2 builders who never spoke to each other

Start by curating, then fold your own work in

Collecting links you already read for your own job costs almost nothing extra and builds a readership while you still have nothing of your own to teach. Slipping your own tutorial into an issue turns a page of links into a relationship, and asking the established curator in the niche first can earn an introduction to their readers.

The method

1. 01

   If you are not ready to teach, build the audience by curating other people's work first and fold your own material in gradually

2. 02

   Add a link to your own tutorial into each curated issue once you have one: it converts a resource list into a relationship

3. 03

   Ask the established curator in your niche for permission before starting a complementary newsletter: done politely, they will link you to their readers

4. 04

   Publish the reading you already do for your own job: if you are collecting links to stay current for clients, that collection is the newsletter and costs you almost nothing extra.

What it returned

• 258

  Dave Verwer of iOS Dev Weekly encouraged the design-focused spin-off and linked it a few weeks later; launch week produced 258 subscribers from that mention plus Twitter, Hacker News and Reddit

• 27,000

  Aleyda Solis started SEOFOMO to track SEO news for her consulting work and was keeping the links regardless. It now reaches over 27,000 SEO professionals and brings in more than $80k a year on top of the consultancy.

Sources

• How to grow an audience through curating contentNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · I started by curating · 2018-12-03
• S01E23: Using giveaways to maximize growth — with Aleyda Solis of SEOFOMOAleyda Solis · sparkloop.app · undated