The #1 Thing These 3 Newsletters Got Wrong (and How to Fix It) — Newsletter Roasts Vol. 2

Summary

Growth In Reverse Podcast Summary: Episode - "The #1 Thing These 3 Newsletters Got Wrong (and How to Fix It) — Newsletter Roasts Vol. 2"

Release Date: April 16, 2025

In this engaging episode of the Growth In Reverse podcast, hosts Dylan Redekop and Joey Basilio dive into a critical analysis of three Beehive-hosted newsletters. Titled "Newsletter Roasts Vol. 2," the episode dissects each newsletter's strengths and shortcomings, providing actionable insights for creators aiming to scale their subscriber base effectively. Below is a detailed summary capturing all key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode.

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1. Introduction to Newsletter Roasts

The episode kicks off with Dylan and Joey expressing their anticipation to "roast" selected newsletters. They introduce the concept of analyzing newsletters based on ratings and reviews from listeners, encouraging other newsletter creators to submit their work for future roasts.

Notable Quote:

• Dylan [00:30]: "Let's roast them up. Let's be harsh this time."

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2. First Roast: "Europe with Love" by Jacob

Overview: "Europe with Love" is an AI-focused newsletter aimed at delivering five unique European products or brands weekly. The newsletter is currently passion-driven and not monetized.

Key Critiques:

• Lack of Monetization: The hosts highlight that Jacob is not monetizing his newsletter, which limits its growth potential. They suggest that establishing revenue streams could enhance sustainability.

  Dylan [01:22]: "Jacob is not yet monetizing this newsletter. So it is something he is doing right now."

• Unclear Value Proposition: The newsletter's landing page fails to convey Jacob's extensive experience in the European startup space, missing an opportunity to build credibility and trust.

  Joey [02:14]: "There's no mention of his 15 years in the European startup space, which would help establish authority."

• Broad Content Scope: The newsletter's focus is too wide, making it difficult for subscribers to find consistent value. Dylan expresses skepticism about the quality and differentiation of the products shared.

  Dylan [03:05]: "First impression, I'm thinking like, okay, he found like five Amazon deals. I don't know that I want that."

• User Experience Issues: The persistent subscription box disrupts the reading experience, deterring potential subscribers who wish to sample content before committing.

  Joey [06:34]: "The subscribe box can be annoying if it keeps popping up while trying to read."

Suggestions for Improvement:

• Enhance Credibility: Incorporate Jacob's background and expertise prominently on the landing and subscribe pages to build trust.

• Narrow Focus: Specialize the newsletter's content, such as emphasizing sustainable or handcrafted products, to cater to a more targeted audience.

  Joey [04:44]: "Focus on wood-made products or sustainable, naturally made products that are high quality."

• Improve Design Aesthetics: Adopt a more minimalistic and refined design to better reflect the quality of the curated products.

  Dylan [10:46]: "Use a more refined design, perhaps a serif font, to maintain a professional aesthetic."

• Increase Engagement: Introduce interactive elements like polls to encourage subscriber interaction and gather valuable feedback.

  Joey [12:05]: "Maybe have a poll like 'Which one is your favorite?' to boost engagement."

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3. Second Roast: "Auto GPT" by Joey Mazars

Overview: "Auto GPT" is an AI-centric newsletter that offers custom AI agents and workflow tips aimed at helping business owners save time and scale operations. It employs monetization through ads, sponsorships, and product sales.

Key Critiques:

• Ambiguous Target Audience: The newsletter does not clearly define its target demographic, making it challenging for potential subscribers to identify if the content suits their needs.

  Joey [15:40]: "Who is this really for? Is it just for anybody? What kind of business?"

• Content Overload: The hosts note that the newsletter publishes a substantial amount of content daily but sends out weekly editions, potentially overwhelming subscribers with information.

  Joey [20:23]: "You're putting out a lot of content but not leveraging it effectively in your newsletters."

• Inconsistent Branding: The use of AI-generated images and varied design elements creates an impersonal and cluttered visual experience.

  Dylan [20:53]: "It's hard to grasp how they're growing it or where people are coming from. It feels impersonal."

• Delayed Engagement: The welcome email delays the actual delivery of valuable content, reducing the immediate impact on new subscribers.

  Dylan [18:07]: "I've only received the welcome email two days after subscribing. It dilutes the initial engagement."

Suggestions for Improvement:

• Define the Audience: Clearly articulate who the newsletter is for, such as specifying business types or roles that would benefit most from AI integrations.

  Joey [17:00]: "Hone the focus a little bit more here."

• Optimize Content Delivery: Shift to a more frequent mailing schedule that aligns with the volume of content produced, such as multiple editions per week.

  Dylan [20:04]: "Consider publishing daily or multiple times a week to utilize existing content."

• Enhance Visual Consistency: Use consistent imagery and design elements to create a cohesive and professional look that resonates with the AI theme.

  Joey [19:50]: "Use more consistent images or a unified design to avoid visual clutter."

• Improve Onboarding Experience: Deliver sample content or a welcome series that showcases the newsletter's value immediately upon subscription.

  Joey [21:25]: "Provide a taste of the newsletter's content upfront to encourage continued engagement."

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4. Third Roast: "Curious Procrastinator" by Jacob and Alex

Overview: "Curious Procrastinator" targets individuals aiming to work smarter while embracing their procrastination tendencies. The newsletter offers a mix of curated articles, tools, books, and videos.

Key Critiques:

• Undefined Purpose: The newsletter's tagline "Work smarter, Procrastinate better" is catchy but lacks clarity on the specific value it provides to subscribers.

  Joey [25:23]: "I don't understand what this is. What's it for?"

• Scattered Content Themes: The content spans various topics without a clear unifying theme, making it difficult for subscribers to find consistent value.

  Joey [26:00]: "There's not a lot of a clear focus on what the content's about."

• Inconsistent Imagery: The use of varying avatars and backgrounds leads to a disjointed visual identity, confusing subscribers about the newsletter's brand.

  Dylan [27:00]: "Different people each time makes it unclear and hard to recognize."

