How I Gained 1,000 Email Subscribers in 4 Months, Using Only Medium

…without spending a dime on paid advertising.

Honestly, I’m really hesitant to hit ‘publish’ on this one. I feel like I’ve found one of the last few, little-discovered secrets of the interwebs. Everything else is out there. The competition is so fierce. But I’ve found a way to bring in a boat-load of email subscribers doing nothing but content writing.

Content marketing was the jam 10–15 years ago.

Blogs were the key to internet happiness. Now, no one reads blogs. You can blog your face-off every day for five years and end up with no traffic. We’ve moved to podcasts and things we can consume while multi-tasking. However, Medium has become a diamond among a sea of thorns.

I’m a pretty humble person.

I don’t like to give my stats often, because some may think these numbers are unattainable, while others will think they’re pathetic. Today I felt compelled to let this one out. I hope the information finds you well.

Email isn’t dead. It’s just getting started.

Email is the last frontier of marketing. Everyone’s got an email address, whether they read their email or not. Social accounts come and go. With social, someone else owns the platform and the followers. We become a free employee of the platform. You could work six years to build a social following, only to have it removed overnight, by some change in the operating guidelines.

When we gather a tribe in someone else’s yard, we play by the house rules.

And those rules favor the house. If you want your followers to see your social posts you’ve got to pay for any significant reach. Social posts are terribly temporary, which can create a treadmill cycle of unpaid labor, just to stay relevant.

But email is different.

Email lets you compete on same, level playing field as a billion dollar company. It’s true. This is the only place where it doesn’t matter how you were raised, how much money is in your pocket, or how big your business is.

Yes, you’ve got to be better than great.

There’s no room for average anymore. We shut the door on average 20 years ago. The competition is now fierce and ready to copy you at a moment’s notice. But through email, you control the conversation in a measured way. The reader gets this email before that one. And the next.

You only have to write your emails once (save for a few, minor tweaks) and use them repeatedly, forever.

How I got 1K subscribers

1. I got specific —

I serve writers and creators who want to create work that sells and sell more of the work they create. I don’t serve anyone else. I do my best to keep everything I write on Medium in service to this niche.

When someone follows your work, they want more of what you’ve already written. When you write about apple pie one day, and relationships the next, your reader has no idea what you stand for. I made the deliberate choice to serve writers and creators.

2. I solved their problem —

My little email course teaches indie writers (and creators) how to get their first 1,000 subscribers without spending a dime on advertising. I call this my Easy Invite. Email is not my problem. This is their problem. I focused on the audience first, and gave them a real solution to get them out of their current situation. I spent two months creating my free course. I give away something I can charge money for. We need to take this level of giving if we want to earn subscribers. Even if the subscriber never buys anything, he’ll get real value from my course.

You must put in a similar effort with your Easy Invite.

No one wants to join your newsletter. No one wants to read your blog, ‘keep in touch,’ or sign up for ‘future updates’ (what does that even mean?). No one wants your first chapter free or your five-page sales pitch disguised as a ‘blueprint.’ All that’s been done before. We’ve seen it for 20 years. We want more before we’re willing to part with our email.

You’ve got to sell free.

I even collect testimonials for my free offer. Seriously. I post the best ones on my landing page. Not many creators do that, so my work stands-out from the moment a subscriber contemplates the free masterclass.

If we want an audience who eventually pays us for our best work, we’ve got to go above and beyond to earn their email address.

3. I don’t take subscribers for granted —

Sure, not all of my emails hit the mark. I run into technical problems daily. But for the most part, I never take my reader’s attention for granted. When you’re on my list it’s not a pitch-fest. Yes, I created this list as a commercial venture, but there’s a right and wrong way to earn your reader’s money.

Once you get a person on your list, it’s your duty to make them want to stay there and keep opening your email. We do this through info-tainment. We not only provide valuable information, but we do so in a way that people enjoy consuming it.

Teaching-alone isn’t enough. We’d rather watch cat videos to unwind.

You’ve got to put your own, entertaining spin on the information you deliver, to keep your readers away from the unsubscribe button. It’s one thing to earn a subscriber, but it’s another kind of work to keep her.

4. My content funnels my message —

My medium posts serve my tribe. At the bottom of each post is a simple call to action, to enroll in my free masterclass. Since Medium has millions of readers, I’ve got a build in audience, ready to receive my next story.

Not only do I earn money by creating the content, but I’m also paid to grow my email list. Which is a double-bonus. I can’t think of another platform where this is possible. I hate to even write this. You get the double-income bonus of growing your business while you get paid to do so. Not only do you avoid buy ads, but you get qualified subscribers who want more of your content.

5. I write every. damn. day —

Most of my writing doesn’t get curated. But I write often enough that many stories do. I grew my list quickly by constantly refining my message. Tomorrow it may not work as well, since I’ve written this story.

But I know not everyone is willing to put in the work.

There’s no free ride with list-building. You either pay with money or time. My experiment was completed with time. The list grows every day. While I’m awake. While I sleep. Some posts earn more readers than others. That doesn’t bother me. I stick with a process that works and I repeat the process daily until it doesn’t work. Then I choose a new process.

You choose

Content writing can be a grind. I’ve got over 400 stories on Medium in much less than a year. I could’ve paid for social ads instead. With much less labor. I made the conscious choice with the content model, because I appreciate semi-evergreen over instant-disposable.

If you’re starting from zero, will you get your first 1K subscribers in four months? I have no idea. Maybe not. Maybe you’re niche has more people (or fewer). Maybe you take two months (or twenty).

This isn’t a competition.

Every indie business is different. Every offer is different. You and I are different. That’s why this email thing works. Our audience wants more of what we have to say, not the other lady.

As the old farmer used to say:

The best time to start an email list was twenty years ago, the second-best time is now.

If you start today, maybe you’ll have two subs tomorrow. And ten by week’s-end. This is a tribe of ten real people who like your work. That’s a big deal. You’d never come in contact with those folks if it weren’t for the internet.

Start today.

Everyone starts from zero.

We’re waiting for you.

(Enroll in My Free 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. A self-proclaimed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indie authors how to write books that sell and how to sell more of those books once they’re written. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.