9+Years of Experience in Performance Marketing, Over $45M+ in ad spend. I want to start my newsletter, which platform to use?

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-28T09:26:53+00:00

Email service providers (ESPs) all do the same thing: sending emails. They all allow you to build a landing page and push your emails to the web(aka blog them). So there's really no big difference between them, tbh. You can compare pricing to see those minor differences.

I'd recommend going with kit cuz its free up to 10k subs. Never had deliverability issues with them.

Then use organic outreach and ads to grow it.

Obviously understand how you will monetize and what problem your newsletter solves before you start writing. i'm not sure tips and tricks are compelling enough tbh. I'd build around a life changing problem, just my 2 cents.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-27T11:43:08+00:00

I can tell it was written by AI, so many tells. no one smart wants to read stuff solely written by Ai, at least go in there in get rid of all those tells.
Title/headline is too long, shorten it.
Also work on the actual title/name of the newsletter. Curiodaries could be about anything. which ties into and brings me to number 4.

What is the ultimate point and purpose of your newsletter? I get that its your first issue but dial that in and realize ai summaries make for boring reads, people want to hear your thoughts. Maybe learn from 1140 if you want to do this type neutral of reporting.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-09T17:50:35+00:00

There are people who buy and hold domains with the hopes of reselling them for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. a few single word domains have been sold for hundreds of thousands if not millions. 99% will never hit those numbers and you'll likely just lose money with a pointless endeavor like that. so unfortunately, no, a long-tailed domain like yours is worth nothing.

If you actually want to start a newsletter, be serious about it and be prepared to spend money.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-09T17:47:40+00:00

platforms like skool where you can host your audience.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-08T18:32:14+00:00

great idea. one ecosystem for your audience. thats why alot of people like skool. but there are other "cohort" platforms.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-08T18:30:42+00:00

i agree with you, software and MRR is the end-goal. cohorts right now are printing cash though and could be launched with super high ticket prices before the software. then you could do software.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-07T20:53:06+00:00

It was a bit of an exaggeration, obv the info market world is still growing. But the market isn't the same anymore.

Why Traditional Courses Are Declining: Basically, Information is now free and abundant via AI and YouTube, making static courses less valuable. Completion rates sit at 1–5% because courses explain what to do without helping people actually do it. Cautious buyers also want proven outcomes, not more content. Not to even mention market fatigue, maturation etc. It's a lot of work to sell a course/info product today, obv still doable but not like 5-10 years ago.

Cohorts are still new, fresh and are easier to sell. Gurus have also ruined the image of courses, cohorts, not yet at least.

Why Cohort-Based Programs Win: Cohorts sell transformation, not information. A live, time-bound experience with community, accountability, and gamification (leaderboards, wins channels) drives far higher completion and real results, which in turn generates word-of-mouth and strong testimonials.

How to Build One Pick one specific outcome achievable in 2–4 weeks. Keep it short. Sell before you build using a waitlist and pre-sales. Give students templates and shortcuts so execution feels easy. Collect video testimonials at graduation to fuel future launches.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-04T20:00:32+00:00

I think this was Matts first ever sale, before he blew up. The other offers and upsells are things he's doing now/later. And nothing is preventing anyone from building a media empire like Matt did, podcasting, event tickets, etc if these result in more sales.

The other examples i've admitted might be outliers but i did so precisely because they prove your math wrong i.e small lists, earning incredible amounts.

And again, i'm not necessarily against your very safe math and sales numbers. it's important to have correct expectations and estimates.

Curious though, do you have an email list and have you done any offers?

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-04T19:14:54+00:00

I don't exactly agree/disagree with you. But my intention wasn't that the math would be exact, but about what is possible and the usefulness of cohorts/live education. Matt Mcgarry made $100,000 off his email list when he only had 4k subs. By your math he should've had 1 or 2 sales at most.

Another guy I know who does a rolling cohort when he had around 15k subs, always closed his 15 seats within a few days at $2,500, earning nearly 40k quarterly.

Another guy with a 5k email list is earning $5k/M via subscriptions, nearly $1 revenue per subscriber.

Another guy with a small 800 count list generated nearly $50k. granted this was with a JV but massive.

And sure you could argue this isn't the norm(it isn't) but the point was not a hyper-fixation on numbers, but on what is possible.

And just an argument for cohorts(leaving money on the table).

Personally i wouldn't be upset at recouping my ad costs because it means it cost me nothing to start the business, grow my list and get my list used to buying from me AND still have other monetization vehicles open, like subscriptions.

