7 Ways To Make a 'Good' Newsletter GREAT

Summary

Growth In Reverse, Ep. 7: 7 Ways To Make a 'Good' Newsletter GREAT

Host: Chenell Basilio & Dylan Redekop
Date: September 17, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this "newsletter roast" episode, hosts Chenell Basilio and Dylan Redekop dive deep into how to transform a good newsletter into a great one. Using a real-life example—the Hobby Card Life newsletter submitted by listener Cameron—they dissect the entire subscriber journey: from landing page, welcome email, and content, to monetization strategies and social presence. The aim is to provide actionable insights that any newsletter creator can apply immediately to boost growth, retention, and engagement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions: Landing Page Review

[01:41 - 03:24]

• Landing Page Copy:
  The headline “The only sports card newsletter you need” is strong, but the co-hosts agree the subheadline (“strategies, tips and news”) could be more specific and unique.

  • “Pretty much any card collecting newsletter is going to have the same tagline. Strategies, tips and news is just like, all right, but like, what's the real meat?” – Chenell [02:28]

• Value Prop Clarity:
  Both hosts stress clarifying the job to be done—what outcome or transformation does the subscriber get?

  • “Is it to help card collectors make more money with their collection or what cards they should be collecting?” – Dylan [03:06]

• Actionable Suggestions:

  • Focus on a differentiated angle that truly stands out.
  • Use phrases like “get smarter in five minutes a day” to anchor benefits and specificity.

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2. Signup Process & Onboarding Flow

[03:33 - 06:31]

• Post-Signup Redirect:
  After subscribing, users are redirected to a thank-you page that promotes Cameron’s book.

  • Positives: Smart way to showcase a product, leverages social proof.
  • Potential pitfall: Distracts users from checking their inbox to confirm their subscription, especially on double opt-in.
  • “If you do have double opt in... you might want to not distract them with this. But again that's kind of, that's up to you.” – Dylan [04:20]

• Low-Ticket Product as Tripwire:

  • Book is well-reviewed and reasonably priced, which is good fodder for funding paid growth.
  • “If you want to start going down sort of paid growth, he's got this kind of on the back end that he can try to fund a bit of his paid growth with.” – Dylan [05:51]

• Best Practices:

  • Use the thank-you page to inform, not distract.
  • Consider a “false double opt-in” where confirmation is encouraged, but not strictly necessary, as a workaround.

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3. Welcome Email Dissection

[06:34 - 14:43]

• Sender Info & Branding:

  • Suggests using a recognizable sender (“Cameron at HobbyCard Life”) and adding a profile photo or logo to boost trust.
  • “Nobody's gonna know what HCL is. So I would highly recommend extending that out to Cameron at HobbyCard Life.” – Dylan [07:27]

• Subject Line & Personalization:

  • Encourage using a subject line/emoji relevant to the brand for recognizability.
  • “Maybe there's like a fun color around your profile picture just to like make it stand out a little bit.” – Chenell [08:30]

• Getting Replies:

  • Both strongly recommend one key call-to-action: getting a reply to the first email (boosts deliverability & relationships).
  • “Making a sale on your book is great… but getting a reply to their first newsletter just is so strong for your... sender reputation.” – Dylan [13:09]

• Too Many CTAs:

  • The welcome email currently asks users to check out old posts, buy a book, and reply—causing potential overwhelm.
  • “There's too many call to actions in this email kind of distracting people with too many things.” – Dylan [12:03]

• Recommended Flow:

  • Email 1: Personalized welcome + single CTA (reply).
  • Email 2: Highlight best content OR introduce product.
  • Email 3: Promote the book with an incentive (“reply with receipt for a bonus”).

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4. Content Review: Posts & Visuals

[15:48 - 21:59]

• Platform Consistency:

  • Recommend customizing the newsletter archive URL; avoid the generic Beehive-generated URL.
  • “It looks like a phishing website URL. That's going to make me question whether this is a legit newsletter.” – Dylan [15:48]

• Featured Images:

  • Strong critique of using generic AI or stock images over real, relevant photos (e.g., of actual sports cards).
  • “Stop using AI images when you have super compelling imagery already.” – Chenell [37:34]

• Visual Hierarchy:

  • Place key images higher in the post to break up text and improve scrollability.
  • “This is a great story but I really wish there was an image up here and then there was one. It's about a third of the way down, which is good.” – Chenell [17:01]

• Content Formatting:

  • Add numbered lists and bulleted takeaways for easier skimming.
  • Use crisp, non-blurry images for charts and dividers.

• Subject Lines:

  • Lean into intrigue and specificity (e.g., “Buy/Sell Targets – [Name]”) over bland date-based titles.

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5. Website & Brand Presence Evaluation

[20:04 - 24:24]

• Main Website vs. Newsletter Archive:

  • Main site (hobbycardlife.com) is stronger but suffers from inconsistent imagery and lack of personality.
  • “The other thing you've dropped on the actual site is your name and your image. So I would 100% just put your face up here. People love... They want to see the person behind the site.” – Chenell [24:42]

• Call-To-Action Placement:

  • Move form fields and social proof for logical flow.
  • “I would put this below the form and just have like his image, his name and then like the text over here...” – Chenell [36:39]

• Image Authenticity:

  • Use actual collection photos instead of irrelevant AI art (e.g., handshake or random stock images).