• Overwhelming Length: The newsletter is lengthy, which may deter readers accustomed to shorter, more concise emails.

  Joey [31:01]: "It's long. Maybe consider slimming it down or creating multiple editions."

Suggestions for Improvement:

• Clarify Value Proposition: Refine the tagline and introductory content to clearly communicate the newsletter's purpose and benefits.

  Joey [25:44]: "Call out the purpose a little bit better in the headline."

• Streamline Content Focus: Concentrate on specific areas that align with the newsletter’s theme, such as productivity tools or mindset strategies, to provide targeted value.

  Dylan [27:00]: "Focus on a specific topic or stage in the subscriber’s journey."

• Standardize Visual Elements: Adopt a consistent visual theme, including uniform avatars or color schemes, to strengthen brand recognition.

  Joey [27:47]: "Use the same image consistently to avoid confusion."

• Manage Content Length: Break down the newsletter into shorter sections or introduce a table of contents to enhance readability and user experience.

  Joey [31:43]: "Numbering sections or providing a table of contents can help manage length."

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5. General Observations and Takeaways

• Importance of Focus: Across all three roasts, the hosts emphasize the necessity of maintaining a clear and focused content strategy. Attempting to cater to too broad an audience dilutes the newsletter's impact and subscriber engagement.

  Dylan [40:13]: "Focus is a huge piece of this. Lots of trying to do too much versus keeping it simple."

• Enhanced Onboarding: Effective onboarding through welcome emails that immediately convey value and set clear expectations is crucial for subscriber retention.

  Joey [38:09]: "The welcome email should give context and showcase what subscribers can expect."

• Visual Consistency: A cohesive design aesthetic helps in establishing brand identity and improving the overall subscriber experience.

  Dylan [20:53]: "Adopt a more minimalistic and refined design to better reflect the quality of the curated products."

• Engagement Strategies: Incorporating interactive elements like polls and providing opportunities for subscriber interaction can significantly boost engagement and feedback.

  Joey [12:05]: "Introducing polls can encourage subscriber interaction and gather valuable feedback."

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6. Conclusion and Call to Action

Dylan and Joey conclude the episode by inviting other newsletter creators to submit their newsletters for future roasting sessions. They encourage listeners to provide ratings and reviews on platforms like Spotify and Apple to increase the chances of their newsletters being featured.

Notable Quote:

• Joey [41:07]: "If you want to get your newsletter roasted by us, go to growthinreverse.com/roasts to submit your newsletter."

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Final Thoughts:

This episode of Growth In Reverse offers invaluable insights for newsletter creators aiming to grow their subscriber base. By critically analyzing real-world examples, Dylan and Joey provide actionable strategies to refine content focus, enhance design aesthetics, and improve subscriber engagement. Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale your existing newsletter, the lessons from this episode can guide you toward building a more effective and profitable newsletter.

Transcript

[Dylan]

I understand why people do this, but it drives me insane.

[Joey]

I appreciate the effort and that they're trying to deliver a ton of value, but I don't know what to go to. There's just a lot going on.

[Dylan]

This just feels very long.

[Joey]

I don't really know what this is about or what it's for.

[Dylan]

So it's an AI newsletter. Rare these days.

[Joey]

I know, Hard to come by, especially on. On Beehive. I've never seen any.

[Dylan]

All right, Dylan, are you ready to get into some more roasts?

[Joey]

Let's roast them up. Let's be harsh this time.

[Dylan]

Amazing. Amazing. So I know I actually just opened this one for the first time. I know you pulled these out of the people who left ratings and reviews for this podcast. If you do want your newsletter roasted live on air, go to growth in reverse.com roasts and yeah, fill it out and we might choose you next time. But for these, you have. You have chosen three and they're all Beehive newsletters, right?

[Joey]

Yeah, we tried to pick a little bit of a theme here. So this week we're looking at three different Beehive newsletters. So the nice thing with that is you can kind of sort of do some apples to apples comparisons on what one's doing versus another or just in general see kind of the layout. So opportunities to improve or do some things that are working for other people. So should be. Should be interesting.

[Dylan]

Awesome. Let's roast the hive.

[Joey]

All right.

[Dylan]

So this first one is from Europe with dot love is the domain.

[Joey]

Yeah. And this one's by a gentleman by the name of Jacob.

[Dylan]

All right, well, thanks for the submission, Jacob.

[Joey]

Yeah, thanks, Jacob. So first thing I think we should. First thing call out here is Jacob is not yet monetizing this newsletter. So it is something he is doing right now. Just when we asked if he's monetizing, he said no. That's the first thing to call out here. This is kind of a bit of a passion project, but it sounds like he has plans to definitely monetize it.

[Dylan]

Awesome. Cool. So the headline says, tired of the same old stuff, question mark. And then it says new products pop up every day, but let's be real, most of them don't stand the fuck out. Every weekend I'll deliver five awesome under the radar brands or products from Europe. Just the best, straight to your inbox.

[Joey]

First impressions.

[Dylan]

I'm kind of surprised this is a newsletter, but it's interesting.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

I'm wondering of like the. The origin story here.

[Joey]

Definitely novel concept. Yeah. So there is a little bit of background. So yeah, Jacob actually he, he started this, it looks like because he's had about 15 years in the European startup space. So he's seen, he, he quotes saying he's in the rise and fall of numerous products and he's even had a hand in creating two brands known for their handcrafted products. So he mentions that in the welcome email, which we'll get to in a bit. But that just gives you a bit of context to why he has started this newsletter. So he's got a bit knowledge, experience and passion around that, which is interesting. But also one thing you notice on this homepage, he doesn't mention any of that. So I like to. And Chanel, I think you can relate to this, like have some credibility, authority, social proof, you know, prove that you sort of know you're talking about why people should listen to you, why should they trust you. Um, so I think that's one big omission here on the landing page.

