Interview Date: July 30, 2023
Table of Content
- Newsletter Identity Card
- Start
- Growth
- Monetization
- E-Mail Service Provider
- System and Productivity
- Recommendations
CREATOR INTERVIEW
Hello everyone! After featuring 26 successful newsletter creators in past editions, I’ve decided to turn the spotlight on myself.
I haven’t given the decision to start Newsletter Circle overnight. It took some time to discover what I really want to do. It all started with leaving behind a well-established corporate career and stepping out of my comfort zone after a decade, all to begin a new one. In the end, starting this publication was one of my life’s most rewarding decisions.
For me, Newsletter Circle is more than just a business venture; it helps me shape a new and fulfilling life that I truly enjoy. It plays an important role in both my professional and personal growth.
I hope you’ll enjoy this self-interview as much as I do.
NEWSLETTER IDENTITY CARD
TOOL STACK
- ESP → Beehiiv
- Writing & Interviews → Grammarly, Google Docs, Notion, ChatGPT
- Note-taking, Idea Capturing & Planning → Notion, Google Sheets
- Design → Canva
- Landing Page → Carrd
- Payment → Stripe
- Meetings → Calendly
- Media Consumption → Refind, Readwise, Notion Web Clipper
MEET THE CREATOR
Welcome Ciler. Let’s start with getting to know you.
Hi everyone, this is Ciler!
I’ve come from a relatively small city in the western part of Turkey but I’ve been living in Istanbul for the past 17 years except for a 6-month study period in Belgium and a work assignment in Lausanne, Switzerland, back in 2019.
I studied Business Administration in college and started working for a big global company in the tobacco industry right after graduation. Over the course of 10 years, I took several roles in marketing, market research and portfolio strategy until I decided to resign 2 years ago to start a new career and build a new life around it!
Since January 2023, I’ve been fully dedicated to Newsletter Circle, making it my primary focus to nurture its growth and transform it into a thriving business.
Outside of work, I love reading, traveling, listening to music and watching great cinema and TV series. Whenever my knee allows, I enjoy running a lot and regularly do reformer pilates to stay active and balanced.
I also have an interest in psychology and philosophy and try to expand my understanding through various resources when I find time.
Why did you decide to leave your high-paying job and start a new career?
It was not an easy decision. The more you stay in your comfort zone the more difficult it becomes to leave it.
After graduating, I followed the traditional path. My university was one of the best in Turkey, and at the time, all my friends were seeking jobs in global FMCG companies.
However, to be honest, I found myself constantly questioning my corporate experience during the last couple of years. I was having difficulty finding meaning in my job. I didn’t feel like I was learning or growing, nor was I able to unleash my creativity.
It wasn’t just the regulated nature of the tobacco industry that stifled creativity, but also the tasks such as preparing 25 versions of the same presentations, long and inefficient meetings and the overall politics that seemed to dominate the corporate world I experienced.
The real challenge was that I had no idea what alternative path to pursue, which is why it took me a while to take any action.
What changed then?
I realized that the longer I waited to take action and change my life in the direction I desired, the more difficult it would become.
I took some time to reflect on my values, priorities, and the kind of life I truly wanted to lead.
What I desire is to be a creator, to challenge myself by exploring new opportunities, and to work on my own terms.
“At first, I saw such a drastic change as a big risk. But then, I came to understand that the real risk was staying in a life that didn’t bring me joy and doing nothing to change it. I didn’t want to end up like those who fear facing their fears and pretend to love what they do.“
Considering all these factors, I realized that being part of the online business world would be the most feasible option and the one that aligns best with my needs.
My previous job was a very demanding one, leaving me with little time and energy to explore new spaces and start a side project. Luckily, I had been saving money for such a scenario for some time, which gave me the courage to leave and pursue this new path.
What did you do after quitting your job?
Initially, I dedicated myself to studying as if I were doing a master of online business, utilizing online resources extensively. I spent my days by reading and delving into one subject after another.
It was a rewarding period where I refreshed my knowledge and absorbed a wealth of new information. My primary focus was on content marketing, online market research, and the fundamentals of running an online business.
However, I soon realized that theory alone wouldn’t be enough. To implement my learnings, I began offering online marketing consultancy services. This allowed me to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
After a while, I found myself reassessing my path and I returned to my initial passion for content marketing and started exploring potential opportunities in that field.
