This creator grew their newsletter to 5,000 subscribers with consistency and connections

Hey folks👋🏽

We’ve got some great content today, so there’s no time to waste — I’m jumping right in. Here’s what we’ve got this week:

💌 In today’s email:

• 🔓 Jason Levin takes us behind the scenes of his work as a newsletter writer and content strategy expert
• 📱 Mitra recommends some ideas for if you ever run out
• 📣 What’s happening in social: Instagram makes several updates to Reels, someone published a detailed YouTube Shorts study, LinkedIn gives us an inside look at their approach to viral content
• +All our latest content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. 100% of the team wants to keep working a four day workweek

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🔓 Creators Unlocked: Jason Levin

For the latest installment of Creators Unlocked, we spoke to Jason Levin, a quintessential example of the modern Creator.

He’s the mind behind Cyber Patterns, a newsletter that goes to 5,000+ readers around the world about content strategy. He’s sold his book, Memes Make Millions, to 40 people (and it’s not even out yet). Jason talks to us about his system for creating content consistently and his plans to grow his business.

Q: You’ve been publishing your newsletter for quite a while now  – what paths to monetization have you considered or implemented so far? And what advice would you give someone who is just starting out?

My biggest advice: don't leave your day job until you get bigger. Even though my newsletter now has 5000 subscribers, but the monthly recurring revenue is less than $500-$600 a month. Most of my revenue or all my revenue besides that comes from the startups that I work for. So the newsletter is a great funnel for getting those startups in the door, to which I sell my services like content strategy and writing.

If you're going to start a newsletter, don't expect to make money on it for a few years unless you have a ready-made audience somewhere else. So make sure that you have services that you can rely on. Regarding revenue streams, I have a premium version of my newsletter with about 30 paid subscribers. It's pretty small. I also run ads, but I don't spend much time chasing ad money because I'm pretty comfortable with the services side of my business.

Q: In what ways has your content created opportunities for you, helped you land clients or helped you generate income?

The best way I found for getting clients is just sending cold outreach via Twitter. Simple messages asking your connections if they’re hiring content writers or social media managers can do the heavy lifting for you. You’re likely going to get a “yes” or “no” reply, which will let you know whether to send over your portfolio or not.

Other than that, I found referrals to be the biggest thing as well. Tweak your message a little, saying, “Hey, do you know anybody who might be looking for a [insert your service here]” or, “Can I get an intro to x?” That's really what I recommend for cold outreach.

Q: Social media and how we relate to it is changing rapidly – what do you think is the future for content creators outside of social media? What do you think are the general trends that creators should look to when it comes to content creation?

I think building your own email list would be my first and only advice, because it allows you to not be platform-dependent. You can bring your email list wherever you are, so if you are struggling to grow or get banned or the algorithm doesn't show you anymore, for whatever reason, you'll always have your email list that you'll be able to use to communicate with your audience.

Q: What are some common challenges in your experience? And what are some steps you're taking to overcome these challenges?

The first would be a lack of distribution. When I was starting, it was tough to get eyeballs. and new subscribers. The biggest thing for me was to keep on making content and connecting with people with bigger audiences, occasionally asking them to share my work or for opportunities to support their work.

Other than that, my biggest challenge is time. I work for multiple startups as well as running my own company. It's a lot of things to do and not enough time. I just hired a virtual assistant full-time, which is pretty cool, and I also have several other freelancers helping me with writing. But in general, just managing time is a challenging thing, and I definitely get stressed and get headaches pretty often, but hopefully, that'll get easier as the years go on.

 💡Learn our top tips to get the most out of Buffer

We run live demos and Q&A sessions every other week. You won’t want to miss the tips and tricks up our sleeves for getting the most out of your Buffer accounts. Register for our next one (and click here if you’re in the APAC region).

👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• Growing to Over 70k TikTok Followers: How One Creator Did It: In this interview, we speak to Katie Xu about her unconventional approach to advising creators and look at her plans for growth this year.

• I Don't Do Paid Ads: Here's What I've Invested in Instead to Grow My Business to $270K+ in Revenue: Catarina Rivera has managed to grow a multi-6-figure business in just 2 years while forgoing paid ads for slower community-building. Here are some of the strategies and investments that have helped her grow successfully and authentically.
• Why We Invest In Internal Documentation on Buffer’s Customer Advocacy Team: Juliet, a Customer Advocate at Buffer dives into the reasoning and process behind our extensive process for internal documentation.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

Not sure what to post? Here are some things you can do to help you get inspired:

• Repurpose old content
• Use AI to brainstorm (like Buffer’s AI Assistant 😉)
• Check out other accounts for inspiration
• Look at what performed best on your socials over the last few months
• Look up industry trends
• Check out what influencers in your space are posting about
• Sign up for a few industry newsletters for inspiration

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 🤳🏾 Instagram Reels announced several new updates to Reels creation and analytics, including a central hub for trending hashtags and audio
• 🧵 Popular YouTube consultant Paddy Galloway published a Twitter thread detailing research into the YouTube Shorts algorithm
• 🔎 LinkedIn shares a deeper look at how they identify and tackle viral spam content

Thanks for reading! 💟

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