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
It sounds so broad it would appeal to no one.
You should pick a focused niche.
You can't possibly be great at everything
....
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.
👆THIS. No need for me to write a reply anymore!
This might also be of interest
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/the-mistake-most-people-make-when-selling-paid-newsletters-304ab536cc
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.
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!
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
Checked out your newsletter. Super broad. Niche down I think. Good luck.
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.
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.
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.
This comment was deleted 7 months ago.