🟢 56% growth per MONTH

My subscriber stats, revenue, expenses. After this newsletter blows up, you'll get to say “I was there from the beginning!”

Ryan Walsh 🟢

Mar 12, 2024

(3.5 min read)

View from a stage in a crowded arena. There is a spotlight pointed towards the stage. Lots of flashing lights from the crowd. There are no performers on the stage. Instead, as if it's a circular tabletop balanced on its edge, there is a giant green circle. The green circle at the front middle of the stage, where normally there would be a performer. The crowd is excited to see the green circle there.

📊🔍
Full transparency as usual:

My calculations show that my recent subscriber growth has been strong.

It’s a stat, and it’s true, and people are likely to click it, so I’ll go ahead and publish it as the title.

But the post title “56% growth per MONTH” sounds prouder than I actually feel.

And maybe I’d be delusional to hope for that rate going forward. 🤪

Issue #1 was Jan 2, 2024, and I started with 19 subscribers.

Today is Issue #21, and I now have 146 subscribers. (Whoa, thanks for being here!)

Expenses: I’ve invested $366.48 into courses and ads.

Revenue: I’ve earned $65.34 after transaction fees.

Profit: -$301.14 in these 70 days.

That extrapolates to -$1,570.23 annualized profit.

(And it’s not just a financial loss; there is also the massive opportunity cost.

I could earn much more if I looked for a full-time job in software engineering again.)

Linear subscriber growth would predict 681 subscribers by end of year. Womp womp.

Obviously my newsletter so far would have more accurately been called “Work More, Profit Less”.

This is okay!

(The idea of “Happiness = Reality - Expectations” comes to mind.)

For these first few months, I expected ZERO revenue, actually.

And I expected to spend a bit more than I did, too.

But ads weren’t working as well as I’d hoped, so I quickly killed that experiment.

So although ad spend was less than planned, subscriber growth was slower than expected too.

(Side note: My open rates are around 39%, which is much lower than I expected.

I think if I exclude the fake or not-actually-interested subscribers that the ads seemed to have attracted, the open rates might be decent.)

Overall, though, the results of my first 2+ months of writing this newsletter have been within the bounds of my expectations and comfort level for getting started.

However.

Writing this newsletter will be way more fun when:

10,000 subscribers enjoy it
I’m earning a comfortable living

You know the feeling of when you’re in a groove?

Video gif. Footage of a baby in a striped onesie, walking awkwardly with their hands behind their back. They shift their weight into a cheerful and much more coordinated dance.

When your rituals work, and you want to lock them in?

When you’re profiting in a sustainable way, and so you pour fuel on the fire?

I love (and miss) that feeling.

Offering something useful to someone is thrilling, and accepting their money for it is really nice too.

If somehow I could keep attracting 56%1 new subscribers per month, I actually would soon have 10,000 subscribers. 🤯

That’s fun to dream about (as I did in my first post… back on Jan 2).

But large percentages are easiest in the beginning months.

Plus, back then, I naively assumed it would be easier to find:

coaching about how to run this kind of business
a paid growth strategy so that I don’t need to ~~waste~~ spend time on LinkedIn and Substack looking for new subscribers.

I’ll keep searching.

Anyway.

This would all be easier if I could clearly define:

I want the <my vehicle> part to be “an online course”. Probably.

But I keep hearing advice:

“Choose the person you want to help FIRST. They will tell you what their pain is.”

(The solutions to their pain are then the <what they want> part.)

You can only offer a <vehicle> once you’ve determined how to efficiently and enjoyably solve their pain.

If I stubbornly choose the <vehicle> first, I’m going in reverse order. 🤦‍♂️

But it’s been over 2 months!

An Ideal Client hasn’t jumped out at me.

I’m itching to make progress.

And another useful principle is:

Make some decisions. Take some action.

(You can’t steer a parked car.)

You’ll get feedback, and you can adjust.

What is something I can try?

Today I splurged and paid $1 for the domain name I’ve had my eye on.

Funny how 100 cents (plus the distraction of the related chores) can cause me to hesitate for weeks.

“Is this a worthwhile experiment? Or is it merely shiny object syndrome?”

I bought this domain: WealthFromWords.com.

Why?

My logic:

In the future, I’m more likely to make a living from my ideas than from writing code. (AI will eat software engineering jobs. Maybe my software engineering days are behind me?)
I’ll probably create and sell a copywriting course. (I need to learn how to be excellent at it anyway, so I then might as well teach what I learn.)
Even if that fails, I could teach how to do 1:1 phone sales (which I had success with in the past), and the domain name would still be appropriate for that.
Social networks like Substack and LinkedIn are overflowing with people looking to make deals with each other. There is a possible product there that could be called WealthFromWords, too.
I love thinking about the topic of wealth, in general, and have a lot of thoughts to share about it (as I have been in this newsletter), especially since I worked with extraordinarily wealthy people at the #1 hedge fund.2

What do you think?

My approach to the newsletter so far (since starting January 2):

Tuesdays and Saturdays you’ll receive short, easy-to-read emails where I share:

vulnerable stories about risks I’m taking and what I’m learning
strategies for attracting an audience of raving fans
practical tips for profiting as a solopreneur in an asynchronous, scalable way

Going forward, I think I should narrow my focus.

I’ve been fascinated with the strength of the written word.

It’s the most scalable way of influencing people.

Newsletters, ads, landing pages, video scripts, sales call scripts, sales letters.

Powerful.

Perhaps my business idea could be something like:

“I help solopreneurs (such as newsletter authors) attract customers, engagement, and sales through my story-based character-revealing writing strategies.”

I could treat this newsletter as a free beta of the copywriting course I could build.

I’ll study copywriting voraciously.

As I learn something, I’ll share a lesson.

💬 Conversation starters:

What do you think?

Who should my ideal client be?

And do you think a product called “Wealth From Words” could help?

What should this newsletter look like going forward?

Reply or leave a comment!

I’ll be so excited to write back to you.

Ooo, interesting

Apparently 10% of my subscribers also subscribe to Pathless by Paul Millerd which is encouraging.

It’s cool to see

Paul Millerd

represented here. What an inspiring book and community of people!

👀 Caught my eye this week:

What an amazing sales letter post from
Ash Ambirge
. She has such a captivating style. (I’m not affiliated)
I love hearing about writers attracting 10,000 subscribers in less than 12 months.
Freya India
is another one! What I’ve read from her so far was impressive.

🙌 Do you want to get featured in a future issue? Let me know.

🕙 What we learned in recent posts:

🟢 3 reasons to choose fulfillment instead of money (and eventually have both)

🟢 Expensive problems are the best

🟢 What I learned managing $210 billion

🟢 Design your work around your ideal life (not the other way around)

🟢 [See all posts]

Feel free to share this post with friends and/or click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

If I include in my calculations the subscribers that arrived because of the ads I ran, the number would be 286%, but the 56% “organic” growth number feels more relevant.

I’m a fan of paid growth strategies (I hate spending time and energy on social media trying to promote myself), but I haven’t found one that works yet for attracting subscribers who will actually read and engage with the content.

I also loving thinking about non-financial wealth, which matters even more. (And non-financial wealth will increasingly be everyone’s focus in the years to come, as exponential technology provides widespread abundance and makes money obsolete.)