6 Simple hacks to improve your Newsletter and 9x your earning as a content creator

After working intense hours at Airbnb Lenny left his job with the idea to build a company of his own, after exploring different ideas he had, Lenny stumbled upon writing on the internet and has built a business that earns him $500,000 per year. On this week's episode, we will be discussing 6 growth hacks that Lenny shared on Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan’s podcast ‘Marketing against the grain’.

These 6 hacks make Lenny Rachitsky $500,000 per year with his Newsletter.

First of all, what grows a newsletter or any content medium is simply consistency and quality of content, these are the most essential hacks, that is if we should even call them hacks.

The 6 hacks I’m talking about here could easily triple your newsletter’s ability to start earning you six figures. So what are these 6 hacks you may ask, let's dive right in?

HACK #1

Do what you know, or let me rephrase, write about topics you already know about. Sit down and evaluate yourself and ask yourself a simple question. What are 5 valuable things that I know well enough that people would pay me to know them. Sit down and work on this and write them out so you don’t get confused.

Doing what you know reduces the pain that comes with research and this leads us to the next hack.

HACK #2

When you have a unique perspective on a specific issue or topic, try your best to do the hard work and expand on it. in other words, do a lot of research. One cool thing research does for your newsletter is it makes it sound informed.

One simple hack to making your newsletters sound researched is by telling a story. Take your mind back to how I started this article I told you a summarized story of Lenny’s journey, from working intense hours at Airbnb and leaving his job to now having a newsletter that makes $500,000 per year. That story alone got you hooked to read up to this point. That is what research does to your newsletter article.

HACK #3

Make sure your content is rooted in the real problem your consumers actually have. Get feedback from your consumers, what issues are they having that they will like to have answered. You can figure out exactly what your consumers want by using this research tip.

Define Your Persona – This requires you to have a fictional representation of who your ideal reader is before you jump into solving their problems this is what helps you to understand who your ideal readers are. Many platforms can already provide insight into where your readers come from and their age groups. Defining a persona is more than just knowing your reader’s demographics, you want to understand who they’re on a deeper level, what they care about, what they struggle with, and what energises them, then you can effectively craft experiences, products and messaging that solve their problem.

HACK #4

Not having a content distribution strategy is equivalent to not having a newsletter at all. You need to have a way you let people know about your newsletter. Don't just post your articles on your newsletter and leave it to magically generate views. You could take different talking points from your newsletter article and transform them into LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts, you could transform that blog post and all its different talking points and transform them into YouTube videos or lots of short-form TikTok. The main reason to have a multi-channel distribution system is that the audience that consumes your content on Facebook is different from your audience on Instagram or Twitter or LinkedIn depending on what platforms you use for your content distribution strategy.

HACK #5

Writing the newsletter is just half of the work done. Editing and proofreading are the other half, you can’t compromise on editing and proofreading. The main objective of editing your articles is to:

  • Improve content quality

  • Ensure your content isn’t confusing the reader

  • Ensure you structured and presented the information in the best possible way

  • Ensure that they’re no contradictions and flaws in your argument.

Proofreading on the other hand means checking for surface errors in your articles like typos, spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and the choice of words.

HACK #6

This last hack is Lenny's favourite. “The only secret you need to know when it comes to writing a good newsletter is getting to the concrete stuff and not just writing about general theory.” When researching a topic, filter down the general theory that everyone has an idea on and cut straight to the chase in other words dive deep.

In conclusion, Lenny’s process for creating content for his newsletter audience is simple. First, get a topic you’re interested in, find people in that space and connect with them (get as many stories as you can from them) by sending them emails. This not only helps create content but also helps to build valuable connections with high-network individuals. Lenny’s story is inspirational, and these 6 hacks can help you reach the level of success you desire for your newsletter.