S01E47: Coaching Session: Tips from a Newsletter Pro — with Josh Spector of For The Interested
— A one-paragraph newsletter shows you simple, proven ways to use writing to grow your business based on how others have done so.
1hr listen
Still figuring out how to hit your newsletter growth and revenue goals for 2023?
We have the answer: Today at SparkLoop we’re launching a new tool — the Upscribe Recommendations Widget.
It’s rare to discover a new tool or channel that can genuinely create a seismic shift in your newsletter growth. But Upscribe is that tool.
You can expect to:
It’s quick and easy to set up, works with all major ESPs, and *drumroll* … available for free in your SparkLoop partner account, today →
Upscribe is a newsletter recommendation widget. You can use it to recommend (and be recommend by) other newsletters.
Here's a quick video walkthrough:
Or sign up on this demo form to experience the Upscribe widget in real life:
The amazing thing about Upscribe is that it works with both free recommendations and paid recommendations via our Partner Network.
That means you can choose whether you want to use Upscribe to grow your audience, earn extra revenue, or a mix of both.
For example, you could grow up to 3x faster. By partnering up with three relevant newsletters and recommending each other for free in your Upscribe widgets.
Or you could boost your income by recommending awesome newsletters from our Partner Network in your Upscribe widget. Even with just 2-3 paid recommendations, you’re likely to earn an extra $5+ per new subscriber.
The best part… all of this just happens on autopilot.
Here's an easy calculator to predict what Upscribe would do for your audience and revenue growth:
Let's take a look at four ways smart newsletter operators will use Upscribe to smash through their goals in 2023…
Upscribe is by far the easiest way to grow your newsletter audience faster, for free.
When you create a free publication in SparkLoop, thousands of newsletter operators can discover your newsletter and recommend it for free in their Upscribe widget. Even if they use a different email platform to you.
For best results, you can partner up with a few other, relevant newsletters your audience likes, and recommend each other for free. If they don’t already use Upscribe, it’s easy to invite them.
Corey Haines did this for his Swipefiles newsletter, for example, and his growth rate tripled overnight:
"I knew from the moment I saw Upscribe that it was going to be a game-changer for newsletter growth. And despite my high hopes, it's still managed to exceed my expectations."
The quality of subscribers you’ll acquire via Upscribe recommendations is extremely high. Not only do they go through our industry-leading anti-fraud system, but you can easily identify new subscribers from Upscribe in your ESP and send them custom welcome emails.
On average, a subscriber acquired via Upscribe is 10% more likely to be an engaged, high-value subscriber long-term than even organic subscribers.
With a likely recession looming and brands slashing their advertising budgets, smart newsletter operators are already sourcing new revenue channels.
When you activate your free SparkLoop partner account, you’ll be pre-approved to earn payouts for recommending hundreds of awesome newsletters from our Partner Network.
For each successful recommendation you make, you can earn anywhere from $2 to $20. And — with more than half of new subscribers opting in to your Upscribe recommendations — this extra revenue adds up quickly.
On average, you can expect to make $5-10 per new subscriber. For smaller newsletters growing at 100 new subscribers per month, that’s an extra $10k/year in revenue.
For larger newsletters, it’s a potential 6- or 7-figure revenue opportunity. With zero ongoing work.
Adding the Upscribe widget has no negative impact on your own conversion rates. In fact, our testing shows that newsletter audiences love the recommendations (as long as they are relevant).
If you’re a professional newsletter operator or media brand, Upscribe will quickly become your secret weapon for paid audience acquisition.
Combined with our new Partner Programs, you can:
Many of the world’s top newsletters and media brands are already using our Partner Programs feature to put their paid audience growth on autopilot.
With Upscribe, you’ll be able to scale this to tens (or hundreds) of thousands of new, high-quality subscribers per month within a year. Completely hands-off.
Paid social — like Facebook and TikTok ads — can still be a great source of subscriber acquisition in 2023.
But the cost per acquisition on these platforms can be exorbitant. And — even if your subscriber lifetime value is high enough to justify the cost — often payback periods are so long that you can’t scale your spend as aggressively as you’d like to.
Upscribe solves these issues.
By including a few paid recommendations in your Upscribe widget, you can reliably earn $5+ per new subscriber you acquire via Facebook or TikTok ads. Paid out within 30 days.
In effect, this dramatically reduces the net cost of using paid social to grow your newsletter audience. Allowing you to scale your spend much more aggressively.
You could even end up with a net negative cost per acquisition!
Upscribe is free to use and compatible with all “professional” ESPs. Setup takes 10-20min, no coding needed.
To create your Upscribe widget and start recommending/being recommended, set up your free SparkLoop partner account today →
We manually verify all newsletters in our network within 24 hours to ensure high quality. Once your application has been approved, you can follow the easy Upscribe onboarding steps to start growing and earning faster within minutes.
To learn more about our Partner Programs and how to pay for other newsletters to recommend your publication in their Upscribe widgets, please book in a short call with one of our newsletter growth experts →