How I Failed to Monetise My 3000-Subscriber Email List And What I’d I Do Today

And why you should monetise yours sooner rather than later.

Photo by Jubaied Munna on Unsplash

Every mistake is a lesson if you’re a keen learner.

I learned a lot from my mistake of not trying to monetise my list of 3000 email subscribers.

I’m living my second life. It started in June 2018 when I arrived in Perth, Australia, with my family and five suitcases.

Before that, I spent 40 years in my home country, Serbia.

My roles changed through the 20 years of my career in Serbia, but before I left, I was a digital marketing manager in a marketing agency and an acclaimed parenting blogger.

I had 3000+ mums on my email list, but I never built any offer nor tried to sell them anything.

Why didn’t I try to sell to my audience?

1. My business model was different.

I created content on my blog but used content marketing to monetise it. I was paid by brands to write articles on my blog. I have worked with over 20 of the biggest brands in Serbia.

So, I was paid not by my readers but by brands I partnered with.

2. I worked in a small market.

• The digital market in Serbia wasn’t developed enough.

• Payment by cards wasn’t mainstream.

• People in Serbia do not have money or spend much online, especially young parents with babies, who were my primary audience.

3. I didn’t have confidence in my expertise.

• I can say I’m an expert in marketing.

• I’ve spent years learning about it and practising it.

• I have a Masters in Marketing.

• But parenting — huh!

How could I claim to be an expert in parenting as a “just” mum?

I know there is a bunch of “parenting coaches” and parenting gurus that built their empires being parenting experts, but to me, it felt wrong.

4. I was afraid to sell.

My selling to brands was easy — I wrote articles, got on their radar, and they contacted me to advertise.

After that, step two was also easy — other brands hired me to write for them on their channels.

But I never overcame that fear of selling. When you try to sell a product or service and have that little voice in your head saying:

“People will think I’m selling out”

“What if I sell and no one wants to buy?”

If you need to overcome the fear of showing up and selling, here is a free checklist to help you beat your fear of selling.

5. I didn’t have the courage to develop my business fully.

There was a moment, and I can remember it clearly:

• I had my part-time marketing job in an agency, and I already knew every marketing big name in Serbia (this is a tiny country, and industries are small).

• My other part-time job — my blogging, accompanied by my marketing clients and writing gigs- was blooming. I didn’t have to advertise my service; people were asking for me because of word-of-mouth.

Still, I didn’t quit my job.

At that time, we were in Serbia with three little kids, a home loan and big living expenses. We were saving money to immigrate to Australia, so there was 0 space to take a risk and start something new and scary.

And I was a coward, playing safe.

So, that train left, and we went to Australia. It took me five years of struggling to be in a position to start my hustle again, let alone start building my email list again.

Hopefully, I will be smarter this time, thanks to my previous failures.

Photo by Ian Kim on Unsplash

What I’d do differently today?

1. Put more effort into collecting subscribers.

At that time, I didn’t even have a lead magnet. People were subscribing because they wanted to read more from me.

2. Start selling from day one.

I have to say I’ve repeated this mistake again. I was so focused on proving myself I could make high-quality content that I didn’t put enough effort into making a good paid offer.

3. Craft products that are a perfect match for my audience.

The first, biggest step is to find out the pain point that bugs your audience the most. Then, craft your solutions that solve that specific point. Not 10 of them, not all of them.

When you reverse engineer the process, you can get exactly what your subscribers need.

4. Beat the imposter syndrome with basic offers and low-ticket products for a start.

This is a big struggle for me.

It’s been almost a year, and I still feel like a fraud sometimes.

Why?

I have more experience in marketing than many creators who got into the story just a year or two ago.

Then, I realised that although I am a marketing specialist expert, I'm still a rookie when it comes to my business.

So, I need to go step by step — the first offer needs to be basic and low cost, with a low barrier to start.

5. Push my offer more and promote the shit out of it.

We don’t live in a creator economy but an attention-scarcity economy.

So if we don’t promote our work, people won’t have a chance to see it (unless you pay a shitload of money for ads, but that’s another story).

There is no point crying over the spilled milk. It’s time to embrace our failures and learn from them.

This is what you can do:

1. Sign up for an ESP — I have a detailed review; read it!

2. Do the technical — set up the landing page, form, and welcome sequence.

3. Start promoting your offer.

4. Start sending weekly/biweekly emails.

If you want to try building your newsletter and monetise it, register today for my FREE 5-day email course and learn how to start email marketing easily and on a budget.

Till the next time, my friend :)

Angelina