Remotely Inclined

After publishing over 50 free posts on Remotely Inclined, I began to look for ways to make the newsletter sustainable. I learned that people want more specific advice to their problems, not just general thought starters. So the premium version of Remotely Inclined is just that - specific, actionable solutions to subscriber challenges. It's different than the regular Remotely Inclined content in that it's far more personalized.

And I just got my first paid subscriber!!

https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/subscribe

Remotely Inclined just hit 700 subscribers, and I haven't paid for a single one of them. No referral program. No paid ads. All 100% organic.

I wrote about how I got my first 250 subscribers in an IndieHackers post, but here are the top channels / tactics that helped me get the next 450 subscribers.

1. Ask people to share. I didn't start a referral program, I just started using share buttons and directly asking in text if people would be comfortable sharing. That alone has helped me with WoM.

2. Posting on relevant subreddits. I was against Reddit for a while, but then spent a lot of time reading the rules of various subreddits and found a couple that I can post links to (with content - not just link dropping). That's driven a lot of traffic and subscribers.

3. Going out of my realm a bit. Some of my most popular posts were not directly about running a business remotely, but sharing my personal experience, talking to a remote entrepreneur about something else, or talking about governments vis a vis remote workers.

If you want to check out what I mean, you can see the content here: https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/welcome

Woke up to an awesome tweet from a product hunt bot, saying I'd been listed as a maker on Remotely Inclined!

Such a cool experience - and so shortly after hitting the 500 subscriber mark.

Any support you'd be open to giving is so welcome and appreciated!!

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/remotely-inclined

I started Remotely Inclined because I wanted to talk about remote work. But what I realized is that the "remote work" conversation world was quite saturated. After I changed my positioning slightly to be for people who run remote businesses, things really started to feel good.

I know it's not a huge number (and big congrats to all the milestones about hitting 10k, 20k, and more!), but I'm excited about this number because I spent zero dollars on growth. No paid ads, nothing. This is all organic / word of mouth, which feels so good to me as a writer.

https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/

Came completely out of nowhere! I posted an article on r/WorkOnline and it started to really take off. Then overnight it became one of the top posts of all time on the subreddit. I couldn't believe it!

The results ended up bringing almost 100 subscribers overnight.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkOnline/comments/h9idyv/where_to_find_thousands_of_remote_work_online_jobs/

I couldn't believe it! Remotely Inclined hit 250 subscribers (252 actually).

I know it's nothing compared to the newsletters with thousands of subs, but this is a great milestone for me.

Here are some strategies I used:

• Quora -- answered as many questions as I could to grow awareness.
• Twitter -- started getting really bold about asking people to share my content + sharing my own 3-5 times instead of only 1-2 times
• Being shameless -- Any time someone asked a question about remote work, I'd mention Remotely Inclined. Did this on video hang outs, in interviews, etc.
• IndieHackers! -- this community has been a great source of inspiration to keep on truckin'

Want to subscribe? https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/welcome

It was a fun day! We hit 150 subscribers and members of the Remotely Inclined community.

It also prompted me to launch a feedback survey to learn more about what people want from the newsletter.

I'm not a natural 'audience builder' so this is all new for me... and that means all feedback is most welcome.

https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/p/remotely-inclined-wants-your-feedback

I knew I wanted to launch a podcast, if only to test out my interviewing skills 'on the record.'

A mentor encouraged me to take the leap, and I did, launching Remotely Inclined Chats -- a podcast featuring conversations with remote leaders and entrepreneurs.

You can get it on all major podcast platforms or see the latest episodes on our home page https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/

As more folks asked questions about remote work and wanted to learn more, it became clear that I needed to meet increased demand.

So I bumped up publishing frequency from 1x a week to 2x a week. It was my way of engaging with remote work in service of others, since I could help people and answer more questions.

March 24th... covid is ravaging. Millions of people are losing their jobs or at risk of it.

The only thing I could think to do was collect all the remote job board resources I knew of and put them into an article.

So that's what I did: https://remotelyinclined.substack.com/p/where-to-find-thousands-of-non-tech

The post went viral. Tons of people shared it, my social posts about it performed really well, and it drove thousands of visitors to Remotely Inclined - netting a bunch of new subscribers.