Rajiv Doshi

@idanielroman Thank you. I haven’t sent any SMS yet, but I’m collecting phone numbers and opt-ins now so it’s set up for the future. For people who sign up through ads, phone numbers and SMS consent are collected in an optional welcome survey.

@rajivdoshi love the landing page design!! and that would be smart to collect phone numbers are you just collecting phone numbers? or have you sent sms?

i run a boring newsletter, it's a local community newsletter for my city here is a boring tip for your newsletter landing page, that i do to my own local community newsletter that is in the landing page i only have the option for the resident to enter their email why? i don't want to lose them to my instagram page or facebook page i want their email if you have a newsletter, you need to do this as well -- how do you like my landing page?

@HoodyAndShorts @taylorgangis Congratulations and excited for everything that is yet to come!

I just sold my newsletter, officially. The sale was purely based on data, whos on the list, where, businesses, and a little about our metrics. They wanted the audience. This speaks a lot about where we are in terms of audience building. You need to collect data, info, and engagement. This is nothing new to you, but just remmeber while you are building, to not forget that - because it's worth something to someone. It's a little bittersweet, but it's time to move on! I am going to be building out a personal brand along with another brand focusing on how to use ai in media and business to help you as a solo founder or small team. Super stoked to see what's next. My last few editions go out this week. Turning another page, follow along as i do video, podcast, and posts about how to save time and make money, implementing SIMPLE AI workflows explained in PLAIN ENGLISH and how to use them into your day to day.

@TJLarkin23 @MediaKing I’m reaching out to current advertisers to discuss advertising opportunities in my welcome series. I’d like to send them a dedicated email with local offers and perks that can help offset my advertising expenses. Could be worth exploring the offer wall too.

@MediaKing crushing his talk So many ways to make money immediately when someone signs up for your newsletter This is completely under optimized in local newsletters Going to be a top focus for me in the next few months

@SMBjourney That’s great! I’m planning to host my first Dinner Club on March 18 and hoping for 30 sign ups. They suggested announcing it about two weeks before. Did you promote yours earlier than that? Also curious what you priced yours at?

Source breakdown of 52 dinner club sign ups: -42% newsletter -12% reddit -46% insta Still 2 weeks out, but all indicators point to insta holding the lead and beating the newsletter

@MrJacobEspi I’d love to see it too.

I created a roadmap that will help you make your first $1000 with a local Instagram page. Looking for a few people to take a look at it early. Drop a comment and I’ll dm it to you.

@SMBjourney Some of my best ideas come late on a Friday night!

Just bought a new domain late on Friday night. Am I doing it right?

@itsjohnapolinar My personal favorite is KC Daily from @NickHageman3 kcdaily.com

I know someone posted this before but who has the best-looking website in the local media space?

@localblake Following. This is also on my to-do list. I like what Cypress Digest is doing here and collecting leads. directory.cypressdigest.com

Anyone had success building a local business directory? I’m wanting to start, just don’t know what the best route is to get there

@SMBjourney In e-commerce, we used a sunset (re-engagement) flow to win back unengaged subs before removing them from regular sends. They’d still get big moments like Black Friday, helping protect deliverability without losing reach. Haven’t set this up for my local newsletter yet.

Newsletter pros, Experimenting with segmented sends AKA not sending to full subscriber list by excluding unengaged Segmented send: 62.4% OR on 8,573 sends Full send: 45.8% OR on 11,373 sends Both result in >5K opens weekly. What's best practice? Segmented or full?

@itsjohnapolinar I hope it went well. I’m sure it did. I’d love to see a photo!

First event of the year tonight for my local media company. 140+ registrations. Perfect weather. T-minus 15 mins until people start showing up. Wish me luck!

@MikeyPesto @beehiiv Love this approach! Curious, what are some examples you’ve tested that didn’t pass the poll?

