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Ep. 3202 - Q&A: “Can a ‘tech deals’ newsletter really make money?”
In this episode, Chris Gillibault answers a listener's question about monetizing a tech deals newsletter. Miguel, a self-described software nerd, seeks advice on turning his passion for sharing d...
Ep. 3202 - Q&A: “Can a ‘tech deals’ newsletter really make money?”
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Interactive Transcript
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You know that customer reviews can have an enormous impact on your business,
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and you probably know this as a customer as well.
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When you go shopping for something, don't you look at the reviews?
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You might even filter them by star rating.
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You might see what people like, what they don't like.
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So if you want to have good reviews, if you want to have great reviews,
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it really helps to automate your process.
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And that's something our longtime partnership station can help with.
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They can grow with you, they can help you deliver five star customer experience
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with industry leading scalable features.
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While your customers can get rave reviews with cheaper, faster and better shipping,
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upgrade to ship station today to get a 60 day free trial at SIPSTATION.com.
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You can cancel anytime, shipstation.com code hustle.
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Lemonada.
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Can I tech deals newsletter really make money?
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That is today's listener idea.
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He's a self described software nerd.
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He always finds coupons, discounts, ends up telling his friends,
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Hey, here's how you can save money on various subscriptions, various digital products,
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whatever else is out there.
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And so now he's wondering if curation can pay for itself.
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Can he actually make money doing something that he's been doing for free?
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Now there are a couple of hurdles here, a couple of challenges.
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He's got to convince skeptical subscribers.
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He's got to build an email list large enough to move affiliate links,
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maybe introduce a paid tier to this service.
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Is it just free?
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Is there a paid option?
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Well, let's talk about the details.
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Let's give him a couple of suggestions.
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His name is Miguel.
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In this episode, we have his detailed question and my answer.
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Hopefully it'll help somebody else out there exploring their own ideas.
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Stay tuned.
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Whenever you go to buy something online, most likely there's something you do.
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There's an action you take.
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This is very common.
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I do this.
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I bet you do it too.
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That action is you go and look at the reviews.
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Now you might go and read a bunch of reviews.
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You might just glance at them.
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You might filter them by star rating.
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But whatever you do, you don't ignore reviews, right?
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Like reviews are an important part of the consumer shopping process.
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So if you own a business, if you're starting a business,
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if you have an existing business, especially an e-commerce business,
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where people are purchasing products to come to your door,
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then you want to have great reviews.
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You want to have reviews that inspire other people to buy.
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And that is something that our long-time partner shipstation can help you with.
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They do a lot more than just printing labels.
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I've recommended them for years.
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I've heard from many listeners over the years that they are big fans of shipstation.
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Wow your customers and get those rave reviews with cheaper, faster and better shipping.
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Upgrade to shipstation today to get a 60 day free trial at shipstation.com
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and use code hustle.
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There's no credit card or contract required and you can cancel anytime.
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Shipstation.com code hustle.
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Hey Chris, I'm the friend in every group chat who drops last minute coupon links
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when a new software launches.
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Over the past year, I've tweeted hundreds of lifetime deals
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and the threads get decent traction, but they earn me zero dollars.
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My buddy keeps saying, turn this into a newsletter and add affiliate links.
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You'll be printing money.
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Trouble is, much or how big a list I need.
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What commission rates actually look like or how to keep readers from thinking I'm just spamming junk.
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Can you curate a discount newsletter cover more than coffee money?
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Miguel, the first thing I think of instead of all tech deals, let's pick a lane.
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Okay, AI tools for copywriters under $100 or maybe bootstrapped founder software.
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Giving us a tight focus is going to increase your click through rate and your affiliate conversion.
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Next, let's talk about making a flywheel, a list building flywheel.
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Your top of funnel is going to be Twitter and Reddit posts.
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Then you've got maybe a Google doc, which is like a full seven day deal tracker.
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Then some kind of referral program where your friends get to unlock early access alerts
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in Telegram or Signal perhaps or some other platform.
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Whatever it is, early adopters love exclusivity.
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The next set up the affiliate economics app sumo pays 10 to 20 percent, for example.
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If you think about typical price, $59, you've got a 3000 subscriber list with an 8 percent click
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through rate, 4 percent purchase rate, that's going to be $850 per email you send.
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One curated blast per week that kind of scales to $3 to $4,000 a month by the time you get to a
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10,000 member list. Those affiliate dollars really do add up especially when you own a tightly
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segmented topic when you respect readers time and perhaps layer that paid to your down the road.
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So treat every deal like content, treat your visitors like the important people that they are,
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and hopefully this hobby can outrun many sponsorship gigs. Miguel, best of luck. Let us know how it goes.
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Listeners, if you have a question, sideusleschool.com slash questions. We'll continue to feature them
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throughout the year and also access resources and download or stream every single episode,
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completely free on the website. Much more is coming up. My name is Chris Gillibault. This is
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SideHussel School.
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From the Onward Project.