Starting a solopreneur newsletter business is easy, fast and profitable and today I want to further prove it to you by focusing in on a question I got:
I’m trying to start a newsletter for dads. General advice on fatherhood and marriage, funny stories, relatable dad-centric content. I’ve even got the name picked out.
Do you think "dads" is too broad of a market? Any advice on honing that in a bit?
You might be surprised to hear me say this, but I don’t think "dads" is too broad of a market at all, because like you, I have no clue where it could go!
That’s the beauty of a newsletter business. Any solo entrepreneur or freelancer can start one for under $100 (but 99% don’t because they hold themselves back which is your opportunity).
They’re extremely easy to write content for (using the digest format) and as a bonus you get better at copywriting in the process no matter what happens.
You can test, test, test ideas and at worst, you lose a few hours of your weekend setting up something that "fails" (although failure is 100% a subjective concept).
Okay, here’s exactly how easy this is and exactly what I’d do to get setup with the "dads" newsletter idea.
Step #1: Go signup for Beehiiv
Beehiiv is my recommended newsletter platform or choice. It was built by the people who started MorningBrew (one of the biggest & most famous newsletters ever). The platform has all the features you need to launch a newsletter including the simple landing page I’ll show you in a second, and many, many extras.
I recommend you start with the "Scale" package because you get the Referral Program, Ad Network, and Boost Network which will make growth 10x easier and faster. But if you go with "Launch" that’s okay too, I just want you to get going.
Step #2: Setup your landing page (subscribe page)
As I mentioned earlier this week… one of the selling points of a newsletter business these days is the fact that people are actively looking to subscribe to newsletters.
People want curated content. Which means your landing page to get people to signup can be hyper-simple.
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Have ChatGPT design a logo in under 30 seconds.
I went to ChatGPT and had it design a logo. Here’s the prompt I used: "I’m trying to start a newsletter for dads. General advice on fatherhood and marriage, funny stories, relatable dad-centric content. Just a simple logo image please."
Here’s the output:
- Write a simple headline explaining what people are subscribing to.
I’ll give you permission to ask ChatGPT to write something for you as a starting basis.
My prompt: "Can you write me a one-line description telling people to subscribe to the Dad’s Digest?"
I created this landing page in Beehiiv in under 2 minutes, start to finish.
And that’s it! Honestly.
I’ve literally just given you the keys to the kingdom. This is all you need and it really can be this simple to get started.
This is exactly how the examples I showed you earlier this week and how some of the biggest newsletters today got started (look at the Hustle)… and now they have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, some into the millions of subscribers.
These are 6, 7 & 8-figure businesses built off starting points just like the above.
Again, people want to subscribe to newsletters that round-up and curate content. Just throwing up a landing page like this can be enough to start watching people signup organically (after an initial small push from you).
Now, I know I’ll get push back on my answer but here’s a different question I got yesterday:
"How does one build an audience without followers on any social platform? I get that it might be easy to start, but without tens of thousands of followers there is no income…"
It can be difficult to understand this, and lord knows I forget it quite often: Business is easy.
Every single business I’ve been involved with that’s been successful and made money has been easy to start and I’ve essentially been forced to keep it rolling because of positive feedback (sales or subscribers).
CopyHour started exactly like that — almost by accident. I didn’t plan on running CopyHour more than 30 days and here we are 12 years later.
The businesses I’ve had that have been super hard to setup or difficult to get the first few subscribers have all disappeared.
(China Prepared is an example. We were trying to help ecommerce businesses in the US and Australia get setup with websites to promote their products to the burgeoning Chinese middle and upper-classes. Every part of the business was an uphill battle and my partner and I ditched the idea after a few months.)
Long story short: newsletter businesses are perfect because they are easy to setup and you can adjust your business model as you go. You can literally launch any type of business model (aka how you’ll make income) off the back of a newsletter – SaaS, courses, sponsorships, ecommerce, etc.
Now of course, the setup of a newsletter is easy. And I’m trying to hammer in that you really just need to get going.
But how do you get that initial traffic? What exactly should the emails say? How do you know when to ditch the idea or double down? How exactly do you know when and how to monetize?
All of these extra steps and questions are why the Weekend Launch Party course exists.
The Weekend Launch Party will take you deeper inside the entire setup of your own mini solopreneur newsletter empire.
I can’t stress enough that this process for launching a newsletter business is fun and it will feel easy if you just follow along and don’t overcomplicate things.
The worst possible scenario is that you lose a few hours on a weekend setting up something that gains no traction. And even if that happens, I’ll show you when and how to pivot your topic or market. I’ll show you the two exact ways you can start monetizing your newsletter and how 6 or 7-figures are within reach with these businesses.
I’ve used exactly what I teach in the Weekend Launch Party to launch several newsletters over the course of one weekend (just a few hours, really).
If any of this is resonating and is something you know you want to try, today is the perfect day to join. You can watch the course materials tonight and tomorrow and then throw together your first newsletter test this weekend.
How cool would it be to see something you’ve created live, out in the world, in the next day or two?
As a gentle warning: the cart closes this Sunday May 26th at 11:59 Pacific. Get all the details below: