Hit 50+ subscribers in 30 days

Every big thing starts small.

When I started https://noisecutters.com I set the goal of getting 50 subscribers in the first month. I am now at 60.

My main reason for this goal is to validate whether this was something others would be interested in.

The concept is simple: collect 3 fantastic marketing case studies every week that really go in-depth and teach your marketing, and send it by email.

I'm a huge fan of this type of content myself, but just like with every idea, you need validation first.

Most people want to learn more about marketing, even if they're already an expert. I've been doing marketing for 10 years but still look for great new information every day. At the same time, I also enjoy teaching people how to get better at marketing.

For ideas like this, I set a monthly goal, and if I manage to make it with minimal marketing, it's something I can dedicate more time to.

I find it much easier that way because you tackle several problems:

1) Getting discouraged because you're not getting hundreds of subscribers a day

That's the point. I'm not trying to get hundreds of subs every day. I am trying to get 1.7 subscribers every day or ~12 a week. So every week I ask myself: what is something I can do this week to get those 20 subscribers?

2) Am I really building something people want?

This is entrepreneurship 101: figuring out if your idea is something you should dedicate more time to. Diving into a new idea for 40 hours a week is good for some people, but you're much better off just testing things first. Starting small will give you initial validation.

3) What is really working for my growth?

In order to go to 100, 1,000 or 10,000, you first need to figure out what you need to do to get to just 10, then 50. Then the next milestone. Overnight success is overrated and doesn't exist. One does not magically grow to 10,000 subscribers in a day. Going for 12 subscribers a week is much easier than going for 1,000.

4) Is it something I should spend more time on?

I'll be honest: the first week of starting NoiseCutters I was doing a lot better than I have been in weeks 2 and 3. I got too much on my plate with other things. In the end, there's no way to clone me yet, so I have a limited number of hours each day and need to make the most out of it. So I went back to the drawing board, scheduled specific times to work on it again, and continued my growth plan.

5) What marketing channels are performing well?

Here's a list of channels I have used so far:

• IndieHackers (obviously)
• Posting static versions of the newsletter on my main Twitter account with a link to subscribe
• Write a 2,500+ article on getting 3,400+ sign-ups through Quora (still haven't massively promoted this)
• Reposting my own content to Reddit
• Reposting the links to the case studies to Reddit
• Link to it in Slack and Telegram groups I am in
• Send it around to friends, clients, people that I know would be interested

Honestly, most of this was just getting bits and pieces together, trying to quickly do this with minimal effort. Because I know that when I approach it better and put more effort into it, I will get a lot more out of it.

50 Subscribers in a month with minimal effort allows me to get to 250 subscribers in the next month if I dedicate more time to it.

So, that's the next goal: hit 250 subscribers before the end of the year. By experimenting with other marketing channels and leveraging the ones I am already using, I should be able to hit that goal on December 31st.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll be here in the comments to answer them 👇