[Dylan]

Yes, I'd agree. And I just went to his subscribe page too because pretty similar, more of a landing page type thing. And he just says every weekend I'll introduce you to five small under the radar brands or products from Europe that have caught my attention. So it's a similar concept but he still doesn't call out that they're like. So I just pulled up his submission and it says the newsletter is for curious design savvy explorers who like discovering unique, beautiful or quirky products. They enjoy aesthetics, but they're not snobs. So like, I guess I don't get that. So to me, the first, first impression, I'm thinking like, okay, he found like five Amazon deals. He's going to share them in a newsletter every week. Like, I don't know that I want that. It doesn't feel like there's quality behind it. So that might make me hesitate to sign up.

[Joey]

Yeah, I think the big question is like, what is this? What problem is this newsletter solving? Yeah, what kind of person wants to subscribe to this newsletter? So I think the, the, I like the idea, the, the, the intention behind it of finding like quality products from Europe, so supporting kind of where he's from, his geography, European businesses. And I think he even calls out like he doesn't want to kind of flog Amazon products like low quality products. He actually wants to find these like quality companies are creating quality products and sharing them with people. I think the problem is like that's, that's just, that could be a very vast and wide array of different types of things. So like, if I subscribe to this, like I could be 20 issues in before I see a product that actually I'm interested in. So I think there needs to be maybe a little bit more focus on the type of product or you know, the why I would want to subscribe to this. Like why do I need these products? Or is it a specific, you know, industry vertical, what have you.

[Dylan]

So this actually reminds me of. Do you know the Chicken Shed Chronicles?

[Joey]

No.

[Dylan]

Okay, so it's a newsletter by David Hyatt, I think.

[Joey]

Okay.

[Dylan]

I actually didn't know about it. They actually, they put me in this newsletter once and I was like, I've never heard of this. Now I subscribe. So essentially it's same thing. So it's five ideas, interesting products, other things that get sent to you. I think it's like every other week or every month or something. But on their. Here I just pulled up the landing page. So on the landing page it says for founders. So like they're specifically calling out who this is for. We find the smartest thinking each week and share it with you. I still think there could be more to this, but they have like a raving fan base. So I think actually when I was in this, Jeremy ends reached out and was like, hey, did you know you're in the Chicken Shed chronicles? And I was like, I don't know what that is. So then I had to like go back and find it. Um, so it's interesting. Like this makes me feel it reminds me of this, but for products. So I'm wondering if you could position this more of like for designers or product people. I don't know. I don't know who the exact target audience would be for this.

[Joey]

For homeowners, even like something a little bit more focused, but not. I know you still want to reach a pretty broad audience, but I think maybe that's part of the problem here is it's just like too broad. Like are they. Or you could be like wood made products like plastics, bad, bad for the environment, et cetera, et cetera. Let's focus on wood made products or sustainable, sustainable, naturally made products that are high quality. That maybe I think he also mentions like they aren't like super, super expensive, so it won't cost you arm and leg kind of thing. That could be, that could be an angle to go on with this.

[Dylan]

Yeah, so yeah, I think that's a good call out. Then I was trying to go into to read it and they have like that subscribe box which I'M not. Not a huge fan of. But yeah, yeah, okay.

[Joey]

So I agree. I think it's good having that because you do want to try to get people to subscribe, but it can also be kind of annoying if you're trying to read it and the box keeps popping up. I mean, that's a user experience type of thing. I know some people will just gate the whole. Does he have it completely gated? Unless you log in, you just get to see.

[Dylan]

Welcome to this week's installment. Every week I share five of the coolest products I've come across. Let's dive in. And then I, like, start to see a picture and then.

[Joey]

Right. And then. So it's.

[Dylan]

Which I. I understand why people do this, but it drives me insane, especially just because I'm naturally curious and I like to go through stuff, um, especially. And I don't know who this person is yet. I want to get a taste of it before I give them my email.

[Joey]

Yeah, it'd be nice maybe if. If Beehive offered that sort of. If you could somehow filter out, like, people who have. Geez. I don't know if there's a way to basically, like, show more for people who are not subscribed or. I don't know. I guess that's counterintuitive. But it's just. It's frustrating because you don't want to necessarily subscribe until you see what you're gonna be subscribing to, and therefore you may not even subscribe at all.

[Dylan]

Totally.

[Joey]

Yeah. So I think. Let me show you if I could share my screen. Let's see.

[Dylan]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Joey]

I was gonna say. I'll show you what an addition looks like. Let me just hop in here. You know what, before we do that, before we do that, why don't we just quickly go through the welcome email? Cause there's always some. Some gold in the welcome emails. Right here, I'll show you. All right. Okay. So good stuff from. Good stuff from your fun, funky, and a bit off the wall. Hi, friend. I heard a loud ping. When I checked my phone. It was you. Thanks for signing up. You've got the. Oh, man. The guys. Can't think of his name. Oh, my God.

[Dylan]

Think of it either.

[Joey]

Oh, on the spot. I love it. Very nice. So, yes, on brand. Great success. At least it's something playful. I always like an image of a person, but I guess if you're not. If you don't want to be that personal brand face of the brand, then that's good. I Like how he says, you'll receive the first email next Friday. And this is where he talks about, like I had mentioned earlier, his experience in this space. And so I do think you could lend a little bit of that credibility to the signup page. You don't have to go into too much detail, but just saying, like, 15 years of experience sourcing quality products or growing products. So I thought that was something that was good to include here, but also could be added to the welcome page. I personally think just as you scroll through, this whole page is a little bit much, quite a bit to read. There's no real links to click on. So it's like, well, like, what do you want, I guess the customer to. Or the reader to do here? The subscriber, like he says, in search for a specific product or cool European experience. Hit reply. I'll send a personal recommendation with mine. I respond to every email, which is great. I think that should probably be higher up. I don't know. What are your thoughts?

[Dylan]

Yeah, I mean, a couple things I would. Because you're gaining all of the content and someone took the minute to subscribe, I would probably send them to a recent issue or one of your favorites ungated. Just to give them, like, a taste. Yeah, exactly. Just to give them a taste of, like, what this is going to be. Also, like, I think this, like you said, this top section needs to be way more prominent. A hundred years ago, almost every product was crafted with both beauty and functionality. Today, not so much. I almost wonder if you can synthesize that down into just a couple words and say, I find five of the most beautiful and functional products every week and send them to you. Or something along those lines of like, why are you curating this? Like, I think that really lends itself well to getting someone to subscribe.

