What's New: Your 2023 Twitter strategy

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Want to get better at Twitter in 2023?

• Skip the generic advice and see what actual indie hackers have done to grow their Twitter followings! Note: These tactics can apply to other social networks as well.
• Governments are still dealing with major travel and business visa delays due to COVID-19. This presents new opportunities for founders to build solutions to help get travelers and digital nomads moving!
• Founder Dylan Redekop built a $10,000 newsletter without quitting his day job. Below, he gets candid on his earnings breakdown, and share valuable tips and tools for content creation.

Want to share something with over 100,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

📝 A Compilation of Twitter Growth Tips for 2023

by James Fleischmann

Want to get better at Twitter in 2023? Skip the generic advice on Google, and check out what actual indie hackers are doing to grow their followings. Let's dive in!

tl;dr

Tactics and hacks aside, here's a tl;dr of what indie hackers suggest to grow on Twitter:

1. Engage with others. This is more important than posting!
2. Focus on one or two topics.
3. Stay consistent.

Twitter basics

Let's start with the basics from Xavier Coiffard:

1. Choose one topic that you want to talk about.
2. Create an informative bio including social proof, why we should follow you, and a CTA.
3. Spend 80% of your time making friends with people who are talking about the same topic as you are.
4. Spend the other 20% publishing high-quality content.

Setting up a solid profile is sometimes overlooked, so don't forget to include these elements:

1. A header image: Include a tagline and CTA.
2. A stellar pinned tweet.

Engagement is all the rage

Engaging in the community is extremely important, especially for small accounts.

Florian Mielke says:

I was initially surprised that creating content myself did not result in massive growth, but engaging with others did!

David Bressler also backed this up:

Social listening for both my brand and my category has been instrumental to [my] site's success. If someone tweets about Excel formulas, I'm there. Whether it's sending a funny GIF, or solving a problem for them with a screenshot of the dashboard that shows the formula, I'm there.

Same goes for when people are talking about the site. Leaving a comment increases the engagement and reach of a post, resulting in more eyeballs being on it!

It's really important to engage with the right people, according to Kevon Cheung:

I only followed people with <600 followers. They're likely to be on the same stage as me, maybe a few steps ahead. They still want to grow, so they dedicate time to engage with anyone who follows them.

Alex Llull suggests "stealing" followers from influencers:

Find influencers in your niche who get a lot of engagement. Then, set up a notification, and be the first to reply or retweet with a comment.

You need to add value on top of the original post. How exactly do you add value?

• Add your take to the original post.
• Ask a thoughtful question so the original poster can reply.
• Spark a conversation, or join an existing one.

To drive it home, here's advice from Arvid Kahl on getting it right with this type of engagement:

• Look for questions, and give answers that have some kind of actionable component. If the question is: “Worth it to use technology X?” You could hop in and say: “I’ve used X, and its competitor Y, and I found that…”
• Celebrate other people’s wins, and allow them to elaborate. Founder X: “I just reached $500 MRR.” You: “That’s impressive! How are you dealing with churn? Any special pricing experiment that worked for you?”
• Amplify reach by connecting experts. Founder X: “I have no idea how to X.” You: “Founder Y has a lot of expertise, maybe they can help!”

The point is to engage specifically on the things that you can actually help someone with. Skip the topics where you have nothing to add!

How and when to tweet

Engagement is huge, but you've got to actually tweet, too! Tweet during peak hours to reach the most people. For the record, that is generally 9 AM, Monday through Saturday, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays being best. Your niche might deviate from this, though, so experiment a bit.

Harsh Vijay recommends posting at least twice a day:

Keep a consistent posting schedule. That way, your followers will know what type of content they can expect from you on a daily basis. You can use tools like Hyperfury or Publer to automate some of this process.

As far as content, Chuck Obstruct reminds founders that unpopular opinions get people talking, too:

I grew pretty fast by doing two things together: Retweeting relevant content with commentary, and posting somewhat controversial topics with relevant hashtags.

Other founders recommend adding humor, staying true to your personality, and including popular hashtags in your tweets. But remember, Twitter's algorithm doesn't seem to like it when you add external links.

And, of course, #BuildinPublic can be a major Twitter tactic.

Other Twitter tactics

Clsmooth recommends embedding:

Compile a list of active forums in your niche that allow Twitter embeds, and post them there. Focus on value-packed threads that require clicking back to Twitter to see the rest of them. That extra step of clicking through to your profile, and subsequently satisfying their curiosity, can earn you a follow.

There's also good, old-fashioned influencer marketing. You can create relationships with small influencers, pay them, or go a more organic route. David Bressler had influencers coming to him:

I was very fortunate to gain a tremendous amount of awareness through productivity hacker social influencers who were just looking for good content to share. My website has been shared by hundreds of them because influencers love promoting free tools to their audiences. So, a big part of this is being a "free" tool.

Jordan O'Connor's advice:

Do something really great that's not on Twitter, then talk about it on Twitter.

