Second Brain

First 100 Subscribers: No Silver Bullet

The Story

The first 100 subscribers were “the hardest” to get (Source 1). There was no single channel. “5 would’ve come from here, 4 would come from there, 2 of them are my parents.” (Source 1). Approximately 40 came from his own Twitter at ~1,500 followers, a few from each of the 10 Slack groups and 10 Facebook groups he joined (Source 1).

About 50 of his first subscribers came when the Nomad List founder shared one of his articles on social media. Another ~50 came from the Kanye West dating app side project and the Indie Hackers community (Source 2).

Harry credits a conversation with Courtland Allen approximately 6 months before the IH podcast where Courtland said “I’m really bullish on email lists” as influential in his decision to prioritize email (Source 1).

He also cited a lesson from experience: he read what he considered the best article of the year by Glen Allsopp but never subscribed to the newsletter because the author didn’t ask. “Be obvious about it.” (Source 1).

Marketing Examples launched on Product Hunt in August 2019, four months after the first article. That launch yielded 2,000 new subscribers (Source 3).

From there, pre-publication tips were shared across 15-20 Facebook groups and 5-10 Slack groups (Source 3). The newsletter grew to 38,000 subscribers in approximately a year and a half from May 2019, with no ads, no connections, and no existing audience (Source 1).

Lesson for Creators

The first 100 subscribers don’t come from one channel. They come from a dozen tiny channels, none of which feel like they’re working. The ones who give up at 50 never find out what happens when those tiny streams compound. Harry’s growth wasn’t a hockey stick. It was a river with a hundred tributaries.

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