from 30 to 31, for example. As the startup advice goes, "Do things that don't scale".
There was also a thread on Substack where people got their first followers and many were through things that don't scale. For example, the top comment says that his first 50 contacts were his gmail contacts. Other ideas include asking your subscribers to recommend your newsletter or reaching out 1:1 to people on Twitter.
There are some good ideas in those links, thanks for sharing.
What do you think is the best way to ask your subscribers to recommend your newsletter?
The easiest way it to be super earnest and direct about it! @harrydry is great at this and will just let him subscribers know that he worked hard on a particular article and would love their support. Here's an example, under the "Support" section near the bottom. If you don't want to be so upfront, adding a simple referral program like SparkLoop can do the trick.
Thanks!
The first 30-40 came via the DTC community on Twitter. These aren't folks I know personally but a crew of people that regularly show up on threads together discussing the DTC industry. The takeaway here: it's helpful and important to just get involved with and start contributing to communities that interest you...they'll support you.
Then, I started buying ad spots in newsletters. This was pretty effective and drove roughly 100 subs for less than $100 in spend.
If you can drop the cash, I recommend it. For me, it was important to understand (1) would the value prop of my newsletter resonate with strangers that fit my target? and (2) can i start to form up a repeatable acquisition mechanism with a reasonable cost?
I also subbed to https://growgetters.substack.com/ which looks interesting, just haven't read through much of it yet but plan to.
No-Code Briefs had its first 100 subscribers from Twitter and IH primarily.
some ideas in this thread https://letterstack.co/resource/thread-for-publishers-how-do-you-get-subscribers
And check out https://letterstack.co for articles on growing newsletter subscribers
@RichAwo here's how I got my first 100:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-got-over-100-subscribers-in-11-days-f8fc00e5a5
I'm not a Newsletter expert but stumbled upon this post yesterday you might find useful: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-got-to-2k-subs-lessons-growth-strategies-and-process-6432eb6592
This post had some great gems, thanks!