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6. Social & Growth Levers

[25:13 - 29:13]

• Organic Social Opportunity:

  • Instagram and potentially TikTok are natural fits for card visuals, weekly “top 5” carousels, and news bites.
  • “It'd be interesting if you could share on Instagram, you know, the top five cards selling for the most this week...” – Chenell [26:42]

• Showcase Personality:

  • Drawing inspiration from creators like Pat Flynn/Deep Pocket Monster, hosts recommend showing the human behind the newsletter.
  • “Become the Pat Flynn, Deep Pocket Monster of hobby card life.” – Dylan [25:12]

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7. Paid Growth & Funnel Optimization

[30:32 - 35:12]

• Paid Leads from Meta (Facebook) Ads:

  • Achieving ~60¢/lead with about a 50% opt-in rate—solid, but questions remain about subscriber quality and engagement.
  • “Are they buying, are they opening, are they doing anything? Or are you just getting like random email addresses that aren't doing anything?” – Chenell [30:45]

• Landing Page Consistency:

  • Caution against using clunky, generic URLs for paid traffic as it can erode trust.
  • “I don't think that URL is okay, especially if you're driving paid traffic there. Change that as soon as you can...” – Dylan [34:13]

• Lead Magnet Suggestion:

  • Offer a “Top 10 cards of 2025” or similar high-value download to boost conversion rates on ads.

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8. Monetization and Ultimate Goals

[29:13 - 33:54]

• Long-Term Aspirations:
  • Potential to expand into membership/paywalled content (“premium signals”), sponsorships, or even a card marketplace.
  • “What are you building up to? Like, what is your ultimate goal with the newsletter?” – Dylan [29:13]

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On specificity in value prop:
  “What's the real meat?... Maybe you're helping people save money on trades or you're showcasing like the top picks that week or I don't know, something like juicier, if you will. That's not so bland.” — Chenell [02:28]
• On too many CTAs in welcome:
  “There's too many call to actions in this email kind of distracting people with too many things you want to.” — Dylan [12:03]
• On subjective quality with paid ads:
  “Are they buying, are they opening, are they doing anything? Or are you just getting like random email addresses that aren't doing anything?” — Chenell [30:45]
• On personal branding:
  “I would 100% just put your face up here. People love, especially with this kind of thing.” — Chenell [24:42]
• On image choice:
  “Stop using AI images when you have super compelling imagery already.” — Chenell [37:34]

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Time-Stamped Highlights

| Time | Topic / Highlight | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:41 | Landing page: value prop critique | | 03:33 | Post-signup flow, welcome page, “tripwire” book | | 06:34 | Welcome email structure & sender branding | | 12:03 | Problem with too many calls-to-action | | 15:48 | Critique of Beehive-generated archive URLs | | 17:01 | Importance of visuals in content, positioning images higher | | 24:42 | Urging more visible personal branding | | 26:42 | Instagram/fantasy football style visual content as proven social strategy | | 29:13 | Discussion: Monetization goals, where is this growing? | | 30:45 | Are paid leads actually valuable? | | 34:13 | The cost of ugly/uncustomized landing pages for paid ads | | 37:34 | “Stop using AI images...” — the importance of authentic, relevant images |

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Key Takeaways & Action Items

• Clarify & Differentiate: Sharpen your landing page headline and subheadline to communicate your unique angle and value proposition.
• Clean Subscriber Journey: Ensure each touchpoint—landing pages, emails, onboarding flows—are visually strong, authentic, and focused. Stick to one CTA per email, especially in critical onboarding steps.
• Humanize Your Brand: Show your face and passion for the topic in both email and website. Build trust by being visible, personal, and enthusiastic.
• Improve Visuals: Always use actual, crisp images relevant to the content. Avoid generic AI or stock visuals, especially in a hobbyist or collector niche.
• Optimize for Paid Growth: Invest in branded landing pages/URLs, experiment with lead magnets, and continuously monitor subscriber engagement to maintain high-quality leads.
• Leverage Social: Experiment with Instagram or similar visual platforms to repurpose newsletter content, drive organic traffic, and deepen your authority.
• Iterate on Every Step: Data from replies, clicks, and purchase behavior should inform future tweaks and experiments.

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Final Advice from Hosts

• Focus on a simple, trust-building onboarding experience.
• Use your unique story and imagery to stand out in a crowded niche.
• Continuously strive for authenticity over automation—real images, real personality, and real value.

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For more hands-on newsletter teardowns and actionable email growth strategies, subscribe to Growth In Reverse or visit growthinreverse.com/roast to submit your own newsletter for future episodes.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to another Growth and Reverse newsletter roast. Today we're going to actually go through the Hobby Card Life newsletter that was submitted by Cameron. And yeah, I'm excited about this one.

[B]

Yeah, this is going to be fun. We do newsletter roast once in a while. We've done a few in the past. If you do want to get your newsletter roasted, we will share a link in the show notes to where you can do that. I believe we have a URL set up for that as well. Growthinreverse.com roast if I'm not mistaken.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And you can fill out a form and we prioritize people who have actually rated and reviewed the podcast either on Spotify or on Apple podcasts. So do that and you have a better chance of us roasting your newsletter.

[A]

Awesome.

[B]

Let's get into it.

[A]

So Cameron submitted this newsletter and he actually has 3,500 subscribers so far, which is a great start. I think that's an awesome place to be in. Like, that's a. That's a really solid number.

[B]

If you go in his archive, he's only been publishing for. Since like, I think the calendar year, so not even a full year.

