This 1 "boomer" method made me $250,000+

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You’ve spent hours crafting the perfect post for social media, only to see it drowned in a sea of content within minutes.

Leading to low-engagement, slow growth, and fewer sales.

So in a world of algorithm changes, fleeting trends, and the constant battle for attention, how do you stand out from other creators?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to bypass the social media algorithms, directly reach your audience, build a deep connection with them, AND make money in the process?

Well, my friend, there is, and this method has been around since the internet started.

And I can tell you from direct experience, this method is responsible for at least $250,000 in sales in the past 9 months.

So what is this magical thing?

An email newsletter (yes, it’s meta af that you’re reading this on my newsletter).

So in today’s email, I’m going to go over:

1. What an email newsletter is

2. Why an email newsletter is a game-changer for creators and entrepreneurs

3. How to start and grow your email newsletter today

4. How to make the dolla dolla bills with your newsletter

(This is a longer email so you can skip to whichever section is relevant to you).

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WTF Is a Newsletter?

Now, before diving in, it’s important to define what a newsletter is.

A newsletter is an email you send out to a list of people who’ve opted in to receive emails from you.

And the content of this newsletter can be:

• Tips

• Stories

• Updates

• Interesting information

It’s similar to email marketing, but the main difference is that a newsletter is typically informational, while email marketing is more promotion and sales centered.

Why Start a Newsletter?

So why should you even been interested in starting an email newsletter?

Well, there are 6 big benefits:

1) Owned and portable traffic

The 1st and biggest benefit is that your newsletter subscribers are yours.

You own them.

Not in the sense of some kinda Nike sweatshop slavery way.

But if you build an audience on YouTube, Instagram, or X, you can get banned for whatever reason and you’d be absolutely screwed.

The only way you can lose your newsletter subscribers is if they unsubscribe.

2) Low cost and beginner friendly

Starting a newsletter is free and easy to get started.

All you need is to sign up to a newsletter platform and write emails.

I’ll go into which newsletter platform is my favourite in a lil bit…

3) No algorithm

The 3rd benefit is that there’s no evil algorithm.

So unlike social media where on average 1 to 10 percent of your audience see your content, the average newsletter gets around a 21% of people opening the email.

But these numbers can go way higher.

I’ve seen people with 60% people opening the emails.

My newsletter gets an average of 44%.

4) Newsletters build connection

The 4th benefit of a newsletter is that you build a deep connection with your readers.

A newsletter is a chance to give readers a peek inside your mind, show your personality, and share interesting stories.

(I feel like you and I have something special going here).

This is hard to do with a 30 second reel or a 280 character post.

5) Understand your topics better

Now, the most under appreciated benefit of a newsletter is that it forces you to understand topics on a 10x deeper level.

You’re not just absorbing information for yourself; you’re translating it for others.

Simplifying complex concepts into digestible pieces forces you to research and understand what you’re talking about.

Even if I had 0 people on my newsletter, I’d still write one because it has skyrockets my understanding on topics.

6) Newsletters work while you sleep

A newsletter is like a full-time employee that works while you sleep.

You can set up automations you put in place once, and they run forever.

You can use these automations to sell products or nurture your newsletter subscribers.

How to Start a Newsletter?

So, now you know a newsletter is the bee’s knees and wanna start one.

How do you even go about doing that?

Well, I’ll lay out a simple 6 step plan to starting your newsletter.

Step 1) Pick Your Newsletter Platform

First, you need to pick a platform to build your newsletter on.

I’ve tried a few…

• Mail Chimp

• Active Campaign

• ConvertKit

And in my opinion, none of them come close to beehiiv.

beehiiv is easy to use, has great pricing, and has all the features you’ll need to start a newsletter.

(Not sponsored, I just think the team is based and that they have a great product.)

Step 2) Choose Your Audience

The next step you’re going to take is figuring out who the target audience is for your newsletter.

And there’s 2 types of audiences you can choose from, broad and niche.

Broad Audiences

A broad audience is a large and diverse group of people.

Newsletters targeting a broad audience might cover general topics like “business,” “technology,” or “creators.”

Pros of Broad Audiences

• Higher Potential Reach: Since the topic is general, there’s a chance to attract a larger number of subscribers.

• Flexibility in Content: You can cover a wide range of subtopics, allowing for diverse content.

Cons of Broad Audiences

• Competition: Because of the general nature of the topic, there might be many similar newsletters, making it harder to stand out.

• Less Personalization: It can be challenging to cater to the specific interests or needs of individual subscribers when targeting a broad audience.

