Podboxer
Podcast recommendations for entrepreneurs
I restarted Podboxer 2 months ago with zero subscribers.
My intention has been to keep it fairly casual - almost a hobby - and not chase subscribers. Just see what happens.
It’s been going well, and from sharing some quick threads on twitter like this one and a few shoutouts in other newsletters, it’s steadily grown.
Yes, I know 120 subscribers is not a lot. But with little to zero effort, I’m happy with it.
What’s next ?
I’m enjoying working on it.
So, if I can figure out a decent plan to monetize in the future, I would do more work on it. I’ve got time and resource to market it and really test if it’s something people want.
If I do that, I’ll “build it it in the open”. To keep myself accountable.
Right, how am I going to monetize this..... 🤔
Late last year, I killed off my business podcast recommendation newsletter, Podboxer. It felt like an intense amount of work and was only growing very slowly.
But, a few months later, I’m still (obviously) listening to podcasts and I’m still making some notes.
Why not carry on sharing them in an email to anyone who’s interested?
I also had all my previous recommendations and notes sitting on a mediocre website that wasn’t very user friendly. And, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to build something in Webflow (only ever used wordpress in the past)
So, I’ve created my first Webflow site and am starting the newsletter again!
But, this time it’s a little different -
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I’m not viewing it as a thing that could create an income. It’s more of a casual side project. I’ll make the effort to grow it and, of course, only share episodes that are good. If it turns into a direct income stream great. But I'm not going to stress about it.
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The newsletter is 1x per week instead of 2x. This takes some pressure off and hopefully makes it more fun to do.
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I am going to focus more on the website as a resource for podcast episodes that help with specific topics (eg copywriting, paid ads, idea validation, email marketing etc etc.
If I’m not viewing it as an income generating project, then why do it? This is what I think:
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It’s opportunity to make connections (I saw this before but didn’t appreciate how important it is).
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It’s a website resource that is helpful for me too - I can refer back to it and send episodes to people when they are looking for advice
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It forces me to listen and think about a podcast to make some notes. I learn more by doing this.
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IF it does grow to enough subscribers, then maybe there are sponsorship opportunities (but not a priority).
As I killed the previous email list - I wasn’t expecting to come back to it so didn’t want to keep people’s data unnecessarily - I’m starting from zero subscribers.
So kind of going full circle but let’s see what happens!
(on a slight tangent, I’m quite proud of my first Webflow effort 😁 Still tweaks to make. What do you think? https://podboxer.com)
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Love it! I liked it back then and I like it now. Particularly that I have started my own podcast, I appreciate it even more as a distribution channel AND a source of valuable content. Good luck! Signing up right now.
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Thanks Arvid. Got your podcast on my radar 👍
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I'm a big fan of what you're doing, and I think you're on to something, here!
Just signed up. -
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Well done for coming back to it. I've recently done the same thing by resurrecting an unfinished/unlaunched product. It sounds like you've got a great set of reasons for relaunching and I'm sure focussing in this way will deliver great success.
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Thanks for the positive comments. If it’s something you still think about working on then I figured that I should find a way to make it work.
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Today I took the decision to stop working on Podboxer and focus on other projects.
Wasn’t an easy decision but had been thinking about whilst on vacation the last couple of weeks. It was good to carve out some time to reflect on what I was doing, what was working and, more importantly, what wasn’t.
My main reasoning is the really slow growth of the subscribers.
I’ve tried a number of ways to find new subscribers but I’ve never found something that got any traction. Cold outreach seemed good and I’d get great positive comments but then they wouldn’t sign up. So, something is off.
It also takes a significant amount of time and effort to pull the newsletters together and that’s time that I could spend on other faster growing opportunities.
It might be a case of rethinking Podboxer and maybe I’m quitting too soon. But I can’t keep working on this and not give the full attention to other things.
So there we are. Finished.
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Hey Paul, I was surprised to see the email in which you ended it, having subscribed just a few weeks ago.
I see from the milestones this ran for a year, roughly. How much growth did you see? And how much did you expect?
Would be interested to see the numbers here.
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I quit my current project a few months ago, to work on other things. While working on other things I came up with new ideas for this project. Now I'm back at it again.
You never really know how things will work out. Good luck as your journey continues.
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Great point. Maybe not thinking about it will open you up to other features for it. They say sometimes you need to take a step back and give things time. Then you come back with "fresh eyes" and might make more progress. This is a good lesson dkb868, thanks!
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Thanks. You’re right, who knows how it will work out. I also made a bunch of great contacts and learnt a lot.
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You'll get it next time.
Is there anything more awesome than a reader of your newsletter reaching out to you and saying they want to sponsor it...?!
That's what happened this week and I've officially got my first sponsor from PodReacher for 2 months.
It's not going to make me rich but it helps validate that I can monetize the newsletter and it will become more valuable as I grow the subscriber numbers.
Very happy!
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Love what you're doing with the newsletter and so happy to support it growth!
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Thank you!
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Nice one Paul. Big congratulations
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Great work!
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Paul, I think we were talking before a bit. Now we're helping newsletter-ers find more sponsors. email me at andrew@hypeletter.com and happy to try to get you more sponsors!
I used to receive a weekly email with podcast recommendations. I loved getting it because it gave me enough info to know whether I wanted to bother listening or not.
But the newsletter stopped.
So I decided I’d start something similar. Use my knowledge of podcasts and the many subscriptions I have, and put out a twice weekly newsletter with my recommendations. I’d include the key learnings from each episode.
Put together a simple website and got a mailchimp account. And warmed up my headphones.
8 Comments
Actually 120 subscribers casually is solid! What did you do? What worked?
Main one has been posting the newsletter content in threads on twitter. I don’t have a big following but I‘ve tried to get more serious about twitter in general. The knock on affect is more people see my newsletter related content and subscribe.
Posting here in IH helps. Where relevant obviously.
Posted on hacker news which went ok for a bit but then the mods changed the title and it sank.
I helped someone a while ago and that started a connection which then resulted in them subscribing to the newsletter and recommending it to others.
Lot’s of little things. No hustling.
yeah I am likewise seeing the little things are working. Lots of effort but I think people can sense mass messaging... So this is our approach for now.
We are thinking about a MASK giveaway with our logo branded on it (small right side). Think people would like it? We are thinking to give away 200~
Any reactionon that approach? We'll make them watch our demo and jump through a couple of small hoops...
The problem I see with giveaways (and have experienced it in the past) is if your giveaway appeals to people outside of your target audience then you get signups who just want the free thing or the chance to win. They’ll either unsubscribe or never open your emails.
I think a giveaway needs to be super specific to who you want in your audience.
I think you're 100% correct. Actually internally I said the same thing.
And my suggestion to the team recently has been.... let's just give it as a free unannounced bonus to people that willingly joined our waitlist... as our 2nd or 3rd automated follow up email (hint hint, get them while they are still available!)
Congrats Paul.
The website looks great!
Thanks. My first webflow effort. Happy with how it worked out.
I'm quite impressed with Webflow!