The Reality of Building a Newsletter Audience

In the world of online content, there's a common message that goes something like this: "Take my course and you'll have 10,000 newsletter subscribers in 90 days." It feels tempting, especially after you have struggled so hard to build any sort of momentum, but in my experience, these promises are far from reality.

When i started my newsletter, Hippie CEO Life, i didn't have a specific subscriber goal. But i did expect it to be more popular than it is. My open rates hover around 50%, and very few people like, comment, or share my newsletters. It's made me wonder: am i not providing valuable content?

The truth is, building a newsletter audience is really hard. It's disheartening to put so much thought, research, and time into publishing, only to see low open rates and slow subscriber growth. There have been many times when i've felt like giving up.

Consistency is key in this game. Whether it's a podcast, blog posts, or social media content, your audience wants to know when they can expect something new from you. But even with a consistent publishing schedule, growth can be slow. And for most of us, usually is.

The claims of online gurus about the ease of audience growth feel far removed from my reality. "Just follow these 8 steps and you'll have 1 million subs before you know it." It's a nice thought, but it doesn't match my experience.

So, what advice would I give to others trying to grow their own communities? Understand what you're doing this for. If your goal is to reach 1 million subscribers, you might need to change your focus. Write for your subscribers, create viral content, use click-bait style headlines, let the metrics drive your content strategy.

But if you're writing for yourself, stop obsessing over the metrics. The only metric that matters is whether you're fulfilling your obligation to yourself to publish content you're passionate about on a schedule you set.

As for the future of my newsletter, i'm not sure. i'm currently debating whether to keep writing or not. Maybe i'll keep writing for myself but stop publishing or sharing my thoughts and ideas with the world, at least not in newsletter format. Only time will tell.