You don't own your audience on social media, you rent it.

Once your favorite platform decides your show is over, it's over.

This email is dedicated to the serious creators, the ones who build or wants to build a business out of it.

Reading: 3,5 minutes

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Yes, this happened again..

I got restricted on LinkedIn for the 3rd time in 4 weeks.

The reason being?

I viewed too many profiles or pages, apparently.

Well, I'm not a 🤖, so I take that as a compliment.

Being blocked sucked, and I'm not throwing a pity party here, just being real:

It served as great fuel 🔥⛽️

This made me realize that an email list is one of the most valuable assets you can build as a creator:

• It's your direct line of communication with your audience
• It's your censorship-free channel
• It's easier to build trust and credibility

With the importance of an email list being clear, let's dive in how-to.

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Part 1: How to create your email list

To be honest, the technical part of creating an email list isn't that complicated.

You can create an account on either:

• Revue (free)
• Substack (free)
• ​ConvertKit (free/paid - my favorite)

One is not necesarily better than another, just a case of preference.

Pro tip:

As Revue is part of Twitter, it allows for a slick little embed on your Twitter profile.

I personally don't like Revue as an email marketing tool, so I use ConvertKit to send my emails.

It's possible to have the embed of Revue on your Twitter profile, but capture the email subscribers in your ConvertKit account.

Want to know how to do this?

Google is your friend (otherwise, this email turns out to be way too long)

Part 2: When...

As with everything regarding creators:

It depends.

I don’t think it’s ever too early to capture interested followers who want to know more about your content/brand. The challenge for you is:

Which value can you provide in your emails?

• A recap of your best content
• A case study of a project you work on
• A summary of the best content you read online
• A collection of interesting content you read that week

The examples are endless. It depends on the problem you solve with your brand (for your audience).

Just know this:

Earlier this week, on his The Brand Shift podcast (coming live soon), my friend Nick Wozniak asked me which thing I did that day that I wish I had started 5 years earlier.

My answer?

Starting an email list 🙂

Part 3: Grow your email list

Don't make the same mistake as I did for the first 1,5 years of having an email list:

"Waiting till people magically find it."

Ain't gonna work, I can tell you that.

If you know that you're providing value to your audience, don't shy away from holding your work in front of your audience.

Three ways to generate more subscribers:

1. Have a lead generator
2. Plug it under your content
3. Share it in conversation

Let's break them down one by one.

You need a lead generator

How do you get people to join your email list?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nobody wants to subscribe to your email list just to “stay updated.”

What does that even mean?

The only thing it implies is spam.

You want to offer them something of value in return for their email address.

This something is a lead generator.

It’s about offering valuable information and services to your potential customers, in exchange for an email address.

To resist the noise of your competition and stand out from the crowd, your lead generator must do two things:

1. Provide a huge amount of value for your potential customer
2. Establish you as an expert in your field

Here are 3 of the most effective types:

• Downloadable guide or ebook
• Email course
• Webinar

Plug it like it's hot.

Social platforms don't like it you send traffic away from their platforms.

That's why the algorithm "punishes" you when you include external links (links to other websites) in your content.

To bypass this mechanism, you want to utilize the comment section to plug your email list or lead generator.

This works the same on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Place a comment under your own post, introducing the link and adding the link to it.

You can even automate this by using scheduling tools:

• Twitter: Tweet Hunter​
• LinkedIn: Publer

Share it in a conversation

Don't be afraid to share your newsletter directly in a conversation.

After all, you know you provide real value, right?

Final thoughts

That's a wrap.

As starting and growing an email list is such an important topic, I'd like to dedicate more time to this topic.

Over the upcoming weeks, I'll share more insights on this.

Just remember this:

You don't want to depend on one platform.

The risk is too big.

That's why you want to diversify and grow an email list.

Start now.

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That's it for today.

We're back with another issue of The Creator Academy next Wednesday.

Till then, keep creating and being awesome 💜

Much love,

Your creator-friend-in-crime,

Jessie

PS. If you like this edition, don't forget to share it on your favorite platform or with a friend, and tag me in the post.