Resources from indie hackers

I wouldn't waste time or money on generalized courses or books from random Twitter gurus. If you want to dive deeper, here are the best resources created by successful indie hackers:

• This tweet from Arvid Kahl is free as a bird, and it's got a ton of value.
• Xavier Coiffard has a free playbook on Gumroad.
• Arvid Kahl's Find Your Following course is $50, and Daniel Vassallo's Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience course is $25.

It's worth noting that, as we all know, Elon Musk is shaking things up at Twitter. Decide for yourself whether a Twitter following is a good investment for you before you spend time building your account.

What Twitter growth tactics have helped you the most? Share below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Growth Trends newsletter by Darko

📵 Twitter will no longer allow "free promotion" of other social media platforms.

🙅 Five Google Analytics mistakes to avoid.

🏛 The EU has found that Facebook abused its dominant market position to benefit Facebook Marketplace.

🧐 The case for using Mastodon as a creator, marketer, or brand.

🎁 How to unlock new holiday marketing opportunities.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

🛩 Busting Migration Bureaucracy

from The Hustle newsletter by The Trends Team

The Signal: This summer, a quarter of all US consulates reported wait times of more than a year for tourist or business travel visa interviews. The average wait was 247 days. In Colombia, it reached 846 days.

*Source: Cato Institute

COVID-19 disruption caused these eye-watering delays, but painful migration bureaucracy is nothing new. These might sound like problems for governments to worry about, but the migration space is ripe with indie hacking opportunities:

• VFS Global, which provides visa outsourcing services for 66 governments, is worth $2.5B.
• Localyze, a startup that guides companies through employee relocations, has raised $48M.
• OneVisa, a startup focused on automation in visa processing, has raised $3M.

Here are the pain points, and the opportunities that they present:

1. Biometrics:

Many countries require in-person visa appointments to gather biometric data, causing delays and headaches for anyone who doesn't live near a consulate.

You could build a digital tool for gathering biometrics. In the pandemic, companies like American Airlines adopted VeriFly, an app that let travelers verify their travel documents via their phone camera, instead of at the airport. VeriFly has a number of one-star reviews, mostly relating to user experience.

*Source: Apple

You could create VeriFly for visa services, and improve on its offering with a better user interface. Or, you could create a solution with blockchain.

Data on the blockchain is immutable, so government agencies could trust its accuracy. Travelers would only need to upload data, like fingerprints, once to make them accessible for all future visa or immigration applications.

2. Paperwork:

Migration paperwork is time-consuming, and getting it wrong creates extra delays. That's why customers are willing to pay the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services an extra $50 for document checking, or $300 to be guided through the process.

Meanwhile, if you are unsuccessful in the green card lottery and want to reapply, your previous application is not saved, and you have to start from scratch.

You could build:

• AI software that pulls information from user's bank accounts and documents to auto-populate forms.
• An automated repeat application service for the green card lottery.
• A platform that helps users gather documents over an extended period.

3. Confusing rules:

23% of registered voters in South Africa say that they are considering emigrating. The Facebook Group "South Africans in London" is full of requests for advice on emigration.

*Source: Facebook

You could tap into a popular emigration route with a platform that guides users through the red tape, or helps would-be migrants compare visa options.

4. The digital nomad niche:

Searches for digital nomad visas have spiked, as more countries welcome remote workers.

*Relative Global Google search interest, six month rolling average. (Source: Google Trends)

One success in this space is Rebase, a service that helps digital nomads become legal residents in Portugal. Rebase generated $40K MRR soon after launching.

You could niche down with a nomad visa comparison tool, or packages that combine visa services with accommodation and co-working access.

Would you consider building in this space? Let's chat below!

Subscribe to the The Hustle newsletter for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

Handle the biggest objection first. In this case, it's price:

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

📰 Dylan Redekop Built a $10K Newsletter

by Dylan Redekop

Hi, indie hackers! I'm Dylan Redekop. I have a full-time job, and I’m on track to earn $10K+ with my newsletter in 2022.

I’ve been operating the Growth Currency newsletter as a side project since January 2021. Counting ads, affiliates, and consulting, I barely cracked the $2K revenue mark for the entirety of 2021.

Then, things started heating up in 2022. Here's how!

The game changers

1. I niched down in March to focus explicitly on helping creators and solo founders grow, improve, and monetize their newsletters.
2. I established key relationships with other creators and newsletter publishers through Twitter and various online communities.
3. I raised my newsletter ad rates as my premium ad spots kept filling up.
4. I applied for, and was accepted to join, the ConvertKit Sponsor Network , taking the tasks of sourcing, booking, and reporting on the newsletter ads off my plate. (I wrote more on that here.)

Because of all that, my newsletter will earn $10K+ in advertising revenue and affiliate sales in 2022!

The main buckets

I want to introduce the four main buckets that I consider when creating a newsletter:

1: Organization:

You need a place to capture and save all of your newsletter info. Here’s what I use to organize my newsletter workflow:

• Airtable: Organize curated links, cross-promotions, and newsletter ads.
• Otter: Idea capture. Otter works beautifully as a voice memo tool to capture ideas or outline blog posts on walks or runs. Then, I paste the memo into a Google Doc. That’s how this article started.
• Google Docs: I write my articles here before publishing them.

