This week, Jared interviews local newsletter expert Ryan Sneddon, who shares a ton of great information.
He shares the strategy he used to get his newsletter, Naptown Scoop, off the ground and he offers a ton of valuable tips for anyone thinking about starting a business like this.
He talks about everything from validating his idea and growing his subscribers to connecting with advertisers.
Ryan’s goal at the moment is to reach $400k in revenue (he’s already surpassed $300k) and to extend his local newsletter concept to other cities across the US.
Ryan begins by talking about his life prior to creating his local newsletter and how he got started in the newsletter industry.
After quitting his job and taking a leap of faith, he buckled down to try to figure out what he wanted to create.
When he saw someone else was building a very successful local newsletter for several different cities and he figured out how much they were making, he dove right in and launched his own in his hometown of Annapolis, Maryland.
Ryan talks about how he got Naptown Scoop off the ground, and details the first steps he took to get started, which involved a combination of Mailchimp, Instagram, and Facebook ads.
He also shares the steps he took initially to grow his subscribers and how he maintained that growth while finding sources of information for his newsletter.
Ryan discusses the changes in his publishing schedule, and why he decided to publish daily.
He shares his thoughts on lead magnets and talks about how he narrowed down his ad campaigns, how much he spent in total on Facebook ads, and his current subscriber numbers.
When Jared asks him about evaluating a local market to see if there’s a viable opportunity to create a local newsletter, and Ryan shares a lot of insight and the characteristics he deems as important for a newsletter to be successful.
Then he walks us through the content he includes and where he gets all of his information, and he explains how he knows what type of content his audience wants.
Moving onto monetization, Ryan talks about ads as the primary method he uses to monetize Naptown Scoop and shares information about who buys the ads, how much they pay, and package deals he’s working on.
When Jared asks him about advertisers, Ryan offers great advice as he explains what kinds of businesses he looks for to advertise in his newsletter.
To conclude the interview, Ryan shares his final words of advice about the value of showing yourself as the face of your brand and the importance of networking and attending events in your city.
If you’re considering starting a local newsletter, or you already have one, it would be a crime to miss this episode!
Links & Resources
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