[A]

Yeah. Started on January 3rd.

[B]

Yeah. There you go.

[A]

So congrats, Cameron. Well done. I do think there is quite a bit of room for improvement, which is always the case. So that's exciting that we can kind of jump into this. This is the landing page he gave us. If you're listening to this, we actually have this video up on YouTube and we will put it on Spotify as well. But if you're on Apple, sorry, they don't have videos yet as far as I know. So you can come over to YouTube if you'd like to and go ahead and watch this. We'll drop a link in the description as well.

[B]

Yeah, it's going to be a pretty visual reliant episode, but we'll try to be as descriptive as we can as well.

[A]

Yes. So unless you just like listening to our beautiful voices, it might be better.

[B]

For you to sleep.

[A]

Watch this.

[B]

Sleep at night.

[A]

Yes, exactly. So his landing page says, the only sports card newsletter you need. Join thousands of card collectors getting strategies, tips and news each week for free. And then he has a box to enter your email and the button says sign up.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What do you think about this?

[B]

I kind of like the only sports card newsletter you need. That's. That's a good call out. Join thousands of card collectors getting strategies, tips and news each week for free. That's fine. I would. I. I like Deferring to like kind of a problem solution sort of statement. So like, and, and like in. We've talked about this a hundred times, but like get smarter in five minutes a day kind of thing, like around that sort of framework, like telling people what they're going to get and how quickly they're going to get it, I think is very valuable. So I think you could probably improve on that for sure.

[A]

Yeah. I always like to pull out like the unique angle that you offer inside of the newsletter. So pretty much any card collecting newsletter is going to have the same tagline or could have the same tagline. Strategies, tips and news is just like, all right, but like, what's the real meat? Like, what's. I don't know, like maybe you're. You're helping people save money on trades or you're showcasing like the top picks that week or I don't know, something like juicier, if you will. That's. That's not so bland. But it's a good start. It's better than some other ones I've seen. I just would love to see this improve just a little bit to get people over the hill to sign up.

[B]

And I think the other thing too is like, what's the. The I like thinking in the job to be done framework too. So, like, what's the job of your newsletter? Is it to help card collectors make more money with their collection or to what cards they should be collecting or all of the above? So you could call out one of those. One of those things in your. In your sub headline too?

[A]

Totally. I like that. Okay, so I'm going to actually sign up real quick so we can check out what happens after someone hits subscribe.

[B]

Sign up in real time.

[A]

All right, cool. So there is a redirect, which gets me excited. Welcome to the number one newsletter in the hobby. Check your inbox for your first email. In the meantime, I have a question for you. Are you interested in learning how to make money? And then he has his book. So Cameron has written a book all about collecting cards, sports cards.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

So I think this is an interesting way to. Even if nobody buys from this page, you're letting people know this exists, which is a good thing. The one thing I will say is this definitely distracts people from going to their inbox to check the email. So you're going to drop a few people here probably that might not actually convert back and like reply to your email or click the confirm button or whatever the case may be. But I do like showcasing, especially a lower Tier product on the, the next page.

[B]

Yeah, I like this too. And I think if you don't have double opt in setup, I think this is okay actually as your, as your next page right after a subscription, if you do have double opt in, meaning people have to go into their inbox, find your, confirm your email subscription email and click on that button before they receive your newsletter. Before they're like officially on your list, then you might want to not distract them with this. But again that's kind of, that's up to you. But I, I think the main goal would be to get them on your newsletter. Make sure they've confirmed your subscription first. If they're on double opt in.

[A]

Yeah. And then if you set up a false double opt in, which I like to do where it looks like a regular double opt in, they think they have to click the button to confirm. But it's really just telling you like, hey, they actually have confirmed. And if not you can still email them and say like, hey, are you sure you don't want to like confirm and get your free thing? So after, after you do that, like once they click on the button, you could then also send them to this page if you'd like as an alternative. Because then you're getting both, you're hitting both angles, right. So you're getting them confirmed to your email list. You're showing them or they're showing you that they are interested in continuing to get this. They didn't sign up by accident and then they are still going to this page. So that's another option.

[B]

And do you know how much the book he's charging for the book?

[A]

It's on Kindle unlimited or paperback for 1599.

[B]

Okay. Or audiobook too, which is an interesting application for this kind of thing.

[A]

It is, I like it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's got good reviews, 32, five star reviews.

[B]

We're done. Okay. So this is a very low ticket, sort of almost tripwire that he's using. Which is, which is nice because if you want to start going down sort of paid growth, he's got this kind of on the back end that he can try to fund a bit of his paid growth with. But yeah, this is, this is a really good first step.

[A]

Yeah, I love that there's something. I see so many folks like make the mistake of just having it a pop up, say you're confirmed, you're subscribed and then it's like, cool, what do I do now? So I'm really glad that there is something he's redirecting to it doesn't like we're getting in the weeds here with this, but I just want to call out like, good job, Cameron for actually having something totally on your welcome page.

[B]

So yeah, I like the social proof as well.

[A]

Mm, totally. Okay, I got the welcome email, so maybe we pop into that.

[B]

Yeah, can you drag it over? Yeah, yeah, there we go.

[A]

Okay, so I guess I can show images, but I usually like to keep them off of first. Okay. So he says, welcome to Hobby Card Life, the best community on the web for sports cards. Okay, here's what I would say. The email is kind of saying, you're confirmed, you're in. Here's what's next. I could take that subject line and it would work for my newsletter. So I almost might find like an emoji that is close to your logo or like a card. Like is there a playing card emoji? I feel like there is.

