Sticky Newsletter Glue

In this episode, Louis shares how to effectively monetize and scale your newsletter business. He also talks about diversifying revenue streams beyond ads and subscriptions, calculating lifetime subscriber value, and aggressive paid acquisition tactics used by the largest newsletters.
Key timestamps:
00:27 - Intro to Louis Nicholls and Spark Loop
02:45 - Louis talks about the payback period and subscriber lifetime value and how they interplay.
06:51 - What are some common ways to decrease the payback period?
11:44 - The 2x2 matrix for revenue streams
13:12 - How do huge subscriber lists under-monetize?
16:30 - Would you encourage having both donations and subscriptions?
19:57 - How do you categorize different revenue streams?
23:08 - The difference between donations and tips vs subscriptions?
25:14 - Intermission questions
28:41 - What are some products or services newsletter operators sell that you've seen really take off?
37:04 - Do you think publishers should diversify into more products/services?
41:41 - How would you monetize the top 1% of a publisher's audience?
45:50 - How is newsletter advertising different from website advertising?
47:18 - Best practices for optimizing and getting more revenue

Show Notes
SparkLoop
Upscribe
Chiz Media
James Clear
Techcrunch
Vox
Clearbit
Why We Buy
Substack

Guest
Louis Nicholls - Twitter
SparkLoop
Host
Lesley Sim Twitter
Lesley Sim Website
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In this episode, Naomi provides insights into Invoice2go's efforts to grow their newsletter program. She shares learnings from experiments with segmenting their audience and testing different approaches, as well as the real-world limitations and challenges in executing tests and getting buy-in.
Key timestamps:
00:53 - Naomi discusses her role at Invoice2go and the goals of using email to drive activation and monetization
02:15 - Inheriting an existing email program and getting a "blank slate" for an overhaul with the rebrand
09:17 - Three pillars of the customer life cycle
15:18 - Starting a segmented newsletter strategy for different audiences
17:40 - Testing content performance but unable to find statistical significance
20:32 - Changing no-reply to actual email for a two-way communication channel
24:55 - Intermission questions
29:33 - The three newsletters Naomi picked for Invoice2go
35:07 - Successful testing of personalized outreach from faux personas
38:46 - Call to action versus call to value test.
43:35 - Doing list hygiene for the Later newsletter
45:00 - Steps taken to turn engaged subscribers into paying customers
47:13 - Key learning from the time at Later

Show Notes
Parcel
Invoice2Go
Braze
Cordial
Amplitude
Customer.io
Later
Bridget Casey
EcoSend
Guest
Naomi West - Twitter
Naomi West - Instagram
Naomi West - Website 
Host
Lesley Sim Twitter
Lesley Sim Website
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Spotify
Twitter
Sticky.fm Website

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In this episode, Carin Slater provides behind the scenes at Litmus as she and her team plan, design, develop, test, and analyze the company's 4 newsletters. She outlines their Agile Marketing process, creative freedom, and focus on engagement and accessibility in each newsletter they produce. Carin also discusses the extensive research and work that went into fully redesigning their flagship newsletter, Litmus News.
Key Timestamp
00:42 - Overview of the 4 newsletters Carin produces at Litmus
01:11 - Carin's role in building Litmus' newsletters
02:08 - Process for planning the Litmus News newsletter
03:08 - How the team collaborates on newsletter copy and content
10:35 - Using Jira for project management and tasks
11:03 - The Litmus team's agile marketing process
16:24 - Process of building the Litmus weekly email
25:04 - Adding UTM codes for tracking
26:23 - Using the Litmus and Marketo tracking pixel
27:53 - Using checklist for auditing
30:35 - Optimizing QA testing for top email clients
35:14 - Tracking and analyzing link click rates
40:17 - Having fun with newsletter production
43:24 - Intermission questions
49:34 - Reason for redesigning the Litmus newsletter
53:18 - Incorporating user feedback into design
57:45 - Challenges with personalization
1:05:28 - What determines if the redesign was a success?
1:13:16 - Where to find Carin and subscribe to her newsletter
Show Notes
Litmus
JIRA
Agile Marketing
Slack
Asana
Google Doc
Figma
Marketo
UTM Codes
Apple MPP- Apple Mail Privacy Protection
Litmus Scope
Linktree
Guest
Carin Slater/@carinslater
Carin Slater Linktree
Host
Lesley Sim Twitter
Lesley Sim Website
Stay in touch
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Spotify
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In this episode, Dan Oshinsky shares his insights on proven growth tactics for publishers and content creators. He breaks down strategies that work at different stages, from just starting out to having over 1 million subscribers. Dan provides tips on optimizing signup forms, using lead magnets, referral programs, contests, earned media, paid acquisition, and more.
Key Timestamps
01:41 - Dan's epic guide of 52 ways to grow your email list
02:09 - What are some foundational principles of growth?
05:46 - Creating a compelling "why subscribe" message.
06:37 - Create a newsletter landing page.
07:30 - Publishers need signup forms in multiple places
11:41 - Adding signup form at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% for long articles
15:24 - What are some of the best growth tips for a list with 10K people?
17:47 - Contests and giveaways to get signups and engagement from readers.
23:42 - Lead magnets work well for publishers of any size.
28:04 - Referral programs work best above 10-25k subscribers.
39:25 - Are there growth tactics that you’d like to share for publishers in the 10K to 100K range?
41:44 - How does using brackets work to grow your list?
48:39 - Let's go to one million subscribers. What tactics work at this stage?
55:53 - What's one uncommon growth tip you like that you wish you'd see more often?
58:15 - What's your favorite ESP and why?
01:01:20 - What's your favorite must-read newsletter?
01:02:09 - What's your favorite piece of advice for a new set of publishers?
Show Notes
Inbox Collective
The New Yorker
BuzzFeed
52 Ways to Grow Your Email List
Nathan Barry
Beehiiv 
Substack
Carrd
OptinMonster
Poptin
WPForms
Spark Loops
Upscribe
Madison Minutes
Tone Madison
Charlotte Ledger
Berkshire Eagle
AWeber
ConvertKit
Second Street
Google Forms
Typeform

