Entrepreneurs > Courses > Build A Newsletter
Launch a profitable newsletter this weekend
I'll walk you through the entire process, step-by-step, even if you have no ideas and don't know where to start.
Taught by Derek Johanson
3.5 hours
video course
19 video lessons
step-by-step instruction
I've been building online businesses for over a decade — both for myself and as a "hired gun" for others.And after all this time (and being in the trenches of countless businesses), I've realized that for my lifestyle goals there's one business model that is nearly perfect:Newsletters.Why? Here are just a handful of reasons:
Because they're simple.
I'm a solo entrepreneur and I love simplicity. Newsletters have very few moving parts and with the right systems in place, they're very easy to write — and your subscribers love them.
People want to subscribe to them.
How many businesses exist where people are actively looking to give you their email address — and then give you their undivided attention every time you send them an email? Literally only newsletters.
You don't need to be an expert in your topic.
Some of the most successful newsletters in the world were built by novices who were just learning the subject — and they're successful because of that. In fact my most successful newsletter was started that way — and my subscribers knew and didn't care. When 90% of your job is just curating great content from around the web, it actually pays to be a novice.
They can be started in a single weekend.
You can get an idea on Friday and have subscribers on Monday — even without a pre-existing audience, much money, or crazy tech skills. Newsletters are extremely low friction to start — it's one of the few business models where having a "good enough" idea is all you need to start and see how it goes.
They can be easily ditched if there's no traction.
I've built plenty of businesses where we spent months making products only to find out after launch that no one wanted them. Such a waste of time and money. Not the case with newsletters. You know very quickly if they're a hit based on how many people subscribe and how they react to your content — and if you determine after a few weeks that no one cares, you've only lost a few hours of time and almost no money.
They're easy to monetize.
This is the most important point. I've found personally that with the right systems, once you reach 500 subscribers, you've got a business that will comfortably pay all your bills. Everything extra is gravy. Newsletters allow you to sell your own products, sell other people's products, sell consulting/coaching services, sell ad space, do all of the above, or even sell your newsletter itself once it's grown.
The only problem is that most people complicate how to build a newsletter business.
Generally what I see is guidance that is either way too technical or way too basic. It's either for people trying to build massive newsletter empires with dozens of writers, or people who want to build a "hobby" project.There's very little covering the middle ground — how to build simple, one-person newsletter businesses that make pay-all-your-bills money, and that assume you're comfortable with marketing and copywriting.That's what I've been doing for years — and it's given me a lifestyle that I absolutely love.So I've put together a course to show you my process for creating simple — but extremely profitable — newsletter businesses.
Everything from setup to systems for writing content, driving traffic, and monetizing. The complete blueprint.The idea is simple: by following my system, you'll have a newsletter live in a weekend — and systems for building it into a real business over time.Launch fast, grow slowly.You can use my system to build one newsletter.Or you could use it to build multiple newsletters.How many times you repeat the process is up to you.Introducing...
Weekend
Launch
Party
A step-by-step video course for launching a wildly-profitable, easy-to-write, one-person newsletter from scratch — this weekend.
Tools
Exactly which tools you should be using — because they're the tools I use personally.
Setup
Every step building your newsletter from scratch, from tech to copy.
Copy
Frameworks for writing your content in a way your audience will love and respond to.
Scaling
How to make money by surveying your audience and giving them exactly what they want.
The Weekend Launch Party process assumes you're starting from scratch.As in, you have no idea what to write about — and maybe even have worried in the past that you can't start a newsletter because there's no topic you know enough about.Not a problem. My most successful newsletter was on a topic I literally knew nothing about when I started — and my subscribers knew and didn't care at all. You'll learn how to leverage this for your newsletters too in Weekend Launch Party.
- Since we're starting from scratch I'll show you how to come up with profitable ideas for your newsletter using my Reverse Market Process.
- We'll discuss how to get traffic (starting from zero with no previous connections and on a highly restricted budget).
- I'll show you how to immediately monetize your newsletter with the help of something unique I call the 30 Second Survey.
- Then we'll talk about growing (probably somewhat slowly — but that's a good thing) to your first 100 and then 500+ subscribers and beyond.
- And we'll talk tools and tech to publish and make it all happen.
So who am I and why should you listen to me?
Hey, I'm Derek and I've trained countless $100mm+ copywriters in my course CopyHour. I've also built newsletters in everything from organic beauty, to advanced yoga retreats, to helping Hollywood actors land gigs, to entrepreneurship, and much more.Needless to say, over the last decade I've seen inside countless businesses and seen what works and what doesn't. I've also learned a lot through trial and error.Everything I teach comes from personal experience and my goal is to distill it all down to simple, actionable blueprints you can follow and get results from.I hope the system inside Weekend Launch Party changes your life like it did mine.Derek Johanson
Here's what's inside Weekend Launch Party
The Reverse Market Process
Confidently narrow down the best market (not "niche") to cover in your newsletter
The Perfect Lead Magnet
How to create a lead magnet that gets your audience to subscribe and listen
Initial Setup
Go from zero to having your newsletter, domain, landing page, and lead magnets set up
Traffic Sources
Where to generate traffic for your landing page that turns into excited subscribers
Ideation and Research
The only two methods you'll need to write content — even if you're not an expert
The Six Copy Necessities
The only six pieces of content and copy you need to get your newsletter running
Tools & Tech
The exact tools and services I use to set up my newsletter businesses
Publishing Calendar
How often should you publish content and when? All your questions are answered.
