FontDiscovery

I just hit 6 months on FontDiscovery! It’s the longest streak I have so far when it comes to writing consistently. There are now about 2000 subscribers to my little newsletter.

In the past, I abandoned my writing projects really quickly. I can’t believe I have kept it up for this long. It's because I have a good support system and helpful feedback from everyone on IH and Twitter.

There is still a lot of work to do, but excited to keep creating content for the readers! Feeling very happy and motivated!

I woke up to an influx of traffic and new subscribers to my substack list. I checked my analytics on substack, but could not figure out where those subscribers came from. it's not Reddit, it's not substack. In the end, I talked to a couple of new subscribers and figured it out.

Apparently, one of Brazil's leading independent newspapers, Nexo Jornal, had written a short article on FontDiscovery and included it in their newsletter to subscribers! I have no idea how this happened, but I am so happy and thankful! 😃

This is the article:
https://www.nexojornal.com.br/expresso/2021/06/24/Este-site-dá-dicas-semanais-sobre-fontes-tipográficas

If you'd like, you can subscribe to FontDiscovery on Indiehackers:
https://www.indiehackers.com/series/fontdiscovery

I added a new section in my newsletter called color inspiration of the week. I want to use this column to showcase color pallets from photographs from the community. I thought it might be a nice way to highlight everyone's creativity, feature some folks' creative work, give them a shout-out, and make friends. If you have a nice photo, that has a lot of pretty colors, send them my way. It can be a nice sunset from your hometown, pretty flowers in your neighborhood, someplace really wowed you that you took, etc. I will credit you in the newsletter :D

In addition, this week I'm started to look for potential new channels to grow FontDiscovery.
some places I have started:
r/marketing
r/webmarketing
r/startup

This week FontDiscovery has a new format:

• Font of the Week: branding/font tips
• Design idea of the Week: dedicated to big branding ideas
• Color Inspirations: requested by readers

I think these three sections together will be more expansive for makers trying to learn design. You can check out the first issue with this new format here:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/fontdiscovery-17-cheat-luxury-with-white-space-8cc0f33fdd

This week I shared my latest post over at the FontDiscovery IH series and got a lot of support from the community (thank you!). I am so glad I started this series on IH. I was nervous to share my content on a new platform, but I am so glad I did it! I think I will also republish some of my older posts in my newsletter.

I been consistently sharing content across 4 subreddits:

• r/typography
• r/SideProjects
• r/logodesign
• r/learndesign

The post this week on Pacifico is on the front page of r/SideProject and r/typography. I got about 20 upvotes each with some nice comments. Last week, it was mostly crickets for the issue about Bluu Next. It was really nice to hear some ways of how makers have used Pacifico in their own projects. I am trying to think of ways to make it more open, so reading the comments helps a lot! maybe I can start by asking questions at the end of my newsletter like "How have you used this font?" "have you seen similar fonts ?"
I think my goal for these questions is to build some engagement. still brainstorming.

I have been consistently posting on 4 subreddits in my niche on a weekly basis. this process usually consists of:

• writing a shorter version of my newsletter Twitter thread
• include a link to the issue at the end.
• include a picture of the issue (a visual summary/infographic of the issue)

Right now the open rate hovers from 35 - 45%. One thing that I notice is that it drops on every fifth issue (called, asterisk* issue which is a slightly different issue that talks about more general issues around design). I think this may be because *issue just deviates too much from what we normally talk about, which is very font-centered. moving forward, I will put a hold on * issues and think about how to funnel the ideas in these issues into normal issues. Stay tuned!

today I made an indie hackers series page for FontDiscovery! even though I have been publishing my content on substack for 14 weeks, this is the first time I am publishing the whole post on indiehackers! I am nervous and excited to start sharing the full posts here, let's see how it goes 💛

a work in progress sign-up page?
https://www.indiehackers.com/series/fontdiscovery

I checked my reddit around midnight and there it is. front page on r/typograhy! I have been posting on this subreddit since last week, this is the first time I have success with it. This is primarily a subreddit for design-oriented people (designers and enthusiasts). I am super happy, it feels like the format of Reddit post is working.

I did some reflection after sending out the 12th issue of FontDiscovery. I originally posted this on Twitter (on 3/23), wanted to also share this here because I really love the timeline feature on IH! makes me feel accomplished.

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Another newsletter is done! This is my twelfth issue and
I have been reflecting for the past few weeks. Some very unedited learnings and thoughts here:

Content: people like case studies, so they know how to take their learnings into practice. I am going to have that more. Another idea: including a form so people can suggest topics they would like to know. Interested to see how to make FontDiscovery more open.

Headline: still struggling with trying to write better headlines. so far the headline with the name of the font works better. I tried to do some headlines that explain the value. But it doesn't do as well as the issues with font name. Could be my writing and need more data.

Visibility: Ok, so this is a silly one. For a while, I didn't put the name of my newsletter in the subject line. Why didn't I do that? It's because my headline is always on the long side following the {fontName, fontDescription} formula. so I had an emoji for the title instead. It's a nice idea if your newsletter is daily. But weekly. I feel like it doesn't work because it was easy to get lost in the mailbox for new subscribers.

Growth: so far FD is close to 150 subscribers - very stable linear growth. it's hard to tell with Substack's dashboard but I can say with confidence that niche subreddits is the best channel. I can get about ~20 - 30/ week.

Another thing that works for me is DM on insta. I chat with founders there about design. This is time-consuming, but I value this connection a lot. It also helped me learn a lot about how non-designers design their branding. so it's partially customer discovery. really lovely!

Some other channels I have tried: slack (founder/maker focused), discord, facebook group. This week I will focus more on public servers on discord while keep posting on subreddits. A channel I'm curious about: LinkedIn. how do you post there?

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One update I have after this I started syndicating my content on Hackernoon. I just started doing so there is no data so far. Another thing that happened is I started posting the newsletter weekly on a facebook group. There is interest there (immediately after I posted, I got 3 likes and a comment asking for links to subscribe), but the rules are very strict (zero links allowed)... we'll see how that goes.