So... I'm starting a newsletter this week: What's your #1 tip? 🥇
Hey Indiehackers 👋
A quick recap 🏃♂️💨
So... this is my third post about building a community for buildfaster.co
I first tried out spectrum.chat, than Slack, and now something completely different.
A comment on my post that I saw today really stood out to me.
@alexhillman says:
Launching a space to gather before you have people to gather is a common mistake, and very often, kills any chances of community before you've even started.
How stupid can you get? 😂
When I read that I was like "🤦♂️"
I was going to start a community with no one to begin with. How stupid could I be? 😂
@alexhillman also suggested that I should grow my email list by sending out a newsletter and treating the subscribers like VIP's and give exclusive content and deals. Great idea Alex! I love it! 😄
So I am sticking with this idea and not turning back (hopefully 😉)
I'm starting the BuildFaster newsletter this week 📅
You can signup for my newsletter here. I will be giving great content every week which includes:
- Short stories about how I started BuildFaster (and my journey) 🚵♂️
- How to make your BuildFaster theme even better 👍
- New updates on released themes + future ones 😄
What's your advice? 🤔
Let me know in the comments below on what tips you have for me.
Thanks so much 🙏
Don't get your emails clipped by Gmail.
Sounds like a joke, it's funny but it's actually pretty important.
Aside from that, some other tips from me would be:
Hey @Manu_C sorry to hijack but you seem like you know a lot about email. I would like to hear your comments on this topic if you have time?
Sure, will have a look tomorrow, just heading off for the day. 👍
Hey @BraydenTW great stuff!
My #1 tip is consistency. Create a schedule you can keep up with and deliver good content consistently. Very few people (including myself after a time) deliver consistently. Your audience will appreciate it.
Good luck @BraydenTW.
I started doing the same this week.
I'm adding blog posts to my personal website and at the end of each post, I have the newsletter subscription (CTA).
I don't think people will subscribe to any newsletter before they see proof it's worth sharing their email address. So you probably want to add a blog to your website and start adding free content to encourage ppl to subscribe
Progressing in the right direction @BraydenTW . The newsletter is how to start gathering people share a common passion. After some initial engagement, group the email addresses and start engaging in group conversations over email. When you see the conversation going beyond 5 - 6 emails, and you potentially see many more replies coming in from future members, then ask your subscribers if they are okay with moving this conversation to a thread inside a community platform. Host regular meet-up calls on Hangout or Whereby or Zoom, and keep the conversation going. Here you will find more interesting topics to discuss in the coming weeks. Record the conversation and share this on your community forum, and then post it on social media.
You are displaying strong efforts in building a community around what you do, My best wishes. Let's stay in touch via email/twitter.
Hi Deepak, I really like your approach here. One thing I am hoping you could clarify for me is what you mean by grouping email addresses. If I was using MailChimp or something like that, how is it that I can manage engagement and group discussions through such a platform? My experience is that those platforms are more one dimensional broadcast tools. Or are you referring to moving the subscribers out of the platform and on to traditional email like gmail?
Yes, you can't do that with Mailchimp, you can move to Gmail, and when the audience gets bigger or discussions grow and email becomes Chaos, you know you have got to move to a community platform.