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GROWTH CURRENCY⚡

⚡ #86: Why I broke up with Substack, How to automate newsletter feedback, and how Daren hit $10k/mo in creator revenue.

Published over 1 year ago • 4 min read

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[#Sponsored]
Looking for a new way to boost your annual income?

This issue is in partnership with ConvertKit.


You’re a creator. You’re passionate and hardworking, but maybe you’re not seeing the revenue you want.

You’re not alone: Over 65% of content creators make less than $10K a year.

Are you ready to see revenue breakthrough this year?

So many creators like Sahil Bloom, Aquila Farrell, and Matt Ragland are finding long-term success by monetizing their content with digital products and pairing that with ConvertKit for lead generation, email automation, and selling those digital products.


This is GC⚡ #86 — your secret weapon for newsletter growth ⚔️

A special welcome to the 27 newest readers of the Growth Currency⚡ newsletter!

Thank you for giving me space in your inbox. 🙏

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here »


[GC News & Announcements]
What you need to know


[GC Editorial]
Why I broke up with Substack — and moved to ConvertKit.

Once lovers. Now we're just friends.

I’ve been writing a lot about newsletter platforms lately.

Particularly Substack & ConvertKit — the two I happen to have the most experience with. Substack was where I launched my newsletter in January 2021.

And then switched to ConvertKit 9 months later.

I broke up with Substack one year ago.

But the cheating started far earlier.

I was having an affair with another email platform — ConvertKit — but I wasn’t even using it to publish my newsletter. I just needed a landing page for a lead magnet. ConvertKit fit the bill with their free landing page builder.

Substack didn’t have a suitable option…

So I launched my lead magnet & landing page with ConvertKit. And over the course of a month, I got ~150 new subscribers.

I exported that list of subscribers and moved them over to Substack where I continued publishing for a few more months.

All the while I couldn’t forget about the experience I had building and launching the ConvertKit landing page.

I couldn’t get it out of my head. And turns out there were even more options for newsletter publishing with ConvertKit:

  • more styling options
  • more tags & segmentation options
  • more automation options

I knew my time with Substack was coming to an end.

And it was bittersweet.

Without Substack, I may have never started a newsletter. It was simple, free, and painless to start.

Whenever I mention that my newsletter started on Substack but switched to ConvertKit, someone always asks, “Why?”

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Tania Dsouza 🧠+💜
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@TaniaDiscovered
September 16th 2022
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So here are the 3 main reasons I moved away from Substack to ConvertKit.

(I've also included a few of my favorite ConvertKit features you might not know about!)

Read the Article »


[GC Curated: Start + Grow + Improve + Monetize your newsletter]
Your Growth Currency ⚡ This Week

"Knowledge is the currency of growth."

START

The Five Types of Indie Newsletter Business Models by Dan Oshinksy

You can start a newsletter business. Use one of these business models to do it. You don't even need a focused niche to do it.

GROW

11 things I've learned growing Daily Stoic to over 500k email subscribers by Billy Oppenheimer

Billy works on the Daily Stoic team with Ryan Holiday. This thread is fire, and my favorite line: "To secure readers, solve their problems. Make something they need."

Here's the 11 things teaser:

  1. Simplify
  2. Just start
  3. Hire experts
  4. Show don't tell
  5. Keep it concise
  6. Solve problems
  7. Good content wins
  8. Lengthen your timeline
  9. Consistency compounds
  10. Meet people where they are

IMPROVE

How to Collect Valuable Feedback and Supercharge Your Content Idea Collection by Mike Cardona & Daniel Bustamante

Mike went to click on my "rate this edition" bolts at the bottom of last week's email. Then realized there was nothing to click. So he sent me this way for YOU—my awesome readers—to give me a quick rating and feedback. As soon as Mike sent me this, I got it live ASAP. If you're looking for a simple newsletter feedback system, check out Mike & Daniel's step-by-step article 🙌

MONETIZE

How I hit my $10k monthly revenue goal with less than 2k subscribers and ConvertKit by Daren Smith

Learn how Daren's built a system that uses tension to bring the reader into his ecosystem. He uses a 3-stage process:

Awareness > Engagement > Conversion


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

A few weeks ago I tweaked my back. Pretty bad. Getting out of bed took 10 minutes.

I had been pushing it more than usual:

→ Repeatedly tossing my kids plus my niece & nephews into the pool on vacation
→ Going for long-distance runs
→ Doing 30kg kettlebell throws & weighted pullups

It was the last item on that list that did me in, but I'm sure all of the above contributed to it. I was pushing my body beyond its capacity. Until I couldn't push anymore.

Until I was forced to take a break.

The moral of the story: take a break before you literally break—whether that's physically, mentally, or emotionally.

There's a lot of talk about creator burnout. I don't believe the human soul is built for the hamster wheel of non-stop content creation & promotion. It's not normal. We're balls of anxiety trying to fill the never-ending urge to "do more".

So stop. Take a break if you need to. Your audience will still be there when you come back. Your friends will too.

How would you rate this edition?
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Electrifying!
⚡⚡⚡ A decent jolt.
Just static...

Hit reply and let me know why — I answer every one :) Or DM me on Twitter!

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

#1: I got in the ConvertKit Sponsor Network — here’s why you should (or shouldn’t) join by Growth Currency
#2:
The Secrets to Picking Your Newsletter Niche by Codie Sanchez



Other Growth Currency⚡ Resources:

The 1KS Roadmap: A Free Course To Your First 1,000 Subscribers
The Ultimate Creator Database of Awesomeness
How To Start, Grow, and Optimize a Substack Newsletter
Advertise in this newsletter
→ Book a Newsletter Consult With Me: 30 Mins | 60 Mins

Peace and platonic love,

Dylan

Twitter | Medium | Instagram | TikTok

GROWTH CURRENCY⚡

by Dylan Redekop

Join 4k+ subscribers learning how to START + GROW + MONETIZE their newsletters with weekly insights, tips, and resources.

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