Our 2024, Wrapped

Hey honeys and hustlers,

This week is Please Hustle Responsibly’s first anniversary! In honor of this special occasion, I want to share a little update on what this community looks like now, some wins I’ve experienced in writing this newsletter and building this community, and future plans for this newsletter community (spoiler: I’m going to keep doing it). But before I get to the meat and potatoes of it all, I want to offer a big and resounding THANK YOU to the subscribers of this newsletter, both free and paid. The fact that 644 people want to read my writing (read = rambling into the void) is absolutely wild to me and I don’t take it for granted for a second. What’s most important to me is the pleasure I get in writing in this semi-unstructured way for an audience that wants to hear what I have to say, even when I’m just writing about some rap battle or whatever (which Kendrick is still winning despite Drake’s lawsuit). It is likely only matched by the pleasure felt by readers at encountering writing that isn’t forced awkwardly into the structures of institutional professionalism (which is fake you guys!) or advertising-based digital news production platforms (aka social media). Thank you to the people who like posts, leave comments, and respond to my emails. Thank you to anyone who’s forwarded the newsletter to friends or recommended it to anyone – your genuine recommendation is by far the best way to grow this community.

I started this newsletter community with a very shaky “growth strategy,” if it even deserves to be called that. Twitter engagement was going down as folks exited the platform (which is still happening), and I didn’t really know how to grow a newsletter effectively outside of posting on social media. As part of the PLACE Builders Fellowship, I learned about location-based entrepreneurial ecosystem building alongside some of the greatest community builders I’ve ever met and will be lifelong friends with. I walked away with a lot of ideas for how to grow this community, and I still reach out to them when I’m brainstorming or workshopping something. Yet, the questions remained: Could I grow a successful newsletter without being on a social platform with the reach of active users like Twitter? Could I attain the elusive dream of deepening my connection with my growing audience and pivoting my business model to one that doesn’t rely on an algorithm for marketing? After a year, my answer is: Yes, it’s possible!* (* = with caveats)

Let’s jump into the numbers

At the time of publishing this, Please Hustle Responsibly has 644 total subscribers, 5 of whom currently pay. That conversion rate is very low. It’s likely because I didn’t paywall any content when I first started the newsletter. It took a minute for me to figure out what I wanted to paywall and get consistent with posting. Again, when I set out, I wasn’t setting out with the big idea of making paid subscriptions my main source of revenue. I cared more about getting out quality articles consistently and just trusted that pathways of monetization would become clearer once I evaluated what my audience wanted and what I could deliver, and I still believe that to be true. If you have digital products already, partner with brands, or have built a social media following and want to grow as an online creator, your approach to monetizing a newsletter will likely look much different and need to happen much faster for newsletter writing to be sustainable for you.

Across 100 articles I received 26K views 🤯, with an average open rate of 47%, an engagement rate of 4.5%, and a CTR of 3.7%. I’m personally loving those numbers. 😍 The fact that growth has been steady and engagement gets better with every article suggests that I’m on to something, and I feel optimistic about what’s to come for this community. But - and this is the part where I ask for your help - I need your help!

If you’ve been reading and enjoying Please Hustle Responsibly, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription! Every subscription really does make a difference, even if I never make it onto a top 10 newsletter list. Saturday is the last day to get 50% off an annual subscription. Your support means the world to me and helps me continue to create and grow this community!

If you're not ready to pay right now, that's okay. If you’d be open to leaving a review of this newsletter so that we can add you to the new landing page we’re working on, please reply to this email with your favorite moment, favorite article, or biggest takeaway. I hope you'll stick around and share us with your friends. I like having you here and I value your thoughts.

What’s Coming to PHR in Year 2?

Well, I’m so glad you asked! You can look forward to:

• featuring more of your success stories. Our Community Spotlight section has been vastly underused this year. I’ll be sharing more work from other creators, and I would love to include you and what you’re working on.

• mentorship connections. I built the creator database for you guys to connect with each other, rather than just reading my words each week. Collaboration is a vital part of growth and learning as a creator at any level. And more importantly, I want you to learn from folks who can help you. If you’re seeking a mentor, I want to be able to use my network to help connect you with someone who would be a good fit for you. When you complete the form to be a part of the database, if you select that you are looking for a mentor, I will reach out and see how I can make a warm introduction for you.

• bluesky starter pack. In the spirit of wanting you all to connect, I’d be happy to put together a starter pack of members of this community on Bluesky to make it easier to find each other. This isn’t an ad for Bluesky or me saying that you should ditch Twitter completely. But I like the vibe on Bluesky and you might as well. If you’re interested, respond with your handle and I’ll get that going.

• more community events. I’m not an event planner, but I do like to facilitate meaningful connections. If you would like to host an event for this community, I’d love to talk with you to see how I can partner with you to bring it to life. I’m generally open to ideas, locations/cities, and formats.

• courses and masterclasses. As mentioned above, I start the process of creating my first video course this month and will be taking my paid subscribers behind the scenes on the process from pre-production to launch and ongoing marketing. However, the course itself will not be part of the paid membership and will be available to everyone. I’m not sure what the pricing will be, but those who join the waitlist will get a discount.

• creative sprints. For paid subscribers only, I will be hosting creative sprints based on a theme – one in the spring and one in the fall. Tweet 100 (RIP) really helped me start writing online consistently, and public homework is a great way to get started and be held lovingly accountable by people who are also being challenged creatively. When I asked my LinkedIn audience what I should create next, a 90-day marketing plan received the most votes. Sure, I could craft a template, but it brings you no value if you have no framework for implementing it. I think 12-week/90-day sprints will be more valuable, help you get in the habit of creating original work, help you form the habit of sharing original stories, and give you an opportunity to learn from myself and others in this community to grow faster.

• resource hub. The curated article with 101 creative founders and links to their online portfolio did well and got a lot of engagement. That will continue to be a resource for free subscribers. Paid subscribers will also be getting some additional resources – a video podcast swipe file and a YouTube thumbnail swipe file. I’ve finished the video podcast database, and I’m working on the YouTube thumbnail swipe file. These are living Notion docs that will be upgraded as I find more resources and links to add. I may make these into a Notion hub as I continue to create and curate resources.

I hope this news leaves you excited about the direction we’re headed, and gives you ideas for how you can be a part of it. Tell me how you want to celebrate reaching 1,000 subscribers!

If you made it this far and enjoyed this article, consider sharing it on social media or with someone who would enjoy it.

Please Hustle Responsibly,

🤙🏾✨

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