If you've ever asked me for advice on how to grow your newsletter, you'll know my answer is (disappointingly) boring:
- Put 90% of your creative energy into producing unique, amazing content
- Invest the remaining 10% into figuring out smart ways to monetize
- Follow the same, boring growth playbook that works for ~everyone (Meta ads + SparkLoop partner program on the front-end, arbitrage with paid recs + own offers on the backend)
And — to be clear — that playbook is still the best way to build a 6+ figure newsletter for most people today.
You should innovate on your content, not your monetization/acquisition strategy.
But — maybe sometimes — there's room for a bit of creativity outside of the content...
Opportunity in opposites
Here's the deal: Recently, I've seen multiple examples of smart newsletter operators doing the complete opposite of what everyone else is doing... and getting amazing results.
Let's look at three examples:
1 Size matters
My friend Nathan started a newsletter recently, with a target audience of 7+ figure business execs.
Now, most people would attempt to grow that newsletter audience quickly. More readers = more people referring their exec friends. And more readers = more social proof which will make those execs feel more "FOMO" and subscribe.
But not Nathan. He did the exact opposite.
Instead of making it easy to get on the newsletter, he made it hard: The only way to get on the list is via a personal invitation from Nathan himself.
The result: Nathan's target audience perceive the newsletter as super valuable and are honored to be invited. Leading them to try and share with more, high-value friends too.
By doing the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing, Nathan achieved the exact same results (but better).
2 Original content
Ask a local newsletter operator what their audience wants, and they'll all say the same thing:
"Unique, personal content from someone who actually lives in (and loves) the community".
So it's not surprising that most local newsletter operators take a very hands-on approach to content creation. They spend a bunch of time out reviewing local restaurants and attending events first-hand.
But not Ryan Heafy and the 6AM City team. They do the exact opposite.
As Ryan explained to me last week: "There's absolutely no reason for our team to be out reporting on the ground... [our readers are amazing at surfacing this genuine, relevant local content for us to share with the broader audience]".
The result: 6AM City can produce the exact same kind of content their readership is asking for... with much less work and in a way that is significantly more scalable.
3 Reverse Referrals
Let's cover one final example on the growth side: Referral programs.
For the past ~10 years, newsletter operators have approached referral programs in more or less the same way...
"How can we reward our subscribers for driving as many referrals as possible?"
But recently, I started helping a friend test out a referral program that works in completely the opposite way:
- you get no reward for referring friends
- you're only allowed to make 3 referrals each(!)
This video explains how it works in more detail:
I can't share full details yet (storing it up for a YT video coming soon)... but early results have been amazing. Completely outperforming a "regular" referral program by doing everything "wrong".
So what's the common thread?
All three examples above work by following the same pattern:
- Identify a "boring" best practice
- Truly understand why that best practice works: What's the target effect and why?
- "Break stuff": Once you really understand how something works, you can often figure out a way to get better results by doing the opposite (if only because you're the only one doing it!)
In today's attention economy, there are big competitive advantages to doing something different that people haven't seen before. At least until everyone copies you, that is!
Roast my own (silly) attempt
I wanted to come up with another example of how to win by "zigging when others zag"... and I thought why not have some fun with it!
The result: I invented the world's stupidest way to monetize a newsletter.
Here's an explainer video:
You can try it out here for yourself →
