Now My New Newsletter Suddenly Becomes an Unexpected Growth Engine
Now My New Newsletter Suddenly Becomes an Unexpected Growth Engine
A loop of passive income including Gumroad, ConvertKit, Medium, and Substack.
I’m excited. I can’t express how much I’m excited. I just launched my tiny new mini newsletter. Atomic style.
I remember the day when I decided to start like it was yesterday. I was excited and inspired, ready to dive into a new adventure. It was when Christina Piccolli shared my articles in her atomic newsletter and the next day I saw a bump in reads and views. I wrote about it here.
But people don’t read mails the day they receive them. Not all people. So few days later I checked the stats of this article again on Medium. And look what I found:
The effect continued for about 3 days. The recap:
36 views — average 12/day vs. just 2–3 on a normal day
27 reads (75% read ratio) — average 9/day vs. just 1–2 on a normal day
$6,39 earnings — average $2,13/day vs. just a few cents on a normal day
It’s a nice bump.
Now imagine if you send your stories regularly to an engaged subscriber list. How do you feel?
Don’t answer, I know how you feel.
So today I said “Fuck it! I’m doing it!
But then I hit the ground…
I had to set up ConvertKit for this and this was not an easy task. I’m a tech person, and I hate to say it but this did get a bit too technical for me. Now I’m stuck with publishing my creator profile page, and wait for the technical support to reach out with a solution. It’s that complex…
But I was too excited. So I hit the “Launch” button and sent my first issue.
What happened?
Nothing!
Just another reminder:
I don’t have to wait for things to become perfect.
Sometimes you just have to do the thing and improve later.
Now, I already have Substack. Why I started this in the first place?
It all began with a simple realization: I’ve stopped reading stories of writers outside of my publication daily.
You might think I had no time for that. Yes, I said that to myself. But it’s bullshit! That’s just an excuse!
The real reason: I just got confused. I wasn’t sure how to use Medium as a writer who also reads. Not anymore. So many writers were revoked from the Partner Program. I’ve put too much into my Medium presence, I also have three publications I want to grow and I simply don’t want to quit.
As expected, my followers’ growth slowed down, and my views and reads flattened. I had to find a way.
Seeing the nice bump this story has gave me an a-ha moment: I will read high-quality stories, I will share the best of them with my list and I will add one of mine daily.
This way I have two wins:
I will start reading again
I will help boost my views and reads to recover a bit of the negative changes on Medium lately.
It’s a nice win!
But that’s not all.
Like always, I have a master strategy in mind 🤓
Here it is…
My Master Strategy
This newsletter will be entirely free. I will only run a paid newsletter on Substack. Here’s how these two will work together along with Medium:
Grow my newsletter: I will use my freebies on Gumroad. I will continue to create more. I knew I needed a solid subscriber base to make this work. So, I decided to invest in paid ads. On Facebook I can upload the emails of my current subscribers and craete a new audience with people with similar behavior. On Google, I can target people visiting websites like Medium and Substack. This way I hope to get closer to my target audience. These types of ads are ok for free newsletters, but not for something like Substack. I want to use their potential. Whatever I earn, I’ll invest back into my growth.
Build relationships: Content is king, right? I will curate high-quality content from my daily reads on Medium and add some of my stories too. I will use my friend link to enable non-members to read. I will run the emails through ConvertKit as a separate newsletter from my Substack, this way I can create automations.
Monetize: With the above, I will feed more traffic to my Medium account. This way I’ll compensate partially for the recent decline. Occasionally I will add teaser links to my paid stories on Substack. I can also add links to affiliate products and offers I find valuable. In the future, when I create some more paid products, I will automate x-sell offers with ConvertKit.
Why It’s Worth It
I’ll Now Have the Best of Both Worlds
Running this newsletter is a must for writers. I’ve said this many times and I’ll continue to repeat myself.
An atomic newsletter fits in with Substack like a mix of short form and long form on Medium. They’re like best friends. My analysis shown I need to have a good mix of both to maximize my earnings.
2. A Return to Quality Reading
It will force me to get back into the habit of reading quality stories daily. No more excuses. It’s become a ritual I look forward to, and it’s incredibly fulfilling. And if Medium decided to fall apart, so be it. I love reading, so I’ll read. That’s it!
3. Growing My Medium Account
I’ll rely less on Medium’s algo and more on me. With the growth of my newsletter (which I’ll accelerate with ads) I will also grow my readership.
4. Helping Other Writers on Medium
Last but not least. One of the unexpected joys has been helping other writers by sharing their stories. I make it a point to use my friends’ links, giving their work a boost and supporting their growth. It is another perk for the writers in my publications as well! Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’ll share relevant stories from my pubs as well.
Bottom line
I’m bringing it to the next level. I’m turning my new atomic newsletter into an unexpected growth engine. I’m creating a loop of passive income including Gumroad, ConvertKit, Medium, and Substack, together all in.
Oh, of course, I’ll put it on steroids with the help of AI.
I got so excited, that I even created an animated logo, here it is 👇 But…if you click on it, it will take you to the old design as I still wait for the support…
P.S. Let me know if you’re curious to know how I created this logo with Midjourney and Canva 😁
See you soon!
Yana