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My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

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Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#171

Post by butwhywhyoh »

ryangilbert wrote: post #143
cercatrova wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are saying you should have just posted the link in the top/original post itself rather than as a comment. That's usually how it goes on HN so that people don't have to search for your specific comment with the link, they can just go to the post and see it there.

Wanted this to be more of an AMA on the what and how vs “hey subscribe”!

How exactly would you expect someone to ask questions when you don't include a way for them to see what you're talking about?

My first question to your original post would be: "where's the link so I can see what you built?"

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#172

Post by assttoasstmgr »

cercatrova wrote: post #139
assttoasstmgr wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of those look absolutely dreadful. I need a place to work, not a staged photograph from an IKEA catalog.

What works for them may not work for you, that's why it's their workspaces, who are you to judge them for how they like to work? If you want to compare, submit your own workspace then.

> who are you to judge them for how they like to work

Generally speaking, publishing a deliberate, intricately staged (like a doll's tea party), museum exhibit-like workspace, which looks more like a Jony Ive wet dream rather than where actual humans produce, in a public venue, is a tacit invitation to criticism.

This attitude is how we ended up with things like the MacBook butterfly keyboard.

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#173

Post by petercooper »

ativzzz wrote: post #9

How do you reach out to people to get them to be on your newsletter? I imagine now that you have a following it's easier, but what motivates people to actually say "yes", especially when you were starting out? And somewhat related because you don't do this, but for newsletters that are more "news aggregator" types that collect various blog posts/info, do they typically reach out to the authors before including the li…

for newsletters that are more "news aggregator" types that collect various blog posts/info, do they typically reach out to the authors before including the links in the newsletter asking for permission?

I've run a network of around 10 newsletters of this type for about 10 years now and no, extremely rarely (usually only if something is obviously being kept on the down low or if a flood of traffic would be likely to cause problems, such as personal projects that use a lot of bandwidth). It hasn't been a problem though. People are generally very happy to get the attention and visitors in my field, but all of our links are positive and shining a spotlight in style, not criticism or making fun, etc.

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#174

Post by petercooper »

yata69420 wrote: post #50
ryangilbert wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the cold DM I tend to send: "Hi [name]! I publish a newsletter with x+ subscribers that highlights the workspaces of creative individuals and would love to include you. Let me know if you're at all interested! :)" I think the earliest guests simply liked the idea of the project and thought it would be fun to share the workspace that they spend hours of their day in. Now I think people agree because they are a…

Does that work when "x" is 0? under 10? under 100? What was the first "x" you used in that message early on? How did you get that many of initial subscribers? It seems to me that the only way to bootstrap something like this is with ad spend or viral social media content that inspires people to subscribe, but that's sort of a chicken and egg problem if you don't already have wide reach.

It seems to me that the only way to bootstrap something like this is with ad spend or viral social media content that inspires people to subscribe, but that's sort of a chicken and egg problem if you don't already have wide reach.

It's not as chicken and egg as it may seem. Let's say you want to create a newsletter about, oh.. TCP/IP, say. You write some interesting articles about TCP/IP related topics, interview some people in the field, put together some cheat sheets or something.. build up a useful Web site about TCP/IP teasing your newsletter somewhere on each page, submit things from it to Hacker News, Reddit, and relevant places enough, and eventually something will work out.

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#177

Post by laserlight »

ryangilbert wrote: post #153
laserlight wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t read any judgement in the parent comment. It just states that those setups wouldn’t work for them.

“I need a place to work, not a staged photograph from an IKEA catalog.” Not sure how that isn’t judgement… but parent comment is more than welcome to share their space with the community so we can get a more diverse catalog of how people work. :)

That quote is a personal opinion of the commenter and holds no judgement against those people who prefer to have workspaces that look like “staged photograph from an IKEA catalog”.

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#178

Post by durandaul »

ryangilbert wrote: post #136
durandaul wrote: post #135

What did you use for tools/subscription management? All custom or did you use a pre made service like hubspot?

Twitter DMs and GMail for all things related to the outreach and management of the content. Substack for the actual publishing. As barebones as you can get! (This will be changing a tiny bit next week)

What do you think of https://www.getrevue.co/ ?

Re: My newsletter is making $2k per month with 7k subscribers – AMA

#179

Post by laserlight »

saaaaaam wrote: post #156
laserlight wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t read any judgement in the parent comment. It just states that those setups wouldn’t work for them.

“Absolutely dreadful” is 100% a judgement.

That's a personal opinion that holds no judgment against people who prefer to have those “absolutely dreadful” workspaces.
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