How to Start an Email Newsletter - Ali Abdaal - Dailymotion
dailymotion.com/arshian
How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y
My honest advice to a perfectionist:https : //dai.ly/x9319i4
My honest advice to someone who’s doing too much : https://dai.ly/x9319ty
My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78
My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom : https://dai.ly/x931ex2
If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money : https://dai.ly/x931j9y
How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6
How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42
How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm
Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252
How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8
How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
dailymotion.com/arshian
How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y
My honest advice to a perfectionist:https : //dai.ly/x9319i4
My honest advice to someone who’s doing too much : https://dai.ly/x9319ty
My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78
My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom : https://dai.ly/x931ex2
If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money : https://dai.ly/x931j9y
How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6
How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42
How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm
Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252
How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8
How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Last week, I spoke to Alex Lieberman,
00:02who started writing an email newsletter in his dorm room,
00:05and then a few years later sold it for $70 million.
00:07For me, starting an email newsletter
00:09was one of the best decisions I've made
00:10in my life as a creator.
00:11And now every time I send an email,
00:13I make around $5,000,
00:15which is more than I was making in a whole month
00:17of working full-time as a doctor.
00:19So in this video, we're gonna be breaking down
00:20why you should potentially consider
00:22starting an email newsletter,
00:23what you might wanna write about,
00:24and then the step-by-step process
00:26of how to go about this completely for free.
00:28And this is episode one of Creatorpreneur Club,
00:30which is a new series
00:31where we're gonna explore principle strategies and tools
00:33that we can use to kickstart
00:34or level up our creative entrepreneurial projects.
00:36Let's get into it.
00:37Part one, why you should maybe start an email newsletter.
00:39Right, so starting an email newsletter
00:41is the perfect starting point
00:42if you are new to the whole being a creator thing.
00:44So firstly, because it's completely free.
00:46There are a bunch of platforms out there
00:48that we're gonna talk about later in the video
00:49that are completely free.
00:50You do not have to pay a penny at all
00:52to start an email newsletter.
00:53And this is kinda different to starting a YouTube channel
00:55where, yes, you can film with your phone,
00:57but then there is an element of cost
00:59that it takes to get started
01:00with something like a YouTube channel.
01:02An email newsletter is completely free.
01:03Secondly, an email newsletter is very, very low friction.
01:06It's pretty easy to just get started writing.
01:08If you know how to type something,
01:10you can probably send an email newsletter.
01:12Again, something like starting a YouTube channel
01:14or starting a TikTok or an Instagram,
01:15it's like it does take a certain level of friction
01:18and a certain level of faff.
01:19Whereas when it comes to an email newsletter,
01:21all you have to do is type a few things and hit send.
01:23And so it's one of the easiest kind of platforms
01:25that you can get started with as a creator.
01:27Thirdly, an email newsletter is private
01:29in a nice kind of way,
01:30in that you're writing stuff for public consumption,
01:32but realistically, no one is gonna be finding your thing.
01:35There is no algorithm that encourages people
01:37to sign up to your email newsletter.
01:38So really, if you want,
01:39you can send your first several issues
01:41completely in private,
01:42and hopefully that'll help you get over the hurdle,
01:44the kind of the emotional barriers
01:45that get in everyone's ways
01:46whenever we're thinking of starting a new creative endeavour.
01:48Putting yourself out there on camera on a YouTube channel
01:50is admittedly a pretty big step.
01:52A lot of people really struggle with that step,
01:53but if you can put yourself out there
01:55in a small way and take those baby steps
01:57by, for example, sending a weekly email update
02:00to like a handful of friends,
02:02or even no one, or even just your mum or grandma,
02:04that really helps you kind of whet your appetite
02:06for what it's actually like to be a creator
02:09and share stuff publicly on the internet.
02:11And the final reason why starting an email newsletter
02:13is a great starting point
02:14is because ultimately it's all about writing.
02:16Now, any other kind of creative platform that you create on,
02:19like YouTube channels and YouTube videos
02:21are really about the writing.
02:22Even like TikToks and stuff,
02:24if you're gonna do them well,
02:25it's about scripting it and writing it
02:27and like structuring it in a way that makes a lot of sense.
