[The one that got away] ⚡How I booked a paid ad—with under 700 subscribers! Plus: How Justin got 2k subscribers in 6 months

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This is Growth Currency⚡ #63 — your weekly dose of newsletter gold 🪙

A special welcome to the 60 newest members of the Growth Currency⚡ newsletter community, including Anthony, Dan, Katherine, Beth, Linda, Wesley, Eric, Vincent, and Karolyn—to name a few!

Thank you for giving me a little bit of space in you inbox. 🙏

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here »​
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How I Got My First Paid Newsletter Ad (with under 700 subscribers)

I know what you’re thinking.

You probably think you need thousands upon thousands of subscribers to start earning money with your newsletter.

Having a stadium full of subscribers definitely helps. But it’s not a requirement for monetization.

Here’s a quick story about how I got a paid ad for my newsletter — with only about 650 subscribers and a free Substack account.

Could I Actually Make Money?

I started my Substack account in January 2021.

It wasn’t long before I saw fellow newsletters with “#Ad” or “Sponsored by…” sections in their newsletters. And not just the big ones like The Hustle or Morning Brew — but “smaller” newsletters too. It got me thinking maybe I could do the same. Only one problem: I only had around 650 subscribers.

“Who’d pay to advertise to a list that size?”

How I Found An Advertising Brand

So I did some digging and found Swapstack.co: a newsletter advertising marketplace that connects brands with newsletters.

Newsletter writers can pitch brands, and brands can reach out to newsletters.

“THIS is where I’ll start.”

A great feature of Swapstack: brands indicate the required minimum # of newsletter subscribers to advertise.

“Perfect — I won’t waste my time pitching to a brand looking for 10k subs.”

After only a week on the platform, I found my first newsletter advertiser: a sports news newsletter. Didn’t quite fit my demographic but more on that later.

What I Got Paid

We exchanged some emails and the brand paid agreed to pay me the $25 advertising fee. Not quite enough to retire on. Yet.

They sent me their logo and ad copy and we were off!

FYI: Swapstack charges a small percentage to the brand, so I received the entire $25 (before Stripe took their cut).

The point is, I got paid— with only 650 subscribers. And of course the small amount of money didn’t matter.

This was validation. That’s what mattered.

Here’s What I Learned

Lesson #1: Finding advertisers is easier in a marketplace than solo — at least to begin with. Fish where the fish are, as the saying goes. And Swapstack is low/no risk. Who knows how long I might’ve tried finding an advertiser on my own.

Lesson #2: Ads should be relevant to your demographic. This particular ad generated a total of ZERO clicks. Why? Creators were reading my newsletter for creator economy content. Not sports. I now only run ads that make sense to a strong subset of Growth Currency readers.

Lesson #3: Getting your first ad is about the experience, not the money. I only charged $25 for my first ad. But you know what was 10x more valuable?

1. The validation — just knowing a brand thought my small audience was worth paying to reach meant a lot. It gave me confidence to pursue future advertisers.
2. The momentum — I was motivated to keep publishing and building a newsletter audience. Where might I be in 6 months or a year — or 5 years
3. The experience — working with a brand was new to me in this capacity. I learned about what a brand wants and what they don’t want.

Bonus Tips

Swapstack doesn’t work in all countries. So try other marketplaces like Paved.com or Hecto.io— or better yet — try all three!

Another tactic: find brands that are advertising in newsletters similar to yours and pitch them. If a brand is willing to pay for an ad in another newsletter, they’re more likely to be open to advertising in yours as well.

Ready to give this a try? Let's go! Hit reply with any burning questions! I'm happy to help where I can.
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YOUR GROWTH CURRENCY ⚡ THIS WEEK

"Knowledge is the currency of growth."
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⚡ 10 Changes I Made to get 2,ooo subscribers in *6 months* by Justin Moore [🧵]
Justin's newsletter is on FIRE lately 🔥 Find out how he did it!

Justin Moore | Sponsorship Coach @justinmooretfam I just passed 3,000 creators on my newsletter. 🤯 Started 21 months ago but 2,000 joined in just the *last 6 months.* Here are 10 changes I made that will help you grow faster: 🧵 👇 pic.twitter.com/mNC6NxdXBs March 13th 2022 22 Retweets 186 Likes

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⚡Small.Chat — Got a website + Slack? Use this chat tool to start conversations with visitors on your website—right through Slack. (Thanks to Jay Clouse and his stellar Creative Companion Club for this cool share.)

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⚡ Creative Companion Club by Jay Clouse
Creative Companion Club (CCC) is where casual creators go to become professional creators. I've joined a LOT of online communities (both free & paid), and I'm more convinced every day that nobody is better at building a valuable community than Jay Clouse. Get access to Jay and the high-quality creators he pulls into his orbit, along with creator sprints, workshops, Hot Seat 1-on-1's and more.

​Go pro with Jay as your guide »​
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⚡How to learn from unsubscribes by Alyssa Dulin (Deliverability Defined podcast)
​I know topics about unsubscribes are unsexy—but they're really important. We all deal with unsubscribes in some way. We may as well learn from them, right? This episode highlights important signals you should look for with unsubscribes.

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⚡What is the secret to writing high-performing content online? with Nicolas Cole (via Copyblogger)
​Nicolas Cole is an online writing prodigy. Use his tips and advice from this amazing session to improve your subject lines, content, and overall reader engagement in your newsletters and written content.

A few chapter markers:​
→ How to write headlines (with a Curiosity Gap)​
→ The art of writing introductions ​
→ The art of writing main points​
→ The 1-3-1 Writing Model​

Thanks for reading the GC⚡ newsletter this week! Welcome to all the new faces here—I hope I shared something of value with you.

You'll quickly learn I'm eager for feedback from you so I can deliver the best newsletter possible:

How would you rate this edition?​
⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Electrifying!​
⚡⚡⚡ A decent jolt.​
⚡ Just static...

Hit reply and let me know why — I answer every one :) Or DM me on Twitter!

What other newsletter-related content would you love to get here? I want to make this newsletter as value-packed for you as possible.

And in case you missed it, here are last week's TWO most popular links:

#1: Infinite Content Ideas by Blake Emal
​#2: ​6 Newsletter Ideas That Make Money by Paved
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Other Growth Currency⚡ Resources:

→ The Ultimate Creator Database of Awesomeness​
→ How To Start, Grow, and Optimize a Thriving Newsletter Community​
→ Advertise in this newsletter​

Again, thinking of Ukraine as the war persists. Please consider the links below.

🇺🇦 Support Ukraine:

​Come Back Alive​ || Ukrainian Red Cross || Voices of Children​ || Ukraine-Russia Twitter List (h/t Noah Smith)

Peace and platonic love,

Dylan

PS: "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right."