As a creator, you are never going to feel “ready” to build something. The hardest part is getting started and accepting that creation is an iterative process, and the mistakes you make along the way will lead to stronger content over time.

In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa talk with Dylan Redekop, Growth Currency Newsletter Strategist and Product Marketer at SparkLoop, about his journey building his newsletter from scratch. What started as a multitopic newsletter niched down into a newsletter that helps creators and solopreneurs start, grow, and monetize their own newsletters. Dylan delves into the best ways to keep lists clean and audiences engaged, even if your newsletter is still in its nascent stage. There’s no need to wait until your audience reaches a certain threshold to seek monetization opportunities.

Together, they discuss Dylan’s process in choosing his niche, tips for growing and monetizing newsletter content, and the power of referral networks in gaining high-quality subscribers.

Key Takeaways

[06:40] - An introduction to Dylan.
[09:26] - How Dylan chose his newsletter niche.
[12:15] - Dylan’s advice to anyone niching down.
[15:36] - How to grow and monetize your newsletter.
[25:04] - How referral networks expand your list.
[32:25] - How to keep your list clean while using partner programs.
[36:43] - Where to find Dylan and his newsletter (@growthcurrency)

Quotes

[12:35] - “The subscribes and the unsubscribes, it's all vanity metrics. What matters is that the people that are reading your newsletter and are subscribed to it are interested in it, and you don't just want people to hang on because the numbers look good.” ~ @growthcurrency

[20:13] - “You only need to have one person on your email list to sell them something, right? People get caught up in, ‘I need to have a certain amount of subscribers to make a sponsorship deal or to sell my ebook or my course or my service.’ But I don’t think you have to wait. Why wait until you have a certain threshold to start trying?” ~ @growthcurrency

[26:00] - “The reason why I love [partner programs] is because it's cost-controlled and it's quality-controlled. When you create a Facebook ad or an Instagram, as soon as somebody clicks, you're paying, regardless of if they unsubscribe or never open an email. You don't have that quality control filter.” ~ @growthcurrency

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