02:29But the problem with all these public platforms
02:31is that you ultimately don't own the audience.
02:33Own the audience, that sounds kind of weird,
02:34but you ultimately don't own the audience.
02:36YouTube owns the audience.
02:37And I, right now,
02:38I'm just building a house on borrowed land.
02:41Like this YouTube channel is only successful
02:43because of YouTube, the platform.
02:44Whereas if I can take some of my audience
02:46and put them onto an email list,
02:47now I have a direct relationship with that audience.
02:49Now I can show up in their inbox
02:51because they've given me permission
02:52and I can show up in their inbox every single week
02:54and share stuff of value,
02:55which also means that when I have something to sell,
02:57I could potentially sell it to my email list.
02:59And to be honest, we've made over $2 million
03:02from selling our part-time YouTuber Academy,
03:04not through selling it on the YouTube channel,
03:05because I tend not to mention it on that,
03:06but actually through selling it on our email list.
03:08Because generally when people are on an email list,
03:10they've given you permission to contact them.
03:12They can unsubscribe anytime
03:14and it does help you build that relationship.
03:15People can reply to the emails, you can reply back.
03:17I've also made a bunch of friends through the internet
03:19because people have signed up to my newsletter
03:21and then have replied,
03:22and then I've replied and we've formed an exchange
03:25and maybe met up in real life or had Zoom calls.
03:25So that's one of the downstream benefits
03:27of having an email list,
03:28that you can build up this audience,
03:29which you then kind of own in a way
03:30that you don't really own your audience on other platforms.
03:32And the second main reason is that to be honest,
03:34an email newsletter itself could become an asset
03:37that you can then monetize further down the line
03:39if you want to.
03:40I spent like three and a half years
03:41writing my weekly email newsletter
03:42before I monetized anything in it.
03:44Although I did have some affiliate links,
03:45so I was always making a few dollars
03:46from Amazon book recommendations here and there.
03:48But recently we've started to get sponsors on the newsletter
03:50who pay several thousand dollars
03:51for like a slot in the newsletter.
03:53That's kind of insane
03:54that anytime I just send a weekly update,
03:55which I treat as a bit of a public journal,
03:57that, hey, here are some thoughts on my mind,
03:59here are some articles that I like,
04:00all that kind of stuff.
04:01By the way, that's in Sunday snippets,
04:02my newsletter, if you want to sign up to it.
04:03Anytime I do that,
04:04a sponsor is willing to pay five, six, $7,000
04:07at the moment to basically kind of get their message
04:10out to the audience, which is pretty sick.
04:11And of course, as I mentioned at the start,
04:12there are people like Alex Lieberman
04:14who started an email newsletter called Morning Brew,
04:16who are incidentally sponsoring this video,
04:17but more on those later.
04:18Alex Lieberman started Morning Brew
04:19in his university dorm room.
04:21And it was just a daily email newsletter
04:23that helped people keep up with what's going on
04:24in the world of business.
04:25And then he sells it five years later for $70 million,
04:27and this newsletter generates ridiculous amounts of revenue,
04:30which is why they're able to sponsor videos like this one.
04:32So obviously I'm not saying that my newsletter
04:34or your newsletter or anything
04:34is gonna end up selling for $70 million,
04:36but I am saying that there is the potential
04:38that this itself, just an email,
04:40something as simple as an email that you send
04:41once a day or once a week or once every other week,
04:43does have the potential to even make you money
04:45further down the line.
04:46And yeah, I just find it pretty insane
04:47that something as simple as an email
04:49has the potential to do that.
04:50Part two, what should you actually write about?
04:52Okay, so at this point,
04:53let's say we're sold on the idea
04:54of having an email newsletter,
04:56and you're thinking, okay, cool, it might be a thing.
04:57Like generally at this point,
04:58most people have this incredible barrier
05:01that stops them from doing anything,
05:02which is that I don't know what I would even write about.
05:05And what I would say to that
05:05is that there's a few different ways of approaching it.
05:07Number one, broad brushstroke,
05:09you can write about whatever you want.
05:11Really being a creator, if you're new to this thing,
05:13is about finding a way to create content
05:15that you enjoy creating kind of intrinsically
05:18for its own sake.