[B]

Good question.

[A]

Okay, so there are like the spade, the diamond, the heart, cg. Is that or a joker card?

[B]

Yeah, a joker card could be interesting. So I like that. I also notice too if you minimize just that card emoji thing, it's says Cameron at hcl. I do not know what HCL is. Nobody's gonna know what HCL is. So I would highly recommend extending that out to Cameron at HobbyCard Life. And then what you could do even is put your probably should do and I know. Yes, exactly. I know some Gmail inboxes sometimes will show them, sometimes they won't. It can be kind of a hit and miss thing. But throwing your logo because your logo would fit perfectly in the Gmail, was that like a Gravatar or Avatar kind of thing?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which you can set in your Google workspace settings or Google Admin console, I should say.

[A]

Yeah, totally. So you can do that. You could also do your face like holding up cards or something.

[B]

Yep. Trying to do look to make it move and catch people's eyes. I had that going for a while.

[A]

I do enjoy when I see like a person. Especially because you're. You're going forward with like Cameron at Hobby Card Life. Not just Hobby Card Life. If you wanted it to just be the brand, I would use a logo.

[B]

But.

[A]

But since you're going with your name, I would probably go with your face and like maybe there's like a fun color around your profile picture just to like make it stand out a little bit. But yeah, definitely would recommend looking that up and doing that.

[B]

Cool, cool.

[A]

Okay, so you're in. Here's what's Next I would again customize the subject line. But then once you actually get into the email I feel like reply with your all time favorite card. That's a good question I think. Although if someone's just getting started they might not have a favorite and they might be like I don't know. I'm always a big fan of like trying to find a question that people can like no brainer reply to and maybe that is like I don't know the full audience. So I could be totally off on this. But for me to reply I'd be like I have no freaking clue what my favorite card is. But again maybe you're, you're customizing this just for people who are like super deep into the space.

[B]

Yeah, you might not want newbies. Maybe the other thing. Or you could just say what does he say? Reply with your all time favorite card or what's your favorite sports team? Or something like that. At least something to get people cuz that they should be able to reply with another thing he could have added here which might be fun would actually seeing that he replies to his own question saying my favorite is my national treasures magic johnson auto/99. So a picture of that card would like would hit really nicely. You have no other images aside from your logo in, in this email and I know some people like Chanel have their images off but I'd say the majority of people don't. So having that image would be really cool and show that you are legit that you actually have these cards that you're not just I don't know a schemer or anything like that. So I think you holding it as well. Just like Chanel was mentioning for the, the Gmail image too. That could be a cool personalization angle that you could do here.

[A]

I love the idea of him holding the card. I think that's such a good call out because yeah, I mean we're talking to you so let's show your face. Let's show how excited you are about this card. I think that's really just going to build some affinity for your brand and trust. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, so then you have second check out my most popular content. You have three options. I like this. I almost wonder if you could rephrase this and be like here are some awesome posts depending on like what stage you're at so you could write like just getting started how to pick the best sports cards to invest in or something Like I feel like it would be interesting to have people self select of like their stage. I don't know. What do you think about that?

[B]

Yeah, I like, I like being able to segment people if, if it's very clear that those are segments and you, you could even depending on. I think you're using Beehive here. Yeah, you are. But what you could do as well is tag those clicks with a. If you wanted to, you could take those clicks with like beginner intermediate advanced sort of tags if you ever wanted to segment those people later on. Or just to get give you an idea of how the type of people that are signing up for your newsletter, if everybody's clicking on how to pick the best sports cards to invest in, then you'll know that you know there's a much larger subset of people that are geared towards that content. So I think that is definitely not a bad way to go about it.

[A]

Yeah. And then you reiterate the book. Down with number three. Grab a copy of the book. That is a good call out again, just reminding people this exists. I think that's great. Super smart. If you reply to any of my emails with a copy of your receipt, I'll send you a freebie. Okay. I feel like this is kind of getting to be a lot. Cause then we have like check out a post reply to this email, buy the book and then once you buy the book, reply again. I don't know what do you, what, how do you feel about this? Like I like the call out of.

[B]

This, but yeah, yeah, I think there, I think there's too many call to actions in this email kind of distracting people with too many things you want to. I think we are both very big fans of getting the first email to get a reply to that. That's. That's kind of the most powerful thing you can really do. Like making a sale on your book is great, but in that that might be your goal. But a lot of people getting a reply to their first newsletter just is so strong for your. I don't want to say your sender reputation because I'm not a deliverability expert, but it's so strong to make sure that people keep getting your newsletter and keep getting it in their inboxes as well when you reply to an email. So that's the angle I would maybe go for. And then this could be a really simple three day sequence where the first email they're replying, the second email you're sharing either the book or the best content that you've created and why it's great. You could elaborate on it a little bit more or be really selective with the with the links that you're sharing. And then the third one can be the last one of your choice. And in the book one, that's when you can mention the receipt thing and you can bring that more to the forefront too.

[A]

Totally. Yeah. I would probably just have them reply, like, cut this other stuff. Like, like Dylan was just saying, and that was my first inkling too, is like, let's just simplify this. You could even, you know, if you. If you're really like stuck on selling the book right away, like, have them reply to the email and then the next email, like four hours later or the next day or something, just send them the book email. I think, A, you're probably going to get more people taking you up on it because it's the only thing in that email. And B, it's just like keeping us focused on getting the replies instead of trying to sell something right away.

