Smash Notes
Building a Multimillion-Dollar Newsletter Business with Sam Parr of The Hustle
Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) describes himself as a midwestern small business owner who discovered the Internet, and his journey from running a hot dog stand to building a media empire seems to prove that. His current business, The Hustle, generates 8 figures in annual revenue from newsletter advertising alone, a feat Sam attributes to great copywriting…
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Notes
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When they launched in 2016, his goal was to build a massive email list, monetize it through advertising, and to use the profits for building ancillary products, which they would distribute using their own email list.
Their focus was to create something world class, with great revenue, lots of users who would love it, and a product that would be fun to work on.
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Email list is one of the highest ROI marketing channels for commerce companies. Email can be a huge business.
Sam was inspired by "Daily Candy," a newsletter with 2 million subscribers that sold for $125 million dollars in 2004.
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At one point while being in school in Nashville, Sam Parr started an online store, and inspired by its growth, he decided to move out to San Francisco, to the hug of online businesses.
While in SF, he started Hustle Con as a way to meet interesting people to partner with. The conference made good profit, so he did it again. It was not a lot of work, and the way he grew it was a newsletter.
That's when he realized the Hustle was his ticket to building a huge media company.
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Conferences can be very lucrative businesses, but you have be good at marketing, economics and logistics.
Avoid union labor and catering, and don't spend money on things that don't matter, like name tags. Plan that it would take a year or two to get where sponsors are willing to sponsor your event.
Start small, scrappy, and hustle.
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Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, says a newsletter with no connections starts with writing, traffic, and email addresses. His first 200 subscribers were every person who had emailed him in Gmail, plus about 100 LinkedIn connections, added to the list without being asked. He then posted the articles on Reddit and Hacker News. He wrote only about 10 posts, each one explaining how a particular speaker did the work. He thinks the emails about the posts mattered as much as the posts, because they were written in a voice few newsletters were using at the time.
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Copywriting is salesmanship on paper.
Copywriting is understanding what motivates people, it is understanding gaps in the market, the opportunities, it's understanding what people want and how to solve their problems...etc.
Once you master copywriting, it helps in every aspect of life.
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Be frugal and figure out the economics of your business, and find the people who can help you, and convince them to work with you.
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Don't be too proud to ask questions. Cold call them and ask.
People who are more successful than you, or experts, they want to see you succeed. Ask for advice, but then actually follow through on it.
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Start small, follow through, and make sure what you ask is extremely narrow. Don't ask them open ended questions, ask something they can respond to right away.
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It's in our human nature to always want to chase more, to look up, to compare our success to someone else who has more. You will be a lot happier if you stop caring about the reward, and enjoy the journey.
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Being a manager is very different from starting something, getting users, or growing something. Being a manager is rather hard for someone used to being a maker.
If you can't be a good manager, you need to hire someone who can do it better than you. It will make you happier and make your business better.
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Talk to a lot of people, knowing that most candidates are not going to be the right fit. Then be honest with your prospects, share your weaknesses and find out their strengths. Make sure you are compatible and can help each other.
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Don't make it more complicated than it has to be. Figure out a need, and find a way to solve it. Your business might not be sexy, and it's going to be hard work, but it will make money. The hard part is all emotion. Hard part is making cold calls, being rejected, putting yourself on the line.
Start simple, get your first customers, and then look for more opportunities from there on.
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