11
2 Comments

3000 subscribers!

As of today, 3,000 people are actively receiving the Software Ideas newsletter every week, whether that's the paid version (which has 291 subscriptions or the free "preview".

The popularity of the free preview has been a huge surprise to me. People seem to enjoy hearing about what new ideas come out each week, even if they aren't ready to purchase just yet. Also, the preview newsletter has proven to be one of the most reliable ways that new readers come to the premium newsletter, which is great!

The main way I've been able to grow such a relatively big newsletter in such a short time (3 months) is due to making it the primary goal of my landing page.

Since the Software Ideas newsletter is paid, most people would think that I should optimize it for people to buy the first time they land on the site. But it's actually been much better to focus on getting people a free issue of the newsletter in exchange for joining the email list.

This "slower" sales cycle is a lot less pushy to the reader, and also allows me to provide more value over time. It also lets readers not subscribe if the timing isn't right, but have Software Ideas still in their mind for when they are ready.

I highly recommend building an email list if you have a paid product, it's been great for me so far! And thanks to everyone who has checked out Software Ideas and decided to subscribe and be part of the 3,000!

  1. 1

    Congrats! The premium newsletter business is one of the most interesting opportunities to me right now.

    There are a lot of marketers/great writers out there that want to build a subscription business but don't necessarily want to get into SaaS, so newsletters are a great alternative. Particularly ones like yours that have utility.

    Looking forward to seeing Software Ideas continue to grow.

    1. 2

      Thanks!

      Yes, the newsletter medium is pretty interesting. You get recurring subscriptions without the up-front of a software product, but instead the work is consistent over time.

      And I agree - for paid newsletters, utility is king!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments