I Launched My Atomic Newsletter… and This is Why You Should, Too!

So choose a niche — and then commit to being the best at it.

When Substack launched their reader web app last year, I thought it was interesting but faced an uphill battle. It’s really hard in today’s age of addiction to get people to habitually come to a new URL. That’s why blogs died and became reincarnated as newsletters.

You’ve created a stellar email newsletter, but few subscribe. You’ve launched an intriguing podcast, but listeners are nonexistent. You’ve published an exceptional blog post, a compelling research report, a remarkable webinar, a top-notch video, a stunning visual… but the audience just isn’t showing up.

A succinct elevator pitch for your newsletter is much more marketable than being a whole person who communicates their ideas via blog. That said, some people, including me, market their blog as a publication dealing in existentialism and philosophy and the chronicles of life in the world today, which leaves room for your perspective to change as th... See more

While launching a premium newsletter might sound appealing for writers, it can also take a long time for creators to attract enough paying readers to make it financially sustainable. “The two types of people who seem to be making it work right now. They either have an existing kind of audience – Andrew Sullivan is certainly one – who can jump in an... See more

Needless to say, competing in the “newsletter” category made life easier. It wasn't perfect: most of the writers we acquired this way did not start paid subscription newsletters, and we generated no revenue off them. But still, it was absolutely worth it. The “newsletter” positioning served as a wedge, and generated a viral distribution loop where ... See more

I should mention one sort of initial tactic that usually doesn't work: the Big Launch. I occasionally meet founders who seem to believe startups are projectiles rather than powered aircraft, and that they'll make it big if and only if they're launched with sufficient initial velocity. They want to launch simultaneously in 8 different publications, ... See more