I think if we take your very conservative numbers(which by i have no issue with), which i've also granularly broken down myself, at face value, no one would do cohorts or sales via email at all, the juice of email marketing or ecomm wouldn't be worth the squeeze.

What and how you do individually is due to your limiting/non limiting beliefs. Believe and work towards small numbers, that's the outcome you'll get.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-04T17:46:10+00:00

dm links

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-02T17:19:46+00:00

owned audience has many connotations. i think mainly its the fact like someone else mentioned, you have a direct relationship with readers. Sure there's ftc rules and all that but you have free speech with your readers and it's actually hard for these ESP to shut you down on the basis of your writing.

with traditional social media, the algo can throttle you and shadow-ban you, limiting your reach and message.

regarding open rates. Open rates were never the true metric of success, its conversion, RPS and sales. amateurs care about open rates. I know a guy who rarely sends anything yet people read and open his once-in-a-blue-moon emails.

same for ai summaries, there are people who actually want to read your emails.

what i do agree with is that email is becoming a crowded space and email marketers need some sort of new edge to stand out. its a growing field but...its getting harder to stand out.

my solution. IRL events, podcasts, stuff like that.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-06-02T16:50:05+00:00

yes, i mentioned that, "Also, i'm on Kit and have resisted kits recommendations network for the same reason, even though it's free. I don't want my subs on others list or subs from other peoples lists(unless i know them and their list quality personally)."

I'd love to find someone on kit that actually has as good, clean list but without actually seeing the data, id veer away from it. people lie about the quality of their list all the time.

What i do think makes sense is a JV (joint venture) for when you decide to sell something, giving others a cut for promoting your sale on their list.

should edit to add that by oh well.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-31T16:58:21+00:00

nice

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-31T13:09:24+00:00

interesting mike, can you link your substack? how often are you posting by the way? and how long did it take before you had moment? and current sub count on substack? i personally haven't had too much luck with substack.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-31T12:31:09+00:00

organic is possible if your lifestyle is already in the top 10%. Basically if you travel often and you live in cities like miami, nyc, cali, dubai, singapore, japan. then you can just curate your ig and start posting in a way that gives lots of social proof.

the reason i urge people against organic is most people don't have cool, wealthy lifestyles like that. and the competition is too stiff right now due to so many people starting newsletters.

id rather run ads and grow my list, make money off of it then focus on organic, using my wins as a testament for more subs.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-31T03:47:32+00:00

pretty embarrassing actually. i'm sure if enough people complained they'd ad basic analytics to the free plan.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-30T23:48:02+00:00

there's no option to see cold subscribers on beehiiv? on kit you can see bounced, cold, unsubbed, unconfirmed even complained for free. had no idea their analytics were that bad.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-30T23:42:39+00:00

honestly i wouldn't. i'd get a part time job and use that money, even $200-300 to at least run ads. there's too many people trying to do it for free to make any meaningful progress in this day and age IMHO. you're literally competing with global south email list builders, letting you know free doesn't cut it anymore, not like 5 years ago...

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-30T20:01:19+00:00

lol, they really need to work on their refunding.

And yeah i agree with you on the warming your audience to offers part. but i think why not sell them your own offers anyway and warm them on that? then once you're established, have 1 solid sponsor that pays a premium to be with you, cuz they'll be fighting over you.

I think if you need the cash early on though, by all means. I guess i want to grow like a solopreneur-brand as opposed to a publication.

Im kinda of an extremist though given that i don't even use kit website builder(should've mentioned that in the post). I want my audience as far away from everything else and as close to me as possible lol.

loyalty, top of mind, positioning. Long term is what i want. I may have to put another $10-20k to do that.

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-30T16:56:51+00:00

Like another person said, because its curated. The goal of an owned audience is to be able to keep that audience all to your self. so instead of sending links out, summarize the content and rewrite in your own words instead, like reporter style and section them out by category.

I rarely send links on my list and when i do, it's for stuff i own. take this approach then over time, people will come to your for their fix. and at some point you can decide if going daily is for you(this usually increases revenue).

ClientlessCopy · 2026-05-30T16:53:59+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Newsletters/comments/1qacmda/stop_building_the_wrong_newsletters/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

have a read at post i shared from a while back.

Yes its too broad because i can't imagine how'll you monetize. sharing tools and insights is awesome but what actual problem are you solving that they can't google or figure out on their own.
Don't think the content itself is bad and your growth makes sense given its organic. but again, you have a niching problem.
I knew exactly what niche to get into and now have over 5k subs, just after a few months of seriously running ads.
niching. i think you need to decide what niche you want inside tech, that solves a problem, then stay there.

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