GrowLetter

We help media, creator, and education companies get subscribers and convert them into customers | Clients include 1440, Milk Road, The Daily Upside, Chartr, Wondermind, and many more.

Founder and CEO

HubSpot

Growth Marketing Manager - The Hustle

The Hustle

Growth Marketing Manager

OnlineDegree.com

Led paid user acquisition that grew our user base from several hundred students to over 100K in less than 2 years. Over 90% of that growth came from the ad strategies, funnels, landing pages, and email sequences I created.

User Acquisition Manager

ClassTag, Inc.

-Created a paid media strategy that increased user growth 5x YOY 
-Built an onboarding process that increased user activation rate by 133%
- Created Facebook and TikTok ad campaigns from the ground up. 80% of our user growth came from these sources.
- Lowered our FB  CPA by 53% and grew FB ads to our largest channel for user acquisition.
- Built an affiliate program and recruited 50+ early childhood education content creators

Senior Marketing Manager

Facebook and Instagram Advertising Manager (Freelance Partner)

MattMcGarry.co

Earn a 5-star rating and 99% job success rate on Upwork as a media buyer and copywriter. Worked with dozens of clients in SaaS, online courses, and e-commerce. Including Nicholas Kirchner, MDHearingAids, ClassTag, OnlineDegree.com, Photographytalk.com, Ecommece Studio, and Marketpilot.com

Digital Marketing Consultant and Copywriter

The Newsletter Guy | Our clients have 15.4M+ subscribers | I help grow your owned audience and convert subscribers into buyers | Founder @ GrowLetter 📧

I run a marketing agency for media companies. Clients include: The Hustle, 1440, The Milk Road, Chartr, Codie Sanchez, The Daily Upside, Sahil Bloom, James Clear, and more.

Blogger Jon Morrow went from making $800/month to making $1,000/hour overnight. Here’s his story — one of the most inspiring founding stories you’ll ever read:

Today, Jon is the founder of Smart Blogger, one of the world’s largest sites for writing and blogging. He’s created 7 different courses, with 7 figures in sales EACH.

But he used to be an unpaid editor. His transition from employee to founder was ridiculously hard.

That’s because he was born with spinal muscular atrophy — a rare genetic condition that prevents him from moving anything but his face.

Jon only qualified for Medicaid. The insurance covered all of his medical bills, which amounted to a whopping $300k+ a year.

But, to stay on Medicaid his income was limited to $800 a month.

He got 11 job offers post-graduation that he couldn’t accept. If he did, he’d lose all of the much-needed benefits.

“I couldn’t get paid to work, and at the same time, I couldn’t ramp up my income to be able to pay for it myself” he said.

So he thought of another currency outside of money: Favors. 

He started writing in exchange for shares and referrals.

His articles took off like wildfire. His clients would get anywhere from 50k to millions of visitors within 30 days.

Eventually, Brian Clark asked him to be the editor of Copyblogger.

Jon accepted — with one caveat: “One day, I’m going to ask you for a favor, and you can’t say no.”

He proceeded to work for free for almost 4 years.

Then, Jon moved to Mexico to lower his expenses. His mom had just been laid off. And his caregiver had just retired.

It was time to call in his favor.

“I’m starting an agency. And I’d like you to email the entire Copyblogger list and endorse me.”

Brian had never endorsed an agency. But he did for Jon.

The following day, as many as 300 of them made a deposit to work with Jon — one of whom was Neil Patel.

Within 3 months, Jon helped Neil take the Kissmetrics blog from zero to a 250K+ visitors a month. At the same time, he created a blogging course that made him $40k, which helped him break off and launch Smart Blogger.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

You can’t make it in business without making friends. You need to build genuine relationships with other people in your niche and leverage their audiences.

Jon is my favorite entrepreneur. He has overcome more than anyone I know.

We did a podcast together about his story and more (it’s linked below)

Also, kudos to Leon Hendrix who covered Jon’s story in more detail in a separate YouTube video. It helped me fill some of the gaps in this post.

