My Journey to a 1 MILLION dollar exit

[Marketeer Pulse]

1 million dollars... that sounds a bit bold, I never had so much money. But keep with me as I plan to reach that goal.

How?

With this newsletter ---> https://marketeerpulse.com

^^^ subscribe to have an in-depth look of how I reach that goal ^^^

I read that article a few weeks ago about some very successful newsletters: Email Newsletters Are Serious Business

When I saw that they were sold for 20 million dollars, or even for more than 100 million dollars, I decided I wanted to get my share

I know it's not going to be easy, but I believe with the right strategy it's all possible!

So what's going to be my strategy?

1. High quality email newsletter (no spam and outstanding content)
2. Consistency

Lately I have subscribed to a lot of newsletters to get some inspiration. I found one that stands out above the rest, it's a newsletter for business people called Morning Brew. I like a lot their sarcastic/funny tone.

I want to build a newsletter with the same sarcastic tone but targeted to affiliates/vendors who are active on forums like affiliatefix, warriorforum etc... mainly the ones selling and buying through jvzoo, warriorplus and clickbank.

I remember some years ago the warriorforum was sold for $1M to freelance.com - I want an exit like that one.

I'll do my best to reach that goal, I'll post my progress here.

So, I've actually already started 3 weeks ago.

What I currently have:

• A name: Marketeer Pulse
• An optin page here -> https://marketeerpulse.com
• 2 writers
• An emailing system with a custom made referral program (to help with the newsletter growth)
• 2 social accounts (FB / twitter), but without any post yet
• And I also have the 2 first emails scheduled to be sent tomorrow and after tomorrow (at 6am, in subscribers' timezone)

I have this referral program mentioned at the end of each email, I really hope that this referral program coupled with the high quality of the newsletter will help me grow the audience relatively quickly:



My next step:

• Advertise on FB to bring traffic to the optin page

What I need from you:

• Your support
• Your feedback / comments on what I'm doing wrong/well
• That you subscribe here to stay informed -> https://marketeerpulse.com

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

Great achievement today, 3 weeks after I decided to start this project, the 1st email was sent to around 40 subscribers - that's not a lot, but it gets the ball rolling!

Here's how the 1st newsletter email looks like:

There's still room for improvement, but just the fact that I was able to make a project LIVE is very motivating, beware WORLD, I am coming MWAHAHAHA

Would love to know what you guys think about that 1st email?

 

[game333]

This sound a fresh idea, but my question goes, since you are looking to make a million buck.

Is this project, snow-ball-effect-able?

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

"snow-ball-effect-able" first time I hear/read this word haha

To sell the business for $1M, I need to make it earn at least $100k (in profits) per year, or $8,333 per month. This doesn't look out of reach.

 

[Graybeard]

That article is almost 10 years old -- did you see the dates on the comments?

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

@Graybeard lol haha now that's what I would call a very bad start!
I don't know which article you talk about but will check that now, and make sure this doesn't happen in tomorrow's newsletter - learn as you grow

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

I thought you were talking about the content of the newsletter. Was checking those ones... Ok so about that other article, I don't really care it's an old one. It doesn't change my point of view that newsletters are serious business. For example, Morning Brew is making serious money with around 100k subscribers (as they pay several business writers full time $50k to $60k per year and are trying to hire some more)

 

[Graybeard]

How? With a newsletter... it's probably not sounding very exciting but I read that article a few weeks ago about some very successful newsletters: Email Newsletters Are Serious Business

^^ the one you cited

Sean • 8 years ago
Awesome post Jason!

Any insight into how these guys built such ridiculously huge email lists?

~Sean


Daman Bahner • 6 years ago
There's a lot of beautiful things about a niche targeted, curated list. I personally have been on the Thrillist subscriber list for years, and have heard about a lot of great products that I love: Bonobos and 1 Dollar Shave Club come to mind first. I think the engagement potential of a nicely formatted email has more of a magazine type feel, I typically will at least open up the Thrillist email to browse 3 or more days a week.

