Ann Handley is a writing & marketing legend.

So I obviously grabbed her new "Everybody Writes (New & Improved)" book.

What a find.

I've ONLY read the intro and already discovered this absolute gem: The Formula for High-Quality Content:

UTILITY x INSPIRATION x EMPATHY
=
High-quality content

She goes on to explain each factor:

A lot of creators are sleeping on @Medium.

They don't see the path to significant income, so they don't bother publishing there.

But income isn't the goal.

This is: @Medium Some estimates claim Medium gets over 100 million monthly readers.

So...

leveraging a platform with millions of eyeballs and converting them as newsletter subscribers — that should be the point.

👀

Here's how.

Most people think you need a massive audience to grow a successful newsletter.

You don't.

Here are 6 elements of a successful newsletter: #1 CONSISTENT RHYTHM

Consistency is necessary.

It’s not everything, but it’s important.

Successful newsletters publish on a cadence + stick to it religiously — whether it’s daily, weekly, or otherwise.

TIP: start at a sustainable pace.

Biggest lie online: "Just build an audience."

The problem? Only 1/20th of your social audience sees your content.

You're at the mercy of the algorithm.

But you can take that power back. 2nd biggest lie: "All you need to do is create content (and publish on a blog)"

Yeah creating content is important. But blog readers often read then bounce, never to return.

You are at the mercy of search queries.

Instead: here's how you can capture your audience's attention.

Most people think they need original content to create a profitable newsletter.

They're wrong.

Here's how I curate a profitable weekly newsletter—and how you can too in under 90 mins /week. The tl;dr:

→ How I Curate via Other Newsletters
→ How I Curate via Twitter (and how you can do it on any social platform)
→ How I Compile & Plan My Curated Content (using @airtable & their Web Clipper)

I teamed up with the @refindcom team!

We created a Deep Dive:

"Build A Newsletter Business" by @growthcurrency

Here's a teaser of the 11 articles you'll find: Monetizing newsletters: when creators strive with ideas by @MarieDOLLE

maried.substack.com/p/monetizing-n…

April Content & Growth Recap:

→ 4 weekly newsletters published
→ 4 Medium articles published
→ 889 Tweets
→ 270k impressions
→ 445 new followers
→ 139 net new subs

Here are my most popular tweets + articles:

https://twitter.com/growthcurrency/status/1512776152917716995

I've published 64 editions of my GC⚡ newsletter.

Here are 9 things I've learned from growing over 1.4 subscribers and monetizing: CONSISTENCY IS *KIND OF* IMPORTANT

The momentum from pure weekly consistency is powerful.

I had:
→ 47 subscribers after 10 editions
→ 152 subscribers after 20 editions
→ 520 subscribers after 30 editions

30 editions = 30 weeks of consistent publishing AND promotion.

The 3 best Gmail settings you probably aren't using

(#1 could save your a$$): #1 - UNDO SEND

Change your send cancellation period from 5 seconds up to 30 seconds.

I KNOW you've sent an email and immediately seen a typo or forgot an attachment.

Now you have ample time for a quick review.

You can make money with a newsletter.

But most people think they need a MASSIVE email list first.

Here's one way I made money from my newsletter (with under 700 subscribers): I always knew the big newsletters had paid ads in them.

But I started noticing other smaller newsletters with "#Ad" or "Sponsored by…" sections in them

Got me thinking: maybe I could do the same?

Only one problem:

Starting a blog is a waste of time.

Starting a newsletter is the opposite.

Here's why: PREFACE:

Look—I get the purpose and value of a blog.
Don't here what I'm not saying "NEVER start a blog" — that's not it at all.

But I hardcore believe if you are at the starting line and deciding which to do:

START A NEWSLETTER FIRST.

Here are a bunch of reasons:

Growing an audience is hard.

It takes a lot of time, consistent energy, focus, and consistency.

"So why bother growing one?"
... Once you have an audience

—and one that likes and trusts you—

you're able to do some incredible things.

HOW TO BUILD AN EMAIL LIST: A PROVEN SYSTEM FOR GETTING 1,000+ SUBSCRIBERS

(Link to post by @Harris_Bryan at end of thread)

I particularly found the ICE framework interesting.

The ICE Framework forces you to ask three questions... Before you implement a growth strategy, ask:

IMPACT: How impactful could this strategy be for my growth?

CONFIDENCE: How confident am I that this strategy would draw in potential customers?

EASE: Given my skills & resources, how easy would it be to implement this strategy?

Paid subscriptions are like magic—if you do it right.

But many launch paid subscription products and fail.

Here are 8 tips @jspector recommends to increase your chance of success.

↓↓↓ 1-Find out if people want it before you create it

Don’t just pitch your idea—announce you’re developing a “secret project,” seeking feedback, and invite people to connect with you if they’d like to chat about it.

Mention it’s a paid product, don’t mention a price.

Here's the marketing approach @mijustin used

to grow @TransistorFM

It worked for him and his team—could it work for you?

🧵
↓↓↓ #1 Have a product that people are searching for ("best podcast hosting").

#2 Get traffic from SEO, affiliates, content, and optimize for folks signing up on our homepage.

#3 Ask for credit card up-front, and give a 14-day free trial.

If your headline is shit—doesn't matter how good your content is.

Get your headline RIGHT.

Use these 10 "fill-in-the-blank" Headline ideas from @jspector

↓↓↓ 1. “The Two Minutes It Takes To Read This Will Improve Your ____ Forever”

Give people quick, simple, actionable tips and they’ll love you for it.

For example, I used this headline format on my most read blog post of all time.

A million people have read it.

Robbie Crabtree (@RobbieCrab) started taking Twitter seriously one year ago.

He went from 300 to 13k followers 🚀

His journey is both inspiring and relatable.

Here are 5️⃣ Keys to Twitter growth as per Robbie ↓↓↓ PREFACE: The most important metric Robbie now follows?

"The metrics I began to care about is simply this: Are good things happening in my life because of Twitter?"

In the end, this is the whole point, right?

On to the 5 Keys…

This week in Bookmarks 🔖

⚡⚡⚡
↓ ↓ ↓ Alex (@alexgarcia_atx) destroys Twitter with this thread of threads.

https://twitter.com/alexgarcia_atx/status/1403007669124812801?s=20

I'm 2 Atomic Essays away from achieving my goal of writing and publishing 30 days in a row with #ship30for30.

Here's my process ↓↓↓ 1. IDEAS

I came into the cohort knowing I was going to need a list of themes or ideas to write about.

I had about 10-15 essay ideas or topics pre-planned.

Josh Spector (@jspector) grew his newsletter to…

→ 906 subscribers in ONE month.
→ 87 unsubs
→ 60% open rate

His credibility is obvious: he can write and keep attention.

His 40 One-Sentence Writing Tips ↓↓↓ @jspector 1. The things you write will never be “done” and once you realize that you’ll be able to publish them.

2. Eliminate 20% of the words you wrote to make your draft 100% better.

5 TIPS FOR SUCCESSFULLY SELLING YOUR ONLINE COURSE

Justin Welsh (@JustinSaaS) made $118,205 in Digital Course Sales.

Here are the 5 simple lessons he learned.

SHORT THREAD ↓↓↓ @JustinSaaS #1 BUILDING IN PUBLIC GENERATES MASSIVE ATTENTION

→He built his 1st course at home behind closed doors
→Launched it & made $11,780 ($380/day) after 1 month (not bad!)
→Built 2nd course in completely IN PUBLIC & made $40,594 ($1,269/day)—even better!