Week 6: $0.57 subs BUT budget almost gone (and some newsletter ecosystem inspiration)

Welcome to the 6th update of my minimum viable newsletter experiment: Be Like Shiva

(See previous update’s here)

In today's email:

• I’m getting $0.76 subs from a Facebook lead generation campaign…but are those leads rubbish? (spoiler: no)

• How to boost your welcome email open rate with a “sniper link”

• I joined a community of newsletter builders and I’m excited about it

• Newsletter inspo: a money printing newsletter that stupidly simple, and NOT in the finance/marketing/tech niche

But first… a quick look at the numbers and what happened with my niche newsletter experiment last week:

Week 6: The numbers

• New subscribers: 541 (total subs: 2219)

• Last weeks email: 42.6% open rate, 2.3% CTR

• Facebook ad spend: $723

• Revenue: $413

• Profit: -$310

This means I spent $310 last week to acquire 541 subs, leaving me with an overall CPA of $0.57

Facebook ad numbers

The best performing ads from my 2 campaigns are costing me:

• Regular ad campaign - $1.36/sub

• Facebook form lead generation campaign - $0.76/sub

(If you want to spy on my ads, click here)

So why I don’t go all in on the campaign that’s sending cheaper leads?

Because the regular campaign allows me to use the Sparkloop referral program and effectively earn affiliate commissions by referring other newsletters.

Last week I spent $538 on that campaign to acquire 309 subscribers.

So my CPA was $1.74

Or was it???

After Sparkloop revenue ($413), my total spend on this campaign was actually $125 meaning my CPA was 40c!

And..I see that number dropping significantly once more Sparkloop revenue rolls in (as more referrals are approved) and as I improve on my ad game.

What those $0.76 Facebook lead gen subscribers any good?

last week I saw a tweet that made me wonder about the quality of leads coming from those Facebook lead form ads.

I’m happy to say I discovered that those leads are good. Here’s how you can check in ConvertKit

3 newsletter biz things I learned this week

Here are 3 resources that will help you level up as a newsletter builder:

🚀 Boost your welcome email open rates in 2 minutes with a “sniper link”

The most important email you ever send is your welcome email.

Its where you set the first impression. tell em what to expect, when to expect it, etc. You’re top and center in your new subscribers mind. And the better the open rate on your welcome email is, the better your overall open rates will be.

Here’s a cool way to improve your welcome email open rate: Add a sniper link to your thank you page.

TLDR: you add a link to your thank you page, and when your new sub clicks that link they go to their inbox with a filter set up so they see only your email (and don’t get distracted)

If you’re a visual learner, here’s a cool animation of what this strategy entails.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Build your newsletter alone with a community

I just found a small but growing paid discord community of newsletter builders: Letter Growth Lab by Paul Metcalf.

And its lovely in there!

Discussions, newsletter cross promotion opportunities, landing page tear downs, case studies and everything else a newsletter builder could want.

This is not a paid endorsement or anything like that. I’m just happy to have found a community of builders doing something similar, because being a lone wolf builder sucks!

📈 Inspiration: Build a newsletter ecosystem that absolutely prints money like this one

Allow me to blow your mind with whats possible with a simple newsletter:

Enter: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

A simple daily email, yes. But behind this newsletter lies a money printing ecosystem that inspires me to think bigger.

How it works:

• They publish a daily email

• Which they turn into a podcast by reading out aloud

The daily email has automations firing that sends users to their online store which sells engraved coins, books, online courses, etc.

And their podcast has gotten so popular that it sells a huge amount of advertising (multiple 6 figures per year)

I don’t know how large this business is but I’d guess north of $2m/year.

Build from a simply daily email.

And the best part: its not a finance or marketing newsletter!

There’s no reason why both you and I, my friend, can’t have a business like this if we keep pushing forward.

Hear more about it on this podcast with Nathan Barry at 35 mins in.

Whats next?

Oh dear - I’ve almost reach my budget for this experiment!

• Expenses so far: $2925

• Revenue so far: $413

• Total spent: $2512

More Sparkloop referral revenue should start to hit my account next week, but my ads are still running.

And I can’t rely on Sparkloop for all of my revenue.

So its time to start thinking about monetizing my subscribers in other ways.

And its time to start thinking a little bigger.

Over the next week I’ll be doing lots of big-picture strategizing to come up with the next few milestones for this newsletter journey.

That’s all for this week.

Questions? Feedback? advice? I want it all…please hit reply right now and let me know!.