• Engagement: A broader audience might be less engaged since the content might not always resonate deeply with every subscriber.

Niche Audiences

A niche audience is a specific, often smaller, segment of the larger market. So this could be online fitness coaches, NFTs, or YouTube creators.

If you wanted to go even more niche, you could do online vegan fitness coaches, gaming NFTs, or travel YouTube creators.

Pros of Niche Audiences

• High Engagement: Since the content is tailored to a specific group, subscribers are likely to be more engaged and loyal.

• Less Competition: By focusing on a niche, you’re likely to face less competition, making it easier to become an authority in that space.

• Better Personalization: You can cater your content more precisely to your audience’s needs and preferences.

Cons of Niche Audiences:

• Limited Reach: The total potential audience might be smaller due to the specialized nature of the topic.

• Content Depth: You might exhaust topics faster since you’re diving deep into a specific area. It requires creativity and research to keep content fresh.

If you want to reach a large number of people and have the resources to produce diverse content, a broad audience is best.

If you have specialized knowledge in a particular area and want to build a highly engaged community around that topic, a niche audience is ideal.

In either case, you need to take the time to understand your audience.

Which leads to the 3rd step…

Step 4) Pick Your Problems

What problem are you solving for your newsletter audience?

Are you creating content that saves them time, makes them money, or improves their skill?

Try this ChatGPT hack ;)

Step 4) Pick Your Newsletter Type

There are 2 main types of newsletters:

1) Educational

These newsletters aim to inform, teach, or provide insights on specific topics. They often contain in-depth deep dive or actionable advice.

The primary goal is to enhance the reader’s knowledge or skills in a particular area.

2) Curated

Curated newsletters compile a selection of content from various sources. Curator sifts through a vast amount of information and selects the most relevant, interesting, and valuable pieces to share with their audience.

The primary goal is to save readers time and provide them with a consolidated source of updates, news, or opportunities in one place.

Step 5) Grow Your Newsletter

There are a few ways you can get people on to your newsletter:

Social media

This is one of the easiest ways to get people on to your newsletter.

At the end of a piece of content, tell your audience that they can get more in-depth insights for free if they subscribe to your newsletter.

So either attach link to your newsletter at the end of the content or put a link in your social media bio.

Lead magnets

A lead magnet is something valuable you create that you give your audience in exchange for them signing up to your newsletter.

This can be something like an e-book, checklist, or mini course.

Trading with creators

Many newsletter platforms now have the option for creators to recommend other newsletters.

So you can partner with another creator and when someone signs up to one of your newsletters, it’ll recommend the other.

This can be a huge driver for growth.

beehiiv has this feature built in, but you can also use a tool like Sparkloop.

Ads

This is more advanced, but you can also run ads that prompt people to sign up to your newsletter.

I recommend doing this once you’re above 10,000 subscribers though.

How To Make Money With Newsletters?

Now, the final step you’ve been waiting for…

Cue the drum role…

Ways to make money from your newsletter.

So there are a few ways:

One of the fastest ways to monetize your newsletter is to sell your product or service.

Lead generation

It can be as simple as creating a valuable piece of content in your newsletter related to what you’re selling, then at the end, be like “Hey, by the way, if you want to help with XYZ, email me back this keyword and I’ll give you more information.”

Or you can send them a link to your website.

Affiliate

The 2nd way you can monetize your newsletter is by affiliating for someone else’s product or service.

So you can find businesses and creators ask to promote their stuff for 20% to 50% commission.

Subscriptions

The 3rd way you can monetize your newsletter is by selling a subscription. So if you have valuable information, you can put a paywall up to access specific newsletters or put a paywall up to access the rest of a free newsletter.

Advertisements

The 4th way you can monetize your newsletter is by selling advertisement slots.

(This is what you saw at the start of my email).

So once you grow a large enough newsletter audience - around like 10,000+ people - you can get in contact with businesses and creators and sell advertisements to their product, their service, or even their newsletter.

Again, beehiiv makes this easy by having this feature baked into their product.

So there you have it ladies and gents.

Newsletters 101.

Even if you’re a smaller creator, I recommend starting a newsletter now. You’ll build a higher quality audience, understand your topics better, and can repurpose your newsletters into social media content.

0 downside.

So, with that being said, I hope y’all have a kickass day.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Newsletter” Robertson

P.S.

If you want to start your newsletter, I recommend beehiiv.

• They’re 2x cheaper than ConvertKit

• They have all the features you need

• Their team is super responsive and helpful

You can get started for free by clicking here (this is an affiliate link. You can also go to their site to signup. I recommend them either way).