How do you discover newsletters?
Hi,
I wonder, how do you discover new newsletters or get discovered? And recently I think about what makes people subscribe newsletters the most? I rarely subscribe newsletters before reading something cool about them. Is this such a thing for everyone?
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Submitting your newsletter to directories is one way to get discovered. We've got a list of good newsletter directories here: https://blog.emailoctopus.com/list-of-newsletter-directories-and-aggregators/
Reddit has been a decent way for me to get my newsletter, Salt Sear Savor, discovered. I've made some posts that are like mini-newsletter editions directly to subreddits. Then I include a short little "If you liked this, you can get similar cooking tips by subscribing to my weekly newsletter" .
I feel like its a decent way to give people a sampler, provide value, and also not be overly promotional :)
@LucianoVizza So overall, that supports what I was thinking. People need to get a sample and get convinced by your writing rather some generic marketing :) By any chance, you can share what's the percentage of your subscribers came from content sampling? :)
I think so!
So Substack stinks when it comes to anayltics and knowing where someone who signed up came from. So I can't give you that percentage. But I can tell you that the only time I've ever seen spikes in sign-ups is after doing those types of posts (obviously not all results in spikes but some do!)
I agree with you. There are a couple of subreddits where I post mini issues and they work well.
Just have to find the right subreddits that don't mind a little self-promotion :)
I discover newsletters by going down rabbit holes.
Whenever I stumble upon an interesting creator or social platform user, I look for their website to see whether they have a blog or publish any books or newsletters. Sampling a few issues is enough to decide whether to subscribe, I don't care about reviews or what others say.
Yes, that's the point. Almost all the time, I decide to follow a newsletter after I read. I just wonder what are the other ways of promoting a newsletter tbh.
I think the readers who dig for content are a minority. Therefore, newsletters need to be actively promoted like other products.
Twitter, LinkedIn, and just directly asking people via social media have been some of my best ways. I had one prominent person on twitter retweet a link to my newsletter and I got 20+ subscribers in about 2 days and 10x the normal traffic.
It's not exactly viral, but my content is primarily aimed at scientists and engineers working in chemicals and polymers/plastics where traditional news outlets are kind of awful and cost extreme amounts of money.
For me, three factors come into play: 1) recommendations, 2) interesting tweets, and 3) compelling freebies.