05:19And then you're kind of hoping that that content
05:21is able to add value to other people as well.
05:23What I wouldn't recommend necessarily
05:24is for example, starting a newsletter,
05:26starting a YouTube channel, starting a TikTok, whatever,
05:28with the intention that like,
05:29I want to make money from day one,
05:31or I want this to be successful.
05:33Because in the early days
05:34when no one is watching your stuff,
05:35no one is subscribing to your channel,
05:37no one is like reading your email newsletter,
05:38it's really hard to have extrinsic motivation
05:41be the reason that you do the thing.
05:43Whereas if it's an intrinsically motivated reason
05:45of I genuinely enjoy writing Harry Potter fan fiction,
05:48and therefore I'm gonna make an email newsletter
05:50where every week I write a few paragraphs
05:52of Harry Potter fan fiction,
05:53and I'm doing it for the sheer joy of the craft,
05:55that level of intrinsic motivation
05:56makes it way easier to stay consistent with the habit.
05:59And generally in the creator economy,
06:01being consistent is the ultimate secret to getting results.
06:03So you can just write about whatever you want.
06:05When it comes to my email newsletter Sunday snippets,
06:07I do just write about whatever I want.
06:09Every week I think,
06:09huh, what have I been thinking about this week?
06:11Last week, I wrote about the odyssey plan,
06:13which is how I'm figuring out what to do with my life.
06:15The week before, I wrote about a conversation
06:17I had with a friend that made me think about like,
06:20how like I'm considering my career.
06:21And over time, I've just built up an audience of people
06:23who just care about what's on my mind,
06:25which is kind of nice.
06:26And I sort of treat my newsletter
06:27as a public journal of sorts,
06:29where I'll just share whatever I want,
06:31and then share a few links to articles or books or podcasts
06:33that I'd listened to or read that week that I enjoyed.
06:36And it's generally pretty chill,
06:37and I don't think too hard about the email newsletter,
06:39which is why I like it so much.
06:40To be honest, on my YouTube channel,
06:42I don't just make videos that I wanna make
06:43because it is like a business asset in a way.
06:45And you know, anytime I feel weird about the YouTube channel
06:48it's because I'm over-optimizing for the numbers.
06:51But on the email newsletter front,
06:52it's just so easy to not really care about those.
06:54It's just a public journal I'm sending
06:55to people who I consider are my friends,
06:57i.e. people like you guys who subscribe to the newsletter,
06:59and people reply to it and say,
07:00oh, this was really helpful,
07:01or this made me think about this,
07:02or have you read this blog post instead?
07:04And then I read it and then I reply to them.
07:05And it's just a kind of nice relationship builder
07:08in a way that's fairly chill.
07:09If you're looking for other ideas
07:10and for things you could do,
07:11the other option for an email newsletter
07:12is to just curate things.
07:14So if you're watching this video
07:15and you've gotten to this point,
07:16chances are you're the sort of person
07:17who is quite smart, sophisticated, intelligent,
07:19very handsome, very good-looking, of course.
07:21But you also probably spend your time reading stuff,
07:24listening to podcasts, watching videos.
07:26And every week, you've probably got something or another
07:28that you've read that you found is interesting.
07:30And you can just share those in a weekly email newsletter.
07:32That's how Tim Ferriss,
07:33who runs one of the most successful newsletters
07:35in the world, started Five Bullet Friday.
07:37Every Friday, he just sends out a list of five things
07:39he's enjoyed that week.
07:40It might be a blog post, it might be a book,
07:41it might be a documentary, it might be a gadget.
07:43And he just started off sending it to friends
07:45and then started sending it to his audience.
07:47And now he's got over two million subscribers
07:48to this email list,
07:49and he probably generates millions and millions of dollars
07:51a year just off the back of a single email list.
07:53So curation is an option.
07:54The other thing that you can do
07:55is you can write about something that interests you
07:58and just do that every week.
07:59For example, that's how Morning Brew got started.
08:01Morning Brew, by the way,
08:02thank you for sponsoring this video,
08:03is a completely free daily email newsletter,
08:05which basically gives you updates
08:07in the world of business and tech and finance.
