Last week I celebrated the 300th issue of #jesspicks (🎉) and shared a bit about how the newsletter came to be, how it has changed over time and my process for putting it together.This week I want to share a little more behind-the-scenes, including subscriber growth, how I make money, and the tools I use.Tools I UseI’ve used Revue for my newsletter since the beginning because it makes the process easy to do a curated newsletter. Once you add links, it automatically pulls in descriptions and images that I can edit. As a result, I don’t have to spend a lot of time formatting. It also has an inbox where you can save articles you want to pull into the issue.For content creation (this is mostly for my intro note)Email Marketing Membership for sparking ideas for things to write or giving me fun experiments to try (like this one)Apple Notes for drafting ideas, thoughts about the intro noteGrammarly - my editor sidekick to help with sentence structure, curly quotes, and toneFor content curationFeedly to pull in feeds from some of my favorite blogsOther folks’ newsletters. I subscribe to many on this list.Upnext, for saving articles/videos/podcasts to read/watch/listen to laterReadwise for resurfacing helpful book quotesFor getting tips and donationsBuy Me a Coffee for folks to give one-time or monthly donations/financial support (this is the one I promote most).Patreon for folks to provide monthly supportFor sponsorships/ad opportunitiesHecto.io (my page is here)PavedSwapstackOther toolsCanva for graphicsCurious Karen for doing reader surveys and feedback forms (it is like a fun chatbot)How #jesspicks gets subscribersA friend asked me how my subscriber count for issue 300 compared to issue 100, and here is the breakdown:Issue 100: 261 subscribersIssue 200: 510 subscribersIssue 300: 1520 subscribers (omg, what - ~3x growth?!)There was a shift for me in 2020 (around issue 200) where my focus shifted to making my newsletter the priority. At that point, I also had more of a sense of what I was building with #jesspicks and the value I was providing, and I wanted to double down on making “subscribing to my newsletter” my main call to action for anything I was doing. So if I was on a podcast, at an event, or did a workshop, my parting words became: “please join my #jesspicks newsletter.”There is a saying about what you focus on, growing. So that made a big difference in seeing those subscriber numbers grow.Other things that have worked are:Shoutouts from other creators (having others talk about my newsletter). If Josh Spector mentions my newsletter, I easily get 25-50 new subscribers).Relatedly, putting out a good product. Consistently writing a valuable newsletter gets people on the list. Then they subscribe and recommend it to others. Word of mouth is 🫶🏾.Getting listed on newsletter directories like these. Folks are always looking for newsletters to follow. I have seen subscribers trickle in from these as well.Bundles! The other thing that has given me about 750 subscribers in the past couple of years is participating in bundles—this one in particular. Promoting newsletter content on social media. Surprisingly, being helpful in groups and Reddit subthreads has led to people checking out my site and becoming subscribers.How #jesspicks makes money#jesspicks makes money directly in three main ways: 1. Advertising/SponsorshipsI have two offerings here: Sponsored ad at the top of the newsletter for $75Classified ads at the end of the newsletter for $25Most of my requests have been inbound. As a result, I may have to think of ways to do more sponsor outreach in the future.2. Tips/DonationsPeople can buy me a coffee or contribute monthly if they so choose. I love this; it gives folks an easy way to support me. And it helps keep this newsletter free as well.3. Affiliate MarketingI love recommending products, courses, and even other newsletters that I’ve found helpful to my audience. Then in some cases, I can make some money from those recommendations through commissions.I don’t have a lot of things in mind for plans, but I’ll share some thoughts on that next week.On to the picks!
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Last week I celebrated the 300th issue of #jesspicks (🎉) and shared a bit about how the newsletter came to be, how it has changed over time and my process for putting it together.This week I want to share a little more behind-the-scenes, including subscriber growth, how I make money, and the tools I use.Tools I UseI’ve used Revue for my newsletter since the beginning because it makes the process easy to do a curated newsletter. Once you add links, it automatically pulls in descriptions and images that I can edit. As a result, I don’t have to spend a lot of time formatting. It also has an inbox where you can save articles you want to pull into the issue.For content creation (this is mostly for my intro note)Email Marketing Membership for sparking ideas for things to write or giving me fun experiments to try (like this one)Apple Notes for drafting ideas, thoughts about the intro noteGrammarly - my editor sidekick to help with sentence structure, curly quotes, and toneFor content curationFeedly to pull in feeds from some of my favorite blogsOther folks’ newsletters. I subscribe to many on this list.Upnext, for saving articles/videos/podcasts to read/watch/listen to laterReadwise for resurfacing helpful book quotesFor getting tips and donationsBuy Me a Coffee for folks to give one-time or monthly donations/financial support (this is the one I promote most).Patreon for folks to provide monthly supportFor sponsorships/ad opportunitiesHecto.io (my page is here)PavedSwapstackOther toolsCanva for graphicsCurious Karen for doing reader surveys and feedback forms (it is like a fun chatbot)How #jesspicks gets subscribersA friend asked me how my subscriber count for issue 300 compared to issue 100, and here is the breakdown:Issue 100: 261 subscribersIssue 200: 510 subscribersIssue 300: 1520 subscribers (omg, what - ~3x growth?!)There was a shift for me in 2020 (around issue 200) where my focus shifted to making my newsletter the priority. At that point, I also had more of a sense of what I was building with #jesspicks and the value I was providing, and I wanted to double down on making “subscribing to my newsletter” my main call to action for anything I was doing. So if I was on a podcast, at an event, or did a workshop, my parting words became: “please join my #jesspicks newsletter.”There is a saying about what you focus on, growing. So that made a big difference in seeing those subscriber numbers grow.Other things that have worked are:Shoutouts from other creators (having others talk about my newsletter). If Josh Spector mentions my newsletter, I easily get 25-50 new subscribers).Relatedly, putting out a good product. Consistently writing a valuable newsletter gets people on the list. Then they subscribe and recommend it to others. Word of mouth is 🫶🏾.Getting listed on newsletter directories like these. Folks are always looking for newsletters to follow. I have seen subscribers trickle in from these as well.Bundles! The other thing that has given me about 750 subscribers in the past couple of years is participating in bundles—this one in particular. Promoting newsletter content on social media. Surprisingly, being helpful in groups and Reddit subthreads has led to people checking out my site and becoming subscribers.How #jesspicks makes money#jesspicks makes money directly in three main ways: 1. Advertising/SponsorshipsI have two offerings here: Sponsored ad at the top of the newsletter for $75Classified ads at the end of the newsletter for $25Most of my requests have been inbound. As a result, I may have to think of ways to do more sponsor outreach in the future.2. Tips/DonationsPeople can buy me a coffee or contribute monthly if they so choose. I love this; it gives folks an easy way to support me. And it helps keep this newsletter free as well.3. Affiliate MarketingI love recommending products, courses, and even other newsletters that I’ve found helpful to my audience. Then in some cases, I can make some money from those recommendations through commissions.I don’t have a lot of things in mind for plans, but I’ll share some thoughts on that next week.On to the picks!