How I got 100 newsletter subscribers

It's simple to understand but hard to execute imo.

• first and foremost: I write good content that provides value to a well defined niche. I have 2-3 people proofread it. I put myself in the shoes of the reader.
• Then I got about 20 subscribers from friends, family, and co-workers. I asked them:

"I started a blog about mental health. Can I add you to my email list? You can always unsubscribe later no questions asked".

They all said yes.

• Then I shared my newsletter to relevant communities on Facebook, Reddit, IndieHackers, etc.
• This is an extremely delicate process. The content cannot feel like self-promotion. It has to provide a lot of value, fast. The content has to feel like a member of that community wrote it. And in most cases I am a genuine member of that community. Use their language.
• It helps to engage with people who comment. This keeps the content high in the facebook feed ranking, encourages people to view your content more than once when they return to respond to your comments etc. And also helps you to learn more about your target audience which is probably most important

It's an iterative process that takes lots of time, took me about 10 weeks. You can check out my latest newsletter here: https://mentalhealthexercises.substack.com/p/0006-socratic-questioning

Feel free to ama :)