08:09And so if, like me, you're interested in those things,
08:11you can sign up completely for free
08:12in the link in the video description.
08:14And every morning, they'll just send you a nice summary
08:16of what's going on in those worlds straight to your inbox.
08:18They do it in a genuinely entertaining way
08:19that helps you understand what's going on.
08:21Like what the hell is going on with Elon
08:23trying to buy Twitter and then pulling out of it?
08:24What's the deal with that?
08:25What is happening to the price of Bitcoin these days?
08:26And what are the macroeconomic factors
08:28around like inflation and stuff that's making that happen?
08:30What are some businesses that are succeeding
08:32despite the recession?
08:33And like, how are they doing it?
08:34There's interesting things like that
08:35that's written in a genuinely engaging
08:37and informative and kind of fun way.
08:39And it's completely free.
08:40You might as well sign up.
08:41It's completely free.
08:42You can unsubscribe anytime.
08:43I read it every morning
08:44because it helps me get updates
08:44on the world of business and tech and finance
08:46which is three things I care about.
08:47So yeah, check out the link in the video description
08:49to sign up to Morning Brew.
08:49And thank you so much Morning Brew for sponsoring this video.
08:51And Morning Brew was started by Alex Lieberman
08:53who I mentioned at the start of the video.
08:55And I interviewed on my podcast last week
08:57and he talked about how he was just interested
08:58in the world of business.
08:59He was getting into the world of business
09:00and he just realized
09:01that there was no good resource out there
09:03that helped you stay updated on business advice
09:04which is why every day he just decided to write this thing.
09:07And then it grew into this ridiculous
09:08like enormous media company
09:10that he then sold for $70 million.
09:11So you can check out that podcast interview
09:13I've done with Alex.
09:14We've had a bunch of comments saying
09:15that that's like an incredible podcast episode.
09:17And we talk about a bunch of things
09:18like life and happiness and the death of his father
09:20and how he dealt with that.
09:21And like a bunch of stuff that's just generally interesting
09:23and outside of the world of newsletters
09:25but it might be quite an inspiring podcast to listen to
09:27if you're looking for ideas
09:28for what sort of email newsletter
09:29you might want to write about.
09:30But really the overall message here
09:31is you can write about whatever you want.
09:32And the great thing about an email newsletter
09:34is that it's a fantastic practice ground
09:36for being able to dabble with
09:37what it's like being a creator.
09:39After that point, you might decide you don't like it.
09:40You might decide, you know what?
09:41I CBA, can't be bothered to write anything every week.
09:43I don't really like the idea
09:44of sending stuff out publicly.
09:46I'm very happy in my day job and just like, whatever.
09:49That's fine.
09:49But at least you've tried it out.
09:50Or you might do what happened to me
09:52and a bunch of my other creative friends
09:53and think, oh, it's actually kind of fun
09:55sending out an email every week
09:57that just tries to add a morsel of goodness
09:59to people's lives and help them out in an interesting way
10:01or just document something I've learned.
10:02And you might decide to stick with it.
10:03And I've been sticking with it for the last four years
10:05and it's now a staple part of the business
10:07and it's really fun.
10:08And it's the sort of thing
10:09that I probably am gonna continue doing for the longterm.
10:12Part three, how to get started with an email newsletter.
10:14All right, so the first step to get started
10:16with an email newsletter is to pick a platform.
10:18Now, there are a few different options you've got here.
10:21The option that I use personally for my newsletter
10:23and have been using for the last like two plus years
10:25is called ConvertKit.
10:27But the problem with ConvertKit
10:28is that you have to pay for it.
10:29It is a paid platform.
10:30It is ridiculously powerful, incredible.
10:32If you wanna take this newsletter thing seriously,
10:34they have a free plan.
10:35I think your first 1000 subscribers are free
10:37but you do then have to pay
10:38and it does get quite expensive.
10:40Right now, we pay several thousand dollars a month
10:42for the privilege of using ConvertKit.
10:43It's totally worth it but it is a paid product.
10:45I'll put an affiliate link in the video description
10:47if you wanna check it out.
10:47But it's generally not what I would recommend
10:49getting started completely from scratch.
