Dan Oshinsky’s Post

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Looking to build, grow, and monetize your newsletter? We should chat.

I’ve been getting this recurring question lately, both in the 1-on-1s I have with readers and the conversations in my inbox: “Is my newsletter a failure if I *don’t* monetize it?” Of course not. If you’ve got a personal newsletter, try to set a few metrics today for success. Those could be around engagement (opens/clicks), habit (how often a reader reads), growth (how big your newsletter gets), or monetization (revenue).  But there might also be goals you can set — but can’t track in your email service provider or Google Analytics. Think about these four categories: ∙ Personal goals — Something you try just for yourself (i.e. I want to use my newsletter to build a weekly writing habit) ∙ Professional goals — Something to help grow your career (i.e. I want to do more public speaking, and my newsletter can open doors for me to do that) ∙ Leadership goals — Something you want to do for your industry (i.e. I want to build a space where others can learn from my experience) ∙ Learning goals — Something you want to get better at through your newsletter (i.e. I want to learn the basics of HTML/CSS) Set a few different goals for your newsletter. You’ll find that your newsletter — or any side project — can be hugely successful, even if it doesn’t make a single dollar.

Sam Hoisington

News Founder + Indiegraf

2y

no money, just vibes

Adam Soclof

Customer Wellbeing | Marketing & Communications Strategy

2y

Thanks for this insight Dan Oshinsky, and applies really to any creative undertaking or volunteer work. Doing something you're passionate about will help you grow as a leader and open doors for you and others, especially if your passion is genuine. The outcome should be feeling fulfilled; the metrics can follow from there.

Seth Morris

Global Quality System Specialist at Smith+Nephew

2y

Well said. My personal newsletter helped me reach multiple personal and learning goals. The newsletter itself never hit a traditional sense of "success" (big subscriber list, great open rates, etc.), but the habits and skills I learned while creating it were invaluable.

This is a breath of fresh air in my hustle-hard-and-monetize-every-project LinkedIn feed, Dan! Yes to what you said - a hundred times yes.

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