Newsletters = validation + distribution engines. @beehiiv polls are how I measure demand for all new offerings. If the vote passes, I’m not selling. I’m delivering what people want. The latest: Catskill Mountain Memory. Available D2C and wholesale.

@La_Bonne_InfoLR @STORUP1 @MikeyPesto @TJLarkin23 @_andrewtsmith It integrates with the beehiiv website builder, but that’s it. All event data is manually entered by me, which is pretty time-consuming. Would love to find a way to automate it.

@rajivdoshi @STORUP1 @MikeyPesto @TJLarkin23 @_andrewtsmith Thank you for your feedback! Do you know if this tool can be easily integrated into a Beehiiv website? I dream of a tool that allows me to copy and paste the URL link of a source event (website, Instagram, Facebook) and automatically add it to a calendar.

2025 RETROSPECTIVE FOR MY LOCAL NEWSLETTER Hello local newsletter operators, I'm taking advantage of the new year to look back on my first year as a local newsletter publisher. Here are the positives, negatives, and areas for improvement, in my opinion. Happy New Year

@La_Bonne_InfoLR @STORUP1 @MikeyPesto @TJLarkin23 @_andrewtsmith Similar to you, I focus on being comprehensive because it was missing locally. I list ~25–50 events weekly. A few months in, I became known for events and now provide listings to a local print magazine. I use Elfsight to manage the calendar on the website.

@STORUP1 @MikeyPesto @TJLarkin23 @_andrewtsmith Hello everyone @MikeyPesto @STORUP1 Thank you for your feedback, it's very nice. I realize that I immediately went for an exhaustive calendar of events, as if it were an obligation (via Airtable). Reading your newsletters, I realize that this may have been a mistake..

@HoodyAndShorts @TJLarkin23 This makes sense at a larger scale, but for most local and small businesses it’s different. They have limited resources and other priorities. Tools can help. But people’s attention is finite, and they still value and trust content from independent sources.

Great chat with @TJLarkin23 yesterday. One thing that hit me he said. “Every business is a media company in 2026” Think about that for a second. And if you run a successful media brand How valuable is your knowledge and playbook? Answer = very valuable to some SMBs.

@BrianMSkinner @MikeyPesto Not in the club yet, but an SF meetup could definitely accelerate the timeline 😄

@MikeyPesto Saw there is a NYC meetup, SF would be a welcome addition later in the year!

Glad to have you aboard Mark! Join one of the calls sometime. I got a lot in the works for the club going into 2026!

@HoodyAndShorts Sweatshirts are all the rage for kids right now. My 12-year-old and all her friends are obsessed with Dandy Worldwide, Edikted, White Fox, etc.

@rajivdoshi Thanks Rajiv. She went super modern minimalistic. Actually a lot of the purchases we’re seeing came from parents of their younger kids for Christmas!

Our small clothing brand An off shoot of the newsletter But not associated with Did $13K this year Not bad Nano banana for the win on the ads in our newsletter 🥇 Never ran meta ads Just ads in our newsletter

@CreatingJas Congrats on 2025! If anyone can hit that goal, it’s you, especially with your new focus. Thanks for sharing your journey with the rest of us. I’m building a local newsletter too and this is super inspiring.

My goal at the start of 2025 was simple… Get my local newsletter from 20,000 to 40,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Today we just crossed 41,200. And somehow, along the way, this little local newsletter also passed 6 figures in revenue… all from advertising for local businesses. Wild to think this started 20 months ago with no plan other than “let’s see what happens.” Now the new goal is even bigger! 75,000 readers by the end of 2026. And over $500,000 in rev. Do you think it's possible?

@MikeyPesto Curious how you monetized early on. $2,500 per month at 1K subs isn’t doable with ads alone. I know you advocate for diverse revenue channels. What brought in most of the revenue?

There’s no magical number of subscribers you need to hit to start monetizing your newsletter. When I had 1,000 subscribers I was bringing in $2,500 a month. Build something unique. Get creative. Be persistent.