How to grow a "quality" audience, Twitter thread formula, getting AI to write your copy.
Growth Currency ⚡ 0️⃣2️⃣9️⃣
Well hey there 👋
Welcome to the 29th edition of Growth Currency ⚡
👋 A warm welcome to 62 new subscribers this week—including Linda, Prateek, David, Joe, Bhanu, Christina, Viki, Becca, Charlotte, Peter, Dan, and Chuck!
And to all of you I don’t have room to mention! I don’t take my space in your inbox for granted. You all rock, thank you for being here 🤘
HOW TO GROW A “QUALITY-OVER-QUANTITY” AUDIENCE🎯
There’s an obsession with growing an audience as quickly as humanly (or robotically 🤖) as possible. I get it. The more followers or subscribers or upvoters you have, the better the vanity metrics—and presumably, the better the engagement & increased potential for sales.
But maybe you shouldn’t focus on the quantity.
Maybe—just maybe—you should focus on the quality of your audience instead. This is the core principle behind Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans concept and also the main topic of ConverKit’s The Future Belongs To Creators podcast episode I recently listened to.
One of the key points: if you can increase the “quality concentration” of true fans in your audience, you don’t need hundreds of thousands of followers—you just need 1000.
The general principle is: if you have 1000 fans willing to spend $100 on your brand per year, you can earn $100,000/year.
1000 fans actually feels achievable, right? Which means a 6 figure income from being a creator could be, too.
So how do you get there?
A FEW WAYS TO GET SOME NEW FANS
Building a relationship with your audience is key for them to become true fans of you and your work. Here are a few ways you could start building these important relationships and growing your fanbase to that 4-digit pinnacle.
#1 JOIN A COMMUNITY
One way to meet new and interesting people who could potentially become fans of your work is through online communities. People involved in these communities are typically:
→ invested in improvement
→ ambitious to excel
→ eager to learn
Many will become your peers and friends, and some could become your true fans—particularly if you’re sharing your skills and your knowledge to help others. Be willing to give and provide value, and it will likely be returned to you.
Ship 30 For 301 is a great example of a community filled with people who are aspiring to create online. I’ve witnessed many Shippers launch products while receiving tons of support from their Ship 30 peers.
Get involved with an online community!
#2 START A COMMUNITY
Maybe you’re feeling ambitious and have a great idea for a new community—why not start one yourself?
There are dozens of online community platforms for you to leverage to build, you just need the people.
The key here is to 1) start small, and 2) solve a need.
Start your community off by creating a challenge, like Dickie Bush from Ship 30 For 30 did with 50 people. Or like I just kind of accidentally did with my 3 Goals Crew.
Another example: Justin & Jennifer Welsh saw a need in the market for a LinkedIn community and they started Audience & Income2 where they teach professionals how to grow just that—their audiences & income online.
By starting & building an online community, you can foster relationships, develop some authority in your space, increase your credibility, and have more intimate & focused discussions than in a public, social forum.
This is how you build up to 1000 True Fans.
#3 BUILD PERSONAL RAPPORT
Maybe community isn’t feeling right for you. Maybe you don’t have time to manage a community, let alone be active in one. We’re all busy.
Instead, you can increase the quality concentration of your audience by building personal rapport.
This one is simple enough. Leverage DMs and thank your new followers for following you, and ask them something about their journey, or what they’re working on right now, or something exciting in their lives right now.
Break the ice, be grateful, be curious—and obviously… don’t be creepy.
Once you’ve established rapport and comfort, connect over a Zoom call. I’ve had a number of Zoom calls with people I now call friends whom I’ve never met in person. At the least you’ve made a new friend, at the most, you’ve made a friend, earned a true fan, and become a true fan of theirs as well.
SO…
To get to 1000 True Fans, you’re going to have to do things that don’t scale.
You can’t automate honest conversation and community building, nor should you try. These strategies will cost you time as there is a lot of heavy lifting up front. But once you’ve built your solid fanbase as a creator, the biggest obstacle is done, and selling your products will be a much easier task when people are lining up to support you.
CREATOR SPOTLIGHTS 🔦
🔦 ROSIE SHERRY
What she’s doing: She’s run successful online communities on IndieHackers and now as Community Lead at Orbit. Rosie’s also building the Rosie.Land community.
Why you should follow her: Rosie is one of the top resources for all things community. Her issues of “This week in Community Building” are the only weekly read you need to stay on top of online community news, trends, and resources.
