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10 Comments

Lost my only paid subscriber today - looking for feedback on what I can improve (Newsletter)

Hey everyone! My first time posting here on Indie Hackers - getting to know the community & getting the feel of the platform :)

Feeling pretty defeated today - my one and only (so far) paying customer asked me to cancel their subscription. This comes after I've just made an announcement that I was going to do monthly "guides" on specific topics related to newsletter themes for paid subscribers only - by that announcement I wanted to convert at least a couple free subs into a paid one but that also didn't work.

I am still learning a lot of this stuff - trying to come up with more ideas to make the paid layer of the newsletter more exciting. + I am very new to doing marketing/promotions for it.

So what I ask is: if you have a moment, could you take a look at the newsletter format, and general messaging and give me some feedback on how I can improve it!

Highly appreciate your help & thank you for reading!

Newsletter: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/do-the-opposite-newsletter

Latest post: https://dotheopposite.substack.com/p/do-the-opposite-70

  1. 3

    It sounds so broad it would appeal to no one.
    You should pick a focused niche.
    You can't possibly be great at everything

    • Twitter
    • self-reliance
    • minimalism
    • personal finances
      ....

    And even if so, no user would be interested in all of them.
    Consistency is someone comes for 1 thing, he want to keep getting that to a great quality, not other things thrown in at random.
    Many youtube channels for example lose high% of subscribers the minute the creator starts putting a different kind of content in there.

    1. 2

      👆THIS. No need for me to write a reply anymore!

  2. 1

    My first impression reading last issue is that Newsletter seems to have heavy self-promotional slant (promoting your app and paid version of newsletter is half the content). Might be a bad thing if your audience is interested in subject matter and not you as a writer specifically, but might be a good thing if you want the thing to have personal touch so IDK.

    Don't worry about single paid sub/unsub as it is just noise, especially if your audience is on the smaller side - focus on trend in long term.

  3. 1

    hey @ka11away - nice to see you here! been a bit since we worked on byteconf react!!

    agreed with all the other ideas here, and in particular, i think that niche-ing down on 100daysofx is the move here. so many great stories to share, lots of evergreen content, seems like a no-brainer to me!

    1. 1

      btw, had no idea you were working on a newsletter! love the idea and hope that you can get some more subs in the future. would love to have you join my mailing list/newsletter builders discord — https://www.mailinglisthackers.com/chat

  4. 1

    Checked out your newsletter. Super broad. Niche down I think. Good luck.

  5. 1

    It is not clear what newsletter is about. You are trying to cover from learning to code to changing habits and starting business. If I am interested in starting business I don't care about coding. My advice concentrate on one subject and built community around that.

  6. 1

    First of all, I don't understand what exactly is your newsletter about.

    If you want people to pay - limit the free version, take away something they value. Otherwise you are basically asking for donations.

  7. 1

    Honest advise
    You should really double down on the 100daysofcode brand.
    Make the newsletter about the stories of people doing 100daysofX challenges. Maybe 1 story every week, and paying subscribers get access to podcast interviews as an add on, or some sort of additional value.

    Maybe do once a month roundup newsletter on all other topics that interest you.

    The newsletter has to provide consistent predictable value on an ongoing basis for someone to pay for it.

  8. 1

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