The First Newsletter
The hardest part is getting started. We'll construct your first newsletter together.
Worst Case Scenarios
Sometimes your newsletter won't gain any traction. We'll troubleshoot it here.
Monetizing With The 30 Second Survey
Get your subscribers to tell you what they'll really happily pay (lots of) money for
And bonus interviews
Bonus Interview #1
Interview with Tyler Denk, CEO of Beehiiv
Beehiiv is my favorite platform writing (and monetizing) newsletters, and in this interview, Beehiv's CEO Tyler Denk talks about what he considers to be the best tactics for putting together a successful newsletter.
- Best topics
- How to monetize
- Going deeper into newsletters as a business
$97 value
Included with Weekend Launch Party
Bonus Interview #2
Conversation with Tyler Gillespie, Beehiiv's partnerships lead
In this deep dive we talk for over an hour on best newsletter practices — from someone who lives, eats, breathes, and sleeps newsletters every day.
- What's the best type of newsletter to start
- What's the best way to monetize
- And so much more
$197 value
Included with Weekend Launch Party
Join the party
$197$147
One time payment
- The Complete Video Course (3.5 hr)
- Bonus #1: Interview with the CEO of Beehiiv
- Bonus #2: Interview with Beehiiv's Head of Marketing
Or pay in 2 payments of $99
Or pay in 2 payments: $49 then $99
Stop overthinking and start your newsletter this weekend.
The most successful entrepreneurs I know have one thing in common: when they have an idea, they execute on it immediately.They don't plan for months, quietly building out products they're not sure anyone really wants. They just put together the minimum viable product — generally a simple landing page with an opt in form — and put it in front of people to see if there's any interest.Only once they've got the green light do they build more.I'll walk you through exactly that process in Weekend Launch Party — from getting the initial idea, to doing market research, to setting up your newsletter and landing page, to determining if you have something worth building out, to actually how to build it out (and make money along the way — sometimes as early as day 1).You DON'T need to be an expert in any field for this to work. In fact, this process has always worked best for me when I was still in a "beginner's mindset" — because I understood my subscribers and was curating content they wanted.This course is designed to return 100x to 10,000x your investment — and I've seen people charge $1,000 or more for similar (and less actionable) content.Imagine using this strategy to build just one simple newsletter business that comfortably pays all your bills — or even repeating the process again and again.That would be worth thousands to you.So at $497, this course would be a steal.Which is why I've priced it at $197 — to make it a no-brainer. And if it doesn't work, just ask for your money back within 14 days of purchase.You can't lose. So let's start something this weekend.I'll see you inside.
Frequently asked questions
How is the course delivered?
Weekend Launch Party is a 3h 15m video course. After enrolling, you'll be given a login to my private members area where you can watch and take action on the course at your leisure. We recommend following along and taking action in real time as you watch.
What if I've never set up an email list before and don't have any business ideas?
Not a problem! While you'll do best if you know a little bit about writing sales copy, I'll literally be walking you through EVERY step of setting up your newsletter business — so there won't be any guesswork and you'll "learn on the job" so to say (which is the best way to learn).
What if I’m a freelancer and ultimately just want to sell my services to potential clients?
Awesome! This process can be used to build your freelance business the same way it can be used to build any other business. No matter what business you're in, the money is in the list — and having a thriving list of people who receive messages from you every week and want to hear more from you is how you build the top 1% of freelance businesses.
Is there a guarantee?
Absolutely! If Weekend Launch Party doesn't help you build a profitable business in a weekend (or multiple businesses), you have 14 days from when you purchased to request a refund. Just send us a message in the members area and we'll get everything back to you as fast as possible (and thank you for at least giving the system a shot!).
I'm not an expert in any subjects. How will I write a newsletter?
I'm glad you asked because that's one of the best parts about writing a newsletter: it's better if you're NOT an expert. That may sound like marketing hype, but it's easy to explain...The most popular newsletters simply curate content from around the web. They're not necessarily writing a lot of original content — instead they're sharing popular content and adding a little personality to it.When you're a total expert in a field, the content that would excite the "mass market" won't necessarily excite you as much so you might overlook it. But when you're still learning about the field yourself, you know what content gets you revved up — and that's what you're going to share with your audience and get them revved up too.One of my most successful businesses, CopyHour, started as nothing but a simple email list on a subject I knew nothing about but was actively learning.So don't worry if you don't have expertise. It doesn't matter and in fact it could be a superpower.Tl;dr: no one cares if you're the expert in the field as long as you're sharing content with them that they love — and adding a personality to it that they like.
Join the party
$197$147
One time payment
- The Complete Video Course (3.5 hr)
- Bonus #1: Interview with the CEO of Beehiiv
- Bonus #2: Interview with Beehiiv's Head of Marketing
Or pay in 2 payments of $99
Or pay in 2 payments: $49 then $99