[B]

Yep. Yeah, I like it.

[A]

But again, like, this is a much better welcome email than a lot of the ones we've seen, so.

[B]

It is.

[A]

You're doing things right. We're just getting picky here.

[B]

It is. And I. I'm guilty of, like, putting too much in my welcome email as well. So it's like, you know, do as I say, not as I do as well. So I think generally this is pretty strong.

[A]

Yeah. The one thing I will say, I would have it just be the reply. And then number two could be if this didn't make it to your primary inbox, grab it now and drag it over. And then the PS is make sure you hit reply and tell me what your favorite card is. And maybe, maybe you put the image below the PS as like, remember, here's my favorite. Because then you're drawing attention to it. I did this with mine and like my PS line says make sure you hit reply. And that is the one that people like copy and paste most often. And I can tell because I format the text a little different and most people will just copy and paste without removing the formatting. So it's an interesting stat to see. So I would highly recommend reminding people to reply in the PS line.

[B]

Nice. Yeah, it's a good tip. Cool.

[A]

Okay, so that was a good thing. I don't think he sent another email. I just want to double check before we keep moving on here. No. Okay. Sometimes people do that, so. All right, so if we go back to this Beehive landing page, I am a huge fan of actually customizing the Beehive URL right now. It says Cameron's-newsletter, dash a bunch of gobbledygook number and letter situation.beehive.com so I would, I would recommend redirecting this to. It looks like you have hobbycardlife.com so I'd probably change it to like newsletter. Hobbycardlife.com or something as a subdomain. The other thing here, especially if you're sending people to this page, which you sent us here. So I'm just going off of what you did already. These images are all the same and the title is not helpful. I would definitely put your face here. So Cameron Smith, instead of just having the Beehive logo, have like your actual profile picture and just like customize this.

[B]

Page a bit more a hundred percent. It's, it looks like, I think you lose a lot of the credibility and trust that you may have built up in the initial, in the initial welcome email and stuff like that when people are redirected here or come to visit this just because it's, you're like and going through your content. It's very good. Like it's, it's, it's in depth. You have good, you have good formatting everything like that. So it's clear that you're spending a decent amount of time on this. So I think the real, real low hanging fruit like Chanel's talking about is like when people see your URL, it looks like a, almost like a phishing website URL. It's, it's a little bit like with all the numbers and random letters like it. That's going to make me question whether this is a legit newsletter. So I think top priority would be creating that hobbycard, life.beehive.com or just what, however you want to do that subdomain and then adding your Cameron Smith profile image and images for those posts. Even if they are I think, I mean obviously pictures of. I'm sure you've got pictures of.

[A]

He has pictures in the post. So he can literally take this picture.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And yeah, it's super simple. Like it's standing out so hard.

[B]

We're at the stage where anything is better than what you got in terms of the imagery.

[A]

Yeah. Also I will say like I started reading this, I was like this is a great story but I really wish there was an image up here and then there was one. It's about a third of the way down, which is good. I just, I feel like this is such a visual game and thing that I would love and you have them later down the post. So I would just like try and add them up a little bit higher. But yeah, I mean, this is great. So you're starting with a story. This one is about how you got started becoming a sports fan. Getting started with cards and then now it's like, what do you collect? You have some pictures of what you collect and then you have the buy sell section, which is like what you're seeing in the industry and like what's happening, which is good. I think that's interesting. Here's the other thing I'm going to get really picky about right here is this divider is very blurry. I'm so picky with my screenshots and like, my images and like, even this chart is a little blurry. I would love to see you figure out a way to make that less so. I've had people comment on mine because they're always crisp and like, I've actually had people reply when I've dropped the ball and there's a blurry image in my article. Like, not kidding, people notice this stuff. So it seems silly, but I would definitely try. And especially the divider. That should be simple.

[B]

Yeah, go ahead.

[A]

I'm being picky. What are you gonna say, Dylan?

[B]

I was gonna say one thing I do also like in some of the newsletters I read on a regular basis is even a quick breakdown at the very top, like in today's issue we have. And then you could like just tease some of the content. Just like a really quick 1, 2, 3 bullet points. Like best. If you wanna scroll up there just for a second. Chanel, like buy sell targets. Right? Like, I'd be like, oh, I wanna, I wanna see. But that's about this week and you probably have that every week. But you might say, like, buy sell targets, Hyphen Vladi Guerrero or Derek Henry or something like that.

[A]

Or the superstar that I no longer would consider a buy.

[B]

Yeah, just that could be a really cool. Yeah, like Shohei Otani.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that would be a really cool, like, subject line for this email. Like, pulling out some of the content. Like, you're so close with this and I really, really hope that this is not your subject line. Like at the top, at the title of this Post is newsletter 9/4, which is the date. I really hope that that's not the actual.

[B]

We will find out when you get his next email, like in a two days or something like that. Yeah, well, he mentioned in his submission here that he also has generated about 75% of his leads. Or I guess when he says leads, he means subscribers from meta ads. So I, I alluded earlier to having a tripwire that can help fund these, but I guess my whole thought is getting meta ads to. If you're driving them here versus your website, I, I feel like that's a huge missed opportunity. So my guess is he's probably driving to his website. If you want to pull up even his website. Chanel. Unless you're going to say something quickly about his Beehive page.

