Small Newsletter Compared to Others? Don’t Worry

Last week, I happened to see that a past colleague of mine has been wildly successful building up their newsletter on LinkedIn. They now have over 60,000 subscribers. (For context, I started my LinkedIn newsletter well before they did. I have around 815 at the time I’m publishing this post.) They then used the success of the newsletter to start a new podcast. They’ve monetized both channels.

*Me, initially feeling exhausted and comparatively awful and incompetent*

But when I dug into the newsletter, guess what I noticed.

Almost none of the content was actually theirs. Instead, the bulk of the newsletter was guest posts from other people with good followings.

A newsletter that relies on guest posts isn’t as hot as it looks

My colleague is an excellent networker. So, it was easy for them to get more influential professionals to contribute guest posts. This ability is wonderful and I commend them for it.

But looking at other successful newsletters, I realized my colleague is not alone in using the guest-post-to-build strategy. Interestingly, instead of holding to a niche area, the people producing the newsletters allow their guests to riff on whatever their area of expertise happens to be. The experts get exposure, the person publishing the newsletter looks successful through their degree of connection, and readers who enjoy a variety of subjects stay interested in each newsletter edition.

On the surface, this looks like a win-win-win setup. But ultimately, the people who write the newsletters are only as stable as their ability to keep bringing in others. If experts start going to other content producers (or, more generally, to other platforms), the newsletter writers now are up Sh-t Creek, because they can’t continue to produce the newsletter alone.

The burn might be slower, but at least you control the flame

Trying to build your own newsletter without overly relying on the clout of others is incredibly difficult. There is no pre-done networking to take advantage of. When you compare follower metrics, it’s easy to get discouraged next to someone who is building off others (see GIF above). You can understand the potential income of a bigger following and feel like your ship is never going to come in because you won’t sell out to a different set of rules.

But the benefit is that, at the end of the day, you have something the other content producers don’t. You know that your following is your following. They are not reading your newsletter to see who else you bring into the picture. Rather, they’re reading your newsletter because they trust you to be consistent, credible, and knowledgeable. And because you have always been the one to share with, teach, or educate your readers, you don’t have to worry about lack of control of the content, both in volume and topic.

So, if you are building your newsletter, go ahead. Have a few guest writers help you out when it’s truly beneficial and relevant. That’s savvy. But because turning to others as a default hands them the keys and creates instability, be confident in the slow, gradual burn you fuel on your own.

Image credit:
zennie from Getty Images Signature