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Practice in Public

If you want to become a better writer, you have to hit the publish button. Notes and drafts don’t count. Practice in public helps writers get off the sidelines and turn pro.

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How To Turn Free Subscribers Into Paying Customers

6 min readMay 2, 2025

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95% of “newsletter” advice you see online is garbage.

They tell you to:

  • provide value first
  • nurture your list
  • build trust

Sounds nice, right?

But here’s what they don’t tell you: Following that advice is exactly why your list isn’t making money.

I’ve built 5+ different online businesses since 2011. Each one powered by email. And the most profitable lists I’ve ever built broke most “rules” the gurus preach.

Most stuff you’ve “learned” about converting subscribers is backwards. Here’s what really works.

You’re probably screwing this up

Most people will tell you that you need tens of thousands of subscribers to make $100,000 a year.

Bullcrap.

I made that income with less than 5,000 email subscribers.

But it wasn’t always the case. A few years back, I had an email list with ~10,000 subscribers, and I was barely making $50k.

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Practice in Public
Practice in Public

Published in Practice in Public

If you want to become a better writer, you have to hit the publish button. Notes and drafts don’t count. Practice in public helps writers get off the sidelines and turn pro.

Matt Giaro
Matt Giaro

Written by Matt Giaro

6 Figure Creator. Helping experts turn their ideas into income with online content (in just 2h/day.) Start now 👉 https://mattgiaro.com/medium