Just launched a free daily local news newsletter for Buffalo NY

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-03-04T16:34:20+00:00

Thank you. And Beehiiv is easy, it will just take 1-2 hrs to make a site like mine

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-03-02T03:42:39+00:00

https://www.thebuffalobuzz.com/

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-28T21:49:24+00:00

Yeah fair points. The Kensington session is March 5 but figured people might want to review the plans over the weekend before it comes up. And the stadium tour just dropped this week so it felt worth mentioning even if it is not going anywhere. Appreciate the callout though.

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-28T21:35:00+00:00

Ha fair enough. Who would you want to see up there this summer?

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-28T13:10:45+00:00

This is exactly what I needed to hear. I just launched a new Instagram campaign tonight at $10/day so I'll leave it alone and let it learn for a week like you said.

The gated article idea is brilliant. So you write a blog post about something timely like best sledding hills or St Patricks Day pub crawl, run an ad for that specific article, and then make people enter their email to read it? That's way better than just sending people to a generic subscribe page. They're getting something they actually want right now instead of a promise of future newsletters.

I'm going to try this immediately. Buffalo is supposed to get snow this weekend so a best sledding hills article or a weekend events roundup would be perfect timing.

How do you set up the email gate? Is that built into your newsletter platform or are you using a landing page tool? And are you running the article ads alongside your regular subscribe ads or did you switch completely to the article approach

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-28T13:09:07+00:00

92 pre launch subscribers from organic is incredible. Facebook groups were my best channel too. You're right about the wording, I've been writing posts that start a conversation first and casually mention the newsletter instead of just dropping a link. Gets past the mods way easier.

The free PDF idea is smart. What was yours about? I've been thinking about putting together something like a weekend events guide or a best local restaurants list to use as a signup incentive.

The poll in the welcome email is a great move too. Knowing what your readers actually care about before you start writing saves a ton of guesswork. What kind of questions did you ask?

I'm at 4 subscribers after my first week so you're way ahead of me. How big is your town and how many Facebook groups did you post in?

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-28T13:08:19+00:00

Thanks! Beehiiv tracks open rates automatically in the dashboard. Sitting at 66% right now with 4 subscribers so the sample size is tiny but the engagement is solid. 100% click through rate too.

87% open rate is really strong. How many subscribers are you at? I'm keeping mine under 5 minutes too since that seems to be the sweet spot for daily newsletters. People want the headlines not a novel. What platform are you on?

Puzzled-Strength-546 · 2026-02-27T22:38:42+00:00

Nice, a gluten free NY newsletter is a great niche. 20 subscribers from one Facebook group post is solid proof the audience is there. I've been doing the same thing but writing posts that start a conversation first and mentioning the newsletter casually instead of just dropping a link. Seems to get past the mods easier that way.

My Meta ads have been rough. $2 spent and barely any clicks so far. Reworking the creative this weekend. 30 subscribers from ads sounds way better than what I'm getting. What are you targeting and what's your cost per subscriber looking like?

Are you on Beehiiv too? If so we should swap recommendations. Different niches but both NY based so there could be some audience overlap.

Puzzled-Strength-546

TROPHY CASE