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👋 Hey!
This week's all about the money moves! We're diving into brand deal strategies that actually work, platform updates from Buttondown and Substack, plus newsletter tips that’ll help you elevate your newsletter. Whether you're chasing your first sponsor or scaling to $10K+ deals, we've got actionable insights to help you get there.
Let's dive in! 👇
🔥 This Week's Hot Takes
Substack launches desktop livestreaming with smarter clips. Stream from your computer and auto-publish clips to YouTube and LinkedIn, perfect for driving reach and subscriptions without extra editing work.
Buttondown will self-host email sending in 2026. Expect lower per-email costs, faster delivery, and more deliverability control. Creators should start planning for platform-specific pricing changes now.
The biggest newsletter advice: serve one specific person. Pick one ideal reader and craft everything for them. Focus simplifies content, boosts retention, and makes monetization easier.
Creators overinvest in subscribers, underinvest in content. Stop chasing raw signups; improving free content drives higher retention, referrals, and paid conversions, delivering a better ROI.
Niche newsletters command premium ad rates. Highly-engaged, focused lists charge higher CPMs but convert better. Prioritize audience fit to lower CPA and boost sponsor ROI.
💡 Growth Hack of the Week
Justin Moore's $10K Brand-Deal Pitch Framework
How:
Define your audience + one clear brand use-case (10 min).
Build 3 modular pitch templates: short intro (30–40 words), one KPI-driven value claim, and a one-line creative hook (15–20 min).
Add a one-slide mockup or sample placement to show the idea.
Outreach cadence: Day 0 email, Day 3 quick follow-up, Day 7 final nudge + offer a small paid pilot.
A/B two subject lines and track replies for the first 50 sends.
Why: Proven approach, Justin touts $5M+ in sponsorships. Positioning + brevity + a low-friction paid test converts more skeptical brands.
Expected Result: 2–3× reply rate, first $5k–$10k sponsor in 30–90 days, and pitch prep cut to ~15 minutes per prospect.
Pro Tip: Start with a small paid pilot to prove ROI before pitching bigger packages!
Spotlight: Wellsourced by Kelly Jensen
What Works:
Hyper-focused authority: Kelly covers libraries, book bans, and YA lit, a niche that draws deeply engaged readers.
Personal + topical mix: She pairs reporting with personal stories, which boosts trust and shareability.
Low-friction production: Buttondown keeps tech simple so she can write solo and publish consistently.
Creator Quote: "Buttondown's ease of use, as well as its ability to do all of the transferring of my newsletters and subscriptions over so that I could focus on the thing I care about—writing!—were major sells."
Read the full Buttondown interview and try a simple routine: draft, one edit, schedule a weekly send.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Why You'll Love It: Built to grow your audience, not just send emails. Prioritizes list-building with landing pages, referral tools, and straightforward audience analytics so email becomes a repeatable acquisition channel.
Best For: Indie creators and newsletter teams focused on subscriber growth, referral-driven acquisition, and turning readers into paying subscribers.
🧪 A/B Test of the Week
What Buttondown Added: A new feature that randomizes survey answer order to reduce position bias; the first option typically gets more clicks regardless of content.
Newsletter Application: Test randomized vs. fixed answer order in your next poll or survey. Track whether responses become more evenly distributed.
Takeaway: Position bias skews poll results. Randomizing answer order provides more reliable data and helps you trust your audience insights. Enable via API flag for programmatic control.
😂 Meme of the Week
When you're confident your pitch will land a $10K sponsor, but the brand ghosts you after reading "I have 847 subscribers"...
🔗 Quick Links
Questions? Just write a comment below. I read all the comments and respond to them.
Thanks for reading,
Eren Daskesen
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