Matt McGarry 

The Newsletter Guy | I help founders & marketers build owned audiences and drive revenue with newsletters | Agency, event, newsletter, & podcast below 👇

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My newsletter-first business earns $200,000+ a month. If I was starting over today, I would have one goal:

Create a category.

To quote Naval: “Be the best in the world what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”

This should inform how you pick a niche when starting your own newsletter. Aim to be in a category of one.

That doesn’t mean there are no other newsletters in the niche or category. It means there are no other newsletters that do exactly what you do.

Here are the rules of category design:

- Different is better than better.
- Being first is better than being better.
- If you can’t be first, set up a new one you can be first in.

Creating a category will help you stand out and essentially ‘own’ a word, phrase, or idea in the prospect’s mind.

And owning an idea in the prospect’s mind = the most powerful marketing there is.

Jay Clouse, Creator Science founder, award-winning podcaster, and Content Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 (and, not to forget, Newsletter Marketing Summit speaker), says so himself:

“Instead of trying to build an audience, build an association with a specific word or idea. When you do, that connection spreads. As it spreads, it gets stronger. That association is what builds the audience — and a very targeted one at that.”

In his tweet, Jay mentions:

- James Clear — habits
- Brené Brown — vulnerability
- David Perell — personal monopoly

And you can probably think of a few others yourself.

Personally, I’ve worked hard to own the word “newsletter.” And it’s paid off.

When people want to build a successful newsletter, they come to me. When my audience talks about newsletters, they mention me. When people search “newsletter” on the internet, it’s me who pops up.

So if I was starting over today, I’d think long and hard about the category and word I can own.

graphical user interface, text, application

I just passed 50,000 newsletter subscribers after 3 years. Here’s how I plan to double that number by the end of the year:

1) Meta ads

About 80% of my ad spend will be used to drive webinar registrations for ‘Write, Grow, Sell’, our flagship product that helps founders build profitable newsletters.

The other 20% will be used to drive sign ups to my newsletter and/or a lead magnet.

Then immediately after signing up and completing a survey, they’ll be invited to register for a webinar.

Those percentages could change depending on performance. We’ll see what happens.

2) YouTube

This will be the only organic source I focus on.

My plan:

- Publish 2-3 videos a week.
- Focus on insightful content.
- Work on the editing (remove the fluff).
- Always include a CTA (e.g., webinar sign up).
- Improve the packaging (ideas, titles, thumbnails).

Compared to my paid ads experience, I’m a YouTube beginner. My channel only has 5,000 subscribers and 100,000 views. But I see a path to growth if I publish consistently.

I’m excited about YouTube because:

- It’s more stable than social platforms like Twitter/X.

- It’s the only discovery platform (outside of search) where your content can be discovered for months or even years after publishing.

- As with email (or a community), you can build a deep connection with your audience.

- It’s a search engine that allows prospects to ‘research’ you. Meaning people may discover me from a Meta ad, then look me up on YouTube, then buy from me.

Still, my goal with YouTube is *not* to build a massive following. It’s to build a following I can convert into email subscribers and customers.

That’s the thing:

Audience goals should always come second to client goals. Acquiring clients and giving them an incredible experience continues to be a priority for our team.

It’s nice to have a subscriber/follower goal. It helps you move in the right direction.

But it should never be the primary business goal.

How I got to 10,000 newsletter subs in 2023 couldn’t be more different than how I got to 50,000 in 2025. Here are 3 things that changed:

1) Twitter is dead for email list growth

Between 2020 and 2023, Twitter (now X) was a reliable source of organic growth. Not anymore. Now, most people see a fraction of the reach they used to have. But I’m glad I was able to get ⁓10k subscribers before it fell off a cliff.

2) Everyone moved to LinkedIn — including me

I have about 12,000 LinkedIn followers. It’s been a good channel for acquiring agency clients. But it’s not as good as Twitter was for list growth, because the dynamics of the platform make it hard to get people to click a link.

My analytics say ⁓300 subscribers have come from LinkedIn. But I expect the number to be closer to 2000, because people discover me on LinkedIn, then go to my website or google me.

I’m bullish on LinkedIn. It’s the last text-focused social platform you can use to grow.

