skip to content

← back to the plays

independence5 unconnected
applies to

b2b, needs an existing audience

assumes $100 and up

confidence

high

evidence

8 claims · 5 articles · 4 receipts

window

2023-10-13 → 2023-10-13

5 builders who never spoke to each other

Sell your own service to the list before ads

One reader can buy a consulting call but cannot buy an ad slot, so below a certain size the audience is a sales channel rather than inventory. Interview readers about their problems, build the offer the subject already qualifies them for, and keep every way to pay you visible in each edition.

The method

  1. 01

    Below roughly ten thousand subscribers, treat the list as a route to selling your own service rather than as ad inventory, because a single reader can buy a $250 consulting call while a single reader cannot buy a $250 ad slot.

  2. 02

    Keep a standing block of calls to action in the newsletter footer covering every way a reader can pay you, including buying an ad in it.

  3. 03

    Only sell a service the newsletter's subject already qualifies people for, so the content and the offer point at the same problem.

  4. 04

    Package what you know into corporate training and paid speaking, which is priced per engagement rather than per subscriber.

  5. 05

    Track the question readers keep asking you and turn that single repeated question into the paid product.

What it returned

  • $100k

    Jon Elder's Amazon Insiders is on pace for $100k of annual revenue from about 10k subscribers, earned through consulting and coaching rather than sponsorships or paid subscriptions.

  • Amazon Insiders lists Jon Elder's consulting and coaching services plus its own advertising option in the footer of every edition.

  • Amazon Insiders helps Amazon sellers and Jon Elder sells Amazon business coaching and consulting to those same readers, referencing his own selling history to establish authority.

  • Kat Norton, known as Miss Excel, sells live custom training sessions and online courses for Microsoft Office and Google Suite to company teams, plus keynote appearances.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.

More in sales

all sales plays

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.