Secret weapons of small publishers

I was cruising Reddit this week when a comment caught my eye.

Someone asked how much people made from their newsletter and one person wrote:

“Just crossed $100k/month in profits.”

The kicker is that they had 700k total subscribers.

That’s roughly $1.70 per subscriber PER YEAR.

Not great Bob!

I’m not here to shame that newsletter writer in any way. That’s plenty of money.

I’m here to bust the myth that your audience needs to be big to be valuable.

At 700k, your audience gets unwieldy. But if you’re more in the 700-7000 range, you’ve got some secret weapons big outlets can’t use anymore.

This week, I’m sharing 5 of those untouchable advantages.

5 Secret weapons of small publishers

I’m defining small audience as anything under 10,000 returning readers (either consistent website users who have accounts or newsletter subscribers.)

🏹 1:1 Reader outreach

Can you count the number of new readers you get every day on your hand? Each one is a precious early supporter! They can help you sow the seeds of your growth by sharing why they value what you’re doing (which you can leverage in your marketing!)

How to do it:

• Write new readers once a week, once a month or whenever you can make time!

• 1st email: Ask how they heard about you, ask what they care about.

• 2nd email: Invite them to become a paid reader or make an ask of some kind—a testimonial, a share, a follow.

Pro tip: If your audience is on the bigger side, segment your list to pull a few highly engaged new readers (open rate, click rate, paying) for this outreach.

Example: Rosie from Bolts wrote me this personalized email after a small contribution.

🏹 DMs to get subscribers

Is your social following bigger than your reader list? DM your followers! Make sure they know about your newsletter or your paid subscriptions.

How to do it:

• You can DM every new follower or if your list is super small (less than 100 subscribers), just DM everyone.

• Automate this with Hypefury on X and Manychat for Instagram (read reviews of these tools and make sure your set up won’t get you banned).

• Definitely do this with anyone in your DMs frequently or people who reply to you a lot.

Pro tip: Save a few DM templates in your notes app so they’re handy to use.

Example: Jason Levin from Meme Alerts DMed me this simple upsell after I joined his newsletter.

🏹 Host cheap events

When you’ve got 700k people, it’s hard to host them all in a room. But if you’ve got 70, y’all can just hang at a bar! Cheap events are only possible when you’re small. You can often ask breweries, restaurants or coffee shops to post up in a corner with a little tabletop sign for free. I have done this many an occasion.

Easy Ideas:

• Offer a happy hour or coffee gathering for up to 10 paying readers

• Run a virtual meet and greet on Zoom and share your vision!

• Invite your readers to join someone else’s event and meet up with them after

Examples:

• Host paying readers for a launch party like Alissa Walker did for Torched

• Turn it into a game like Hell Gate did with Eric Adams Trivia Night

• Make city council take the bus with you like RANGE did with the PolitiCrawl

🏹 Founding member pricing

Founding member pricing is basically seed money for a new publication. It’s also a designation of great honor for your biggest fans. Go big!

How to do it:

• Aim much higher than your standard pricing: $500-2000/year range.

• Typically, there’s a limited number of these or a limited amount of time they are available. That’s what makes them a “Founding” price.

Pro tip: Calculate price and number available based on your first 6-12 months revenue target (for example: if you want to make $18k in the first six months, that’s 36 founding members at $500/year)

Example: Hearing Things which launched last month offers a $1k/year subscription

🏹 Offer the ‘Hall of Fame’ perk

Related to the Founding Members, you can offer a “Hall of Fame” style perk which makes your readers feel special and seen when your publication is newer or smaller.

How to do it:

• Make a page on your website called “Hall of Fame”

• Write a blurb about what the Hall of Fame is and who goes there

• List the Hall of Famers by name

Pro-tip: Include a button that goes to your upgrade or donation page so more people can become Hall of Famers

Example: Defector offers the Hall of Fame to subscribers who pay $1k/year

If you just skipped down here, know this…

Your untouchable advantage over big publishers is how close you can get to your audience.

Leverage your initial supporters early and often to fund your publication and to fuel your growth. Don’t be afraid to talk to them and to ask for their help!