That said, I could do a better job with it: spend more time on it, promote lead magnets, test ‘comment to get’ posts... It’s simply not a priority for me at the moment.

3) More paid advertising

I rely on paid ads way more than I used to. That’s because organic list growth has slowed and I found reliable ways to turn advertising into profit.

Depending on how I run the numbers, 30-60% of my customers come from paid ads. Yes, on average, subscribers from paid ads are less engaged than organic sources. But it’s faster, more consistent growth.

Not to mention, I still convert them into customers by nurturing them and getting them to join a live webinar where I introduce our flagship product, ‘Write, Grow, Sell’.

If you have a product in the $1k-$20k range, doing some type of live training is a must. I’ve found that subscribers who join my list through webinar registrations not only buy more but have nearly double the email CTR.

—

My goal for this year? 100,000+ email subscribers.

And I plan to reach it by focusing entirely on two acquisition sources: Meta ads and YouTube.

I’ll dive into the how in a separate post — or you can check out my newsletter, Newsletter Operator, where I’ve already covered it.

My team said I should charge for this. But I’m giving away my 4,000-word doc on going from 0-1,000 email subscribers away, 100% free.

I’ve helped hundreds of newsletters add 10,000,000+ subscribers and $100,000,000 in sales.

Trust me, the right newsletter business can set you up for life—and let you work where you want, when you want, with who you want.

My own helps generate me $200,000 per month.

But to start, you need your first 1,000 subscribers. I give this exact guide to anyone trying to get there. 

It’s yours, 100% FREE.

Just follow the exact steps laid out, and you’ll be at 1,000 subscribers in no time.

Want it? Comment "GUIDE" and I'll DM you the link (must be connected).

UPDATE: DMs are full. Get the guide here: https://lnkd.in/eUHxQSqV

Announcement: We're hosting a new event!

Audience Camp is a 3-day lakeside retreat in Asheville, North Carolina, designed for 6 & 7-figure+ media founders, operators, and creators.

This isn't your typical event, and that's by design.

Instead, we'll have:

💡 Interactive workshops with audience growth, monetization, and engagement experts

🔥 Outdoor adventures and fireside chats (with an actual fire and s’mores)

 💭 A curated group of high-level thinkers (limited to 40 total attendees)

Our speakers and mentors include:

✅ Justin Moore, founder of Creator Wizard, world-renowned sponsorship coach, and author of Sponsor Magnet.

✅ Erika Burghardt, VP of Growth at 1440, marketing lead at the world’s fastest-growing newsletter (4.5M+ subscribers & 300k+ new subscribers per month)

✅ Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠, founder of Why We Buy, buyer psychology expert with 60k+ newsletter subscribers

✅ Daniel Bustamante 🥷🏻, COO at Premium Ghostwriting Academy + Ship 30 For 30 ($7M+ in annual revenue)

✅ Ricci Wolman, founder & CEO at Written Word Media (1.5M+ newsletter subscribers and 12,000+ advertisers)

✅ Jason Woodruff, founder & CEO at The Pour Over (1M+ newsletter subscribers)

 ✅ And more speakers and attendees will be shared soon!

I’ll be presenting too, sharing the strategies that have driven 10M+ newsletter subscribers and $100M+ in sales for clients.

I'm stoked to bring together some of my favorite people in a beautiful outdoor environment where we can share our "ninja level shit".

Learn more and apply to attend below (link in comments):

I’ve grown 100+ newsletters, driven 10M+ newsletter subscribers, and secured $100M+ in newsletter sales. Here’s my framework for picking a newsletter niche:

1. Your skills, experiences, and interests

What skills, experiences, and interests do you have? What are you good at? What are you passionate about?

2. Audience size, need, and trend

What’s the audience like? Is it high-need? Is it growing? Is it trending? (If the answer is yes, that’s a good thing.)

3. Advertising opportunities

Is the audience valuable to advertisers? How many advertisers are in this space? (The more, the better.) What rates are they paying? (The higher, the better.)

4. Information product opportunities

Does the audience have decision-making ability? Buying power? A budget? (Again, if the answer is yes, that’s good.)

