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independence5 unconnected
applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 8 articles · 4 receipts

window

2011-08-16 → 2022-03-22

5 builders who never spoke to each other

Settle who the publication is for before growing it

Decide the reader, the job the writing does for them and how it will eventually make money, because acquisition tactics cannot rescue content the intended reader does not want. Spinning the list out of an audience you already hold in another format starts it with people who are there for you.

The method

  1. 01

    Settle what the newsletter is for and who it is for before spending anything on growth, because acquisition tactics cannot rescue content the intended reader does not want.

  2. 02

    Spin the newsletter out of an audience you already command in another format, so the list starts with people who already listen to you.

  3. 03

    Choose the next market on two tests: you already know the place and its people, and there is content residents want that the incumbents are not publishing.

  4. 04

    Decide deliberately which of three things you are, an originator writing your own material, a curator selecting other people's, or an aggregator collecting it, because growth on social works differently for each.

  5. 05

    Decide at the start that you are building the newsletter to sell, because the buyer you want has requirements you can only satisfy by designing for them from the beginning.

What it returned

  • 62,000

    Brad Barrett launched the ChooseFI newsletter as an offshoot of the established ChooseFI podcast and grew it past 62,000 subscribers.

  • Alex Brogan defined the reader as founders, investors, creators and people trying to progress professionally, worked out the job they wanted the newsletter to do, then took Faster Than Normal past 70k subscribers in two years on a twice-weekly schedule.

  • Those two conditions are what made Geoff Sharpe pick Vancouver for his second local newsletter.

  • LeQwane Lynch's split of the market, with The Information as the originator example, Milk Road as the curator and Refind as the aggregator.

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 email

all email 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.