How To Grow A Newsletter From Scratch

0 - 1,000 Subs: Organic Traffic

First, you need to pick your niche. Then you need to prove that people care about your niche.

How do you do that? Organic traffic via social media.

Before you post your first newsletter, you need to build a social media following around your niche.

I recommend growing on Twitter. Most newsletters have a massive Twitter presence as it’s a similar content style. If you have time, you can focus on a fast-growing platform like TikTok.

Watch YouTube videos, buy courses, and stay consistent. This will be a slow growth but will pay off in the long run as these will be your most engaged subscribers.

PS - Make sure to include a signup link to your newsletter in your bio and posts.

1,000 - 5,000 Subs: Affiliates

Once you have 1,000 subscribers, send your first newsletter. Aim to send one once a week. At a minimum, once every two weeks.

For this, you’ll need to pick a newsletter platform. We use Beehiiv.

At this point, you should start reaching out to micro-influencers in your niche. These are creators on social media that have anywhere from 5 - 15K subscribers.

Offer them an affiliate deal. Ask them to promote your newsletter in exchange for $1 per subscriber they bring in.

You can also offer cross-promos with other newsletters that have a similar subscriber count.

The goal here is to flex the muscle of sending a newsletter, while also growing your list.

5,000 - 10,000 Subs: Paid Twitter Ads

Now it’s time to amp up your growth. The goal is to get to 20K subs so you can bring in sponsors.

With Profit Snack, Twitter has been the best platform for us to run ads. However, you can run them on Facebook as well. (That’s where The Milk Road got many of their subscribers)

For a little extra change to run ads, you can promote other newsletters as your sponsor. You will probably be paid per click.

At this point, I would recommend keeping your newsletter to once a week. Put a lot of time into studying your content, finding ways to improve it, and listening to feedback.

20,000 Subs: Find Sponsors

Now that you’re at 20K, you’ve become very attractive to sponsors.

The easiest way to find sponsors is to dig through other newsletters in your space and reach out to their past sponsors.

Reach out to them every way you can (email, Instagram, Twitter, etc). Tell them who you are, and shoot them a picture of your metrics.

They will want to see:

• Your open rate
  

• Your click-through rate
  

• Subscriber count

This is why engagement is so important. If sponsors see you have high engagement, they will know your readers will click on their promotion.

BUT don’t forget. Do you research on every sponsor.

Every sponsor should:

• Be legitimate and not a scam. Remember, when you accept a sponsor you are telling your readers that you trust them, and they should too. Don’t abuse that.
  

• Be related to your niche. If your readers want to read about A.I, then they will more than likely be interested in a sponsorship about an A.I tool.

As you build a portfolio of sponsors that receive good results from your newsletter, you can slowly start to charge more.

30,000+ Subs: Pick Your 3

Once you’ve worked with many sponsors, I recommend choosing 3 - 5 that you want to work with on a consistent basis.

Here’s why:

• You spend less time reaching out to sponsors
  

• Sponsors receive more engagement as your readers repeatedly see them
  

• Consistent income. No more fearing an empty ad spot.

I hope this helps you get started on building a newsletter! If you have any questions please reach out!