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This is GC⚡ #79 — your secret weapon for newsletter growth ⚔️
A special welcome to the 41 newest members of the Growth Currency⚡ newsletter community!
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[GC Editorial]
What’s the point of a newsletter? It's this.
I like to see the responses I get when I tweet things like this:
June 24th 2022
|
But Ara challenged me.
June 30th 2022
|
Wasn’t expecting that tbh. After some thought, I replied to Ara:
From a creation standpoint: to inform, educate, entertain, or sell.
:)
My response was sincere. But too naïve. And it inspired this article.
I’m not going to bury the lede here.
The point of your newsletter is to make money.
Exceptions be damned: the point of every newsletter is to make money.
Newsletters are marketing. And the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to drive revenue.
Your initial response might be, “The point of my newsletter is merely to get people onto my email list and off a rented (social) platform — not to sell them anything.”
That’s great! And that’s called content marketing. You’re creating content (your newsletter) to grow an audience to convert into customers. So your newsletter is an indirect path to monetization.
But your newsletter can make money both indirectly AND directly.
And it’s so much easier to consider HOW your newsletter is going to help you monetize as a creator from the beginning, instead of trying to shoehorn a monetization strategy into it a year down the road.
Making Money Directly with Your Newsletter
There are 3 main ways to make money directly with your newsletter.
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Read your first blog post.
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Listen to your first podcast episode...
Now, compare it to your most recent piece of content.
It’s night and day, isn’t it? You may have even felt a little (actually, maybe a lot) embarrassed.
As embarrassed as you are, that’s also how proud you should be, because that’s how much your content has grown—how much you’ve grown.
If you're like most creators, your marketing platform reminds you of that first creative effort. It has not kept up. You need a fresh start.
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[GC Curated Resources: Start + Grow + Improve + Monetize your newsletter]
Your Growth Currency ⚡ This Week
"Knowledge is the currency of growth."
START
⚡ 10 Tips on Successfully publishing a newsletter every week for 6 years by Josh Spector [🧵]
Can't argue with this advice! Josh has grown his newsletter to nearly 20k subscribers while publishing weekly for over 260 weeks in a row. 🤯
GROW
⚡ 5 Steps Amanda Natividad Took to 60x Her Audience in a Year (and Keep Growing It) by Grace Parazzoli
Growing your newsletter starts with growing your audience. This article via Demand Curve's Grace Parazzoli dives deep into how Amanda. There is a lot of meat to chew on here—and I found the 4 ways to get good at direct-response copywriting section really useful 👌
(🔗 via Foster Digest)
IMPROVE
⚡ Your newsletter design matters by Brett Dashevsky [🧵]
A positive reading experience will improve your newsletter's retention rate. Make your newsletter better with Brett's design tips. Note: you don't have to be a "designer" to implement these.
(🔗 via The Steal Club)
MONETIZE
⚡ How I Sold My Newsletter: Andrew Kamphey by Emily Wong
Andrew's newsletter had ~7.5k subscribers when he sold it for an undisclosed amount. BUT—he teases that it helped to pay off a real estate investment. So... maybe your newsletter could be your ticket to paying off your mortgage a bit early :)
(Newsletter Of The Week)
The GC NOTW 🤘
⚡ Script Tips by Ame Proietti
"Learn to write persuasive video scripts" is the enticing headline of Ame's newsletter landing page. One of her recent editions breaks down the messaging behind The Dollar Shave Club's first video ad—that went ultra-viral—getting the attention of Unilever who later acquired DSC for $1B.
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I've been using TidyCal for over a year now and the product works great—and keeps improving.
Thanks for making it to the end—I try and save some gold for this space.
When I started this newsletter, I was up for a challenge.
I didn't envision writing-a-newsletter-as-a-side-project-while-working-a-9-5-and-raising-two-amazing-yet-challenging-kids-with-my-amazingly-supportive-wife-in-the-middle-of-the-summer-without-childcare kind of challenge.
But here we are.
And I'm still up for it (much like my kids at the crack of dawn).
But I'll be away 2 weeks during August. The newsletter will still hit your inboxes. But if it's a slimmed down, summer beach bod version of its usual bulky self, you'll know why ;)
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: 12 Things I've Learned Reaching 2k Subscribers in 18 months
#2: 85+ Tested Ways to Grow Your Email List Fast in 2022 by Vikram Saini
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