I got 700 subscribers overnight after being featured in NYT!

On Sunday night when I went to bed, I had 1,290 subscribers for Soapbox Project's Changeletter, my startup's newsletter that sends free bite-sized action plans to fight climate change. (I write it & I'm a solo founder with 3-digit revenue.)

Today, I have over 2,000. This spike came from a New York Times feature about 3 people telling you how to buy less stuff - one of those people was me!! (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/style/self-care/how-to-buy-less.html)

Here's how it happened.

I'm part of the Newsletter Creators FB group. A journalist posted saying she was working on a piece about capitalism - is anyone writing about it?

I responded to her and she told me she was covering consumerism for NYT. I told her about Soapbox, how my mission is to make it reeeeaaaally easy for busy people to take action on issues they care about, and how I've been navigating a lot since being laid off of my peak-capitalist consulting job in August 2020.

We talked on the phone and I shared my story. It was a fairly long conversation, 20-30 mins, but not so different from other reporter conversations I've had in the past.

I honestly figured she'd use me for a quote at most. I had ZERO idea I'd be 1/3rd of this piece!

I found out about it only because of a huge subscriber spike & subsequently asking where they heard about Soapbox. The momentum took around 48 hours to level out, and now my growth is still increasing more quickly than it did last week, but nothing too wild.

The Baltimore Sun shared the post on their outlet today. I don't think I got any additional uplift from there since they didn't include a link!! (Sad - not just for subs but for SEO.) I'm currently trying to chase editors and get it linked, and if anyone has tips, please let me know.

When I lost my job earlier this year, I told myself I'd give myself till December to see if Soapbox could make money and be a real business. I still don't have MRR or a reliable source of income, but I think I have enough validation to want to push my savings and get some freelance projects and re-evaluate after Q1 2021.

I spent yesterday replying to 50+ emails from new readers and writing TWO new blog posts just so I could impress my new friends. I think it's working!

If you're interested in checking out what I'm working on, here it is: www.soapboxproject.org

and if you have any questions, tips, or thoughts, I'm always online and lurking.