This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to a brand new week. Thank you for tuning in today. So excited you're here for the journey. Got a great topic, great question today. Paid newsletters, as you may be familiar, have really taken off.
I mentioned one recently that earns more than $300,000 a year for the creator. This guy writes a newsletter. He does a very good job at it. I don't mean to make light of it, but this newsletter brings in $300,000 a year. And guess what?
It's not the only one. Now, of course, if you're gonna write a paid newsletter, you need a topic. And one of the topics that is most lucrative, this probably isn't shocking. The topic is financial analysis. So today's listener, she has been paying attention to this.
She is a writer. She's got some background in this field, but she's also noticed something else, something that might be missing from all of those financial analysis newsletters and the small group of smart people who write them. She wants to change that and perhaps make a lot of money herself. And you know, I think she's actually got a good shot at it. What can she do to get going?
That's our question. I'll bring you the question in full and my answer. After this quick, thank you to our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Denise. I just recently found your show.
So I've been investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds for over a decade. And I'd like to start a financial newsletter for women. There are a lot of paid newsletters now, some of which are earning a ton of money, but almost all of the big ones are written by men. My question is, what's the best plan to get my first 100 paying subscribers? Thanks so much, Chris.
I appreciate any advice. - Denise, guess what? I think you're onto something. Your voice is missing from this world. So what should you do?
Okay, now listen, I know this might sound basic or it might sound overwhelming, either one of those, but it is really the most important thing. You need to write something dazzling and spectacular. You need to write just a truly incredible post. You need to spend 20 to 30 hours writing a long-form post that is really going to be insightful, educational, and best of all, provocative, okay? You're gonna go into this world and say like, here is my take on this.
You're gonna look at a specific company or situation or something happening in the market, whatever it is, this is gonna be your flagship debut that announces your arrival, okay? And then you're gonna spam everyone, okay? Maybe not everyone, but everyone you know, for sure. You're gonna send them the piece and you're gonna say, this is my new post. I'm writing this newsletter.
Check out what I have to say here and pass it on if you like it or even if you don't. You're also gonna send it to all those other newsletter writers you know. This is really key. Anybody in that world who is successful, anyone you follow, as well as anyone, any journalists who cover the kind of story that you just wrote. You've just spent a lot of time on this and you want people to see it.
Now, by the way, let's back up a little bit because you're actually gonna set up this new newsletter where that post goes on a service like Substack or similar. There's others now, but Substack is one of the big ones. And this is the kind of service that allows people to subscribe for free and then pay as well. So there's like a teaser subscription and then you pay for more content. That's how all these newsletter writers are doing so well.
And then you're gonna set up a consistent writing schedule and write more posts like that first one, okay. But you talked about getting your first 100 subscribers. So I think that's how you do it. And I'm not saying it's easy, by the way, but you wanna break into the club and you wanna make a lot of money. So that's what you do.
I would really love to know what happens. Keep me posted, send me that amazing article so that I can pass it on as well. And listeners, if you have a question, if you're trying to break into this world or any other world, trying to start your own project, let me know what's going on, sidehustleschool.com/questions. I would love to help however possible. And mostly I just wanna cheer you on because I love knowing what you're up to.
Thanks for tuning in today. New episode tomorrow, every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
