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Buying A Newsletter, Dueling Operators & The Breaks
How to leverage tools and relationships to grow from nothing.
Brooks Watson
April 02, 2023
“Life’s too short to not have a little umbrella in your drink🍹." - Anonymous. Enjoy your read!
💪 How 8AM 2x’d Subs In A Day
⚔️ Watch Two Dueling Operators
🤐 Tip: Upscribe “Hidden” Mode
🌈 Trend: Custom Breaks
🔐 Premium Membership
👋 Shout-outs & Collabs
🐝 Buzzer: beehiiv themes?
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⓵ 8AM Buys A Newsletter
This week, I interviewed Christian Collard, owner of 8AM, about his recent acquisition of Founder and the current $500 Cross-Promotional Giveaway. Christian shared some valuable insights we all can use. For the sake of length, I’ve included a link to the full interview. I really encourage you to click thru and read the whole interview.
Brooks: How did the idea of a merger come up?
Christian: When I first launched 8AM, I had shared publicly on Twitter that I was looking to acquire a small newsletter with a similar audience to give a boost to my overall subscribers. Paul Metcalf, who created Founder, reached out about the possibility of selling his newsletter to focus on his other project, Lettergrowth.
Founder and 8AM have a very similar style and audience, so the fit was perfect for a merger. Running a daily newsletter is a lot of work, so this would free Paul up to focus on his other business. For 8AM, the merger would allow me to leverage other growth tactics.
Brooks: Would you recommend mergers and acquisitions for startups?
Christian: I would definitely recommend mergers and acquisitions for startups if you have the budget and can find the right fit. Oftentimes a merger or acquisition is actually more affordable than acquiring subscribers via ads.
I was seeing a cost of $3-4 per subscriber on Facebook and $2 per on Sparkloop. I acquired FOUNDER for less than $2 per subscriber and received the brand, domain, and content as a bonus.
Brooks: How has the acquisition helped you achieve your business goals?
Christian: Going from 0-1000 is the hardest part of any subscription-based business. In order to collaborate with other newsletters or offer referral options, you first need a base of subscribers to leverage.
No one wants to collaborate with a newsletter with only a few subscribers. Once you hit that 1000 mark you can begin to cross-promote with other newsletters of the same size.
In the beginning, newsletter growth is exponential, meaning the more subscribers you have – the greater the reach will multiply. As your audience grows, so does your ability to collaborate with others.
Brooks: How did the merger impact your recent giveaway collaboration with operators?
Christian: The merger with FOUNDER essentially doubled my subscribers and allowed me to leverage my subscriber count to start talking to larger newsletters to collaborate with.
Giveaways can be a great growth tactic when done correctly. However, they can also sink your newsletter with untargeted viewers and increased unsubscribes or spam complaints.
I wanted our current giveaway to include newsletters and creators that were recognizable. The same way that a giveaway with a brand name like Nike provides more trust than a shoemaker you have never heard of.
Having a larger customer base allowed me to connect with some hot current creators such as Growth in Reverse and Tim Stodz. The synergy was great for our group of newsletters. We all cater to creators and entrepreneurs and we made it very clear that all entries would receive our newsletters.
Brooks: What advice would you give to others looking to make similar moves?
Christian: Community and communication are important when you are collaborating with others. I was able to find the perfect merger and collaboration within my own community. Communication and transparency are also very important.
Paul and I have a great relationship and we were very clear on our objectives to merge our two brands. We were also transparent in telling our readers about the merger and what to expect going forward.
Brooks: What are the pitfalls or challenges to consider in the newsletter space?
Christian: I have been fortunate enough to have experienced several mergers, acquisitions, and countless collaborations in my career. Prior to launching 8AM I founded and sold three e-commerce businesses and two newsletters.
All of my brands included mergers or collaborations at some point. Using other people's audience is the fastest way to scale your brand. The most important aspect of M&A in small businesses is the audience. Most people get caught up in the price or profit, but if the audience is not right, it's never worth the time and money. Make sure to review "active and engaged" subscribers (open rates, location, click rates).
When it comes to collaborations, make sure both have the same audience. You could collaborate with Mr. Beast, but if your newsletter is targeting retired veterans, it will never work.
⓶ Dueling Operator Strategies
At a recent Sparkloop event, an exhilarating duel unfolded between newsletter titans Josh "The Brevity King" Spector and Jason "The News Guru" Woodruff.
Okay, it wasn’t adversarial at all, but what a juxtaposition of philosophies. Each with their impressive successes, their contrasting philosophies reveal the secret sauce.
Philosophy #1: The email directs them to the value!
Josh Spector, the ruler of succinctness, has built a newsletter empire with For The Interested, a blend of daily micro blasts and one longer weekend email. His minimalist emails act like a treasure map, directing traffic to a trove of evergreen content.