Organizing everything is heavy lifting upfront, but saving time is critical when building a newsletter business with a full-time job.

2. Creation:

Here's how I find my curated content:

• Newsletters: I’m subscribed to a lot of newsletters. They’re my number one source for curated content. Use newsletter directories to find newsletters in your niche, and subscribe to them.
• Twitter: Following the right people in your niche helps. I follow a lot of newsletter creators and newsletter platforms. Create a Twitter list to stay organized and save time.
• Refind: Refind is an excellent resource for quality articles on topics of choice ,  but its Chrome extension (Refind New Tab) is what I love the most.
• Google: Sometimes, I want to find a really specific article on a topic.

Once I find content worth saving, I use Airtable’s Web Clipper to save my links directly to Airtable  without leaving the source. It takes only a few minutes to set up, and saves me hours. Notion also has a web clipper, which you can get here.

Here's how I create a weekly newsletter in a couple of hours:

I spend a disproportionate amount of time creating content. I rely on ads and sponsors for revenue, so I need to ensure that I’m publishing quality, original content that keeps readers coming back.

I save time by using a repeatable format. My weekly newsletter format is as follows:

• Sponsor: Add sponsor copy once received (five minutes).
• Welcome.
• News and announcements: Plug in relevant news and announcements (10–15 minutes).
• Editorial: Paste my article introduction in the editorial section (five minutes).
• GC links (Start, Grow, Improve, Monetize): Choose my curated GC links for the week from the database, and write "My Take" on all four links (30–45 minutes).
• Sign-off: Write a short sign-off (2-10 minutes).

The best part about a repeatable creation process is that I can easily hand it off to a virtual assistant or freelancer, if desired. It’s also why I built my Airtable database the way I did: Because it's easy to delegate!

3: Promotion:

All of the organization and content creation in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t get subscribers. You have to make noise. Promote, promote, promote!

Twitter is where I get the most subscribers because it’s where I make the most noise. Here's my Twitter profile:

I also include my 1KS Roadmap lead magnet in my bio. Then, I share what I've published!

I switched my newsletter platform from Substack to ConvertKit in October 2021. No regrets in switching, but I should have also kept publishing my weekly articles on Substack to benefit from its network effects.

So, from October through June, there were zero Substack posts. I began reposting my articles in July. Since then, I’ve gotten over 1.2K views, and 150 new subscribers. Pretty good for a copy and paste job!

It also helps to have friends with Substack audiences who include my newsletter in their "Recommendations" list.

Republishing on Medium has been another great promotion and growth strategy. I wrote about it in more detail here.

In essence, I republish the same way I do for Substack ,  but I always include a CTA in the footer to check out my website, lead magnet, Twitter, etc. Another copy and paste job that gets results!

I recently signed up for SparkLoop’s Partner Program, where I can pay others to promote my newsletter. It sends verified leads my way, and I pay the company a set rate for each referral:

It’s brought in 12 subscribers to date, costing me $30. Paying to acquire new subscribers is something I’m willing to try, but the jury's still out on this one!

4: Monetization:

Here's how I’ve made money with my newsletter:

1. Ads and sponsorships.
2. Affiliate sales.
3. Consulting calls.

From January through August, I pitched, sold, organized, and reported on all of my newsletter ads. To find advertisers, I used ad marketplaces, Twitter DMs (to warm contacts), and other newsletters (I checked out who was advertising in newsletters).

I used Swapstack and Paved as primary ad marketplaces. Here’s what I earned via each:

• Swapstack: $1,119. Here, you can pitch brands (outbound) and brands can approach you (inbound). My pitches rarely got a response. All but one paid ad via Swapstack was the brand approaching me (inbound).
• Paved: $1,305. Here, you cannot pitch brands. You have to optimize your newsletter profile and hope that they find you. Paved also takes a 30% cut of your ad revenue.
• Twitter: $1,833. Once advertisers saw ads in my newsletter, I got more ad requests, most of which came through Twitter. Most of my Twitter ad sales came through inbound Twitter DMs. But, I also leveraged Twitter for outbound ad sales: I followed solo founders and brands who could benefit from advertising to my readers, engaged with their tweets to build familiarity, then sent DMs introducing my newsletter ad opportunity.
• ConvertKit Sponsor Network: $7,139. I got accepted into the CKSN this summer. It’s been a game changer, and I’m incredibly grateful.

CKSN has exclusive rights to my newsletter ad spots. It takes a 20% ad revenue rate, and I get the rest. So, two big things changed:

1. Fewer ads, more revenue: I went from three ad spots per newsletter to just one premium, top-of-newsletter ad spot that nets me ~$360.
2. Less work, more revenue: I no longer had to pitch, sell, manage, and report on ads. CKSN does all that for me for a 20% fee.

This has by far been the most profitable step I’ve taken for my newsletter in 2022. If you get the chance, apply to the CKSN. Other sponsor networks are also popping up. Seek them out and apply!

You can build a profitable five figure newsletter with a full-time job,  but not without commitment and sacrifice. I hope this has been helpful and insightful!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?

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Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to James Fleischmann, Darko, The Trends Team, Harry Dry, and Dylan Redekop for contributing posts. —Channing