Put these four things into a Venn diagram, and the intersection = your niche.

In terms of audience size, I recommend going either hyper-scale (a large total addressable market) or hyper-niche (a targeted, high-value audience) — because that’s what advertisers are looking for.

Going hyper-scale can be powerful if you know what you’re doing. But it’s also why most newsletters fail: they try to be everything to everyone and end up being nothing to no one.

Which is why I recommend going hyper-niche.

And here’s the way to go about it:

Pick a niche, then go two levels deeper.

Like this:

- Level 1: business
- Level 2: marketing
- Level 3: social media marketing

Or this:

- Level 1: fitness
- Level 2: bodybuilding
- Level 3: bodybuilding on a keto diet

Or this:

- Level 1: local news
- Level 2: things to do in [city]
- Level 3: best restaurants in [city]

The deeper you go, the easier it’ll be to get sponsors and sell a product or service to your audience.

You’ll also get a higher lifetime value (LTV), which means the average revenue you'll make from a newsletter subscriber over the lifetime of their subscription.

It’s much better to start narrow and expand as you grow than the other way around.

If you start broad and niche down, you’ll alienate the audience you already have. But if you expand as you grow, you’ll be able to grow your audience faster and monetize it to a higher degree.

Finally, what you have to realize is that most hyper-niches are actually a lot bigger than you think. Even if you appeal to just 0.1% of people globally, that’s still 8 million.

That being said, you DON’T need millions or even hundreds of thousands of newsletter subscribers to be successful.

You need the right niche — and the right content.

Our agency has driven $100M+ in sales with newsletters. Here are 11 newsletter questions I get all the time — answered:

(1) “Can anyone start a newsletter?”

Anyone can start it, not everyone can scale it. To do that, you need to know what you’re talking about, build a reputation, and be consistent.

(2) “How do I pick a newsletter niche?”

Think about the category (word, phrase, idea) you can own. To quote Naval Ravikant: “Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until that is true.”

(3) “How often should I be sending my newsletter?”

If you’re just starting out, weekly. No more, no less. Weekly is the minimum cadence readers need to build a habit of opening. Increase your cadence only after you get to 25k-100k subs and there's a clear financial ROI.

(4) “Which email service provider should I go with?”

I’ve tested dozens of ESPs. The only ones I would consider are beehiiv and Kit. For most people starting out, beehiiv is the best choice. It’s free to start, easy-to-use, and has all the tools you need for growth and monetization.

(5) “Can email be my only channel?”

No, because email has no discoverability. You need to publish content elsewhere. For starters, pick one social platform — YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram — and spend all of your content creation time (outside of email) on it. After you hit 25k-100k followers, you can start another.

(6) “How long should my newsletter be?”

Make it short and simple to complete each week. One or two primary sections max. I often see beginners with long and complicated newsletters that they struggle to write each week. It’s a recipe for disaster. Alex Hormozi’s newsletter is literally a 60-second read.

(7) “What about repurposing?”

Always repurpose your newsletter into 1 blog post (web version of your newsletter) and 3-5 posts on your discovery platform of choice. Do so, and you’ll publish 52 blog posts and 156-260 social posts every year.

(8) “Do I need a custom website?”

No. It’ll only slow you down and create technical debt. It may look better, sure, but it won’t help you grow.

(9) “What *do* I need?”

A simple logo (made in Canva), a primary brand color, and beehiiv (newsletter, website, blog, landing pages, surveys...). Plus good content, of course.

(10) “What data should I collect after I capture an email?”

Here are a few ideas: interests, job title, company name, job level, location, industry, phone number. Don’t go crazy asking 10+ questions; 4-6 are all you need.

(11) “How do I stand out and hedge against AI?”

Deliver what no one else can. Do what no one else can do. Be different. Add personality to your content. Have a POV. Share stories. Host events. Do the hard things others won’t. If your content and products solve a problem, you’ll win.

This might sound strange coming from ‘the newsletter guy’ but, you need to spend more time on social content than you do on newsletter content. 

Here’s what I mean:

Your newsletter should be short and simple to complete each week. One or two primary sections are all you need. 

