What up, marketers. Welcome another 1-1-1 edition of Adam’s Letter. If someone sent this to you - please subscribe and join 710 (!) other marketers who use this newsletter to earn more and further their careers.

In my last newsletter, I said “Be wary of the creator who gives advice on things they haven’t done. 🤐”

So let me be clear. I haven’t built a 7-figure newsletter…yet.

Still, so many of you have sent questions or shown interest in how the business side of a newsletter works.

Here’s the roadmap I’m following to a 7-figure newsletter + the best resources for newsletter creators (at the bottom).

1 Strategy: Build a Minimum Addressable Audience

The best advice I received when starting the newsletter was: “Just start. You’ll figure it out from there.”

This applies to the content, frequency, and certainly, the business model to monetize the newsletter. To me, the formula goes something like this:

Common sense, but if you choose a style you enjoy, you’ll be willing to stay with the concept longer and pour more energy into each one.

Assuming the idea is valuable, it will be a matter of time, effort, connections, luck, and possibly some money to connect with what I’m calling the minimum addressable market (MAM).

If your Total Addressable Market (TAM) includes all of the people you could reach, MAM describes the small group that lets you prove the concept and move the business forward.

For me, this is 1,000 readers. If I can get 1,000 true fans to opt-in to reading my newsletter, I’ll have a scalable business here.

Of course, building that MAM takes longer and is more difficult than expected. A pretty typical valley of disappointment.

I’m very near the point of bursting through the valley and achieving my MAM.

Only then is it time to choose a business model or models (see: “1 Idea” below).

1 2 Examples:

I’m breaking my own rule here.

There are so many examples that I want to share to show you how possible building this business is. I’ve chosen the best two:

1. Bay Area Times

I can already read your complaints.

“Pomp already has a massive audience!”

I get it.

The reason this one is so relevant is because of how Pomp and his team have built it.

• They chose a style they wanted to pursue: image-led, chart-focused, featuring data that is easily scannable for the reader.

• They found their MAM: of course, this was compounded by Pomp’s existing audience and influence

• They’ve now monetized through sponsorships (and are sold out 2 months ahead of time).

Yes, having an existing audience helps. But the behaviors to build in the early days are the same regardless of audience. The hockey stick might grow faster or slower, but the trend is the same.

Don’t believe me? Here’s another example.

2. The Daily Upside

I hate Business Insider.

But they recently did a piece (👆️) on The Daily Upside that resonated in my soul. Here was the key part:

TLDR: Trousdale chose his content style → built his MAM → then figured out the $ side. Interesting 🤔 

1 Idea: How Newsletters Make Money

To reach 7-figures, you have to make 1 figure at some point.  

Again, I’m still in the 4-figure range for what this newsletter has produced. So, I’ll rely on people much smarter than I am to direct us on how to best monetize a newsletter effort.

2 fantastic tools for your review:

Trends.co:

Shoutout to reader Gustavo Nieves for this one. Trends (from the Hustle) put together an absolutely killer comprehensive playbook for making money through newsletters. Includes all the models. Examples and real math on how to make the money work. Read it!

Newsletter Operator by Matt McGarry

Matt has become my personal guru on the path to newsletter enlightenment.

Newsletter Operator has proven incredibly helpful, and his post on The Math Behind a $1M Per Year Newsletter Business brought enormous clarity on the path I need to take to reach my 7-figure goal.

That’s it. There are multiple paths to 7-figures. I’m still in early days. Where are you? Would love to collab with more creators - respond and send me your newsletter!

Happy Thursday!

Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, consider subscribing or sharing it with a friend 😊 

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• Dave Gerhardt: The Michael Jordan of Marketers

• How to Build a Founder Brand