His first newsletter topic stunk. Now he has 2mm+ subscribers

Friday Copy Over Coffee ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Back just before James Clear became THE James Clear (best-selling author of Atomic Habits)... I hung out with him in NYC. I was visiting Sean Ogle and they're friends. I didn't have a place to stay that particular night and James was put up in a fancy hotel by American Express (he was an affiliate for them back in the day). James let me crash on the second bed in his room. Not the same bed! Don't worry (talking to my wife here). Random, yes. But now I can say I've slept (in the same room) with best selling author James Clear. Anyway, I bring up James because of how he started his business and newsletter. James now has over 2 million newsletter subscribers. My timelines might be a little wonky but when I met James he was working on a website called Passive Panda -- a site about earning passive income. He also had his personal website JamesClear.com. At the time, JamesClear.com was mainly like a personal blog for him. He'd post his photos, write about travel and books he was reading. Over time, the topics morphed into what they are now -- the GENERAL topic of "habits". The point is: a big-time author in the huge generic market of "habits" started super small & kinda unrelated. Last night I talked about the better way to "build a list" being to "build a newsletter". The way most people build email lists looks like this: ❌ Come up with a hyper-focused niche idea that you need to be an expert in ("Train Your Dog To Stop Barking At The Mailman") ❌ Work in secret for months or years building a product around that idea ❌ Release it to crickets ❌ Spend months or years promoting it with no luck ❌ Start over from the beginning or give up entirely due to lack of time, lack of funds, etc. But imagine instead if it looked like this: ✅ Come up with a very general idea that appeals to a wider market that you don't need to be an expert in ("Dog Training Tips") ✅ Over a single weekend put up an opt-in page with at most one short piece of content and drive traffic to it ✅ Write just one email a week to that list following a proven newsletter format they're guaranteed to love ✅ Put a short survey in each of those emails to gauge what your audience wants to learn about — and even ask strategic questions to determine what they're willing to spend money on ✅ Give them what they asked for by creating your own products, selling other people's products, offering your consulting or coaching services, writing free content but selling ad space, etc ✅ Watch them buy because they already know, like, and trust you ✅ Profit 💰 and repeat 🔁 In the first scenario, you're taking a massive gamble that's statistically not going to pay off — and in the end you have nothing to show for it if it fails. In the second, there's almost no risk — you're putting in just 1-2 hours a week building an audience, sending them easy-to-write content from a winning formula that they actually WANT, and seeing results from day 1. And if it doesn't work out (which you'll know within just a few weeks), you still have a list you can leverage. But when it does work out... there's nothing quite like it. Your newsletter takes on a life of its own. Word spreads about how great your newsletter is, which multiplies how many products you sell, which makes more people join your list, which... well, you get the idea. It's unreal to experience. Not to mention that, since you own the list, you can sell to your audience again and again and again. Now, what I'm really saying is kinda hard to grasp at first. Don't really "pick a niche" to start. Pick a general market you'd like to target. And if you want to go slightly deeper... pick a general market where people buy stuff. You'll never quite be certain of anything until you get people on a newsletter and start sending them content and offers. So your newsletter topic could shift and morph from year to year, month to month or even week to week in the beginning. And it's better & easier that way. If you need proof... just look at what James Clear has built. Is this all making sense? We'll go deeper next week (more market talk, traffic, & monetization for newsletters). Cheers! - Derek Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( CopyHour.com, 340 S LEMON AVE, 5007, WALNUT, CA 91789