During this period of exploration, I discovered the power of newsletters as a new channel for self-improvement. I was amazed by the quality of content some newsletters offered and how they transformed into thriving businesses.
“Recognizing the growing potential and seeing it as a valuable online asset that I can genuinely enjoy building, I made the decision to start my own newsletter.“
START
How did you come up with the idea of Newsletter Circle in the first place?
Initially, I launched a different newsletter called “Digiboarding,” where I wrote 101-level articles about online business and shared my learning journey to help newcomers navigate the online world more smoothly.
However, I soon realized that “Digiboarding” was too broad and lacked a distinct identity. I struggled to define my target audience and the unique value I could offer through the newsletter.
While trying to improve “Digiboarding,” I stumbled upon an opportunity. I noticed a gap in the market to showcase the stories of newsletter creators. Reading inspiring stories from platforms like Starter Story taught me valuable lessons.
In parallel, I was running a podcast in Turkish where I was hosting women entrepreneurs and learning how they built online businesses with a global reach. I hugely enjoyed it.
“So I decided to combine my passion for sharing others’ stories to foster a culture of mutual learning and my enthusiasm for the art of building a newsletter business. This is why I started a newsletter about newsletters :)“
For the readers who are not familiar with Newsletter Circle, what is your newsletter all about?
In Newsletter Circle, I do in-depth interviews with successful newsletter creators to understand how they built their newsletters. The goal is to provide valuable insights and inspiration to newsletter operators and to help them take their newsletters to the next level by learning from real-life examples.
“I want to clarify that when I refer to “success,” I don’t solely measure it by the number of subscribers or other metrics. Instead, I seek out creators who offer something unique in their content or employ innovative strategies, regardless of the size of their email list.“
Lately, I’ve been considering defining specific criteria for the newsletters I’ll be featuring in the interviews. This will help set clear expectations for my publication, ensuring that readers know what to anticipate.
I value feedback from my readers, and their input will play a crucial role in shaping the direction of Newsletter Circle moving forward.
GROWTH
How did you gain your first 1000 subscribers?
As you can see from the above chart my growth is mainly driven by Recommendations, Direct and Social Media.
Let me give a few details about some acquisition resources I utilized:
1. LinkedIn Outreach
The first 100 subscribers to my newsletter came from friends and my initial network on LinkedIn.
To reach out to potential subscribers on LinkedIn, I reviewed my connections and messaged those who I believed would be interested in my content.
“Rather than sending a generic message, I took the time to personalize each one, explaining why I thought my newsletter would be helpful to them. Remarkably, this approach led to an impressive conversion rate of over 80%.”
While this method was effective, it is time-consuming and not sustainable in the long term unless automated. But it helped me gain the initial subscribers, which created a sense of accountability to deliver a new issue weekly and maintain my motivation.
2. Recommendations
I switched from Substack to Beehiiv a few months ago. However, I haven’t put enough effort into collaborating with other creators on Beehiiv yet.
On Substack, Newsletter Circle received recommendations from 21 publications, three of which contributed the most to gaining new subscribers. This highlights the importance of partnering with creators who share a similar audience.
3. Twitter & LinkedIn
I started my newsletter with just 99 followers on Twitter, and I wasn’t active on the platform. However, over time, my followers grew to 460 without following a consistent publishing schedule or implementing any Twitter growth hacks.
“Surprisingly, even with such a small audience, Twitter became one of my most effective acquisition channels. This untapped potential motivates me to leverage Twitter for organic growth in the future.”
Beyond acquisition, I’ve found Twitter to be an excellent platform for building relationships with like-minded creators and reaching a targeted audience.
I also used Twitter to outreach newsletter creators and it worked well. I found tweets targeting newsletter creators by using Twitter advanced search. Then, I messaged everyone replying to these tweets. Below, there is a good example of how I messaged a creator and the positive reactions I received.
4. Refind
I mentioned Refind a few weeks ago as well. It is a great platform to reach a targeted audience with minimum CPA. It also removes the entry barriers to paid marketing.I spent $150 and gained 78 subscribers in one day.
You can read my interview with Refind’s founder Dominik Grolimund and learn more about “Conversion Ads” in this issue as well.