I often see beginners with long and complicated newsletters that they struggle to write each week. It’s a recipe for disaster.

If you don't have a large email audience yet, you need to spend more time creating content for the people you want to get onto your email list than for the people already on it.

And that means creating for your discovery platform of choice — LinkedIn (text-first), Instagram (image-first), or YouTube (video-first).

How often are we talking?

- LinkedIn: 3-5 posts per week
- Instagram: 3-5 posts per week
- YouTube: 1-3 videos per week

Don’t do every social platform at once. Pick one and master it. 

The fact that the content should be high-quality goes without saying. But you also need to be consistent and post for months or even years for your newsletter to see serious growth.

Take Alex Hormozi. His newsletter is literally a 60-second read. But then he publishes hundreds of social posts that would take hours to consume.

Then there’s repurposing.

A single newsletter can easily be repurposed into 3-5 LinkedIn or Twitter/X posts — which is what our team does every week.

And if you do *just* that?

You’ll publish 156-260 posts a year.

Update: We're hosting a retreat for media founders, newsletter publishers, and content entrepreneurs this fall. 

The full event agenda is now live! (Website link in comments).

We've got an amazing group of speakers and attendees: 

Justin Moore
Erika Burghardt
Daniel Bustamante 🥷🏻
Chenell Basilio
Ricci Wolman
Ferol Vernon 📕
Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠
And more!

It's limited to 40 people and there are 24 spots left. 

Check out the site below if you want to join us in Asheville, NC at a beautiful lakeside venue:

Prediction: Every serious email player is going to be using multiple ESPs in the next 12 months.

- beehiiv + substack
- kit + substack
- beehiiv + high level
- beehiiv + kajabi 
- Etc, etc

Deliverability and inbox placement is getting harder. But still worth pursuing.

Every one with a professional or B2B audience will also be targeting "registrations" not just email subscribers.

Registrations mean after a user submits their email you collect 1st party data:

Name 
Phone number
Company 
Job title 
Survey responses

Yes, this might be an obvious prediction. Many of our clients are already doing it. 

But most still are not aware.

Number one email takeaway for 2025:

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Have a Substack list, a Beehiiv list, a Converkit list, etc.

Don’t bank your entire email game on one ESP, one domain, and one set of IPs.

We’ve scaled our agency to 40+ clients in under 3 years. And it’s all thanks to this one thing (that a lot of rookie entrepreneurs skip):

Credibility.

Before you ever touch Sales Nav or beehiiv, accomplish something others aspire to accomplish themselves.

Get real-world experience. Find a job. Work for free. Experiment. Whatever helps you build expertise. Then create content about it.

I worked really hard to build up my credibility before founding GrowLetter (The Hustle, HubSpot, and more). I used that credibility to land my first clients, then used the credibility of those first clients to land the following clients.

It’s simple: people want to learn from people who’ve done the thing they’re talking about.

You don’t need world-class accomplishments. Building rockets like Elon Musk or testing crazy sh*t to live forever like Brian Johnson isn’t required.

But you need to have done something others aspire to do.

How do you win back leads who haven’t responded to your marketing emails in months? You send them the 9-word email.

“Hey, are you still interested in [whatever it is you sell]?”

So, if I was a real estate agent, the email would read: “Hey, are you still interested in buying houses in San Francisco?

Or in my case, it would say something like: “Hey, are you still interested in learning how to grow your newsletter?”

And then a simple sign-off like:

“Best, Matt”

No button, no call to action...just a nine-word question.

And what’ll happen is you’ll get a surprising number of responses like, “Yes, I am,” or “No, actually, but maybe in a couple of months.”

Then you manually follow up with those people — or hire a VA to do it for you – to get to a sales conversation.

In a way, the 9-word email is similar to the concept of conversational selling.

If you look at someone like Dan Martell on Instagram or Twitter/X, his team will DM you and start selling in the DMs.

Personally, I don’t like being sold to that way. But it works really well for a lot of people, so it’s worth trying out.

That said, don’t go sending “How’s it going?” messages. There’s no point in trying to be their friend; either show them some value or sell them something directly.