[Joey]

I agree. I was going to even click through here to show you what an addition looks like because there's a few things in the content that I thought were. I thought it was decently laid out, so I wanted to give a review on that. But yeah, I think you're spot on with that, that feedback here. So highlight, highlight a few things. Bring the reply thing maybe closer to the top and maybe shorten this up a bit with a link at least to either like a call to action. Basically, you want somebody to do something with your welcome email. Either reply or click through to content. Engage with it in some way. I know we're big fans of getting the reply, but even offering that a secondary link or a secondary call to action as Like a link to click on would probably be kind of killing two birds with one stone or at least trying to get somebody to do something on the welcome email.

[Dylan]

Yeah, the other thing that's calling me out, like, can you go up, back down a little bit to where you were? Uh, it says, like, each week, keep going. Each week I'll share five exceptional under the radar European products and experiences. Expect a blend of unique, innovated and beautifully designed, all handpicked for you. I love that. But it does. That does not come through at all on the. The landing page. I think using a more refined design on the landing page might be nicer. And this isn't like a knock on your design aesthetics or anything like that. I just think this feels more like comic, cartoony. Um, I guess I should. Do you want me to share my screen again?

[Joey]

Right, so right here, is this what you're talking about? Kind of the comic bookie? The font is very. It's like that bangers font, very popular headline font. Kind of cartoony.

[Dylan]

Yeah. So I would expect like a nice, like, serif font. I don't know, just something a little more like minimalistic, simple, well designed just to kind of keep the theme going. And that would help me understand, like, what these products are versus this kind of looks like a roundup of some.

[Joey]

Amazon stuff, which once you click in, which we're now in. You see that it's not like there's a really nice. I'm not even trying to pronounce that. I won't try to pronounce it. Yeah, A rug from Rocco, which is. Which is beautiful. Probably expensive. Unroll the magic. So you can click through here. A really nice cedar sauna. Lutra sauna.

[Dylan]

Oh, that's nice.

[Joey]

Which I actually kind of wanted, which is cool. A power cable stand. What else we got a little speaker and some wine stoppers, which are like wooden, handmade. I think he says. Yeah, like, these are nice products. Right. So you, like, get the vibe these aren't like low budget, like Temu, Amazon Amazon Essentials or whatever products. These are. These are cool. They're unique looking. They have. They all have a kind of a similar type of aesthetic. And so I think that's where like you're mentioning on the homepage. You should bring that in more. Play. Play with that sort of feel. And this is one thing that one. Well, sorry, one thing I noticed on this is there's no prices on any of these. And so maybe that's intentional or. I'm sure it is intentional. I wonder if There is a if he should test maybe putting prices on these or not. Again, I haven't gone in the backlog of all his content to see if he was doing that before or not. It's something that I'd be kind of more curious about clicking through to see the pricing. And then he has a PS here which says which one is calling your name this week? And then he says reply with a number, 1, 2, 5 or just tell me what you'd actually buy. Always curious what makes a cut. So I kind of like that. But what I would do is like maybe have like a poll like Beehive is a built in poll, like which of these is your favorite? It's not a reply. Like I get the replies are valuable but it's lower friction than a reply just clicking a poll like which of these do you actually like? So I think adding that kind of engagement in this would be, would be interesting or could be helpful for him to at least get some data and get people to actually click through and engage on on stuff if they aren't necessarily clicking on these links.

[Dylan]

I think my mind is racing with so many ideas for like the future of this newsletter. It could be so cool with like brand partnerships and even content on like Instagram and like how you could put together carousels. And I don't know, I think it's really interesting especially because I don't even know if you need the poll honestly, because if someone clicks on a link it's kind of registering interest. So I almost wonder if, I mean I know you could capture this data and keep looking at it and be like, okay, well people really enjoy this kind of product. Yeah, the one thing I did while you were scrolling through that I subscribed and there's no like thank you page. It just sends you right back to the, or the homepage. And so I'm wondering if you couldn't put up like a little poll or a forum that captures some information about these people, like where do you live? How, like I don't know, just like interesting information that sponsors will eventually want to know. And honestly I think this is going to, it's going to bring in a higher profile audience than someone who's just looking for cheap Amazon products. So I think knowing who your customer is is going to be really important.

[Joey]

For you down the line and then being able to like even filter if like I know Beehive has some pretty decent filtering mechanisms. So if you could even like start filtering out types of products and stuff like that and helping people sort through that way or additions that have a certain type of product would be helpful too, just from a user experience. Cool. All right. Thanks Jacob for submitting.

[Dylan]

Yeah, thank you.

[Joey]

Hopefully we have sufficiently roasted you and we weren't too harsh, but harsh enough that we can call this a roast.

[Dylan]

Yes. All right, who are we going to.

[Joey]

Okay, next up we have a newsletter called Auto GPT and is by a gentleman by the name of Joey Mazars.

[Dylan]

Awesome. Yeah.

[Joey]

If you want to share your screen and you can take it for a spin.

[Dylan]

Auto GPT reclaim five plus hours a week with AI automations. So it's an AI newsletter. Rare these days.

[Joey]

I know, hard to come by, especially on. On Beehive. I've never seen any joking. Just taking the piss out of you as the. As the English would say.

[Dylan]

Yeah, it's weekly custom A. Yeah, go ahead.

[Joey]

I was going to say this one is monetized again via ads and sponsorships and product sales. Joey shared as well when. When he submitted this. So just keeping that in mind as we go through here.

[Dylan]

So the subhead says weekly custom AI agents. Workflow tips to save time, scale the unscalable and grow your business. So these are for business owners? Well, that's what the last line makes me believe because initially I just thought it was like for anyone. Everyone is using AI these days. Like Anna, her boss even was like, maybe you should start looking at AI and see how it can help your workflow. And I was like, what? Just like craziness.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

I really want to see what else is. Oh, okay.