5. Other Social Media Channels
“I believe it’s crucial to concentrate on one or at most two social media channels when sharing your newsletter content, especially if you don’t already have an established audience. Once you find success on a platform, you can consider adding another one.“
As you can see from the graph, I attempted to post on Reddit, Indie Hackers, and Medium, in addition to Twitter and LinkedIn. However, I lacked prior experience and an existing audience on those platforms and dividing my focus across multiple channels hindered successful growth in any of them.
Regarding growth efforts, what would you do differently if you had a chance to start over?
There are two things that I truly wish to apply since day 1.
- Assessing where each subscriber is located on the newsletter journey just after the subscription with a survey. Whether they have a newsletter or not, if yes, the size of their newsletters, main pain points and needs.
- Being more consistent on Twitter.
What are your plans to continue growing?
Reaching the milestone of 10,000 subscribers is a significant goal for me in the near future. However, I’m committed to maintaining the quality of subscribers throughout this journey, even if it means not reaching rapid growth.
I prioritize connecting with an audience who can benefit from my content. This approach ensures that my metrics remain healthy and opens up more monetization opportunities.
To achieve this;
1. I’m taking steps to understand my audience better. I’m building a CRM system, segmenting subscribers, and working on ways to gather missing information and feedback from them. This will help me tailor my content and decide which products and services I should create to boost growth.
2. Another crucial aspect of my growth strategy is consistency on social media, particularly on Twitter and LinkedIn. I’ve set a target of 1 tweet per day and 2 threads per week. For this aim, I will repurpose my existing content and share my insights about the newsletter business more frequently.
3. Moreover, I see an opportunity to leverage the current audiences of the creators I’ve interviewed. I plan to create social media assets for each interview to share with the interviewees. By doing so, they won’t need to spare time creating posts to share our interview, which will likely increase sharability and engagement.
By focusing on meaningful connections and valuable content, I aim to reach 10,000 subscribers while staying true to my vision.
MONETIZATION
You recently started to monetize your newsletter. How was the first sponsorship experience?
I was not actively searching for sponsors but when I received an inbound request, I decided to seize the opportunity. The process was surprisingly smooth, as I shared in a tweet above.
Up to this point, I’ve had sponsors for three issues of Newsletter Circle, coming from two different brands. Here are the key 10 lessons I’ve learned:
1. Embrace Inbound Requests: If you receive an inbound sponsorship request, go for it. The initial earnings might not be substantial, but it’s a valuable chance to learn how to manage the process. This includes technical aspects like handling payment links and sharing invoices. This knowledge will prepare you for more significant deals down the road.
2. Share a Preview of the Ad: Share a preview of the ad with your sponsor to show how the ad will appear in the issue and where it will be placed. It helps align expectations and is greatly appreciated by sponsors.
3. Collaborate on Copy: Work together with the sponsor when crafting the ad copy. Flex your creative muscles and don’t hesitate to suggest changes that align with your newsletter’s tone. This collaboration can boost click rates, leading to a win-win situation for both you and your sponsor.
4. Experiment with Placements: Try out various placements and formats for ads within your issue, and then closely monitor the results.
5. Share Detailed Results: After the ad runs, share a comprehensive breakdown of key metrics with your sponsor.
6. Seek Sponsor Feedback: Invite sponsors to provide feedback about their experience. This input can help refine your sponsorship process.
7. Promote Brands Aligned with Your Audience’s Needs: Focus on collaborating with brands that can provide real value to your audience. Even in commercial partnerships, maintaining your audience’s trust is essential. Continuously delivering value should remain your top priority.
8. Build Strong Relationships: Focus on nurturing strong relationships with sponsors, with an eye on fostering long-term partnerships.
9. Invest Your Time Wisely: Keep in mind that sponsorship efforts can be time-consuming, particularly when seeking sponsors through outreach. Before diving into this process, assess whether the potential earnings justify the time you’ll invest. Building enduring relationships is crucial in this aspect, as it can save you time in the long run.
10. Create Funnels: If possible, consider reinvesting your initial earnings back into your business. You might experiment with paid advertisements or explore new tools to enhance your journey further.
The sponsorship involves both short-term gains and long-term strategies. By maintaining a solid foundation of trust, collaboration, and careful planning, you can successfully manage it.