[A]

Now we can move on to the actual hobbycardlife.com, which is a much better page. Still has some things I would say to work on, but I think it's much better than what the other one has. And it's funny because these have images, but they're AI and I don't love AI necessarily. Especially when you have high quality images in your post already. Like, I would say just pull those out and have those be the forefront image.

[B]

They're probably, it takes probably less time than trying to come up with a prompt for these AIs. I hate. Like, honestly, AI image prompts are. Can be a pain in the butt. At least sometimes you get lucky and it, it hits it out of the park the first time. But yeah, yeah, and those all, all those issues as well. Like, those could be great subject lines too. So my guidance is telling me you probably are using some of those as your subject lines for your emails, but if you're not, you've kind of got them right there. Are these dated as well? Chanel?

[A]

No.

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay, so. Okay, lots of things are jumping out at me here. So the website is much better than the Beehive page. So I'm guessing this is where you're mostly doing this. Okay, one thing. The title you're talking about. Which players in the hobby have the most to gain from an NBA championship. That's the title of this post. And then you call out these people and then there are no images of these people. Like, please, I'm begging. Like, it makes it so much scroll more scrollable. And I feel like the image would be much better if you had like some of these bigger names on the actual image. You don't have to have them all, but maybe one or two like controversial ones.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, the. Again, my, my mind goes to like, you've got LeBron James on this list. Like a picture of a LeBron James rookie card or. Yeah, like just.

[A]

Right, exactly.

[B]

Incorporate that. You're talking about cards with these images. I mean, the, the, the easiest way would just be a picture of them playing basketball. Like a, a sports. A getty images shot or something.

[A]

The other. The other thing that's jumping out to me is on the right side, there's a. A call out for the newsletter and it's a different name. Oh, Hobby Hits Newsletter. Be entertained, informed, more profitable in just 10 minutes per week. I'm going to sign up for this one and see if it's the same newsletter or if he's using a different.

[B]

Also, can I call it that? The sub headline is better. Oh, redirects to the same spot.

[A]

Yeah, it does. Okay, so.

[B]

So what do you think about that? That's that head sub headline. Be entertained, informed and more profitable in just 10 minutes per week. That's kind of what I was getting at earlier when I said, like, what you can gain and adding a time to that.

[A]

I don't know. It doesn't feel like it goes together. Maybe not, but like Hobby Hits newsletter.

[B]

Yeah. Well, most people, I would assume, who are in card collecting and take it relatively seriously than are trying to make money from it. Right?

[A]

Yeah. But then I would lead with that. Instead of trying to do three jobs at once, I would just say, like, make more money with your hobby card, whatever collection or trading.

[B]

Point.

[A]

Okay, so he has this. Okay, let me go to another one and just see why patch cards are the hobby's biggest problem. Okay. Okay, so there's images here, which is good. I like that he's calling out numbers. I think that was another thing on the other one. He didn't have them numbered. I feel like people love lists. And if you can, if it's already a list, like just add numbers. Yeah, it just makes sense. How do we fix them? Yeah, I would love some more images in this.

[B]

Oh, here's one.

[A]

Like, this would be a great cover image, I think. Yeah, it's like the right size and everything. Yeah. Because then like tell five tell tone signs. You should sell your sports cards. And it's like an AI image of.

[B]

Two people shaking hands or stock images. Yeah.

[A]

I'm sure you have a picture. Yeah, like, this is great. Picture of cards in a box. This one's probably can go away, but. Yeah, but like any sports card picture would be perfect. And I'm sure you could even have a default picture that like, if you don't have something good for that week, you can just throw that up on the article. I think that would work so much better than like these random AI handshake images or like this girl carrying bags. Like, I don't.

[B]

She's not buying cheap baseball cards.

[A]

Zero to do with that. Unless she's holding like bats and basics. Baseball is like, no, yeah, so I would definitely fix.

[B]

But then look at the one in the middle there. Right? Like the complete list.

[A]

Right? So good.

[B]

Yeah, that's exactly what. That's what you want.

[A]

You're going to add more trust to this. Like, I look at this and I'm like, okay, this guy's trying to make money and just like pump out content. But when you actually have images of your cards, your collection, I'm like, okay, no, this guy is actually really into this sport. The other thing you've dropped on the actual site is your name and your image. So I would 100% just put your face up here. People love, especially with this kind of thing. Like, they want to see the person behind the site. Who are they learning from to make their card collection better or get better at this hobby?

[B]

So become the Pat Flynn, Deep Pocket Monster of hobby card life. Don't. Don't actually. Like, you can for sure. That's going really, really deep into this. But if you're not familiar, I don't know how fast he grew Deep Pocket Monster's YouTube channel to over 3 million subscribers, but it wasn't super long. It was like three or four years. So.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's all based around collecting cards. Of course, it's Pokemon, not sports. But a lot of. I think there's a lot of overlap for the content he's creating and how he's going about it that you could probably replicate to some degree.

