is $1M with newsletter 'still' doable?

realistically (wk23)

Author

Vaibhav Thakur
January 05, 2025

Consider subscribing my first project of build in public if you haven’t already.

I research and post playbooks for growth hacking using AI tools.

First Milestone: $5k/mo using the newsletter alone

👋 Hey Ultrapeople, it’s Vaibhav.

In the last Ultraupdate, I told you about:

  • The Path to $5K: 100 Days Left

  • Ad Performance Update

  • Infrastructure Updates

In Today’s Issue:

  • $1m still doable?

  • Ad Performance Update

$1m still doable?

I was recently asked a genuine question from a fellow growth guy:

Having done this for a while now, do you believe this can realistically be scaled to a million dollar business? (I'm not saying it can't, I'm genuinely asking) Do you have some other tricks that you plan on implementing to get there? in the near future?

This made me genuinely think… How far am I in this journey to $1M?

This reflection made me realise that this is going smoother and easier than I expected.

Along the journey I’ve found out so many methods and tricks that is slowly unfolding and compounding growth.

Just as an example yesterday I found a Linkedin ads credits trick - which perhaps could be scaled by replication.

I’d say writing for Botsgonewild (and also ultrapreneurs) newsletter is a great boon since I need to do focused research and testing to curate this playbooks and review the tools.

I can implement these strategies and reap profits.

Also, As I start rolling in revenues I can start reinvesting in growth at much faster pace. Roughly a good b2b newsletter with 100k subscribers can do more than $1m just by newsletter sponsorships alone.

Want to know the math?

Send 5 newsletters per week

Newsletters that follow this model focus on news and current events like MorningBrew, The Hustle, and Stacked Marketer (I really love this one)

Sell 1-3 sponsorships (aka ads) in each newsletter

Each newsletter should have a primary sponsorship slot and 1-2 secondary ad slots.

  • Primary sponsorships are at the top of the newsletter. They include more ad space and longer copy. The sponsor may also get their logo displayed at the top and/or an image in their ad.

  • Secondary ad slots are usually at the bottom or middle of the newsletter and could be just 1 bullet point of 1-2 sentences with a link.

The math

At 100,000 subscribers and a 55% open rate, you can sell primary sponsorships for $2,475 each ($45 CPM).

At the same list size and open rate, you can sell secondary sponsorships for $1,375 each ($25 CPM).

Assuming you send 5 times per week and sell 1 primary ad and 1 secondary ad in each newsletter, you’ll make $1,001,000 per year.

Total annual revenue = $1,001,000

This is just not it, there are other models to do this too. Digital products, communities, leadgen etc

I plan to launch SaaS + Services + other newsletters (in other niches) + youtube channel and so on.

Optimistically within 1years its doable even more than that.

Ad Performance Update

Tested 10-12 iPhone notes-styled creatives and results were mixed $0.5 to $2.5, similarly for audience testing we had mixed results.

I’d need to dry out the monthly ($1K) budget for growth only on meta. This I’m not inclining to, hence I’d spread out to next three months for the growth.

The aim is to get the subscribers <$1 so the boosts could make up for it.

Next Week's Strategy:

  • Expanding to Reddit ads (targeting $1.5/subscriber) and Linkedin Ads (Free! yay)

  • Testing MORE iPhone notes-styled creatives and creating and test motion graphics creatives (fingers crossed)

📚 New Blog Posts:

The Master Growth Hacking Playbook Part1

The Master Growth Hacking Playbook: Complete Guide to Social Media Marketing, Content Strategy & Influencer Growth (2025) | BGW

Discover the complete growth hacking strategies used by successful SaaS companies to scale to $500K+. Learn advanced social media marketing tactics, content optimization techniques, and influencer marketing frameworks. Includes step-by-step technical implementation guide for organic growth, viral content creation, and audience building. Perfect for marketers, founders, and growth teams looking to scale in 2025. Part 1 of BGW's comprehensive growth playbook series.

read.botsgonewild.co/p/bgw-special-the-master-growth-hacking-playbook-part-1

The Master Growth Hacking Playbook Part 2

The Master Growth Hacking Playbook: Complete Guide to Social Media Marketing, Content Strategy & Influencer Growth (2025) | BGW (Part 2/2)

Discover the complete growth hacking strategies used by successful SaaS companies to scale to $500K+. Learn advanced social media marketing tactics, content optimization techniques, and influencer marketing frameworks. Includes step-by-step technical implementation guide for organic growth, viral content creation, and audience building. Perfect for marketers, founders, and growth teams looking to scale in 2025. Part 2 of BGW's comprehensive growth playbook series.

read.botsgonewild.co/p/bgw-special-the-master-growth-hacking-playbook-part-2-2

📊 This Week in Numbers

PnL

-$659 ( +$150 ads yet to come)

Blogs Posted

2

Ultrapreneurs Subscribers

62 Subscribers (11)

BotsGoneWild Subscribers

Total: 13,866

beehiiv : 1,446

Sub2 US: 6482

Sub3 UK: 5938

Social Media Growth:

7+ reels and shorts posted

🎯 Next Week's Focus:

  • Start Organic Growth - Cross promos and Content

  • Monetization - Setup Smartleads and Linkedin Bots

🤯 Brainfart

AI is like a toddler with a PhD – impressively smart but still likely to color outside the lines.

Thanks for joining me on this Ultrapreneur journey! Let's build something extraordinary, exposing vulnerabilities and the obstacles we face.

To your unconventional success,

Vaibhav

P.S. Got ideas to make this community even more badass? Hit reply. I would really love to talk.

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