Do you have any plans to increase your revenue?
It’s a given that I need to make Newsletter Circle a profitable venture for its sustainability. However, my main focus is on achieving steady and healthy growth.
There are still various growth strategies to explore for me, such as referrals, lead magnets and paid ads.
“I’m planning to allocate a significant portion of my time to enhancing growth, which in turn will elevate the value of my advertising space. This way, the investment of time and effort will be more than justified.”
In the meantime, I can add a curated links section in the newsletter and share affiliate links.
E-MAIL SERVICE PROVIDER
You started on Substack but switched to Beehiiv a few months ago? Why did you decide to change your ESP?
Substack was the platform I first heard of when I entered the newsletter space and it was quite popular at the time. I appreciated their philosophy of empowering independent writers by freeing them from the restrictions often imposed by larger entities on their creative process and earnings.
It was also free and very easy to set up, making it an ideal option to start a newsletter.
However, as my subscriber base grew, I found myself needing more advanced features that Substack lacked:
- No subscriber segmentation
- No integrations (no API support)
- Limited user analytics
For instance, I wanted to track key metrics for subscribers from various sources, like paid ads and organic channels, and compare their engagement. Integrating tools like Sparkloop was also on my wishlist, which wasn’t feasible on Substack.
I also desired advanced design options, survey forms, and A/B testing for headlines.
In parallel, Beehiiv was a rising star with a range of compelling features and a proactive approach to platform enhancement.
The availability of advanced and creator-friendly features I mentioned above and their regular efforts to improve the platform convinced me to make the switch to Beehiiv.
I’m currently using the Grow plan, although the Scale plan perfectly aligns with my ideal needs. I’m considering it for the future.
My experience with Beehiiv so far has been highly positive, and I definitely recommend it.
There are two main cons in my eyes:
- It doesn’t offer a mobile app like Substack does, which provides convenience for both readers and creators.
- Readers don’t leave comments on Beehiiv, possibly due to the required log-in and limited visibility of this section. The immediate likes and comments that used to flow in after publishing on Substack were a great motivation source for me and a reliable channel for interacting with readers.
Ultimately, it’s about priorities. While Beehiiv has some areas for improvement, it offers creators substantial value. I believe they’ll also address the points I mentioned eventually.
I’ve been working on an article to share my experience of switching from Substack to Beehiiv, and I’ll be releasing it this month, as promised! It is delayed but will come.
“Important Tip: If you switch from Substack to Beehiiv or any other ESP, be sure to keep your Substack updated and publish your new issues on your Substack webpage. The previous recommendations you’ve set up will still attract new subscribers.“
SYSTEM & PRODUCTIVITY
How does the interview format work? How do you manage the process?
I have an asynchronous written interview process.
To keep things organized, I maintain a list of potential interviewees in my Notion workspace. This table also serves as a hub for key dates, like outreach status, the need for follow-ups, agreed-upon interview dates, question submission deadlines, answer expectations, and publication schedules.
Here is my typical process in 4 steps:
1. Reach out to creators: I generally reach out to the creators via their social media accounts or by responding to one of their newsletter issues.
2. Craft interview questions: While I have a standard framework and core questions to maintain consistency across interviews, I take the time to conduct individual research for each creator. This ensures that my questions are tailored to their unique strategies and perspectives. I then share the questions using either Notion or Google Docs, based on the creator’s preference.
3. Follow-up: Upon receiving their responses, I often follow up to get missing answers or request elaboration on specific points.
4. Create the actual newsletter: The final phase involves crafting the issue on Beehiiv by designing and adding necessary items such as hyperlinks, visuals, newsletter identity cards and thumbnails and writing supplementary sections such as the introduction, cross-promotions, and sponsorships.
What are the pros & cons of running a newsletter in the interview format?
There are a couple of great advantages of the interview format:
1. Valuable Insights: Interviews offer a unique perspective by providing insights directly from experienced individuals in the field. This can greatly enrich the content and offer readers valuable takeaways.
2. Relationship building: I met incredible people thanks to this format.When I initially began, I was concerned whether established creators would be open to my interview proposals, considering my lack of prior presence in the newsletter space. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that most creators accepted to be featured. An interview proposal is a great way to start a conversation and build relationships with industry experts and fellow operators.
