Paper 26: 10 Steps To 1,000 Web 3 Newsletter Subscribers
How to grow your web3 Audience
GM team,
I want to do something for the content creators this week.
I get asked all the time: “how do you get work?” “how did you quit your job” “how do you get new contacts” “how did you get to know X or Y person?”
Whilst the answer is almost always to some degree “Twitter”, another key part of the answer is always “this newsletter”.
This newsletter represents something incredibly powerful: it is my growing portfolio of content which demonstrates my expertise, intelligence, consistency, and tenacity (in my opinion lol).
And the numbers back me up.
I started with 0 subscribers and an insignificant (in the grand scheme) following on Twitter.
Now I reach more than 1000 subscribers (with more than 3000 followers on Twitter). It’s not the whole world, but it’s a start for which I am very proud and grateful.
In this paper I’ll explore some key strategies on how to start and persist on your writing journey. Do note: I am sure this is not the only way to grow your readership, but it is my way. It’s also not entirely comprehensive - just ten things to keep in mind. I am a guide here, not a guru.
AND this will also serve as my GENESIS CREATOR NFT. If you find this article helpful - or have found helpful any of the 26 papers published over the last 26 weeks - consider supporting me by minting my genesis Creator NFT. There will only ever be 100 and are priced at only 0.02ETH each. You can mint here.
Have a great day,
B
1. Take time on your first article
I think the first article took me 10 days to write.
Why?
Because I wanted to make a good first impression.
Some people let “perfect be the enemy of good” here: they try so hard to make it perfect that it simply doesn’t get published - cannot let that happen either.
But if you are committed to writing consistently, there is no reason why you can’t take a bit more time at the start to publish a good first piece (see 2, 3 and 4 for more on this).
Managed to get 5 subscribers and 240 views after my first piece - a huge result back then!
2. Define the scope - don’t try to write about everything at once
It’s really tempting at the start to want to write about a lot because you have so many ideas (and because you haven’t had a chance to structure them all yet).
What happens is you try to write about everything in different sections/paragraphs. This is okay to get your ideas out - but be happy to say “actually, this idea should really be in its own newsletter, I’ll write about that another week”.
It is incredibly important that you are able to define a scope for your work and separate different ideas into different editions of your newsletter.
Without doing this, your work will be incongruent and difficult to read.
3. Include people
Loopify is absolutely right here - at least for starting out.
Try to involve people in your work.
Not as a way to “farm engagement” - but if you are legitimately writing about them anyway or if they are an expert in the area, reach out to them and ask for a quote or just let them know they’re being included.
In my experience people are very happy to be included in work - and also really appreciate the heads up.
They are also far more likely to share the work if you go about this in a courteous way - which is good for your reach.
4. Publish on Twitter properly
Produce a nice thread summary of your article which tags the people mentioned.
Here is how I published my first article.
In hindsight, this looks a bit messy, but it did the job.
My publications have evolved to be more “clean”. Here’s an alternative model I tried where I used quotations from interviews, tagged the interviewees and used screenshots of the article.
I also like how Spacewalk goes about publishing his MetaVault newsletter. Check out his model here.
5. Market post-publication
You have to market your work post-publication.
It would be lovely if you could just post your work for the algorithms and Twitter gods to pluck your piece out of all the noise and deliver it to everyone. It does sometimes happen, but not often.
You need to share it widely WITHOUT spamming people.
How do you do that?
Well, you have to get along with enough people/groups to be able to share your work with them and for them be happy to receive it.
Which means you have to see 6.
6. Be active and friendly on Twitter and Discord
The way to be successful here is to be genuine: one DM and then posting a link is not going to work.
The great thing about Discord and Twitter is that there is always a chance to interact genuinely with people/groups throughout the day - so do that!
Yes it’s hard work, and yes it’s all-encompassing and you may have to set boundaries because the web3 world never stops.
But if you don’t create and maintain relationships you won’t be able to build or sustain an audience.
7. Pick a niche topic to start - expand later
Unless you have a huge audience already, I would recommend picking a niche area to service.
Here are some great examples of creators who have either picked a niche and stuck with it, or picked a niche and expanded later:
Spacewalk’s MetaVault started as a Pixel Vault focused newsletter;
bitfloorsghost produces a fantastic daily Moonbirds community update;
bennyhsu produces brilliant twitter thread recaps of Moonbirds Friday parliaments
Filmbook and Spacewalk produce excellent deep-dives in Valet Confidential for the Jenkins The Valet community
brydisanto produces exceptional content in this paper and on Twitter for the Wolf Game community.
8. Remind people of your work/achievements
I was so surprised about how happy random people on the internet were for me at my moments of success with the newsletter.
People really appreciate high effort, consistent work - don’t be afraid or shy to remind people of that once or twice a week.
In your mind you will probably feel - if you are like me - that this might come across as arrogant, or boastful.
In reality there is so much content in competition with each other on the internet that it is very unlikely that the same person reads 10/10 of this type of tweet.
As long as you are tweeting about other stuff too and not constantly “celebrating” or hyping yourself, definitely celebrate your wins with your audience.
9. Create a content schedule
I have a slightly expanded media schedule now, but you can see how certain pieces of content are planned at 3 points in time: preview, publication, and retweet/reminder.
Weekly Agenda: This Weekly Agenda is changing my life
Although I haven’t been doing this for these Papers, I know that I must because I’ve seen an increase in engagement on the podcasts since I’ve been employing this workflow.
10. Be consistent and do not give up
When I first signed up for Substack, I was suggested a number of newsletters.
I don’t think I’ve received a letter from any of them.
Pick a day and publish on that day every week.
Unless you already have a huge audience, I would say you should publish at a minimum once per week.
A great example of consistency and commitment is bitfloorsghost.
I’ve been really impressed with their newsletter which is published daily to update the Moonbirds community.
This is a marathon, not a sprint - do not give up.
I hope that’s helpful. If you’ve found this article helpful, or any of the 26 papers published over the last 26 weeks, consider supporting me by minting my genesis Creator NFT. There will only ever be 100 and are priced at only 0.02ETH each. You can mint here.
Have a great day!
B
Please do leave me any questions or thoughts here - I respond to every one!
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Disclaimer: The content covered in this newsletter is not to be considered as investment advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only.
I hold some of the NFTs mentioned in these newsletters.
amazing piece once again!