The way we do it with our team is we reply to emails in a follow-up sequence by sending resources like, “Hey, here are some YouTube videos I think you’d like,” or “Hey, here’s our podcast.”

And since they’re being recommended in my email, they’re way more likely to actually watch/listen.

That’s how you nurture them and, hopefully, get them to work with you later.

P.S. Full credit to Dean Jackson for coining the phrase ‘the 9-word email’. Make sure to look him up if you’re interested in learning more.

People won’t subscribe to your newsletter unless it helps them solve a problem. And the easiest way to do that is to use the ‘Job to Be Done’ framework:

Each successful newsletter ‘does a job’ for its readers.

- ‘Going’ helps readers save money on flights.
- ‘Daily Dad’ helps readers become better dads.
- ‘1440’ helps readers stay informed without bias.
- James Clear’s ‘3-2-1’ helps readers build better habits.

Each of these solves a painful (!) problem. And each has millions of subscribers.

Other painful problems include losing one’s job, failing in business, losing money in the market, losing sleep after having a baby... All of these are topics you could build a newsletter around.

Now, how do you find your ‘job to be done’?

By answering two questions:

1) Who is your market of one?

Think of one person within your niche. What would they find extremely interesting or useful?

2) What is the concrete job you’re doing for them?

How exactly will you help them solve their problem and reach their goals through your newsletter content?

If you can answer these two questions, you’re golden.

All that’s left is to create the right content.

It all boils down to this: your newsletter’s value proposition needs to be so good that people within your niche would be stupid not to subscribe to it.

Flash sales are a stupid simple way to get money in the door. Here’s how Jon Morrow, founder of Smart Blogger and creator of 7-figure courses, runs them:

- Pair a low-priced product with an upsell. Take a product that normally costs ⁓$100 and drop the price to $29-$49, then use a 1-click upsell after to sell a product for $299-$1,000.

- Send 3 broadcast emails about the initial product, mentioning the percentage off discount (which will be huge) but not the price. That’ll create curiosity and increase CTR.

- Create a follow-up campaign of ⁓12 emails for everyone who clicked through the broadcast emails and landed on your sales page.

- Put a 48- to 72-hour deadline on the special offer. Some people will say a dozen emails in 3 days is burning out your audience — but you’re not emailing the whole list, just the segment that showed interest. Jon says he’s consistently gotten half of the sales on the last day this way.

It really is that simple.

I talk to a lot of people who are afraid to send to their list more often because of unsubscribes or negative feedback.

But Jon doesn’t mind.

He mentions having a schedule to promote a different product each week, amounting to 12 weeks of promotions, each with its own funnel. If people don’t click the link in the broadcast email, they don’t go down the rest of the funnel.

This is just one of many tips Jon shared on the episode.

The rest is well worth checking out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

You can “growth hack” email subscribers. But you can’t “growth hack” profit. Especially not with bad content.

Right now, there are many newsletters that growth-hacked their way to 500k-1M+ subscribers with bad content.

They might *look* successful. But they’re not.

That’s because:

- Audience size ≠ revenue or profit
- Audience size ≠ engagement
- Audience size ≠ trust

These newsletters have to reinvest all of their revenue into paid acquisition to fill a leaky bucket of subscriber churn.

I’ve seen the numbers.

Newsletters with big audiences AND bad content don’t produce profit.

They struggle to retain advertisers because their audience isn’t engaged and the advertisers don’t get results. And they struggle to sell products because their audience doesn’t trust them and their free content isn’t valuable.

These newsletters will shut down or sell for pennies.

My point is, it’s easy to think people are making money with newsletters “hand over fist” because they’re growing their email lists so fast.

But the reality is, only exceptional founders are producing sustainable profits. The bad ones will be filtered out because:

- Nearly every newsletter is bootstrapped.
- Nearly every advertiser is direct response focused.
- Consumers won’t buy from a newsletter that doesn’t provide value.

So stop obsessing over the size of your audience and start obsessing over the value of your content.

