The success of your newsletter on InboxReads depends a lot on the quality of your submission. The more attractive your newsletter listing is the more people will check it out and this leads to higher ranking in your newsletter's topics.
Some newsletter creators don't spend much time thinking about the topics they select and this hurts their newsletter's performance. The key when selecting topics is to ensure the relevance to your newsletter and the popularity of that topic on InboxReads.
More general topics tend to be better than more niche ones. Selecting "music discovery" won't get as much traffic as just "music". But if you make a mistake you can easily test different options by updating your newsletter.
Here's an example of this from one creator and how they improved it.
When I first joined InboxReads I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had learned about it from a comment at another website where writing was being discussed. I had just started writing at Substack and InboxReads seemed like a great place to maybe pick up more readers.
As basically an unknown writer, my subscription rate was very slow to grow at Substack. I went days then weeks without a subscriber so the opportunity to post my newsletter at InboxReads seemed like a good way to spend my time.
In staring at the newsletter admission page, it requested all the usual information but I knew that what I entered in each box mattered. I knew the people behind the website weren’t reading each newsletter and that there was some automation involved in ranking or categorizing newsletters. The only box on the form where you could possibly have any control with this was the “Topics” box. You are permitted five topic words or phrases. This was going to be either magic or a strategy.
Initially, I felt if I picked what seemed like popular topics, my newsletter would appear in those categories. This was an incorrect assumption. I don’t remember the first or the second set or even third set of topic phrase combinations I used, but it was the fourth set that was the magic. Once I lined up the topic phrases with what my newsletters covered I began to see subscriptions from InboxReads. Somewhere between the second and fourth iteration of topic combinations I also added the image I use as my logo, but I am not convinced that’s what increased my subscriber count. I believe it was the right combination of topic words and phrases as they related to my content.
So, what do you think? Strategy or magic?
Collette Greystone
Finding the right topics can take some time as Collette found. But once you do, it can lead to a steady stream of subscribers. Take a look at the most popular newsletters and the topics they can help guide you to the right selections. Best of luck!