My 2cents is try to build up a marketing list and just worry about making continual revenue.

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

Thanks so much @Graybeard that's super helpful! I will fix that first line of body text in a few minutes... but first I NEED to share that with you!

I cannot believe it!

First email sent this morning to around 40 people... and what do I see in my JVZoo account???

Can you guess what?

Yes, I made money today from that 1st email

The great thing is that I didn't have to make any hype - the newsletter email was informative, and I just had that tiny section near the end listing 2 products that just launched... and bam, 2 clicks and 2 sales.

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

I thought those 2 visitors purchased, but actually only one of them did. The reason it shows 2 sales is because the one who purchased also picked up an OTO:

 

[Graybeard]

You are inboxing OK (gmail)
However, I think you need to work on the subject line and, apparently, the first line of the body's text ...
This is how it looks in my mobile

 

[Bloody Tourist]

Thanks so much @Graybeard that's super helpful! I will fix that first line of body text in a few minutes... but first I NEED to share that with you!

I cannot believe it!

First email sent this morning to around 40 people... and what do I see in my JVZoo account???

Can you guess what?

Yes, I made money today from that 1st email

The great thing is that I didn't have to make any hype - the newsletter email was informative, and I just had that tiny section near the end listing 2 products that just launched... and bam, 2 clicks and 2 sales.

Niiiice dude! That's amazing!

Some questions:

1. Are you linking to external content or do you collect the articles on an aggregated blog that you own?
2. What software are you using for the referral program

Keep it up man, I'm rooting for ya!

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

Thanks Martini, I'm pumped right now and almost jumping around... that's not a lot of money but the feeling is fantastic!

1. I'm linking to external content. Basically I'm just curating news so far, but this will change soon.

2. For managing the emails/subscribers I'm using a wordpress plugin called Mailster. For the referral system, a programmer created a custom script that integrates with Mailster, as I couldn't find one already done

 

[Bloody Tourist]

Thanks Martini, I'm pumped right now and almost jumping around... that's not a lot of money but the feeling is fantastic!

1. I'm linking to external content. Basically I'm just curating news so far, but this will change soon.

2. For managing the emails/subscribers I'm using a wordpress plugin called Mailster. For the referral system, a programmer created a custom script that integrates with Mailster, as I couldn't find one already done

Thanks! Yeah you have every reason to be pumped!!! Too bad the referral script isn't available.

 

[game333]

I thought those 2 visitors purchased, but actually only one of them did. The reason it shows 2 sales is because the one who purchased also picked up an OTO:

Congrats, my guess was, that was probably Graybeard.
It worked!

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

Email #2 has gone out this morning, let's hope it makes some sales too!

Here is how it looks like (last time I post a screenshot, to see the next ones, subscribe to the newsletter, it's 100% spam free, with fresh news from the industry that can help you with your business decisions):

Let's hope it makes at least one sale too!

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

no sale yet from today's email...

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

I think I have the "refresh stats" syndrome... can't stop refreshing stats waiting for that sale!

I reckon that it's a lot of wasted time, I need to stop that!

 

[jamezdon]

If you are consistent, you can achieve your goal in a few years

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

Mmmm... now, that IS a big problem... I don't really know (yet) how to fix that, I will have to make some research on the topic.

Another problem, you said 02:00 am? The emails are normally sent at 06:00 in subscribers' timezone. So I've got 2 things to fix.

Thanks for telling me

 

[jamezdon]

Newsletters are big business. Check Agora publishing

 

[englishrussian]

Out of Interest where did you get these figures from?

To sell the business for $1M, I need to make it earn at least $100k (in profits) per year, or $8,333 per month.

 

[Graybeard]

Got bad news --

You landed in the GMail Spam box at 02:00 this morning
This is a common issue with email

reason; "it's similar to messages that were detected by our spam filters"

 

[Marketeer Pulse]

@englishrussian that 10x yearly profit estimate was based on articles I had read in the past. Searched more about it today, and I saw that it usually ranges between 2x to 10x, depending on what you're selling: service or product, and how the profits are trending.