Interview Date: January 12, 2024
Table of Content
- Meet Dmitri
- Newsletter Identity Card
- Tool Stack
- How he started Analog.Cafe
- Growth guideline to over 12,000 subscribers
- His monetization strategies
- His productivity tips
- Personal & professional impact of running a newsletter
MEET THE CREATOR
This week, I talked with Dmitri, the creator of Analog.Cafe, a thriving blog and newsletter dedicated to photography.
What started as a hobby project while working as a front-end developer has now become Dmitri’s full-time business.
Today, Analog.Cafe is a blog with 100K monthly visitors and has a newsletter with 12.2K subscribers, including 69 paid members.
In our interview, he shared:
- How Analog.Cafe became a full-time job
- The growth strategies that helped him reach over 12,000 subscribers
- His approach to launching a paid subscription
- The defining characteristic of a successful newsletter
Enjoy!
NEWSLETTER IDENTITY CARD
TOOL STACK
- ESP: SendGrid
- Writing: Grammarly + A WYSIWYG editor custom for Analog.Cafe written by Dmitri using Next.js, Slate, and React.js
- Task Management, Curation and Note-taking: Apple Notes, Apple Reminders
- Design of visuals design: Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Rush, AfterEffects, hand-written CSS code.
- Growth: Fathom analytics for visitor privacy, in-house tools.
- Digital Products: Adobe PDF editor, Visual Studio Code.
- Social Media Tools: Automatic RSS feed generator (built in-house).
- Payments: Stripe
START
How and why did you start a newsletter about photography while you were working as a full-time front-end developer? What is the role of Analog.Cafe in your life?
I haven’t had the chance to update my LinkedIn profile but I am no longer at WebMD. I left that job to focus on Analog.Cafe this summer.
I began working on Analog.Cafe about seven years ago when I lived and worked as an expat in Chiang Mai. I’ve had a strong desire to express myself creatively since high school, and running a website about photography is a way to do that.
This was a hobby blog for a long time, and it sort of became a low-paying, high-demand part-time job after a bit. It is currently a low-paying, high-demand full-time job. 😅
Your website gets more than 100k visits per month. Besides having such a successful blog with high traffic, what are the benefits of having a newsletter?
When you think about the evolution of the content ecosystem, how do you position your blog and your newsletter?
“A newsletter is the best way to speak directly to the most interested blog readers.”
This channel is less volatile than social media (in terms of engagement and delivery) and has been around for a long time. If you or anyone told me they don’t have an email address but regularly spend time online, I would be very surprised.
I hope I understood your question correctly. A blog and a newsletter are very old platforms in the “Internet years.” They seem under threat today, but they are still very relevant. I happen to have practical experience building content and functionality for both of those platforms, which I use to build better readers’ experiences.
GROWTH
How did you gain your first 1,000 subscribers?
I’ve learned somewhere that exchanging downloadable, printable content for an email address seems fair and often works.
“Some of the guides I wrote on the blog are quite long and could be straining to read off a small screen. A printable PDF solves that. So I built a system that accepted email addresses in exchange for a link to download the files and I made it easy for me to use so that I could focus on making content.”
Which strategies did you use to grow over 12,000 subscribers?
1000 – 5,000 Subscribers
I built interactive features into the blog (like saving articles to favorites and commenting) and created a greater variety of downloadable content.
At this point, I was offering digital files that complement the guide, like a full-resolution, uncompressed scan of the CineStill 400D photographic film.
5,000 – 10,000 Subscribers
I built a web game for film photographers, called “What The Film?!” It was featured on two large blogs (35mmc and PetaPixel). The game requires a sign-in and a spike in interest for the game earned me new subscribers.
At this point, the website had more downloadable content. I also began requiring a sign-in for certain high-quality articles in an attempt to shield my content from bots and earn a way to reach out to interested readers.
10,000+ Subscribers
It’s still early days. So far, much focus has been on building web apps that manage users’ data. Like an app that helps users keep track of their film rolls across cameras.
Regarding growth efforts, what would you do differently if you had a chance to start over?
Analog.Cafe was built to promote and showcase creative photography. This website still serves that purpose, but it is mostly discovered by people looking for camera reviews and guides.
“If I were to start over, I’d focus more on serving the readers (while still publishing creative, unprofitable content) and do a better job with product photography.”
MONETIZATION
When was the right time for you to apply paid subscription for your newsletter? How long did it take to monetize your newsletter?
I’ve sold self-published books, prints, and other physical products off Analog.Cafe for a few years, which gave me an idea of how many paid customers I could get with my current audience. Then I considered whether the effort to build and maintain a system to support memberships would be worthwhile given my success rate thus far.
In January 2024, I finally had the time to build the membership experience (which includes payments and access management). I began accepting subscriptions shortly after I tested the software and announced GOLD memberships in my free newsletter.
How many paid subscribers do you have? What are your strategies for converting free subscribers into paid ones or gaining new paid subscribers?
69. I offer unique, valuable content, such as an article about a camera made entirely out of LEGOs to my email subscribers and promise to deliver more next month.
How did you decide what to offer differently to paid subscribers to make it compelling for them to join as paid members?
Articles with affiliate links, such as reviews, remain open because it makes more sense to have more eyeballs on such content. Apps and tutorials that are not found elsewhere on the internet (like a bulk film length calculator and a film camera repair guide) go to paid subscribers.
“I understand that some people will never pay money for my content but they are still valuable readers and members of a community so I try to balance this with a heavy dose of freebies.”
SYSTEM AND PRODUCTIVITY
You had a full-time job while publishing new issues more than twice a week. How do you manage your time to keep up with your full-time job and newsletter?
Though I’m no longer at WebMD, this is exactly what I did for several years. I spent many hours building the blog software from scratch, which allowed me to implement various automations to help focus on content and avoid clicking around and problem-solving the CMS. I also got faster at writing with experience. And I’ve been working from home for the past 10+ years as a remote software engineer, which saved a lot of time on travel and works well if you’re introverted like me.
I am not any less busy now than when I managed a full-time job alongside Analog.Cafe.
IMPACT & LEARNINGS
How did building Analog.Cafe newsletter contribute to your life professionally and personally?
My creative side projects helped me impress prospective employers. Analog.Cafe helped me get a job at WebMD.
What would it be if you had the right to give one piece of advice to aspiring newsletter creators?
“I think consistency is a defining characteristic of an email newsletter. There are certainly successful exceptions, but I think it helps to give the readers an expectation (e.g., “monthly”) and deliver on that.”
