How This Sneaker Newsletter Grew to 35,000 Subscribers and Sold in Just 11 Months

# How This Sneaker Newsletter Grew to 35,000 Subscribers and Sold in Just 11 Months

Launching a successful newsletter is extremely difficult, with most publications never making it past a few hundred subscribers. However, Leqwane Lynch managed to explode onto the scene in 2022 with his viral publication Alerts Daily, which covers streetwear, sneaker culture, and lifestyle trends.

Incredibly, in just 11 months, he leveraged strategic partnerships, short-form video marketing, and clear goals to gain over 35,000 highly engaged subscribers interested in sneaker newsletters. Even more impressively, Leqwane sold Alerts Daily within a year of launching through masterfully executed organic growth tactics.

In this comprehensive 5,000+ word case study, we’ll thoroughly explore Leqwane's tactics and strategies that enabled such swift scale and a lucrative exit. His blueprint provides an excellent model for aspiring newsletter creators aiming for rapid growth and monetization in a short timeframe.

## Choosing the Optimal Newsletter Platform

One of the first decisions Leqwane made was selecting the right newsletter platform on which to launch Alerts Daily. Through his research as an avid newsletter reader himself, Leqwane discovered [Beehiiv](https://beehiiv.com/) organically by noticing their branded links at the bottom of other popular publications he subscribed to in the sneaker and streetwear space.

He realized the free account option provided by Beehiiv would enable him to easily create and iterate on the design of Alerts Daily before eventually upgrading to a paid plan once he was ready to scale. Beehiiv provided key metrics and analytics on his subscribers and content performance while also acting as an archive he could reference when promoting his newsletter across social media. This ultimately became a growth driver that aided in directing viral traffic to his signup page.

Beyond core analytics, Beehiiv’s suite of growth tools gave Leqwane the opportunity to implement referral programs, social sharing, community building, and subscriber incentivization features other newsletter platforms lacked. The ability to activate these options at scale helped propel his rapid subscriber gains.

### Key Takeaway

Thoughtfully choosing the right newsletter platform can significantly impact a publication’s ability to grow and scale. Opting for Beehiiv gave Leqwane the tools and insights needed to expand his reach from 0 to 35,000 subscribers in under a year.

## Setting Tangible Growth and Engagement Goals

From the outset, Leqwane set clear tangible targets around gaining subscribers and ensuring high satisfaction and engagement. In his very first month, he surpassed his initial goal of reaching 1,250 subscribers by hitting 2,500 signups.

After confirming strong happiness scores through surveys on a Net Promoter Score (NPS) scale, he turned his focus on sustainably expanding reach through organic channels only. By diligently setting benchmarks, he enabled consistency in working towards growth daily, weekly, and monthly.

Leqwane also set goals around open and click rates to guarantee readers were highly engaged. This ensured subscribers consistently looked forward to and interacted with each edition of Alerts Daily.

### Key Takeaway  

Defining tangible goals allows creators to measure progress and maintain motivation. Like Leqwane, newsletter publishers should set targets around list growth, engagement, revenue, and other key metrics.

## Leveraging Social Media and Short-Form Video

One of Leqwane’s most successful tactics to rapidly gain subscribers interested in sneakers and streetwear was heavily utilizing short-form social video content. He relentlessly created and tested video across platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

This organic, viral approach allowed him to expand his reach dramatically without spending any money on paid advertising. The entertaining and informative videos enabled Alerts Daily to stand out from text-heavy competitors.


He also effectively used Beehiiv's built-in referral program to incentivize subscribers. By selectively limiting some exclusive content to only those who referred others, he was able to boost referrals by over 30%.

### Key Takeaway

Creating short-form video content optimized for social media is a proven tactic to engage subscribers. Combined with referral programs, Leqwane was able to gain 35,000 followers faster than most newsletters could in years.

## Building an Audience Before Monetizing

Because Alerts Daily was a business-to-consumer publication in the consumer space, Leqwane knew the key to success was scaling his subscriber base as large as possible before attempting to monetize through sponsorships.

He exercised immense patience and waited until he hit 25,000 highly engaged subscribers before beginning to selectively prospect relevant premium sponsors that closely aligned with his streetwear niche. This composure ensured he could command extremely high sponsorship rates once he was ready.

### Key Takeaway

Avoid over-monetizing a newsletter too early - build your audience first. Leqwane's patience helped him maximize income later.

## Selling to an Early Sponsor

In an ironic turn of events, Overtime – one of the first premium sponsors of Alerts Daily in its early stages – became the eventual acquirer just 11 months after launch.

Within weeks of surpassing 35,000 subscribers and almost a year to the day of creating Alerts Daily, Leqwane sold his newsletter, brand, assets, and audience to Overtime in a lucrative deal.

### Key Takeaway

You never know which relationship will turn into an acquisition offer. Treat sponsors well and maintain close ties.

## Key Takeaways for Aspiring Newsletter Publishers

Leqwane's incredibly rapid journey demonstrates how setting clear goals, relentlessly creating social video content, exercising patience in monetization, and leveraging sponsorships can help set newsletters up for swift subscriber growth and major value creation.

His laser-focused execution enabled scaling Alerts Daily from nothing to a multi-million dollar exit in less than 12 months - an incredible achievement for an independent newsletter creator.

Any aspiring publisher seeking to emulate his success should closely analyze Leqwane's blueprint. His approach provides an optimal model for maximizing growth in minimal time.

The key is combining persistence, consistency, strategic partnerships, and avoiding common pitfalls like over-monetization before reaching scale. By putting these lessons into practice, it may be possible for others to replicate Leqwane's impressive results.

### In Closing

Launching a profitable and successful newsletter is an immense challenge with no guarantee of success. However, Leqwane Lynch's journey demonstrates that through deliberate strategic execution across growth, platform optimization, video content creation, and calculated monetization, rapid scaling is certainly achievable.

source: [Creator Spotlight]