In partnership with: Outpost for Ghost publishers
You don’t just need to own the means of production. You also need to control the means of distribution.
In other words, publishing independently is good. Distributing independently is where your real power lies. But how do you do that without a tech platform intermediary?
Through. each. other.
One promising example of this is how the worker-owned media movement comes together to promote each other’s work. Recently, when Aftermath held their subscriber drive, 404 Media, Hell Gate and Defector joined them live to amplify it.
I want that network effort for everyone reading this.
So, we’re starting our own cross promo network. And we’re inviting you to take part in a challenge to put it to use right away promoting your work.
This is for all paying members of this newsletter and their friends so become a paying member (if you’re not already) or make friends with one!
Read about how this works below.
P.S. Coming Saturday: Help! I already didn’t want to charge my readers and the New York Times says people can’t eat because they’re buying too many newsletter subscriptions. Why writers are thinking about reader subscriptions all wrong.
Want more ideas to grow your newsletter? Check out 30 Days of Growth!
Chenell Basilio of the popular newsletter Growth in Reverse asked 30 successful newsletter creators to share their best email growth tactics in a "pop-up" newsletter called 30 Days of Growth. Get one email a day that you can take action on fast to grow and optimize your newsletter—some of these will surprise you!
Introducing the Cross Promo Challenge
Cross promotion is very simple. You promote me. I promote you.
It works best when there’s:
- Good audience overlap (my audience wants what you’re doing and vice versa)
- Similar audience size (so the results are comparable for the effort)
- Easy ways to plug someone into your channels (predefined “promo” spaces)
You don’t need that many cross promo partners to make a big impact for your growth. Kaitlyn Arford, who writes Freelance Opportunities, and is one of my promo partners, has sent me over 700 subscribers. You might be one of them!
Throughout the Cross Promo Challenge, I’ll share a few ways you can make the promotion of other writers easy on yourself (and therefore get more promotion too). I’ll also be matching you up with each other better than Tinder ever could.
Take part in the challenge
Your cross promo challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to find two partners to swap links with and to ship those promotions.
How are you going to do that? We’re going to help you!
- Add yourself to our cross promo network.
- Look for potential matches in the network (here’s the directory)
- Check out the methods for cross promotions for ideas on what to do
- Decide on a mutual promotion and send it! Submit your challenge here.
Whether or not you want to join us for the challenge, please add yourself to the network so everyone can have better matches. (Do I sound like Tinder now?)
What counts as a Cross Promotion?
A cross promotion is when you and another journalist or writer promote each other, in any way, on any channel. The key that makes it a cross promotion is that it’s mutual, but it can look different for you and for them, especially if one of your audiences is smaller.
Did I mention there’s prizes?
Cuz, there are! And you know I love you because two of these involve me dusting off my design skills which I only do for people I truly adore.
Everyone who ships and submits their TWO promotions by June 30 will be entered to win one of three prizes:
🏆️ I’ll design a sticker for your publication
🏆️ A one hour design consult on your newsletter layout (yes we can talk about the logo you made in Canva)
🏆️ A one hour 1:1 automation set up call
So are you in?
Will you participate in the cross promo challenge?
Yes, I'm in! Not sure yet No, I can't. I have to wash my hair.
Don’t forget to add yourself to the network and look out for more cross promo tips coming soon. Reach out to Lex if you have questions about who to pair up with or how to promote each other: lex@lexroman.com