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Saeedreza Abbaspour discusses proven strategies for optimizing landing pages, maximizing conversions, and safeguarding subscriber integrity when building a high-traffic media publishing platform. 
Key timestamps
00:25 - Who is Saeedreza Abbaspour?
01:24 - Discussion on optimizing the customer acquisition funnel for a site with 100k subscribers with a goal of reaching 1 million.
03:19 - What typically happens after a user lands on the landing page from an ad click?
04:14 - What do you do to optimize that landing page?
10:23 - How customizable are the landing pages you build?
14:35 - With the free subscriber journey, how long do the campaigns typically last?
18:51 - What should be on an optimized checkout page?
22:51 - Intermission questions
26:40 - Transition to scalability and security of a high-traffic platform.
28:06 - Using WordPress for flexibility, and developer availability.
37:10  - Do you use plugins that are available or build your own?
38:08 - What form plugins do you use?
41:57 - What hosting do you recommend?
42:55 - How do you deal with bot attacks?
46:43 - Double opt-in vs. reCAPTCHA?
53:52 - Using ChatGPT to detect spam subscribers
57:13 - How long of email inactivity triggers subscriber removal?
59:06 - What key mistake do rookies make in building publishing platforms?
Show Notes
Refact
The Hustle 
The Daily Upsight 
Workweek
Advance Custom Field
reCAPTCHA
Newsletter Glue
Gravity Forms
WPForms
Cloudflare
WPEngine
Beehiiv
Substack
WooCommerce
Cloudflare Turnstyle
Guest
Saeedreza Abbaspour/@IAmSaeedreza
Refact
Host
Lesley Sim: Twitter / Website
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In this episode, Tyler Channell reveals how his company Paywall Project helps small town news sites build subscription funnels that convert readers into paying subscribers. With real examples and data, he provides an actionable blueprint to implement key strategies like metered paywalls, free to paid content upgrades, and sponsorships.
Key timestamps
1:41 - The problem small local news publishers come to Tyler to solve
2:10 - Publishers moving from platforms like Pico/Hype which lack flexibility
5:00 - Migrating off limiting SaaS platforms like Substack
7:18 -  Services that Paywall Project offers
9:04 - Example of a client earning $5k/month in a small town of 5,000 people
10:46 - Public notice revenue at risk, need for a subscription model
17:45 - Focusing on free signups over paid at first
21:01 - Typical subscription conversion rates Tyler sees
22:27 - Intermission questions
23:00 - Pricing strategy and how to determine subscription cost
31:45 - Newsletter sponsorships as an additional revenue source
33:43 - Range of rates that publishers charge for their ads
39:15 - How much should a publisher charge for a subscription?
44:50 - Tyler's recommendations for email service providers
Show notes
Paywall Project
Hype
Substack
Newsletter Glue
WordPress
Stripe
San Francisco Chronicle
Sendy
Amazon SES
Slack
Mailchimp
ChatGPT
Guest
Tyler Channell Twitter/@TylerChannell
Paywall Project Twitter/@paywallproject
Paywall Project
Host
Lesley Sim Twitter
Lesley Sim Website
Stay in touch
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Twitter
Sticky.fm Website

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