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Hey Reader,

Welcome to the 115th edition of Growth Currency⚡— the newsletter that helps you start + grow + improve + monetize your newsletter.

Yep—it's meta: a newsletter about newsletters. Check out older editions here.

In this week's edition:

» Substack launched a Twitter clone 🐦
» The best growth strategy for newsletters? Our guide to newsletter recommendations 🫱🏻‍🫲🏻
» 100+ ChatGPT promps for creators to improve workflows 🤖
» Getting a newsletter sponsor & 1k subscribers BEFORE first send 🤯

…and more!

Shall we?

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What You Need To Know

News from GC & the Newsletter industry

​→ Substack launches Notes — a Twitter competitor​

​→ Join SparkLoop's next Office Hours: ​Getting your emails in the inbox with Alyssa Dulin at ConvertKit​ [Tues, April 25th]​

→ Want direction & advice with your newsletter? Book a 30-min or 60-min newsletter strategy call with me.​
​

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ARTICLE by Growth Currency⚡

The 2023 Guide to Newsletter Recommendations

My Growth Currency⚡ newsletter just added ~1000 subscribers in March. I went from 3k subscribers to 4k.

And nearly 100% of those subscribers were all thanks to one growth strategy:

→ Recommendations.

Friends, I have not encountered a stronger growth strategy — free OR paid — than the latest Recommendations feature widget.

It’s a game-changer.

I’ve had dozens of newsletter strategy calls with newsletter publishers over the last 6 months. The #1 challenge they have in common?

Growing a newsletter is f*cking hard.

The best way used to be a valuable lead magnet. It can still be a great strategy. Newsletter swaps — aka “cross-promotions” — can also work. The demand for cross-promotions has spawned platforms like Lettergrowth, Collabmatch, and InboxReads, to name a few.

But the Recommendations strategy is leaving other strategies in its wake.

This article will cover:

• What the newsletter Recommendations feature is
• The best newsletter Recommendations tools
• How to use it for your newsletter (how to get recommended)
• Are Recommendations the right growth strategy for you?
• Important considerations with this growth strategy

Let’s get into it and GROW your newsletter.

​Read the whole article »​

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LINKS by Growth Currency⚡

"Knowledge is the currency of growth."

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START YOUR NEWSLETTER

⚡ How to Grow Your Indie Newsletter and Engage With Readers by Dan Oshinsky

My Take: This is a helluva guide for those just getting started. Get Dan's insightful tips on building a loyal audience of 5000 readers by creating quality content, promoting it, engaging with readers, and tracking progress.

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GROW YOUR NEWSLETTER

⚡ How Daniel Murray Grew Marketing Millennials to 90k Subscribers by Chenell Basilio (of Growth In Reverse)

My Take: 90k Subscribers in 9 months is super impressive. But Daniel is the King 👑 of LinkedIn company pages with over 600k followers. That'll help get you to 90k subs fast, but there's lots to learn here about growth on LinkedIn and translating that to newsletter subscribers.

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IMPROVE YOUR NEWSLETTER

⚡ 100+ ChatGPT prompts for creators: Speed up your workflow with AI by Tyler Wade (via Descript)

My Take: AI is here to stay—and if you're like me, you could benefit from increased operational efficiency. I don't want AI to write my newsletter for me. But I definitely need to improve my workflows. High-five for streamlined operations!

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MONETIZE YOUR NEWSLETTER

⚡ How Eli Weiss Got a Sponsor & 1,000 Subscribers Before His First Send by Darwin Binesh

My Take: Why not validate your newsletter idea for monetization before you even start? I love this and will 1000% do this if/when I start another newsletter business.
​
​Key takeaways:

→ The story of how Eli got started and learned everything on the fly.
→ How he got his first 1,000 subscribers & paid sponsor before sending his first email.
→ Several pointers on content strategy (topic selection, originality, etc).
→ What he does to secure highly engaged, quality subscribers.
→ The approach he takes to maximize his newsletter revenue.​
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​

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Thanks for making it to the end—I try and save some personal ramblings for this space.

I write a lot about newsletters. But one of my other passions is running.

I ran in the Vancouver Sun Run held annually in Vancouver, BC.

It's a 10km run with over 30,000 participants. I run it for fun—and to try to beat my previous year's time.

But instead of pushing too hard in training this year, I tried a different approach. For the past 2 months, I only trained below my maximum aerobic heart rate (180 minus your age = max aerobic heart rate).

The result?....

I didn't beat my time from last year. Missed it by 2 whole minutes.

But I was more focused, intentional, and strategic with my training than ever. Monitoring my recovery proved the slower pace was better for my cardio health. And I'm confident the new approach will be better for my health long-term.

This all made me think about newsletters and the pace at which we write, publish, repeat—day after day, week after week.

Could I, and could you, be more focused, intentional, and strategic with our newsletters?

I know the answer, for me at least. How about you?

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​
How would you rate this edition?

​⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Electrifying!​
​⚡⚡⚡ A decent jolt.​
​⚡ Just static...​

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And in case you missed it, here are last edition's TWO most popular links:

#1: 26 Growth Lessons from 26 Substack Writers by Chris Brunet (97 clicks) ​
#2: How to write a newsletter when you suck at consistency by Growth Currency ⚡ (94 clicks)

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Other resources to help you:

→ The 1KS Roadmap: A Free Course To Your First 1,000 Subscribers​
→ The Ultimate Creator Database of Awesomeness​
→ Advertise in this newsletter​
​

Peace and platonic love,

Dylan

​Twitter | Medium | Instagram | TikTok​