[Joey]

So look on the right there where he has the call out. Weekly AI newsletter. Join 10,000 AI enthusiasts learning how to build and deploy custom AI agents. So we're not even calling out really a specific segment of people. It's just like essentially people who are interested in using AI. I can be considered enthusiast. And then he's got this pop up that I also noticed that comes up. So join 10,000 plus AI enthusiasts learning how to build. It's kind of the same copy as on the top, right? I don't know, I kind of liked this copy a little bit better than the landing page for the subhead at least. I wonder if they've played around with that or not. But I thought the. The landing page maybe could slightly improved or modified or at least tweaked a bit and tested.

[Dylan]

Yeah. So just for people listening, I don't know, you probably want to watch this on YouTube just because it's so much easier. But I went. I went back and went to Just the homepage of the website versus the landing page. And so on the right side, there's a call out to join the weekly AI newsletter. And the copy that Dylan just read through, I think. I don't. I don't know how to build and deploy custom agents versus just trying to go back and now it won't let me. Workflow tips to save time, scale the unscalable and grow. Yeah, it's definitely very different.

[Joey]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of.

[Dylan]

Like, I like the reclaim. Five hours a week.

[Joey]

Yeah, that's.

[Dylan]

Five hours a week is nice.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

Interesting. Is this like an ad?

[Joey]

Yeah, yeah. So he's got sponsorships right on the main page. And if you go to even his sponsor us page, he says how much traffic he's getting and that sort of thing. So he's really kind of. He's playing sort of two multiple sort of, I guess media ad streams here. Like he's doing like an actual newsletter. Then he's. Then he's doing like SEO sort of website webpage views. And then. Yeah, I believe there's something else he's doing as well.

[Dylan]

Okay, so this is almost like an affiliate site with a newsletter.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

Interesting.

[Joey]

But also sponsorships built into the editions too. So. So here's a few questions I had. Is like, who is this really for? Is it just for anybody? What kind of business? If it's not, then what kind of business is it for? We're not really speaking to a specific avatar AI enthusiast. I think everyone is going to be an AI enthusiast when they realize that they need to be. So I think we could like, maybe hone the focus a little bit more here. And then I also saw, like, if you click into one of these editions, he's got a lot of content. So, like, it's pretty impressive how much content they're putting out. It's kind of like a daily AI newsletter. But it looks like he's not sending daily editions to inboxes. But he is publishing pretty much daily articles. Yeah, like, there's a lot. There's a lot of articles. So if you click into one. Yeah, click. Let's say I haven't opened this one yet, but if you scroll through. Okay, this is a bad example. It might have been his newsletter.

[Dylan]

Is this written by AI too?

[Joey]

Probably, Probably. But if you go down, there's a. There's an author credit and that author credits image looks very AI generated. Maybe Onome is a. Is a person, but maybe not. He googling the image.

[Dylan]

Interesting. Yeah, I was just Trying to see if it would come up anywhere else. Um. Okay. It looks like he's starting to get into YouTube too.

[Joey]

Yeah. So I think a lot of good things going on here, but still a little bit of an. I. I don't know, I'm kind of like a little bit overwhelmed when I go to that main page. There's a. There's a lot going on there.

[Dylan]

I'm not sure what to do with that. I don't know. I'd probably put something more interesting in this. So in the actual subscribe box, you know how you can have like a example email address? It's just infohtogpt.net it feels very generic. I'd almost put like something more like his name, [e-mail] or just something more playful.

[Joey]

Elonitehouse.gov or something like that.

[Dylan]

Yeah. Please don't. Okay. So the thank you page after the newsletter says you're in. Check your email and find a welcome gift. Expect a weekly email showing you how to start using AI. Oh, they have a course too.

[Joey]

Yeah, I've not clicked through on that yet.

[Dylan]

AI Mastery Challenge. Interesting. I'm almost. I'm almost wondering if, like, why it's a weekly email. You have like three articles getting published a day. I'd probably start doing daily. Just because you have the content. Trying to see if they had any.

[Joey]

Or multiple times a week at least.

[Dylan]

Right. Like three times a week or.

[Joey]

And most. Sorry, not most. A lot of these successful AI newsletters that I've come across are publishing almost daily. Like. Yeah, at least five days a week. It would appear. So. I think you're kind of. If you are creating that daily content, you might be leaving some money on the table.

[Dylan]

So something to consider, I guess this all runs together. Like there's no visual separation. Like, I'm finding it hard to like, understand. I don't know, this is just the, like the design side of me.

[Joey]

But yeah, I do like the free bonuses. Like, but like, that should pop a little bit more.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I like the. The concept of it. Yeah. I almost wonder if you could put like an image next to it or something. Maybe make all of these like gray. And then if you're going to have featured in, you might as well have like, why should people trust you to learn about AI? Some authority, credibility, agents, workflow tips. Yeah, see, I guess I'm confused. So the newsletter's talking about custom AI agents, but then the whole website is about what seems like AI news.

[Joey]

Yeah, that is correct.

[Dylan]

I don't know. I'm waiting for a welcome email, but. Oh, here we go. Welcome email. You're wasting time without these AI formulas. Hi there and welcome free AI resources. Oh, it's just like a Google Drive folder. Interesting. I won't give away the whole thing on the screen, but I'm just curious. Like, maybe it makes sense. Once I get in there and once I start getting the emails, it just feels like the content on the website is not being used to its fullest extent.

[Joey]

Let me see if I can grab the email I was sent. And I subscribed on Monday and it's Wednesday, so it's two, three days later. So I've only received the welcome email. So I think I've already, at this point, offhandedly. If I subscribed, I've probably forgotten that I've subscribed. When that email finally hits, I might be like, I don't remember subscribing to this AI newsletter. Who knows? So hopefully there's some call out to some context of why I subscribed or where I subscribed in that next email. But I guess my whole point is like, like you said, Chanel, publishing a lot of content daily, probably relying on some SEO to get the views there. But I still think there is a missed opportunity here to get content out, if not daily, at least like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Kind of a cadence.