🔦 KJELL VANDEVYVERE
What he’s doing: Kjell writes on Coffee & Pens — one of the best resources is for writing secrets & publishing tips from successful authors. See his latest interview in written & podcast form with the one and only Craig Burgess.
Why you should follow him: Kjell’s Twitter account is also packed with high-value content for creators, focused mostly on writing tips for creators seeking to improve their writing skills and publish online.
TWEET OF THE WEEK 🐦
Let me know if you want to join us. We’re a growing group of 20+!
THIS WEEK’S GROWTH CURRENCY ⚡
📈 MARKETING
12 Expert SEO Tips for 2021: How to Drive More Free Traffic by Nick Loper
Nick Loper is the host of the Side Hustle Show—and I’ve been a listener since 2017. I don’t know a ton about SEO (I have a newsletter for a reason) but these tips are 🔥
A few teasers…
→ Link to Relevant, Authority External Sources
→ Find Low Competition Keywords
→ Use Google Autosuggest for Keyword Ideas
Twitter Thread Formula
I’ve been watching Alex Llull rapidly grow on Twitter over the past few months—in part thanks to his amazing The Steal Club newsletters, and also thanks to his stellar thread writing skills. Here’s a killer thread about how he… writes killer threads. Meta ☯
📩 NEWSLETTERS
Blogging Guide — a newsletter about blogging (and a lot more)! FULL of valuable resources and courses. Though there are a lot of paid products, there is a wealth of free content.
[thanks to my friend Miko J for sharing this newsletter—check out her newsletter Creator Thought Thursdays newsletter ]
🏘 COMMUNITIES & COURSES
Codeswaps Community — I love what Simon is building here. His recent launch of Provver is proof the community “works” as the app was built from a relationship created from within! Check it out if you’re a builder/maker/creator and want to join an intimate & helpful community skill swappers! I also recently won $250 just for promoting the community, and you can, too whether you’re a member or not!
MOOC - Free Online Courses — I came across this database-as-a-website that features 100 free course from Google, Facebook, Harvard and others. The wise Michael ‘GentOfTech’ Greenberg informed me the whole site was built with a Google Sheet 👀 (see TOOLS section below for the how…)
🛠 TOOLS
Conversion.ai — Like Copy.ai but with personality. Meet Jarvis and let him (it?) write your copy for you. Conversion.ai helps you…
→ End writer’s block forever
→ Publish more content faster
→ Boost sales with better copy
SpreadSimple — What is it? “A blazing-fast way to create and manage websites using Google Sheets”. You can create a database in a Google Sheet, and turn it into a website 🤯 Ideal for e-commerce, directories, listings, real estate, and more! Oh, and it’s FREE to start!
You made it to the end, my friend. You rock, yet again 🤘 🎸
Thanks for your support, this newsletter continues to grow and I’m so grateful for you.
ONE LAST THING: After a great chat with my friend Jessie, I’m strongly considering breaking the Growth Currency⚡ newsletter into 2 editions:
EDITION A: a weekly curated list of resources for creators; a shorter email, 5-10 curated links to tips, tools, communities, articles, etc (as per the This Week’s Growth Currency⚡ section of these emails)
EDITION B: a marketing-focused weekly newsletter teaching you how to market, promote and monetize yourself + your content as a creator—much like the 1000 True Fans section at the beginning of this email.
THOUGHTS? You could subscribe to one or both, choice is yours. The goal is to get more focused with the content I’m creating for you. I’d love to hear what you think so please hit ‘reply’ and let me know, or send me a DM on Twitter — I’m easy.
Lastly, share this email with anyone you think it might help, or with anyone who’s creating something worth sharing here.
Peace & plutonic love,
Dylan
PS if you want to help support the newsletter, feel free to buy me a coffee. I used to take a drip 12oz black but I recently tried the pour-over blonde roast at Starbucks and DAMN. My new favorite. Thanks! 😆 ☕
The August Ship 30 For 30 cohort starts August 9th! I’m a proud alumni of Ship 30 For 30—and joining the May/June cohort was life-changing. I could not recommend it enough which is why I’m a proud affiliate. Plus—you’ll save $20 by signing up with my code!
Audience & Income is a phenomenal professional community run by Justin & Jennifer Welsh. I’m a member and a True Fan of Justin’s work. Grow your professional network while gleaning massive insights from industry leaders, startup CEOs and other successful creators.