10:51If you wanna get started completely from scratch
10:52and you wanna do it without spending a penny,
10:54there are two main options that you've got
10:56that I would recommend.
10:57The first one is Substack and the second one is Review.
11:00I was using Review for the first two years
11:03of my email newsletter and it was absolutely fantastic
11:05and it's completely free
11:06and it was recently acquired by Twitter.
11:07So the nice thing about Review is that
11:09if you are serious about growing on Twitter,
11:11people can subscribe to your email list
11:13directly from your Twitter profile
11:14because it's nicely integrated and it's completely free
11:16so you can try out Review.
11:17Alternatively, we've got Substack.
11:18Now Substack has been around for a few years now as well.
11:20And honestly, if I were getting started
11:22completely from scratch today,
11:23Substack is probably the route I would go down.
11:26Basically, you go on substack.com,
11:27not sponsoring this video or anything
11:29but people at Substack, if you're watching this,
11:30let me know, would love to work with you.
11:31And we'll just hit start writing.
11:33You can make an account or you can sign in with Twitter
11:34exactly like I've done.
11:35And you just write a quick description,
11:37musings from my day-to-day life
11:38as a doctor turned creatorpreneur.
11:40Lol, kind of cringe, but oh well.
11:42If you have an existing email list,
11:43you could bring a CSV in and populate it
11:45but you don't have to.
11:46You could add subscribers from day one
11:47so you can get your parents or your grandparents
11:49or your friends to sign up if you'd really want to.
11:51Again, I'm gonna skip this step.
11:52And here we are.
11:53I've just now got my own newsletter
11:54which also doubles as its own website,
11:56alibdar.substack.com.
11:58It's live, you can check it out if you want.
11:59And now if I wanna send my first issue,
12:01all I have to do is click new post
12:02and I can just write whatever I want.
12:03(*typing noise*)
12:15And I've just written my very first issue
12:17of my email newsletter.
12:18Now I'm gonna hit publish
12:19and then I can send that to everyone.
12:21Do you wanna add subscribe buttons to your post?
12:23Yeah, why not?
12:24Now I have my first email newsletter.
12:26I hit publish and we are good.
12:28If I want to, I can share it on Facebook
12:29and share it on Twitter or I don't have to.
12:31I can just do this like this
12:32and treat this like my own personal practice ground
12:34for publishing something on the internet.
12:36And now, if we open up an incognito window
12:38and go to alibar.substack.com,
12:40here is what it looks like.
12:41Ali's newsletter, musings from my day-to-day life
12:44as a doctor-turned-creatorpreneur
12:45launched a few seconds ago.
12:46And then people can subscribe directly from this,
12:48which is kind of nice, it's quite simple,
12:50or they can read it first
12:51and they can read my kind of first issue,
12:53which should be here somewhere.
12:54My first email newsletter, there we go.
12:55This is cute, this is kind of nice.
12:57And then there's the option for people to subscribe
12:58and it's all completely free.
13:00And I know people personally
13:01who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
13:04by just starting a completely free email newsletter
13:06on Substack and later switching on monetization
13:08or getting sponsorships or selling their own products,
13:10all that kind of stuff,
13:11which is all part of the business
13:12of being a creatorpreneur.
13:14If you've gotten to this point in the video
13:15and you start an email newsletter,
13:16send me an email, ali at alibar.com,
13:18and I promise I will subscribe to your email newsletter.
13:21So you will at least have one subscriber,
13:23if you would like,
13:23if you don't want your friends and family
13:24to be your first subscribers.
13:25If you are potentially interested
13:26in learning more about the ins and outs
13:28of what it's like being a creatorpreneur,
13:29I have a course on this.
13:30It's called the Part-Time Creatorpreneur.
13:32You can check it out, link in the video description.
13:33And if you're looking for more theory,
13:34more of a framework on how to get started
13:36with being a creator,
13:37you might like to check out this video over here,
13:38which is my three level system
13:40for growing a YouTube channel.
13:41But the same thing applies to growing an email newsletter
13:43or any other sort of creative business.
13:45So check out that video over there.
13:46Thank you so much for watching.
13:47Do hit the subscribe button if you aren't already,
13:49and I'll see you hopefully in the next video.
13:50Bye-bye.