[A]

And I know it's like, it feels weird to put your face out there online, but this content's pretty good. Like, I would want my face like, with. With this content so that people know it's from me. Like, I think that's. And then like on your. Are you doing social? Like, I'm wondering. He's growing with Facebook ads, which makes me nervous only because I really love when people can grow something without Facebook ads before they actually start implementing paid ads. However, if it's working and you're getting good results, fine. But I would love to see you lean more into. I feel like Instagram's probably begging for something like this. I have a bunch of fantasy football Instagrams popping up in my feed these days, cuz it's right on schedule with the season. But like, they're so good. Like, these guys are creating these carousels of like, top five people to draft this week or top five people to drop. And it's like I swipe every time. Cause I'm like, okay, are these People on my team, like, do I have any of these guys?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it'd be interesting if you could share on Instagram, you know, the top five cards selling for the most this week, or the top five that have, like completely lost their value or something, and then people are like, oh, my God, is this in my collection? I think that would do really well.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, there's. There's so much content, I think an opportunity for so much content with this kind of thing that you just need to invest a bit of time in it, see what other people are doing and, and kind of, I don't know, take a cue from. From what's been working or what you're getting in your feed. Content you enjoy. Like Chanel said, you know, the fantasy football people are really good at that sort of stuff. And this is kind of in that same ballpark too.

[A]

Totally.

[B]

The other thing I noticed as well in one of your recent additions was you had an image of your son in the picture. So I'm guessing if you're comfortable putting, you know, your son in your newsletter, you'll probably be comfortable putting yourself out there as well. So I would, I would recommend personalizing this, as we've already mentioned a few times.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I'm just. The images are killing me because it's like you are talking about 17 must have supplies for collecting and I'm like, just take a picture of them all. Like put or like have five of them in an image and like throw it up as the featured. Especially because it's like physical things like penny sleeves, top loaders, magnetic card holders. Like those are easily going to have. And you could put images in this post too, to keep people scrolling. Yeah, I think you're so close. The content seems super good. Like, I'm not a card collector, so I can't tell if it's like accurate, but it seems pretty good. So I think you're super close to just like having something you're. You can hit on really quick. The other thing I will say, if you do create a carousel or something on Instagram, you can use that as an ad to get people into your newsletter.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I think that could be super impactful.

[B]

You could use many chat to automate that for like 12 bucks a month kind of thing. Like make it really smooth and like hands off almost.

[A]

Yeah, I don't see any, like, he has a share buttons for social, but I don't see any social links, which kind of feels like a missed opportunity to me.

[B]

Such a visual. It's such a visual. Medium with social media.

[A]

And you don't have to do that, you don't have to do video. Like, I know a lot of people are very hesitant to do video well. Also though, Pat Flynn, he said he doesn't put his face in the videos because they do worse. So you could just have yourself messing with a card or talking about it like with a voiceover.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you wanted. You don't have to, like I was saying, you can totally just do images and I think it, it would still do really well on these visual mediums.

[B]

The big question is what are you building up to? Like, what is your ultimate goal with the newsletter? So my guess is is probably not just selling more of your ebooks. There's probably something you're scaling up for. So I would be curious to know what that is and that would probably help guide some of our insights here and some of our suggestions and, and tips too. But if this is a play to like, you know, like an off, like you have an offer app plan where you're going to sell this, there's lots of opportunity to do that. But I would be curious growing it to the point where, you know, I can put sponsorships and, and that sort of thing in there. Or maybe you want to build a marketplace. I don't know. Like there's, there's a lot of ways you could go, but that'll also depend on or dictate how you should, I guess, go about continuing and building this and paying. Because you're paying, I think he said, roughly $10 a day to opt people in. So how are you making that money back? Why are you spending that money to get subscribers as opposed to going organic? I know it's easier, but it's more costly.

[A]

Yeah. And like, of course the book sales probably help, but I still think having some sort of social presence, like is going to seriously help you and it will be so much cheaper and so much more effective instead of having to pay, you know, three, five or whatever to get a subscriber. I think you could do a lot better with organic stuff and then you have like an asset that you're building.

[B]

He also mentions he's paying about 60 cents per lead, which isn't too bad with roughly 50% opt in rate or just over 50% opt in rate. So that's not too bad at all. But yeah, I guess.

[A]

Yes, but the caveat is like, are they buying, are they opening, are they doing anything? Or are you just getting like random email addresses that aren't doing anything? Because yeah, I mean Facebook ads, you can optimize them to a point where you're just getting a bunch of, like, low quality leads. Hopefully that's not the case. But again, like, open rate and cost are not the end all, be all metrics.

[B]

No, they are not. I'm actually curious to see if we can pull up.

[A]

All right, so we actually were able to pull up some of the ads.

[B]

Sweet.

[A]

Oh, these are good. I like this.

[B]

Can you be those bigger questions? Okay. Okay. If this picture made you drool.

[A]

If this picture makes you drool, you should put it as your featured image on your post. I'll stop talking about it. No, but I think these are pretty good. I, I'm, I'm into it. I just want to see, like, make sure that you're capitalizing on, you know, building raving fans. Like, yes, there's a world where you could build a newsletter with 40,000 subscribers on it. And it's like, okay. And people are, they like it enough. But I am such a big fan of creating like, insanely valuable content and having people be like, oh, you also like hobby sports, like, like trading cards, like, go follow this guy. Like, that's what you want. And that's the fastest way to grow, the most sustainable way to grow. And so if you can lean into that and get people built, bought into your ideology and your system, like, that is huge.

