Eight reasons you’ll be glad you started and grew your newsletter in the next ten years

Mastery Den, Saturday Edition, 4-min read.

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Over fourteen years ago, a bright orange book caught my eye in a London Waterstones bookshop.

A lazy scene on the cover featuring a hammock and a palm tree featured beneath bold words that said:

‘The Four Hour Work Week.’

I brought the hardback book home that day and read it in two sittings.

It prompted me to write an ebook in a bid to follow the guidance so I could potentially generate some ‘passive’ income. To sell the ebook I needed a couple of things:

• A blog

• A newsletter

At least — in the way I planned to promote my ebook. Of course, there are other ways, like paid ads.

I sold about forty copies of my $39 book: ’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’ back in 2010. Those were my first real online dollars, and I was so happy I had considered running out into the streets to cry my praise for Tim Ferriss.

I settled instead for eating a whole thing of sour gummi snakes.

Many of those sales were thanks to my email list.

And I’ve been growing my list(s) ever since then.

One of my main motivators to continually write online today is knowing that a handful of new readers will decide to subscribe each day.

My newsletter has been a pivotal asset in my remote business, bringing me clients, sponsors, paid memberships, speaking gigs and selling courses and books.

Here are some more reasons why I am excited to own a newsletter in the next ten years:

1. In the near future, you will be able to use AI chatbots to interact with your readers.

I know this sounds a bit cold, but this opens up your coaching to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to work with you directly. 

The AI bot will be smart too, and a close representation of you because those digital critters can reach into all your content to date and speak to subscribers similarly to how you write, using ideas you’ve shared. 

You could even charge a membership fee for this kind of service. 

2. Attention monetized.

Many people think of online business as directly solving people’s problems through products or services like consulting. 

But you can also make money through purely creative expression. This is why having sponsors can be so powerful. 

In my case, I’ve been promoting a reading summary product I’ve been using called Shortform in my Untethered Mind newsletter.

They pay me a little to endorse their name (because I genuinely like their product) in my articles. And so I earn money by writing about topics I love.

In this way, I am selling the attention that comes to my newsletters.

3. Ongoing influence, impact and even world-change. 

As your newsletter grows, your influence and reach will expand, allowing you to raise awareness and advocate for important issues that will bring meaning.

4. You will never be alone.

Just because people are attached to you as faceless ‘subscribers’ doesn’t mean they are not part of a community — your community. 

It’s one you built. And there are many ways to encourage those community members to graduate from silent lurkers to full-blown clients or even real-life friends. I’ve had my subscribers host me in their homes when I go travelling for example.

A community of like-minded friends is one of the most powerful assets in an uncertain world. Your newsletter (like your social media) is like a beacon bringing your people to you. 

A newsletter is superior to social media followings in this case too, because you own the list, but you also have an ‘excuse’ to continue emailing people, so you don't fade into obscurity.

This is how to keep your network warm and buzzing.

5. AI content embellishment.

We’re already seeing much of this happening. 

By content embellishment, I mean there are increasing ways technology can take an article of yours and translate it into a different form of content. 

For example, text-to-audio, improved visual support, language translation, and even creating video and animation will become more effective and easier over time. 

Not only this, I anticipate tools to improve that take a newsletter you wrote and more effectively disseminate their offspring content across various platforms in different formats, more suited to the destination platform. 

This all opens up your content to more people around the world more efficiently, and thus we might see a rapid rise in exposure for consistent content creators over time.

6. Opportunities for other income streams.

A newsletter can send current subscribers to other enterprises you might have, like a podcast, YouTube channel, online shop for merchandise, premium subscriptions, or products, or even in-person events like retreats.

Having a newsletter also puts you in a position to attract more attention from book agents, product co-creators, and course creators when you have that added clout with your brand and following.

7. I view my newsletter as a substantial component of my retirement fund. 

I see it this way because, with an audience in place, I can sell evergreen products or even other people’s products into my old age. 

I can even hire help or automate the process of sharing articles (recycled even) and promoting products or my own books for ongoing sales.

8. Research opportunities.

You can use your newsletter for research purposes, conducting surveys and studies to gather data on the trends and needs of your ideal people. 

This will help you develop the right products and services that will be a hit for these people.

Overall, understanding why a newsletter continues to be valuable need not be complicated. Essentially, we’re talking about building a community of people around you who like what you do, and regularly hear from you. 

There is a lot of value in having people connected to you who have already given you permission to show up in their inbox.

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Thanks for reading.

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