Tech Talks Weekly

"A weekly newsletter delivering curated software engineering conference talks and podcasts to 7,500+ subscribers, monetized through sponsorships."
0
techtalksweekly.io
Maker: techtalksweekly
$500 in November, $700 in December (growing, recently started offering sponsorships)

Marketing Channels

Primary

Newsletter/Email

Core product is a weekly email with 7,500+ subscribers and 32-35% open rate, with plans to trim the list to reach 40-50% open rates

Ongoing

Sponsorships

Recently started offering sponsorship options, generating $500 in Nov and $700 in Dec

Secondary

Hacker News

Shared on HN to reach the developer audience that aligns with their subscriber base

Growth Levers

  • Trim the subscriber list to boost open rates to 40-50%, making sponsorship packages more valuable
  • Increase sponsorship pricing as engagement metrics improve post-trimming
  • Add a referral program to incentivize existing subscribers to share the newsletter
  • Create a companion website or searchable archive of past talks for SEO-driven subscriber acquisition
  • Offer tiered sponsorship packages (dedicated sends, banner placements, featured talk slots) to increase ARPU

First Customer Strategy

The creator built the newsletter for themselves because they were subscribed to too many conference YouTube channels and things were getting messy. They wrote a script to fetch new talks automatically, then turned it into a newsletter. The organic value of curated conference content attracted 7,500+ subscribers.

Pricing Insight

Monetization is through sponsorships, not subscriber payments. At $500-700/mo from sponsorships with 7,500 subscribers, there is room to increase rates as the list grows and engagement improves. The 32-35% open rate is strong; trimming to 40-50% would make the list more attractive to sponsors.

Key Takeaways

  • • Automating content curation (YouTube channel aggregation) can be the foundation of a viable newsletter business
  • • Building for yourself first ensures the curation quality matches what the target audience actually wants
  • • A 32-35% email open rate is strong and demonstrates genuine subscriber engagement
  • • Sponsorship revenue grows with list quality, not just list size -- trimming inactive subscribers increases value
  • • Conference talk curation serves an evergreen developer need as the number of conferences and channels keeps growing
  • • Starting monetization late (after building audience) ensures the product earns trust before asking for revenue

Sentiment Analysis

Comments

0 total

No comments yet.