[B]

And even your passion, like, if you can, yeah, if you can emote that passion to people in audio or video writing, you is a little bit harder to. But like, you can really get people bought into your. Your vibes, for lack of a better word, with that sort of thing. So that's going to really help spread the word because a lot of people will follow people just on, you know, vibes alone to, to some degree. Right. The other thing I see an opportunity here too is one you could potentially figure out how. But I could see this, like, becoming a paid newsletter at some point. If you have, like, if you want to do some sort of, you know, the best cards, the most expensive cards to just to get right now, or I'm sure there's a way you could offer some premium content for people whenever there's an opportunity to, I don't know, paywall content that's going to make people money. It seems to be like a good way to go about it, but again, that's a little bit trickier. You'd have to think that through. And then the other thing I was thinking is having a lead magnet for your Facebook ads. That and Chanel, you, you've done more Facebook ads than I have. But if there was like a way to have like the. The top 10 list of 20, 25 sports cards like you need in your collection or that you. That are making the most money or you know, something like that, where people be like, oh, I'll sign up for that, or I want to know what that is.

[A]

You can do that. I think actually the newsletter could be valuable, but on its own, especially if you have the same types of content every week, which you do with that. I forget what the section was. What did he call that?

[B]

Was it the Buy, Sell, Buy or Sell?

[A]

Yeah, that one. Yeah, I think that's valuable enough on its own. The. I clicked through on his Facebook ad to see what the landing page is and he is actually going to the subscribe page on the Beehive thing. So it is using that ugly URL. I don't love it, but it's not bad. But this page, actually I think it's better. It says get smarter on sports cards.

[B]

And I'll counter your point saying it's okay. It's not bad. I don't think that URL is okay, especially if you're driving paid traffic there. I would call out that you should, you should change that as soon as you can because I would wonder how much higher your conversion rate would be.

[A]

The one thing I feel like on mobile, you probably don't see that as much. But yes, people like me and Dylan, we look at that stuff. So if I see that pop up as a URL, I'm like, I don't know if this is actually like a good place to be.

[B]

Yeah. And. And it might be okay, but just having that little hesitation like you don't want to have. You want to make sure people trust you and you don't want to have any seat of doubt when be. When you're paying for people to click through. I guess that's where I'm coming from. Like, I feel like this would be some money that you're kind of just throwing away because when people go over there and they see that URL, it's going to be off putting, to say the least. Instead of just a nice clean subdomain or hobbycardlife.com subscribe, you know, something like that.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, totally. No, I think it's good. I think we would definitely want to change that URL. The ads look good enough to me. I think you have something there. But I would definitely recommend like changing out some of this Beehive archives.

[B]

Got another idea.

[A]

Go ahead.

[B]

Why Wouldn't you just drive them to. Since you own hobbycardlife.com, why wouldn't you just create another page and embed the. The beehive form on that page?

[A]

Beehive forms embedded, I feel like aren't. When I did it, when I was testing it, it didn't work super well. But. No, but he could totally make this like news. Hobbycardlife.com yeah, it doesn't have to be the one thing we didn't go through. And as I was going through my tabs, I forgot I saw this. You have a pop up on your main like homepage hobbycardlife.com and the image is broken. It does say join the best sports card newsletter period. Which I like that call out. It's just saying like you're confident with your content but the image is broken. So I did want to call that out.

[B]

Yep. The best sports card newsletter would have an unbroken image.

[A]

Nice. Also, there is no X on this. So if someone hits this on mobile, they're going to be.

[B]

Do you think it's that if you move that X then they'd be able to hide it the shop?

[A]

Amazon, probably, but that shouldn't really be a. Yeah, this shouldn't really interfere with it. So.

[B]

Good point.

[A]

Oh, weird.

[B]

The other thing, would you put that social proof below the email and subscribe line?

[A]

Yeah. And we got distracted so we were talking about featured images. So coming back to this form on the homepage. Totally. I would this call out box make it, it makes it feel like it's a separate thing. I would put this below the form and just have like his image, his name and then like the text over here or have it like a section with more than one of them and then say like join 3500 subscribers or join 3,500 hobby card collectors or something.

[B]

Yeah, like that.

[A]

But yeah, this feels like you're breaking up the. The form in a way that feels kind of weird.

[B]

Yep. Yeah, I just at the very least just flip them. Put the form above the social proof.

[A]

Well, cool. Well, we spent so far like 40 minutes on this, so I think we've killed this one here. Yeah. Main takeaways, stop using AI images when you have super compelling imagery already.

[B]

And then use more of an Instagram.

[A]

Yes, use more of this. Start an Instagram or some sort of social visual platform that you can showcase your experience and then lean more into who you are. Especially with hobby cards, I feel like they want to know kind of who they're talking to that this is a real person I would probably lean more into your personal brand and like let people know who you are so you can build trust and let people see your experience and how long you've been doing this. And I don't know, they just resonate with a real human instead of someone hiding behind a screen. So I think that could be a big, big takeaway. What do you think anymore?

[B]

Uh, yep. I just add on making your welcome email more succinct and more focused on getting them to do one main thing and maybe then turning that what you have for your welcome email into a short welcome email series. Two or three emails that can do do the other call to actions that you have. And then the other thing that I've been harping on is that URL that looks like super sketchy. Change the URL to something more hobbycardlife.com like as opposed to Cameron's newsletter D1093 4 kind of thing.

[A]

Totally.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Awesome. All right, well if you want to get your newsletter roasted, you can head over to growthinreverse.com roast and we will check it out maybe in a future episode. If you enjoyed this, go ahead and hit the subscribe button on YouTube or leave us a rating and review on Apple or Spotify. We always appreciate those. It helps other people find the show and us keep doing these. But until next time, roast on Roast away. Roast away. Go get your marshmallows.

[B]

Yeah.