Looking for suggestions on how to grow my newsletter.

Well, first of all, send your first newsletter, that will work great :)

Some advice for your website:

• "A curated weekly newsletter of bootstrapped tech and indie hacking" doesn't tell me what I'll get from this. Will I get a bunch of links to cool indie products? What's the value you're getting me? If you are taking a look at their marketing, tell us something about "Breakdown of new upcoming bootstrapped product landing pages...", if it's a discovery service, you could lead with something like "discover new tech before it comes up on ProductHunt". Something that catches my attention right away.
• Once you have your first letter out, showcase it on the site.
• I would leave it as a one pager without the need to click and bring some background about what to expect, and who you are. Who is Nic, and why should I trust you with my e-mail?
• The site doesn't seem super readable right now

Once you have your first letter out:

• Be sure to have an archive link, maybe host it directly on your site
• Crosspost to all social media you have access to
• Link and @ all products you have included
• Give people the ability to send you their own products

Then... stay consistent. Build up equity by sending these letters every week for a 3-6 months. Do the promotion game every single week.

Congrats on the first 25 subscribers!

I watched my friend @pliao39 grow his newsletter Software Mentor (https://softwarementor.substack.com) to a couple hundred subscribers over the last few weeks. Here's what I can tell you:

**1. Find out where your audience hangs out. **

Who (exactly) are you targeting with your content? Write down that definition and then search for all the places where those people are active in large numbers (websites, other newsletters, forums, Reddit, Facebook groups, etc.).

In Phil's case, this turned out to be one (not particularly large) subreddit. Despite not being large, the people there were extremely active and engaged.

**2. Give real value. **

I cannot stress this enough. The best way to "promote" your newsletter is a bit counterintuitive. You don't want to be overly self-promotional by jumping into a community and having the first thing you say be "Check out my amazing newsletter". Most people don't buy that and some communities will actively shun you for spamming them.

Instead, engage with your community. Have real honest discussions with them. Figure out what their problems are. Answer their questions. Once you have some reputation (and authority with that audience), you'll better understanding the language that resonates with them, and it will be much easier to tell them "hey, I have this newsletter".

I don't know the exact numbers, but I think in Phil's case he only linked to his newsletter in about 1 out of every 10 posts or so (he'll probably correct me on that stat). Also link to your newsletter in your profile's About section so that if you give a particularly good response and people click on your profile to check out who you are, they'll find it there (this can happen a bit more than you might expect).

**3. Lastly, check out Substack. **

It looks like you've already purchased a domain and setup your blog there. That's great! However, you may find that you get a little bit better traction on Substack. Not only does it come with a great dashboard to track your open rates, click-through rates, save drafts, etc. etc., I have a sense people are little more trusting giving their email to a Substack versus a "random" website now-a-days (simply out of familiarity).

Hope this helps!

Before sending your 1st, it's all about your network. Post every single place you can. Email every colleague or former boss or friend you think should sign up. And tell them why you think they should sign up. Lots of 1 on 1.

I was a bit confused by reading "bootstrapped founders and Indie Hackers" here and then the landing page says "emerging tech".

Would love to know what you're really sending, then I could comment more on other growth tips.

I love the design of your website. Are you using Mailchimp / Substack?

@dqmonn Answer is great. Only thing that I would add is that a lot of your subscribers will come from your content. The more you create, the value you drive to your existing readers, the more they will share, and the more readers you will have.