Spark-loopholes, Predictions & When a Kid beat AI

“I can’t end my messages with Love, Shaq - because the B-52s ruined that for me.” — Shaquille O’Neal. Enjoy your read Operators, Love Brooks!

1. 🥵 36 hours to write this newsletter

2. 👻 Ghost users are scary good

3. 🔥 The SparkLoop Hole

4. 🐝 beehiiv predictions

5. 🤑 Premium membership fail.

6. 🚀 The kid who beat AI

⓵ From 36 hours to 1 hour

Once I triumphantly hit "send" on issue #1, it felt like a sizzling grill at a backyard barbecue— the heat was on!

I'd just cracked double digits in subscribers (woohoo, fame! 😂 ), and my adoring fans were hungry for more. So, I rolled up my sleeves and dove headfirst into issue #2.

Little did I know, it would be an epic journey—36 hours of writing, editing, and wrestling with my new editor's formatting quirks. I snipped, slashed, and tabled more content than a discount buffet. Exhausting? Absolutely. But oh-so satisfying.

I mean, let's be honest, we've all been there. Pouring our hearts into a project, whether it's for a dozen people or a twelve-hundred. And as someone with a few perpetually "in-progress" books, hitting "send" was a sweet, sweet victory.

But issue #3, my friends, was a whole new ballgame. Thanks to Paul and his magical Letter Growth, my subscriber count soared faster than a rocket-fueled pogo stick 🚀. With newfound motivation (and an equally ruthless editing process), I managed to hit "publish" in just 12 hours.

The feedback? Sensational. But let's face it, 12 hours is still a luxury we can't always afford. So, today, I'm attempting the impossible: crafting this entire masterpiece in a single hour. I began my quest at 3:03 PM on Sunday. I'll report back with the results.

⓶ Ghost users are scary good.

I'm always eager to sing the praises of beehiiv, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to the brilliance of its competitors. ConvertKit, obviously. Is it possible that Nathan is the nicest guy in marketing? More on Nathan and CK in the future.

Ghost, a lesser-known but formidable rival, also deserves a mention. You might remember me saying that I started my newsletter journey with Ghost. It outshines beehiiv in a couple of key areas:

1. Design: The aesthetics of Ghost's websites and emails are just better. As someone who swoons over beautiful design, it's easy to admit that they've got the edge in this department. Check out Jodi Cook’s Newsletter.

2. Gated Content: While the concept of gated content isn't groundbreaking, Ghost's users seem to have a knack for it. They frequently use this feature to separate public/subscriber and free/paid content.

   There seems to be a higher frequency of Ghost creators leveraging these tools to build their businesses, and they're nailing it. This is totally anecdotal, but it makes me think that gating is way of demonstrating value.

   This image below is also from Jodie Cook’s newsletter. Just 4 paragraphs down from the title, you’re walled and reminded that there is a club for cool kids and you’re not in it.

Now that I’ve officially published more newsletters than the average new operator (3 - then they quit), I’m considering gating most of my content. Make it exclusive. If I’m doing all this work, I should act like it’s valuable, right?.

On the other hand, if I were trying to dominate with SEO, I might keep it open. What are your thoughts?

Here are two pretty cool ghost sites haunting the webs. One crushes design, the other crushes the gating-game.

⓷ Using SparkLoop As Your Only Recommendation Tool (Free or Paid)

I had a pretty enlightening chat with Sparkloop last week about the requirements for shelling out cash for subscribers. In a nutshell, joining the partner network ($2K minimum monthly budget) is worth considering once you're familiar with your customer's LTV. Makes sense, but I’m not there yet, like many of us.

But with curiosity piqued, I delved deeper into the program to learn how people use it and any plans in the works. I asked:

"Can one Upscribe user (outside the partner network) recommend another Upscribe user (also not in the partner network) for free?"

Why this question? beehiiv, ConvertKit and Substack all have free recommendation tools, so why not just use those for cross-promotion?

You can, but Sparkloop + one of those…it’s a lot. You also can’t promote off-platform newsletters for free on native tools.

In a stroke of writers luck, I got this message from Ricky of Ponderer this morning.

If my master plan were possible, I could have a multi-purpose recommendation pop-up Picasso:

1. Paid recommendations for revenue generation

2. Free recommendations to cross-promote buddies of mine on other platforms

3. Cut down on clutter and friction from an overloaded funnel

I laid out my idea, fingers crossed for Sparkloop to say, "Absolutely! Just add friends from any platform as long as they're Upscribe users."

The response? "No. Unfortunately, you can’t."

That was last Wednesday.

But last night, while updating my widget, I decided to put the theory to the test. Could I add Ponderer, an Upscribe user not in the partner network? Voilà!

Mission accomplished! Not sure what changed between Wednesday and today, but it's a go. I verified with Ricky this morning that he has begun receiving referrals directly from me via SL.

The catch? Your cross-promotion partners must be approved Upscribe users. If that's not you yet, sign up here. And hey, if you'd like to add "Newsletter Buzz" to your list, I'd be eternally grateful.

⓸ Brooks’ beehiiv Predictions

This week, Tyler dropped some tantalizing hints about two upcoming features that will make starting and scaling beehiiv newsletters a breeze. Curious? Here's the tweet! Since he mentioned two features, I've limited my predictions to just that.

Prediction #1: Focusing on the "start" aspect, I suspect operators will soon be able to share (or even sell) their templates with others, a la Clickfunnels. Considering beehiiv's recent partner program push, this seems like a no-brainer. - Try beehiiv here 😉 

When built-in templates aren't available yet, a ready-to-go template share is the ultimate lead magnet for an affiliate offer, don't you think?

While I believe built-in templates/themes like Ghost are on the horizon, they might not be arriving next week.

Prediction #2: I’m guessing we see a variety of native integrations beyond Mailchimp. Namely Zapier and others. This tackles the "scale" component. By automating much of the growth process, we'll all reap the benefits. If this prediction comes true or not, I’ll be writing more in coming issues about how the experts are automating their newsletters.

⓹ Premium Membership Fail

Last week, I took the plunge and launched my premium membership—a true MVP, if you will. It was chock-full of community features that I believed would make a solid starting point. The plan? Adapt and overcome if things didn't pan out.

But in short order, I realized this type of membership meant a lot more work on my plate, and with 12 hours of writing just completed, my enthusiasm was waning. Then, just an hour after publishing, I stumbled upon this:

Now, a ‘coffee’ club makes a whole lot more sense. At $5, it's basically a tip for normally providing value. That's the MVP I should've been aiming for!

I love tipping model as a starter and I’ll probably use this in my 2nd newsletter. This approach is what many of my seafaring pals use to reel in viewers beyond the paywall. Take Delos as an example. If you’re ready to sail away, you should check out their channel.

While I just wanted to test the membership process, I did jump too soon. I was charging too little for the value OR promising too much value for the price.

Many thanks to all who sign-up, but I’m putting the membership is on hold for a rebuild. 🧰

⓺ The Kid Who Beat AI!

I recently had a fantastic video call with Mac from The SaaS Bootstrapper . While admiring his funnel, I spotted a shiny new logo and blurted out, "I love this freakin' logo!" Mac chuckled and reached for something, then shared, "My kid whipped it up in 10 minutes! I was attempting to use AI for a new logo when my little one chimed in, 'I can do it!'" I mean, can you handle the cuteness overload?