[Dylan]

Yeah. The other thing I like to think about is, like, where are people coming from to this page? Like, is he posting a lot on Twitter or LinkedIn or anywhere? Or is this just like SEO traffic? It does make a difference, I think, where these people are coming from. Um, I guess I could go look. Nope, nothing on Twitter. And it's all in a different language.

[Joey]

It's not gonna be helpful.

[Dylan]

No.

[Joey]

And it looks like there's a company page for Auto GPT.

[Dylan]

Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I don't really know what to say about this one because it's hard to grasp, like, how they're growing it or where people are coming from. I feel like it's not clear enough who this is for.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

I also am a huge proponent of, like, including some part of, like, who's behind this and, like, why it exists.

[Joey]

It's going to help with readership and that's going to help with sponsors too. Right. Having, like an actual person behind it.

[Dylan]

That'S not what I wanted to do. I was just trying to see what it looked like on mobile, but it looks fine. Yeah.

[Joey]

Well, if you look. So one other thing too. On the homepage, he's got categories listed out which is good. Like AI, AI events, knowledge, like blockchain chat, gbt. Like, there's a lot going on here, so I think this is like an opportunity to segment people. And again, we haven't gotten the first email, so maybe this comes with, in the emails, like kind of a choose your own adventure type of like, what are you interested in reading about, like CyberSecurity, Claude Blockchain, AI Tools, AI News. And I think there's an opportunity to just like get people to self select or self. Self segment, send them that content when it. When it's available and then, and then maybe do a weekly like this week in AI. And then that kind of like is your larger summary sort of article for. For everything. Yeah, there seems to be an opportunity here with all the content that's being created and all the news every day coming out about AI to help maybe filter that a little bit more for people.

[Dylan]

I don't know. It's hard. It's hard to roast something. I don't really know what the issue is, like if he's not getting a bunch of subscribers or if, you know, whatever. But it just, it feels impersonal. It feels very corporate, which is not a bad thing, just a different way to do things. I would just lean more into like refining this copy.

[Joey]

Oh, I was going to check to see if they added anything in the roast form. I hope that was somewhat helpful, Joey. Yeah, thank you. Either way for submitting. I think there's a lot of opportunity here because you're obviously putting in a lot of work and creating a lot of content. It just doesn't seem to be getting out to enough people and maybe not sure what type of person needs to subscribe to your newsletter would benefit from it. So if we could kind of focus that a little bit more, probably be good. All right, should we hit the. The third and final newsletter for today's roast?

[Dylan]

Yes. All right, so this one, the Curious Procrastinator. So it's the curious procrastinator.beehive.com is the URL we were given. There's a little logo with a guy pointing up in the air.

[Joey]

He's curious.

[Dylan]

And then it just says the Curious Procrastinator. Work smarter, Procrastinate better.

[Joey]

Do you want to share your screen?

[Dylan]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So work smarter, Procrastinate better. Join Free. Now, I don't understand what this is. Yeah, exactly what is it? I'm a big procrastinator, so ideally this is probably a great one for me, but I don't know what I'm gonna get or anything like that.

[Joey]

Mm. So like my first thought is like, okay, productivity, right. Work smarter, procrastinate better. Sure. Um, that's good. But maybe call out, call that out a little bit better in that headline because like you said, I don't really know what this is about or what it's for. And I think you'll see as you scroll through here down the content. Let's not get in the content quite yet. But as you scroll through the content, you'll see that like it kind of. I don't know, there's, there's not a lot of. I don't know if the, what the right word is. But like the themes of everything are kind of all over the place. There's not real a clear focus on what the content's about. And once you click into an article, there's quite a bit in it. So I think there's a lot to unpack. We're not gonna unpack all of it today, but I think again, the theme today seems to be a bit of around focus. Like all of these newsletters seem to have a lot of potential, a lot of effort that's being put into them, but they're all kind of like maybe trying to do too many things to too for too many people. And I really think, I know niching down apparently is like, you shouldn't tell people to do that anymore or you should, I don't know, it depends on the flavor of the day on Twitter and on LinkedIn. But I think focus. I'm not even gonna say the word niche. Just focusing a little bit more on either a specific sort of topic or industry or person you're trying to reach or what stage in their journey they're they're at. I think could, yeah, do all of these newsletters wonders.

[Dylan]

The other thing I'm thinking is like, okay, so you have this purple dude pointing, you have the eyeball emoji. If you don't want to put your face in front of something, I, I'm okay. I actually enjoy sometimes when newsletters or brands do like a specific avatar and it's like a human based type of thing, whether it's like an animal that looks like a human or whatever. But I think if you could have like us the avatar that's the same here and have that be like written by Joey the Curious, whatever, I don't know, something. And then have each of these like featured images be the same person because right now they're all different. Like it's the same probably vibe like.

[Joey]

It is a younger. Yeah, Somebody always looking up, thinking thoughtfully. Right. There's like a prompt they're using over.

[Dylan]

And over again, but it's like different people each time. So I would either scrap these images and do something different or have them be consistently the same person and have it be, like, related to what is in the content.

[Joey]

And if you. If you do a quick scroll through too, they all blend into each other and you're like, are these all the same images or are they not? And so I think just like, it's almost like having the same image for everyone, even though they're a bit different. And I kind of like, my brain just goes like, yeah. Then nothing's, like, popping out.

[Dylan]

You could even, like, because they all have this, like, golden, orangey yellow undertone in the background. You could. Even if they're related to each other, like, maybe every third one you do something different. You could have those all be like a purple background or a blue type background or something to, like, keep them visually different but also consistent and people can see it. But I just want to click into one and see what this is, because now I'm wondering.

[Joey]

And this I should have mentioned on the top. This is a duo writing this newsletter. Um, another Jacob. We had Jacob from the first one we looked at. This is a different Jacob spelled a little bit differently as well. And then Alex. So it's a. It's a duo. One is more the writer and the other one is more kind of the ops. And they mentioned that in the welcome email, too.

[Dylan]

Oh, cool.

[Joey]

Yeah, they are not monetizing, but they say they have a plan to monetize.

[Dylan]

Wait, so is this the same people as from Europe with.

