Crossing 500 subs(!) and how I got here
Exciting week as we hit a big newsletter milestone. Here's how I did it.
Reached a pretty cool milestone with this substack as we officially crossed the 500 subscriber count!
Here’s some more info on how and why:
The story
This newsletter actually started a long time ago. Some of you longtime subscribers can probably think back over the years and different variations of it.
For example, it started as a simple free newsletter on mailchimp, probably like 6 years ago, where I posted monthly about my journey as a (then) lawyer growing a small law firm.
Then I got a little more serious and upgraded to using Aweber and posted weekly. I even had some periods in time where I was emailing daily too (while I actually enjoyed it, it was a big commitment).
Based on the different businesses I was running at the time and how hectic things were, I’ve probably swapped back and forth between daily, weekly and monthly more than 5 times.
One takeaway: don’t overthink your newsletter. Starting and sticking to ANY cadence is better than not starting at all, or being inconsistent.
Last year I decided to switch over to substack, largely because I wasn’t interested in keeping an entire website updated just to manage an email list flow and because substack has so many built-in, amazing features (landing pages, comments, recommendations, etc.).
And have been consistently sharing 1-2 emails per week, for the last few years, with no intention of slowing down.
I’ve really enjoyed it and hopefully - whether you’ve been subscribed for 5 years or 5 days - you have too. Either way, thanks so much for being subscribed and stay tuned for many more helpful emails in the future!
How we got to 500 and how you can too
From my experience growth went like this:
a big jump at the very beginning as you invite all of your friends/family (50-100 subs)
a big slow in growth as you exhaust your network (100+)
a slight jump in growth as you start to figure out some good funnels (300+)
a bigger jump in growth as you see which sources work best and scale (400+++)
The things that have helped me grow the most have been:
having a clear message and goal for my newsletter: people subscribe (and stick around) because they know what they’re going to get: honest, transparent stories and thoughts on how to start and grow a business
strategic plugs: you then want to plug your landing page intelligently. The best places for me have been on my social media accounts (Linkedin profile, Twitter bio, etc.) and email signatures (if you’re like me, you spend a ton of time on email. Make sure to have your newsletter landing page in your email signature)
posting quality content consistently: this can vary depending on type of business and content you like posting, but what’s worked best for me has been text posts on LinkedIn, and video/podcasts on Youtube and Tiktok
cold email: more recent growth has come from very strategic and targetted cold email outreach. This is how you can use your content/feedback from item #3 and scale it with something like email outreach
Thanks again for all of your support, even if it’s just reading my emails each and every week.
Are you bullish on newsletters like me? Any topics or tips you want me to cover in future issues?
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai
If you’re looking for more, definitely check out:
Congrats :)