You don’t need a custom website and professional design to scale your business to 6-7 figures/year. Here’s what you DO need:

- A primary brand color.
- An easy-to-use website.
- A legible newsletter template.
- A simple Canva logo (or even just your photo).

This should take you a few hours tops.

WordPress websites and professional brand assets will waste your time, eat up budget, and create technical debt. They may look pretty, but that’s about it. 

Just do everything on beehiiv: newsletter, website, blog, landing pages, surveys, etc.

What you need to focus on instead is:

(a) more content,
(b) better content, and
(c) genuine relationships.

I’ve talked about the first two before, so I’ll focus on the third one here.

You need to make friends with other founders and creators in your niche.

Just like entrepreneurs and investors use other people’s money (OPM) to grow their wealth, you need to learn how to use other people’s audiences (OPA) to grow yours.

This is “earned” media.

And the best way to build it is to be kind and helpful — which brings us back to good content.

Your friends and readers frankly don’t care what your site looks like if you’re good to them and your content is good. Any investment beyond the basics is just a waste for that reason.

Coaching, newsletter sponsorships, and affiliate marketing are all great ways to make your first dollar online. But they shouldn’t be your endgame.

Take coaching — which usually means selling 30-60-minute blocks of your time via Calendly and PayPal/Stripe.

If you’re just starting out, it’s one of the best ways to get the ball rolling, cover your expenses, and build momentum.

But you shouldn’t stop there.

Instead, you should treat coaching (and the rest of your services) as a means to an end.

The more you coach, the more familiar you’ll become with people’s problems. And the more familiar you become with people’s problems, the easier it’ll be to identify a product you can sell to them down the line.

Talking to people who pay you and seeing what they pay you to fix is a better signal of what product you should create than any survey, poll, or interview.

Another helpful signal is looking at what sponsorships and affiliate promos perform best.

The overarching idea is to analyze consulting calls, sponsor results, and email replies to identify a problem — then create a product that solves it.

It may take 6-12 months to figure this out.

But once you do, launch FAST.

And ALWAYS sell before you build.

You don’t own your LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube audience. That’s why you need to convert it into an email audience as quickly as possible. Here’s how:

(A) Send a DM to every new follower

This is a simple way to convert 20-50% of your followers into subscribers. Yeah, it takes time. But you can hire a VA to do it for $5/hour.

(B) Tease your newsletter with pre- and post-newsletter calls to action

This is the #1 growth tactic you’re probably not using. A pre-newsletter CTA is where you tell people about your newsletter before sending it. A post-newsletter CTA is where you tell them about it after. Post 1 per week.

(C) Include a CTA in your posts

Even if it’s subtle, mention your newsletter and its value proposition. Could also be a lead magnet.

(D) Create and promote a new lead magnet every month or quarter

Incentives are powerful. Give people something for free if they sign up. This could be a template, checklist, cheat sheet, guide, etc. Plus, if you run them as a DM giveaway, you benefit from increased reach on the giveaways themselves.

(E) Optimize your social profile for email subscribers

Your newsletter’s core value proposition (and/or a lead magnet) should be clearly displayed in your social profile. To maximize conversions, don’t use a link in bio tool like Linktree; send people to your landing page instead.

This is how you make the most of every follower and view, grow your email list, and start owning your audience.

Good luck!

💰 Million-dollar email marketing tactics & strategies for LinkedIn/X creators | Email wizard at Premium Ghostwriting Academy ($5M/year revenue)

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Cool update 👀

I am speaking at Matt McGarry’s next event:

Audience Camp.

It’s going to be a curated, small-group retreat for founders & creators looking to grow & monetize their email list faster.

And I am super pumped to meet some smart people & share some of my email marketing/funnel wisdom with everyone.

Now, 2 fun facts:

1/ I got invited to speak at the event because Matt has been reading & enjoying my content.

2/ The topic of my presentation was inspired by one of my best performing LinkedIn posts.

Go figure…

Amazing things can happen when you start sharing your expertise online!

Anyway, if you’d like to learn more about the event, look for the link in the comments.

It’d be awesome to have you :)

Taplio

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Taplio

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's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Matt McGarry 's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)