[Joey]

I know. No, it's not really. That's what made me think. And I went back and like, wait, Jacob with an O. Jacob with a U. Looks like two different people. I know. That is a really odd coincidence.

[Dylan]

Fishy. Wow, this is long.

[Joey]

Yeah, that was the other. I'm procrastinating, doing whatever I need to do by reading this newsletter. The irony. It's got some cool graphics and stuff, but, yeah, that was my very first impression as well. I was like, wow, this is. And the. Yeah, it just. I think the content is good and is. Sorry, it's. It's. Well, it's decently well written if you actually read through it. But yeah, there's a lot going on in here, so I would probably simplify it, dumb it down a little bit.

[Dylan]

Or do multiple editions Again, there's like a whole. There's like a whole intro and then there's a quote and then a whole story, it looks like. Which, again, it's well written. It's, like, formatted pretty nicely. There's, like, bullets and bold and headings, and it breaks up pretty good. Nicely.

[Joey]

But if you go back up to the top of that, it just is called Power Moves, and it doesn't really open any.

[Dylan]

Is that like a normal section?

[Joey]

I don't know, but I'm like. I see a picture of a guy in a tutu and it says Power Moves, and I'm not really sure.

[Dylan]

Yeah, it's the same every week.

[Joey]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

So I would. If it's the same every week, I'd probably put, like, a little. Just because it seems like a newer. Yeah. Newsletter. Or maybe not enough people know about it. But at the bottom or underneath this, say, like, this section every week in this section, we do X, Y, or Z. Um, context. Just to give people some context. Yep, exactly. Um. And yeah, they do let it sink every week, too. Yeah. This is, like, long. Long. Not bad. Just long. Curious. Procrastinator. Relies on word of mouth. Okay. Then they're asking people to. I wonder if you could put, like, a button to share it or something here. A workspace I envy. Okay. Yeah. So I feel like you're trying to include almost like, the five things from. From Love with Europe. From.

[Joey]

From Europe with Love.

[Dylan]

Okay. But maybe they need to be numbered every week, too. Or, like, shorter. I don't know. Maybe this is just not my newsletter.

[Joey]

That's one thing that I've seen, like, Bay Area Times does this. Tim Stoddard. Tim Stoddart, his newsletter, he used to do this where it's like, every week there's 10 sections. Or like, I think Bay Area Times, there's like, five sections. And so every week, you know, there's just gonna be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And so you're setting that habit and that expectation every time the email comes. It's not like, what am I getting this week? There's a little bit more thought structure to it, I guess. Even though you do have structured sections here, if you numbered them off, that might. Maybe that would help.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I know Tim used to say, like, here, let's get into the eight. Whatever he called them. I forget at this point, but. And then you'd know as you're reading. Okay, I'm on number five. There's only three more. Yeah, but, like, here, I'm just like. I have no clue how much farther I have to go. Yeah.

[Joey]

Short and sweet.

[Dylan]

So just giving people context throughout the. The piece.

[Joey]

Yeah. Tweet that hits. Add this to your shelf. I just think there's too much, like. Yeah, I think the. I, like, I appreciate the effort and that they're trying to a ton of value, but it, like, by delivering a ton of value, I think I don't know what to go to. There's just a lot going on, and we consider that everybody's getting emails like this. Multiple emails like this in their inbox every day. There's just a. There's a lot to. To go on here. And so. And I'm guilty of this. Like, I published my newsletter today, and there's too much in it. I already know that. I'm like, oh, what do I take out? And I decided not to take anything out. So, like, the temptation is real, and I totally understand and I empathize with it.

[Dylan]

I'm going to roast your newsletter.

[Joey]

Yeah, roast it, Roast it. Um, but I guess my point is, like, I need to take my own advice, but my advice is to slim this down a bit. And then you could always do multiple additions, like, shorter.

[Dylan]

Well, and here's the thing. You could also do, like, a monthly roundup. Like, okay, so every week we have three to five things we find, whether it's a book you like, a tweet you like, a workspace or something. And then in the monthly one you have, it's this long, and you're like, Here are the 20 things we found this month that we really enjoyed. And you could actually curate them based on what people are clicking on. So you, like, have the data to know that your readers actually enjoy that. This just feels very long.

[Joey]

And. And so I guess the other. This also calls out, like, again, who is this newsletter for? Like, what problem is it solving? Like, is it. Is it either, I guess, entertaining, informing, or educating me? Like, is it doing one of those three things? So.

[Dylan]

And I have to wonder, even if. If they left it the same, but at the top, put in in today's newsletter and then had, like, the 10 bullets, and then you could, like, click to each section to be like, oh, that one sounds interesting. Let me go to there. Instead of just having to scroll through because this page is long enough that it warrants a table of contents. So I think that would make some sense there.

[Joey]

Yeah. Because as you're. As you're scrolling down, you've got that bar, the progress bar at the top that's like, you've scrolled quite a ways. It's only halfway So I know my first inclination when I'm checking my email is like, how long is this thing going to be? And usually I'll do a quick scroll and I'm like, I'm out.

[Dylan]

The other thing is I have to wonder if these are getting clipped by Gmail because there's so many links and there's so many design elements in here. I was having this issue recently and I had to fix it and my open rates have gone up just because. So, yeah, so with emails with email service providers, I think they put the tracking pixel at the bottom of the email. So if Gmail clips your newsletter and people don't open the whole thing, you're not going to get that. You're not going to know if someone opened it unless they like click on a link that's above there. Just a little fun fact for you.

[Joey]

And is it also, I thought I had heard that if emails are getting clipped, they're more likely to end up in spam.

[Dylan]

I think so, yeah.

[Joey]

So that can also obviously impact your open rate.

[Dylan]

So lots that can be done with this one. But I think the biggest thing is the landing page slash call out should be way more specific. Like, who is this for? Like, is this for bored professionals at work? Is this for students? Is this.

[Joey]

And what am I gonna. Or what problem am I solving by subscribing to it? Like, what am I. What's it gonna help me with? I guess not everybody's looking for that, but, you know, we're talking about working smarter and procrastinating better. So work smarter how? Procrastinate better. Like, it's clever, but, like, give me, give me a little bit more. And then if we want to quickly just look at their welcome email, I can share my screen and show you what that looks like. So I don't think you've subscribed, have you?

