niche newsletters ftw

I was thinking about this the other day. The Tiktok ban sucks for the small businesses that used it. It helped them grow rapidly and create huge sources of revenue from posting videos, getting creative, and thinking outside the box with little to no marketing dollars. That all goes away for them. But what was so beautiful was how engaged their fans were. Their audiences loved local brands, niche products, and learning about what else is out there.

So what does this have to do with niche newsletters?

Well, the idea is the same. It's tapping into that same feeling. Building a small loyal audience and generating tons of revenue by doing it.

Today we will talk about why it's so appealing to do this, some examples of people who are doing this successfully, and strategies on how you can do this yourself.

why niche newsletters?

I currently live in the Sonoran southwest. And I've been obsessed with the native plants in Arizona. It's such a unique landscape and the variety of native plants out here is so vast it will blow your mind. I've been kicking around an idea to start a local plant newsletter myself. But what's crazy is that for the life of me, I can't find any great resources to help me care for, or even find these native plants. I have to search far and wide to even get the slightest info that I’m looking for.

Sure… I could use plant apps that help identify, or get insights from a local nursery, but the lack of information is so astounding to me. And I'm sure other folks like me are searching for this kinda thing.

What’s unique about niche newsletters is the ability to have a 1:1 conversation with your readers at scale. You can't do that with general news or broader topics. It's not possible. People have their own opinions and derive their own conversations. And you can’t avoid things that can be taken out of context. But this doesn’t happen as often with niche newsletters.

The engagement you would see from this would be through the roof. It can't even compare.

Going back to the native plants thing… my core group of friends are not interested in it. I can't discuss it with them, which isn't their fault, they just don't identify with it.

But the concept is so powerful because I know there are others out there that I can have hour-long conversations with. That's where niche newsletters come in. You can build an instant community that's incredibly engaged. Even if it's just 1,000 email subscribers. But what's even more special about this is the emotional attachment it creates. Some of these niche ideas are what people identify themselves as. On the weekends, native plants are my life. It's all I talk about or work on.

success stories

I'll never forget... when I lived in Austin there was a friend of mine who was obsessed with possums. Weird I know. But when he showed me the Facebook group he was in I was blown away. Over 100k people were in it. I was like what the hell? How is that even possible?

Jokes aside, there are serious business applications with this. Take Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life . I've been following Matthew Berry for a long time. If you're not familiar with him, he got his start on an ESPN show about Fantasy Football. I was obsessed. I would religiously watch his show every Sunday morning to make sure my lineup was good before the games kicked off. Matthew saw the business opportunity after he left ESPN, and little did I know I was part of his community.

Now he has a full flesh media business, and the niche audience is huge. Over 400,000 subscribers, raising over $2M to help him scale. With those types of numbers, he could do $10M a year easily. Both paid subscriptions, and advertising.

starting your own

It doesn't mean this will be easy. You can't get carried away with crazy ultra-niche ideas. There's got to be a market for it. And you have to be the one who finds the gap in it. Take my native plant example... I've searched high and low for a community and can't find one. But when I walk my dog every morning I can see the shift. People are taking out their lawns and turf, and xeriscaping with native plants. Just in my neighborhood alone, I can tell there's a business opportunity here. Look for the signals.

I'm not saying that you have to be some genius to do this. But if you do you're the voice. You have to make sure there is an appetite for this, otherwise you'll have difficulty scaling.

monetizing

Once you find that market, it doesn't have to get that big. For example, I read A Tiny Apt. by Christene Barberich. She is the founder of Refinery29 All she talks about is thrifting. That's it. And she's built a business of hundreds of paid and thousands of free subscribers. When she started this, thrifting wasn't a thing. Now it's huge, and she's reaped the benefits. But it's not like she has half a million readers, she's got a small community and it does extremely well.

Think about the potential partners she could work with. She could work with all kinds of brands and companies. Depop, Grailed, and local businesses too. Refurnishing, leather workers, and more.

On top of the advertising dollars, she also gives insights to her paid subscribers. She can talk about how she thrifts, what she looks for, items she might have for sale, the best stores you can go to, meet-ups, and more. The opportunities are endless to monetize with great content. She has the audience to do it. And they'll be engaged on levels that a general newsletter can't reach. With a small audience, she can build a thriving 7 figure business.

With newsletters, there's opportunity everywhere. Find the signals.

see you next week,

shaan

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