With a seven-year archive, Josh has seemingly trained his readers to click like eager pirates hunting for gold, resulting in a boost for sponsored ads too. His click-through rate on daily emails outshines all his weekly links combined. Josh encourages aspiring writers to slash the fluff and make their content valuable and actionable.
Philosophy #2: The email IS the destination.
Meanwhile, Jason Woodruff offers subscribers exclusive access to daily news through The Pour Over. With ZERO daily content on his site, Jason's newsletter takes center stage. He focuses on brewing timely, fresh, & complete insights. While Jason's newsletter is lengthier compared to Josh's, he too trims the excess. What results is a completely digestible experience within the email itself.
These two styles could not be more different — Yet, they both succeed. Is that success about brevity? Hardly.
The secret sauce oozing out of these two is a tasty combo of grit & determination.
Josh and Jason share a love for snappy writing, sure, but what bridges the gap between their contrasting philosophies is long-term drive and passion for their individual visions. They didn’t start with winning strategies. They arrived after long journies.
See for yourself - Watch it here. — (I cut this piece by 147% 😅).
⓷ Sparkloop Hidden Feature 😮🤩
Is your funnel rockin' a snazzy Sparkloop Upscribe widget?
Well, mine is, and I had a jaw-dropping "holy guacamole, that's incredible" moment. 🤯 — Hopefully some of you have the same reaction…otherwise this is embarrassing. 🙈
Dilemma: I was under the impression that if my new subscribers don't waltz through a beehiiv subscriber form (or whatever ESP you use), but instead are imported, added through integration, or were subbed before I added the widget, I'd be missing out on some serious referral dough. 💸
Well, guess what? I was wrong. Turns out that every subscriber, no matter how they hop onto your list, is still ripe for revenue. Cha-ching! 💰 It just needs a little extra elbow grease.
When they click any email link or manually go back to your site, the widget will fire! That's right, remember when you installed it? They said, "we recommend all pages." 🌐 — So now, if you’re planning some paid ads, collabs, etc, that don’t go through your site’s front door, you can still monetize them with Sparkloop.
For those of you not using SparkLoop Upscribe, why the heck not? 🤷 If you don't know, the revenue generated there is offsetting lead generation in many cases… in others, it's net positive. Subscribers for free? Heck yes. 🚀
On the flip side, if you’re curious about advertising on Sparkloop, you need a $2K budget to start. Too rich for your blood right now? Let’s Collab for Free 😀
⓸ CUSTOM LINE BREAKS
Building on last week's minimalist fiesta, we've got a collection of custom line breaks that'll add a pinch of pizzazz and a chuckle to your scrolling adventures!
3 minutes of fun. That’s all I can spend on this…🤣
If you're like most folks, you're staring at that 🤔 ponderer GIF, wondering, "How on earth is he pulling that off?" Well, there might be an answer coming very soon — Make sure you’re subbed 👉 Ponderer
Lastly, a concept of my own. Line breaks with mile markers encourage the reader to keep going. 📣
⓹ HIIV MIND MEMBERSHIP
👋 Attention all new and growing beehiiv operators!
I'm excited to announce the launch of Hiiv Mind - It’s a place where we put our collective minds together - to grow together.
Here are three primary benefits:
🐝 Avoid Pitfalls: Connect with a tight-knit group of fellow beehiiv operators who can provide support, advice, and critical feedback.
🐝 Stop Wasting Time: Access exclusive time-saving beehive how-tos to maximize productivity with minimal effort.
🐝 Boost Engagement: Engage with a community that'll swarm your content and posts with feedback, likes, and shares to help you gain exposure
First Month Free: Join Hiiv Mind today and take your beehive operation to the next level! 🌍🐝
⓺ SHOUTS, COLLABS, RECS:
On that note, I’ve been able to connect with a group of incredibly generous and talented creators and operators. Here are a few more you should check out:
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⓻ THE BUZZER 🐝
For everyone eagerly craving a touch of creative freedom in beehiiv page design, get ready to hold your breath! 🌬️
In this thread, I was raving about how beehiiv outshines others, even without the fancy design extras, when the Bee-Father himself buzzed in and shared some juicy intel. 🐝🕵️♂️ Get excited, folks!
“We’re also investing heavily into additional web layouts + flexibility..so we’ll get there too”. — Tyler Denk
So there you have it. Design flexibility is coming. What does that mean? Kinda means there are no more excuses.
🛑 And that does it. Another week in the books. 📚 — You rock!!
How can I help? Reply here or find me on Twitter: @brookswatson
How can we partner? Let’s connect. Are you on LetterGrowth.com?
What do you want to read about? Comment on this post. It helps a lot.
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