This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Can a tech deals newsletter really make money? That is today's listener idea. He's a self-described software nerd. He always finds coupons, discounts, ends up telling his friends, "Hey, here's how you can save money on various subscriptions, various digital products, whatever else is out there." And so now he's wondering if curation can pay for itself. Can he actually make money doing something that he's been doing for free?
Now there are a couple of hurdles here, a couple of challenges. He's got to convince skeptical subscribers. He's got to build an email list large enough to move affiliate links, maybe introduce a paid tier to this service. Is it just free? Is there a paid option?
Well, let's talk about the details. Let's give him a couple of suggestions. His name is Miguel. In this episode, we have his detailed question and my answer. Hopefully it'll help somebody else out there exploring their own ideas.
Stay tuned. [Music]
Hey Chris, I'm the friend in every group chat who drops last minute coupon links when a new software launches. Over the past year, I've tweeted hundreds of lifetime deals and the threads get decent traction, but they earn me $0. My buddy keeps saying, "Turn this into a newsletter and add affiliate links. You'll be printing money." Trouble is, I'm not sure how big a list I need, what commission rates actually look like, or how to keep readers from thinking I'm just spamming junk.
Can a curated discount newsletter cover more than coffee money? [Music]
Miguel, the first thing I think of, instead of all tech deals, let's pick a lane, okay? AI tools for copywriters under $100, or maybe bootstrapped founder software. Giving us a tight focus is gonna increase your click-through rate and your affiliate conversion. Next, let's talk about making a flywheel, a list building flywheel.
So your top of funnel is gonna be Twitter and Reddit posts. Then you've got maybe a Google Doc, which is like a full seven-day deal tracker, and then some kind of referral program where your friends get to unlock early access alerts in Telegram or Signal perhaps, or some other platform, whatever it is, early adopters love exclusivity. The next, set up the affiliate economics. AppSumo pays 10 to 20%, for example. So if you think about typical price, $59, you've got a 3,000 subscriber list with an 8% click-through rate, 4% purchase rate.
Well, that's gonna be $850 per email you send. So one curated blast per week, that kind of scales to three to $4,000 a month by the time you get to a 10,000 member list. Those affiliate dollars really do add up, especially when you own a tightly segmented topic, when you respect reader's time, and perhaps layer that page here down the road. So treat every deal like content, treat your visitors like the important people that they are, and hopefully this hobby can outrun many sponsorship gigs. Miguel, best of luck, let us know how it goes.
Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll continue to feature them throughout the year. You can also access resources and download or stream every single episode, completely free on the website. Much more is coming up. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