[Dylan]

Oh, yeah. I have not. Let me just do it real quick because I want to see what comes up. Yeah, no, thank you page here either.

[Joey]

No, that was one thing I had in my notes as well. There's no redirect. No. I mean, they're on beehive, so they could put like a boost at least to get some revenue starting to go in there. If they want to recommend other newsletters, no matter how you feel about that system, at least that could get maybe a bit of revenue for you. So, yeah, there's. There's improvements to me there and then so here's their welcome email. Monday's just got better, trust us. There's the eyeballs again. So excited. You dropped to the email. Dropped your email address. They're texting each other. I guess we don't even know that it's a team right here. So it's kind of like weird. Like, what do you mean we're texting each other?

[Dylan]

Right.

[Joey]

I like the what's next? A small ask, huge favor that'll take zero effort or next to zero effort. So I like that they're calling out like, basically like making sure that people, you know, do the, the thing you need to do with the new email. Like put it in your. Get it from your promotions tab into your primary or replying like that's great. I like to call it there. But then I think of what to expect. I don't even know if they know what their newsletter is about because they talk about when it's going to come and that it's manually written and they really harp on it being manual, which is fine. You know, they're rallying against AI, which is fair. Talk about grammar and spellcheck. But it's like. But what is like this about? I think there's too much emphasis here. Then they get down here. Wait, there's more curated articles curated based on like you're curating them. When you're curating something, what are you. Who are you curating it for? Like, what type of person, what kind of theme? Like, what is the theme? What is the topic? What is the curation around? Right. Because that just to me, it's a little bit too vague. And then they talk about keeping your brain sharp and your mindset moving. So they share a link to articles, which is, which is a nice touch. And then they share who's behind this. So there's Jacob from Slovakia relocated to the usa. And then there's. There's an image of both of them and Alex as well. Those are the two guys behind the newsletter. I like the, the personal touch, but yeah. Any thoughts and feedback on. On this welcome email?

[Dylan]

Yeah, I mean, it's good that they have a welcome email. I think the pieces are there. It's just done super well. I get that they're trying to do like the Hustle style. Like, hey, did you see this? We just like signed up and like high fived each other, but it just kind of is confusing because you're talking about we. And then in number two, it says if I landed in promotions. So like you got to keep the consistency with like the we kind of thing.

[Joey]

And before we dive in.

[Dylan]

Yeah, that kind of gave me whiplash because I Was like, wait, is it us? We? What do you mean you high five?

[Joey]

Oh, I think it's supposed to say. I think it's a typo anyway. If it landed in promotions, I think that was. That's a typo right there even.

[Dylan]

Yeah. I don't know because then it says drag me to primary.

[Joey]

Oh, never mind. You're right. Well, they could just add a manually written newsletter about. And then that's where drag this. Like, what is it about? Right, so put that, expand on this a bit more. Curated articles, tools, books and videos about what? And then put that, put that here. And then you can talk about how you do it manually. You're not using AI or whatever. You know, your, your rationale or reason behind that is.

[Dylan]

I feel like some of this should go in a second email, like the welcome email. Ideally, it's okay. You, you're confirmed, you signed up, please reply, put us in primary. And then maybe a little bit about what you're going to get or like a link to recent editions. This just feels very long and I, I would not see the reply thing, so I would probably would do it. Yeah, I don't know. It feels very discombobulated.

[Joey]

Yeah. Good intentions, I think. Right? Totally good intentions, but definitely a little bit long. This can this. Who's behind. Okay, who's behind section could all be in a separate email. Like you've been reading this for a week or two or whatever it is. Here's an email just so you know who's. Who's behind it. So.

[Dylan]

Or just say like, we. I don't know, like put that picture below, like the signing off, like the signature. And then you could say a link to learn more about us and why we created this.

[Joey]

Right.

[Dylan]

Like under the Cheers, Jacob and Alex, put that picture and then remove some of like the why and just have them let people click through if they really want to know.

[Joey]

Yeah, I agree. Some good, some good steps.

[Dylan]

It's good. Yeah. I mean, you have everything there. I think you just have too much in there.

[Joey]

Just like the other newsletter, Auto GPT. I've not got a regular edition of this one yet either. I did again, just subscribe on Monday. I'm sure it's. Oh, they said next Friday. Was that in this. Oh, no, that was in the other one. We've been looking at too many newsletters now. I'm getting confused.

[Dylan]

Awesome. Yeah. Is that the. The three we had for today?

[Joey]

Those are the three. Those are the three. 3B cap newsletters two to the three are not monetizing. Yet definitely some improvements to be made. I think the big takeaway for me is like talk to who your newsletter is for in the signup page and in the welcome email. And yeah, focus. I think focus. Not say niche, but focus. Focus on a more central topic or idea or part of somebody's journey of your avatar's journey. Kind of the job to be done for them.

[Dylan]

Yeah, no, I agree. I think focus is a huge piece of this. Lots of trying to do too much, I think, versus trying to keep it simple and focused.

[Joey]

Yeah, focused, yeah.

[Dylan]

But yeah, no overall good stuff. I think there's some potential with some of these. But yeah, gotta keep going and keep it focused. Talk to your readers, figure out what they need and help them do that.

[Joey]

Good stuff. Okay, cool. Um, again, we'll mention the roasts. If you want to get your newsletter roasted by us. You've just experienced one, so if you can handle our our roastiness or you think it's too soft, let us know. But you can go to growthinreverse.com roasts to submit your newsletter. Get roasted. And we do all three of these newsletters. The publishers submitted a rating on Spotify to to be selected for this. So just go to Spotify or Apple and give us a rating and a review if you can. And that will definitely up your odds of us picking your newsletter to be roasted.

[Dylan]

Awesome.

[Joey]

Cool.

[Dylan]

Fun.

[Joey]

And we'll have all the links for these newsletters down in the show notes too, so check them out there.

[Dylan]

Yes. See you next time.

[Joey]

Bye. Bye.