Countdown
5 Weeks Until Newsletter Fest, Y’all
Happy Friday, Newsletter Festers!
We’re continuing to add speakers and registration pages. Can you feel the excitement?
Thank you to everyone who has replied with ideas of what would be most helpful to you.
Remember that you can visit the event page (built on Notion, in case you’re curious) to browse sessions and register for the ones you want to attend. Everything’s free.
Note: Replays will be posted in the weeks following the event, but we’re aiming for a bunch of Q&A time so you can learn directly from the experts.
We’ll start taking nominations for your favorite newsletters across a variety of industries starting next Friday.
Also, we’re creating a contest to give away a free year of Curated. This is going to involve creating a newsletter in Curated for the public to vote on, so if you want to get a head start on that, start an account for free today. You’ll want to check out the getting started tutorial series Seth has been building out over on YouTube.
Special Announcement: We’ve got Corrales Cachola writing a song for Newsletter Fest because he’s awesome. Make sure to register for the Kickoff Session to hear it!
Speaker Spotlight
April Mullen: Marketing’s Big Opportunity is the Publishing Model
April Mullen is currently the Director of Brand and Content Marketing at SparkPost. She has over 14 years of experience working in email for brands, agencies and in martech.
Outside of SparkPost, Mullen has been an Adjunct Professor of Digital Marketing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis since 2013. In June of 2016, Mullen co-founded Women of Email, an organization with over 5,000 members on six continents that is aimed at driving positive change for women in the email marketing niche.
Workshop: 4 Newsletter Business Models
Monday, April 12th. 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST)
Content has been a huge focus for marketing for quite some time. The rising popularity of newsletters presents new opportunities, though. With newsletters, content timing, cadence and curation can set expectations for your consumers much like in a strong publishing model. This can drive increased engagement, revenue and brand advocacy. In this session, we’ll examine what you should be considering when it comes to creating newsletters that take the best of the publishing world to accelerate your marketing.
Register for this event here.
Michael Aft: The New Paper: How we built a $1M business in 24 months
Michael is the co-founder and co-CEO of The New Paper, a digital media company with over 100,000 users that makes fact-first news easy to consume. Prior to starting The New Paper, Michael attended the MBA program at Harvard Business School and worked in a wide range of roles across technology (LinkedIn), private equity (Accel-KKR), and investment banking (Moelis & Company). Michael lives in Indianapolis with his wife, son, and two cats (though he swears that he is a dog person at heart).
Michael’s Newsletter: The New Paper
Workshop: The New Paper: How we built a $1M business in 24 months
Wednesday, April 14th. 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST)
In this session, we’ll cover the story of The New Paper and how we built a business with over 100,000 subscribers and $1M of revenue in under two years. We'll cover a wide range of pragmatic topics, including audience selection, product development, business model, advertising sales, subscription economics, and more.
Register for this event here.
Ryan Sager: Selling Newsletter Sponsorships
Ryan Sager is the founder of Email Revenue Solutions and publisher of Who Sponsors Stuff, a new subscription database to help newsletter publishers find their next sponsor. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal and TIME Magazine. He writes the Newspackr newsletter.
Ryan’s Newsletter: Newspackr
Workshop: Selling Newsletter Sponsorships
Wednesday, April 14th. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EST)
In this workshop, we’ll go over how to successfully sell sponsorships on your newsletter, no matter the size. We’ll cover how to price, how to sell, and how to find companies in your space who are open to buying ads on email newsletters.
Register for this event here.
The Lineup
Check Out The Current Schedule & Register For Sessions
Here’s what’s planned so far. We’re still adding speakers and some are still scoping their workshops and being assigned times.
New this week:
Wednesday
Thursday
Monday, April 12
11 - 11:45 a.m. (EST):
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST):
Marketing’s Big Opportunity is the Publishing Model, April Mullen
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST):
4 Newsletter Business Models, Dan Oshinsky
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EST):
Tuesday, April 13
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EST):
Why Is No One Reading My Newsletter? Margo Aaron
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST):
Setting Up Facebook Ads for Your Newsletter, Russ Henneberry from theCLIKK
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST):
The Power of a Curated Newsletter, Scott Rogerson
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EST):
Strategizing Content: How to Build & Test Topics in Curated, Curated Team
Wednesday, April 14
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EST):
Selling Newsletter Sponsorships, Ryan Sager
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST):
TBA, Liz Willitz
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST):
The New Paper: How we built a $1M business in 24 months, Michael Aft
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EST):
The Agency Model: How to Set Up and Sell Newsletters as a Service, Curated Team
Thursday, April 15
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EST):
TBA
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST):
3 Key Steps to Landing More Emails in the Inbox, Brian Minick
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST):
How to Manage Your Newsletter Like a Product, Anum Hussain
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EST):
Advanced Link Collecting: How to Curate Like a Pro, Curated Team
Friday, April 16
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EST):
TBA
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST):
TBA
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EST):
TBA
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EST):
Closing Ceremony, Newsletter Awards, + Curated account winners announced! (Registration coming soon)
Spread the Word
Sharing Is Caring
We would be really grateful if you’d help us out by sharing this COMPLETELY FREE event. You can forward this newsletter or share these media assets.
You’ll find different sizes of the 15-second promo video so you can choose the best ones to share on your social media accounts. Plus, there’s space for you to add your own wording on the video when you post (if you like that sort of thing).
Keep an eye on this page as we’ll be posting more assets.