5 Reasons Medium Writers Need to Start an Email List — Yesterday

Plus one reason they don’t

Yep, you already know it. This isn’t new information. Email is one of the oldest, new marketing vehicles available. Email is also the most-lucrative app in your pocket (the one you didn’t even realize was so lucrative).

So why, as a Medium writer, do you need an email list?

Isn’t email so last century?

Email was invented in 1972. Yeah, that’s some longevity there. It lasted longer than my car, my underwear, and my first cat.

As a commercial writer, email is the last, great direct marketing vehicle, where you can reach your entire list without having to pay for the honors. There’s no in-box hierarchy. Marlboro can’t pay to get their email higher than mine.

…and as a writer, email is a great way to reach readers and sell them our stuff.

We develop a strong list of people who love our work. We create valuable, entertaining content and give it to them free, without any expectation of something in return. Occasionally, we’ll ask for a sale.

The model is really simple.

You can scale it as big as you wish, while remaining a one-person business. This gives us plenty of room for flexibility. You can run your operation from anywhere with an internet connection.

5 ways email is awesome for writers

1. You save time —

When we use email, much of our selling process happens automatically, through a welcome sequence. This means you get more time to practice your work that matters (your writing). You spend less time posting to social and chasing sales through advertising.

2. You earn money while you sleep —

With an email-based business, your store is open 24/7/365. I have clients from 80 countries. I literally run an international publishing business from my pocket. I wake up in the morning, check my phone, and see how much I earned while I was sleeping.

Automated sequences do all the heavy-selling in measured amounts.

3. You can write an email once and use it for years —

There’s nothing worse than spending hours of valuable creative time building social posts no one sees. With email, everyone in your tribe gets it. Not everyone will open it, but they have the option.

Email is a great way to maximize our writing efforts. We put in the work to write an automated sequence once. We then use it repeatedly, for years. I literally have readers who respond to my emails, thinking I wrote them today. I wrote them two years ago.

4. You can scale your operation any size you want —

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not hire employees if I don’t have to. I like writing on my own schedule. With email, you write a single letter and send it to everyone on your list.

Sure, the customer responses increase, but you can grow a lucrative, full-time business with no employees, using nothing but lead-generation and your email list.

5. You aren’t at the mercy of a big platform —

With email, you own your platform. Not Medium. You control the message and the delivery sequence. If you want to leave Medium and take your toys with you, you’ve got your email list.

When you write for Medium they own your following. Medium controls the number of people who see your stories. When you own your tribe, you control who sees what. You are in charge of scaling your income as your tribe grows, not some algorithm change.

One reason you DON’T want an email list —

If you hate the idea of self-promotion and you want your work to speak for itself, then email is not your thing. Email is a marketing tool, to sell more of your work, so you can spend more time doing the work you love.

If you just want to write, skip the email. This is a lot of work up-front for a greater reward later. Email is not for everyone. Some people feel it’s beneath them and I get it. There’s nothing like writing a book, ignoring promotion, and hoping people will find it once you publish.

That method is not for me, but it might be for you.

It all starts with the list

You create an offer that entices your readers to join your tribe. You send traffic to that offer. Later, you send valuable emails to keep them returning for more. Sprinkled throughout, you offer your books, courses, and products for sale.

You can earn semi-passive income daily, with this method.

Although the offers are spread throughout your emails, each person signs up on a different day. A certain percentage of your list will get a sales offer daily.

If you want to build an email list for your writing business, I’ve got a free masterclass for you.

The Tribe 1K masterclass is a 7-day course you can perform at your own pace. You’ll get a new lesson daily, starting today. You can save the lessons and do them later.

I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 readers (or your next 1,000) without spending a hot nickel on ads.

Tap the link below.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.