Welcome to our new interview blog series, where we sit down with successful newsletter creators to chat about the inspirations as well as the secrets behind their newsletters.
Our guest today is Lizzie Davey, a UK-based content expert with a decade of experience in planning and creating content and the founder of the newsletter Friday Freelance Tips.
Lizzie is a fantastic example of how you can thrive as a content creator with a newsletter as a side gig. Despite her busy schedule building a six-figure business as a professional freelance writer, Lizzie manages to run a resourceful and transparent newsletter about freelancing.
In our chat, I asked her how she built her subscriber list, what keeps her inspired, her earnings from the newsletter, and, of course, the tool behind all the magic.
As Lizzie would suggest, grab a cup of tea and enjoy our talk!
What inspired you to start Friday Freelance Tips, and how did you grow it?
I initially started a newsletter because I received a lot of emails from blog subscribers asking questions about freelancing. I thought packaging it up weekly would be a great way to share my expertise and experience without spending hours responding to individual emails. I originally grew my subscriber base with lead magnets—and that’s continued to be the case.
The Friday Freelance Tips newsletter has taken on various forms over the years. I originally started a newsletter in 2018, but it didn’t become Friday Freelance Tips until 2021. It began a bit ad hoc, but when I started sending it consistently, I started to get replies and recommendations. That’s what kept me going!
What content are you sharing in the newsletter?
It’s wild how much the structure of Friday Freelance Tips has changed over the years. It originally began as a short email with one tip (hence the name!), but it’s since evolved into almost a magazine-style edition each week that includes:
-My workweek, including how many pieces I wrote, how many hours I worked, and how much revenue I made.
-An ad—either from a sponsor or for one of my free or paid resources (or a cross-promotion with another creator).
-The Friday tip, which is one tip or lesson freelancers can apply.
-Freelance Money Diaries, which breaks down the financials of a different freelancer each week, including their take-home pay and a top money tip.
How often do you send, and how many subscribers do you have now?
I send the newsletter every Friday at 11am BST. The newsletter currently has ~5,300 subscribers with about 300-500 new subscribers each month.
Most of my subscribers come via LinkedIn (9,000 followers) or Instagram (1,130 followers). I promote my newsletter and a sign up every week on those channels and I also dedicate one week a month to one of my free resources, so I’ll share lots of content relating to that resource and direct people to sign up.
Example Intro from a Friday Freelance Tips newsletter
What email marketing tool do you use, and why did you choose this one?
I currently use Kit (formerly ConvertKit), but I actually started out on Mailchimp’s free version. At the time, it was a real headache trying to automate lead magnet flows, so when Kit came on the scene I immediately jumped on the bandwagon. It’s been really useful for setting up automations and sales sequences, but I do find it can be a bit clunky.
I think part of it is my own fault, though. I have so many tags from years of collecting subscribers, so I could really do with tidying it up. I probably haven’t used Kit to its full potential yet and maybe that’s because it feels a bit overwhelming. But at the moment, it serves me well for sending the newsletter and creating new sales sequences when I launch new products!
> Interested in Kit? Check out our detailed review of Kit plans and pricing.
Could you walk us through how you create the content? How long does one issue usually take you?
Writing Friday Freelance Tips is my favourite part of the week! I have a template set up in Convertkit so I can just duplicate last week’s post and swap out the new content. This usually takes me about one hour each week.
I tend to repurpose content that’s performed well on LinkedIn, touch on a trending topic that I’ve seen on social media that week, or share something I’ve learned/an experience I’ve had that week. I keep a running note of potential topics and then, on a Wednesday morning, I sit down and see which one “speaks” to me the most.
I’ll then either flesh out an existing post (I like subscribers to have exclusive content) or create a fresh piece of content from scratch. It doesn’t take too long, though, as the tips section is only about 500 words or so. I want it to be a quick read and actionable, so being concise is key!
The ‘Friday Freelance’ Tip section in an issue
Do you have any help?
I have someone organise the Freelance Money Diaries section for me. They collect answers from a Google form, edit them, and format them in a Google Doc. This means I can just copy and paste the latest entry into the newsletter.
The ‘Freelance Money Diaries’ section breaks down a different freelancer's finances each week
You are very transparent about your revenue. Could you share more about the earnings it generates?
I’ve only recently started monetising Friday Freelance Tips. For a long time, I was worried it wouldn’t deliver the results that sponsors wanted, but my open rates and click rates are particularly high for this type of newsletter.
(Please note, she reports her earnings in GBP. The current rate is $1 / £0.77).
I promote my ad spots on Passionfroot—a spot in the ad section is £150 and a small call-out further down the newsletter is £50. I usually get about 1-2 sponsors a month, so it’s not a great deal at the moment, but the plan is to grow that over time.
The main monetisation method is selling products. I have 5 paid resources that vary in price and depth:
- The Visible Freelancer (£9)
- Create Better Content (£59)
- Workflow Wizard (£79)
- Pitch & Prosper (£149)
- The Promo Playbook (£299)
When someone signs up for my newsletter, they’re automatically directed to a landing page where they can get a discount on the Visible Freelancer. I usually sell 1-2 of these a day (so again, not a great money-maker, but better than nothing!).
Then, new subscribers are added to one of two sequences depending on which resource they signed up for. They’ll either be directed towards Workflow Wizard (with an upsell for Create Better Content) or Pitch & Prosper. Subscribers get a discount on all my resources and I make this clear in the sequences. I sell on average 3-4 copies of Workflow Wizard and Create Better Content a week, and 1-2 copies of Pitch & Prosper.
Just looking at my analytics, I make around £1,000-£1,500 (approx. $1,300-2,000) a month selling resources to newsletter subscribers.
Friday Freelance Tips: open and click rates
How much do you analyze your stats? What are your strategies for high open and click-through rates?
Nowhere near as much as I should! I do check in every Monday to see if open rates are on par with my usual open rates and to see how many clicks each link got (especially if I’m running a sponsored ad).
I think my open rates are so high (~45%) because I write quite personal headlines (e.g. “ How I do X, Y, and Z” and “What happened when I did A, B, and C”). People like reading personal stories and I think that’s what sets Friday Freelance Tips apart from other newsletters that just share tips.
Do you have any future plans for the newsletter?
I’d love to continue to grow it. I think it’s a wonderful resource for freelancers at all stages and I absolutely love writing it. It’d be nice to increase my earnings from it, but I don’t want to rely on it solely for income. As a freelancer who teaches other freelancers, I always want to have one foot in the game, so I’ll always be writing for clients as well as selling products and resources!
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own newsletter?
My biggest piece of advice is to keep trucking away. It’s really disheartening at the start when you have so few subscribers and no one replies. It kinda feels like you’re yelling into the void. But consistency was an absolute game-changer for me. Scheduling it into my calendar each week helped me treat it like a client, and that’s what’s allowed me to monetise it over the years.
My favourite newsletters are the ones that feel like personal notes, and that’s exactly how I want Friday Freelance Tips to feel. I try and create a healthy mix of promotions and personal stories in each newsletter so there’s something for everyone (and still a chance to monetise!).
Also, I’d really recommend keeping your tags and sequences clean and organised from the start. My Kit backend is a bit of a mess because I didn’t have any systems in place in those early days!
Where can we find you?
Thank you for talking to us, Lizzie!
Liked this? Check out our interview with the Ultimate Tools founder—a newsletter earning $4,000 monthly!
And if you have a favorite newsletter creator you'd like to see featured, please leave a comment–it might be our next pick.
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24 Jul 2024 - Updated headline: We mistakenly said '$2,000 per issue' rather than 'per month'.
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