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I run The Sizzle (https://thesizzle.com.au https://thesizzle.com.au), which is a daily roundup of tech news with an Aussie slant. Any Australians who enjoy HN s

I run The Sizzle (https://thesizzle.com.au https://thesizzle.com.au), which is a daily roundup of tech news with an Aussie slant. Any Australians who enjoy HN should check it out! I've got 445 subscribers that pay $5/m or $50/yr for it. No ads, no tracking, but I do insert affiliate links - primarily eBay. Costs me about ~$1000/yr to run (Mailchimp, web hosting for a Wordpress blog & Discourse forum and Zapier costs mainly). This financial year (July 1st 2016 to June 30th 2017), revenue sits at about AUD$18,000. I expect around ~$30,000 next year if there's 0% paid subscriber growth and affiliate link revenue stays the same.

movedx 9y ago
I'll checkout your news letter mate, cheers. Those running costs, the $1,000/year, seems a bit high. Should be able to get that down I reckon? I'm willing to help out on this front for a free sub' :) Let me know.
- decryption 9y ago
  Thanks for subscribing! I reckon you'll like The Sizzle. I'm working on getting costs down, but prefer to put my energy into content and marketing at this stage.
  - movedx 9y ago
    I'd love to get your insights on marketing, actually. A friend and I have started a YouTube channel which we're getting back to this next few weeks. Any reading tips and ideas on marketing?
    - decryption 9y ago
      I don't really have any insights into marketing. I'd say that's what I struggle with the most. I was able to cheat a bit by having a bit of a following already via other projects I've been part of. Expanding out of that circle has been pretty hard.
      - movedx 9y ago
        Thanks for the heads up. I have a better idea of what to expect, then :)
milesaus 9y ago
Awesome work! Great to see a fellow Aussie newsletter making $ :)
- decryption 9y ago
  Cheers - I subscribe to growth.email as well. Been handy to use some of the tips to get subscribers to The Sizzle.
marban 9y ago
What's your primary user acquisition strategy?
- decryption 9y ago
  I give away a 2 week free trial with no strings attached. No credit card info necessary - just give me your email address. Half way through the free trial, subscribers are asked if they'd like to become a paid subscriber. Once the free trial is over, I then send a bunch of automated "hey please subscribe, pleaseeeee" emails at 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 28, 31, 35 and 40 days after the subscriber's trial ends. Currently there's a ~20% conversion rate from trial to paid. Used to be around 30% for a while, but as more strangers - i.e: people that don't follow me on Twitter, don't know me from other sources such as my freelance tech writing or podcasting - sign up that's dropping slowly. Getting people to sign up for a free trial is my main focus and success there comes in ups and downs. So many hours wasted on things that don't work, but every now and then something unexpected goes well and I get a spike in people signing up for the trial (and hence, become paid subscribers in 2-3-4 weeks after their trial ends).
  - tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
    Do you get feedback about the follow-up ”Subscribe please“ mails? I’d be thoroughly annoyed to get 9 reminder mails.
    - decryption 9y ago
      The only feedback I get is one of three things: 1. they end up becoming paid subscribers 2. they unsubscribe from the list and never hear from me again 3. don't bother to do either and just languish on my list and I email them manually whenever I feel like it I haven't done a lot of tweaking to determine if I'd get more conversions if I slowed down the pace of the up-sell emails though.

movedx 9y ago

I'll checkout your news letter mate, cheers. Those running costs, the $1,000/year, seems a bit high. Should be able to get that down I reckon? I'm willing to help out on this front for a free sub' :) Let me know.

decryption 9y ago
Thanks for subscribing! I reckon you'll like The Sizzle. I'm working on getting costs down, but prefer to put my energy into content and marketing at this stage.
- movedx 9y ago
  I'd love to get your insights on marketing, actually. A friend and I have started a YouTube channel which we're getting back to this next few weeks. Any reading tips and ideas on marketing?
  - decryption 9y ago
    I don't really have any insights into marketing. I'd say that's what I struggle with the most. I was able to cheat a bit by having a bit of a following already via other projects I've been part of. Expanding out of that circle has been pretty hard.
    - movedx 9y ago
      Thanks for the heads up. I have a better idea of what to expect, then :)

milesaus 9y ago

Awesome work! Great to see a fellow Aussie newsletter making $ :)

decryption 9y ago
Cheers - I subscribe to growth.email as well. Been handy to use some of the tips to get subscribers to The Sizzle.

marban 9y ago

What's your primary user acquisition strategy?

decryption 9y ago
I give away a 2 week free trial with no strings attached. No credit card info necessary - just give me your email address. Half way through the free trial, subscribers are asked if they'd like to become a paid subscriber. Once the free trial is over, I then send a bunch of automated "hey please subscribe, pleaseeeee" emails at 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 28, 31, 35 and 40 days after the subscriber's trial ends. Currently there's a ~20% conversion rate from trial to paid. Used to be around 30% for a while, but as more strangers - i.e: people that don't follow me on Twitter, don't know me from other sources such as my freelance tech writing or podcasting - sign up that's dropping slowly. Getting people to sign up for a free trial is my main focus and success there comes in ups and downs. So many hours wasted on things that don't work, but every now and then something unexpected goes well and I get a spike in people signing up for the trial (and hence, become paid subscribers in 2-3-4 weeks after their trial ends).
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
  Do you get feedback about the follow-up ”Subscribe please“ mails? I’d be thoroughly annoyed to get 9 reminder mails.
  - decryption 9y ago
    The only feedback I get is one of three things: 1. they end up becoming paid subscribers 2. they unsubscribe from the list and never hear from me again 3. don't bother to do either and just languish on my list and I email them manually whenever I feel like it I haven't done a lot of tweaking to determine if I'd get more conversions if I slowed down the pace of the up-sell emails though.