How do you build a following for a newly launched newsletter?

Dwayne Charrington
6 replies
I recently launched a newsletter called The Ideas Digest here on Product Hunt and I am using Substack. Unlike others, I do not have any preexisting mailing list to import, I am starting from scratch. Furthermore, I am known in open source circles and front-end development, but not so much in the niche I've targeted with my newsletter. I submitted my newsletter to PH and received a couple of upvotes, as well as a couple of signups. However, I feel as though I could be doing more. Do I just need to give it time and let people naturally find my newsletter or are there ways I can grow my subscriber base without becoming disenfranchised and giving up? I don't want to be "that person" who continually spams their newsletter on sites like Hacker News. Maybe I need to start buying ads, or is that silly for such a young newsletter? The newsletter itself centres around a relevant topic to many who frequent this site, it's about ideas, discussing trends, identifying opportunities and does research into various topics for the reader. I want to give people the tools to discover new opportunities and maybe start something of their own. Just because I can't launch doesn't mean someone else can't.

Replies

Kenny Wu
Post updates on social media platforms and offer genuine value in exchange for emails
Chris Wray
One thing you can do is publish your newsletter on your website as well and try to get signups organically that way.. also Seth Goden would say just keep writing.(: good luck!
Andrea Paci
As Chris said start to growth organically by adding your newsletter on website. You just need time.. keep writing good stuff and subscribers will comes.
Dwayne Charrington
@italians_whodesign Thank you, Andrea. Everything I read including the advice Chris gave pretty much said keep writing, so I'll do just that.
Alex Papageorge
Agreed with @kennywu2002 also, submit your newsletter to free directories.