This week’s newsletter is presented by Who Sponsors Stuff. Their Sales Pro product can supercharge your ad sales operation — set up time with them to learn more about how they can help your newsletter!

It’s the middle of the month, which means it’s the time of the month when I’d usually be publishing the next edition of Not a Newsletter. I’ll confess: After five years of writing it, I did miss the feeling of not opening up the Google Doc to write a few thousand words about what’s happening in the email space.

But instead of spending 20-30 hours curating those links, I managed to make time for a few other things this month that I was proud of:

It can be scary when you decide to sunset something that’s been such a big part of you. But it’s also exciting to suddenly have the time to take on other things. I knew that to add something to my plate, I first needed to subtract something. You can’t just add and add and add — that’s not sustainable.

Here’s to thinking “add and subtract” in the year ahead — and to whatever you’re most excited to spend time on next.

—Dan

When it comes to launching a subscription or membership, what might your readers be willing to pay for?

For most newsletters, the answer is simple: Content. You’re creating premium articles or sending extra newsletters, and readers pay for access to that content.

But content isn’t the only potential pillar of a paid offering. Lots of newsletters also have success by creating a private, subscriber- or member-only community where they can engage directly with their readers — and readers can engage with each other.

These sorts of communities are often hosted on Discord or Slack, and they can be an amazing tool for deepening engagement with an audience or converting more readers to paying supporters. In some cases, they can be remarkably lucrative: Jay Clouse runs a community called The Lab with 200 members who each pay at least $1,999 a year.

But launching separate subscriber communities isn’t the right path for all newsletter operators. They take time to set up, monitor, engage in, and moderate — all in addition to your other work.

So Inbox Collective’s Claire Zulkey reached out to newsletter operators who host communities to talk about lessons they’ve learned and what makes these groups work for them.

Here’s the advice they’d offer anyone thinking about launching a community.

Read the story here →

Take a minute and open up the page where readers can sign up for your newsletter. Take a look at the copy and ask yourself this: Am I telling readers why they should sign up?

If the “why” isn’t there, you’re not going to grow your list as quickly as you should.

Your “why” might be built upon one of these four pillars:

💌 Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Sign up for Inbox Collective’s weekly newsletter here.

📬 Want to work with Inbox Collective? Here’s how I can help you.

🎯 Want to reach an audience of 10,000+ people in the email space? Here’s how to become an advertising partner.

🍴 Interested in attending Dine & Deliver, a dinner series presented by LiveIntent? Apply here.

✍️ Looking to hire or be hired in 2023? Join the Inbox Collective talent collective.

 

 

Having trouble viewing this email? You can see an HTML version of this newsletter here.

No longer want to receive our newsletters? That’s OK! You can unsubscribe here.