3. Learning Opportunity: Conducting interviews is a fantastic learning experience for me. The format grants me the freedom to inquire about any topics that I’m curious about, allowing me to expand my knowledge continuously.
4. Audience Reach: The interview format enables me to tap into the audiences of the interviewees. Encouraging them to share and repost the interview content across their platforms is key. While I’ve been leveraging this advantage, there’s room for enhancement. I aim to optimize this aspect.
On the other hand, there are certain challenges:
1. Reliance on others: Occasionally, obtaining timely responses can be a struggle and multiple follow-ups are needed. There have been instances when I’ve prepared an issue at the last minute, creating a certain level of anxiety 🙂 Additionally, this is my first summer operating Newsletter Circle, and meeting deadlines have become even more difficult due to vacation schedules.
The ideal approach to address this challenge is to provide the questions at least two weeks in advance and maintain a stock of interviews ready to be published. However, managing this isn’t always feasible.
2. Limited elaboration: Sometimes, it’s challenging to obtain as much detailed insight as one might capture in an audio or video interview.
NEWSLETTER EXPERIENCE
How did writing Newsletter Circle contribute to your life professionally & personally?
Personally, it is the greatest challenge I’ve taken. Through this newsletter, I consistently test my self-discipline and emotional resilience with this newsletter.
Professionally, it has connected me with valuable creators and founders from around the world, broadening my horizon. I learn a lot about the dynamics of the newsletter business and running a solo business. It also plays an important role on my journey toward establishing a thriving newsletter business.
What is the most challenging part of writing a newsletter and how do you handle it?
There are a couple of challenges that I face:
1) Perfectionism: I’m in a constant struggle against my tendency to be a perfectionist. This is mainly due to my 10-years of experience in corporate life, where the final product holds the highest importance and mistakes aren’t well tolerated.
I’m still working on developing the ability to embrace mistakes and not be overly critical of myself.
2) Resilience: I run Newsletter Circle solo. Despite various advantages, working alone makes it difficult to deal with emotional up and downs.
On the other hand, these challenges are also the reasons why I love running a newsletter. It helps me enhance my self-awareness and continuously improve myself in those areas.
FUTURE
What is next on your newsletter journey?
During August, my main focus area is to build my CRM system, get to know my subscribers better and understand where they stand on their newsletter journey.
Once I have this information, I will also spend time gathering more detailed insights from my VIP subscribers, who continuously read Newsletter Circle and engage.
This will eventually help shape where Newsletter Circle is headed. I have some passionate ideas about turning this into a thriving business. For now, I want to keep them for myself. Once I clarify my business model, I’ll tell you more about the plans. Promise!
RECOMMENDATIONS
What would it be if you had the right to give one piece of advice to aspiring newsletter creators?
Like many of the creators I’ve interviewed, my advice is simple:
Just start. It is the only way to ensure that you have a product-market fit and learn how to grow your publication. You need to jump in the sea to learn how to swim. The more you write, the easier it will get to find your style.
Additionally, I highly suggest dedicating time to understanding your audience right from the beginning. Integrate short surveys with key questions right after subscription.
Learn who reads your content and why they do so. This early insight will illuminate your path when expanding your business and offering relevant products and services to your audience.”
“Without knowing your audience, you’ll either invest considerable time and energy in creating products they don’t need, or you’ll be stuck, unsure of the right direction to take.”
I’ve also included a subscription survey to learn who runs a newsletter among my subscribers. Let’s see how it goes.
What are your favorite newsletters that you can’t wait for the next issue?
I have a lot! There are tons of newsletters I read but I will share the first 3 that directly come to my mind:
- Every always helps me to challenge my mind and widen my horizon.
- Newsletter Operator by Matt McGarry is a real gem for anyone who is serious about growing a newsletter.
- Huzursuz Beyin by Emre Ozarslan is a psychology & philosophy newsletter in Turkish and followed by 30,000+ subscribers. I love it a lot and couldn’t find such a good one in English. I’m open to suggestions.
FINAL WORDS
I would like to thank all Newsletter Circle subscribers who give me the courage to keep going. And thank you for reading my journey.
Please feel free to reach out to me at any time!
