🍿AI Newsletters: A 2023 hype or a 2024 trend?

Welcome

Whats up! Welcome to Wouters blog. It’s Wednesday! That means i’m going to be covering:

• 💰 Media Business Breakdown (The top 8 AI Newsletters)

In todays email i'm doing a rewind on AI Newsletters.

The biggest hype in the newsletter industry last year was A.I newsletters.

Hundreds got started. Hundreds failed. Some got acquired. And others are still around today.

Today we're covering 8 of the top a.i. newsletters, how they got started, why they are (or aren't unique) and what we can learn from them.

Strap yourselfs in because i’m very excited for today, it’s a new year! Reply with any resolutions you have and i’ll keep you accountable. Let’s get into it!

P.s, I’m building this newsletter in public! If you want to see the behind the scenes, follow me on twitter..

Follow me booty here lad.

AI NEWSLETTERS
The Neuron (225k subscribers)

I've had the pleasure to meet the founders of the Neuron. They're taking an interesting approach to the game by betting it all on brand.

They know that content (i.e. what they cover) can theoretically be replicated by anyone. What can't be replicated is the trust Noah and Pete have built. Making their words more impactful.

They started in January 2023, it's a daily ai newsletter. The focus is on how you can use AI in your work to be most effective in business.

Interestingly enough they monetize through courses as well as advertisements.

image of their ad history courtesy of openrate.sco

When starting The Neuron, they not only wanted to have great content, but to also build a brand and develop user loyalty around it (smart). They decided on a cat logo to keep a light-hearted feeling throughout the newsletter. i think its cute. and its memorable.

When trying to grow the newsletter, the Neuron doesn't focus on demographics. They instead focus on psychology. Pete says there are 2 main questions his target audience is asking, which i think is a really smart way to frame starting a newsletter.

Start with the audience psyhology in mind. What questions can you help answer? Pete sais their audience has these questions mainly:

Oh and this strategy worked. within a month the Neuron had 10k subscribers. They now have over 200k

AI NEWSLETTERS
The RunDown (400k subscribers)

The Rundown is started by another incredibly entrepreuner i've had the pleasure of meeting. Rowan Cheung is a legend. So it's no wonder he has built one of the biggest ai newsletters in rapid pace.

It's a daily newsletter that compiles the most important news. Content wise it serves as an intelligent filter. By combing through sources it saves you hella time.

What does the Rundown do that's fucking incredible? They use AI to write the majority of the content.

The summaries are created using data-driven analysis. Then the newsletter works by pulling information concerning AI breakthroughs specifically.

Launched also in January 2023 Rowan grew the Rundown to 170k subs within 4 months!! Rowan believed there was a huge demand for the latest information on AI. The fact that The Rundown grew 170K subscribers in its first 4 months proved him right.

Since launch. The Rundown is one of the best AI newsletters by being dependable and consistent content. Whilst also being able to summarize complex information.

oh and they launched a new newsletter called the Run Down tech. Remember last weeks email about the 2024 playbook for a huge $$$ newsletter empire?

Well, Rowan is stealing the Morning Brew playbook (and its gonna work)

AI NEWSLETTERS
Superhuman (500k subscribers)

Superhuman is the second or largest ai newsletter in the world. They interestingly enough publish only 4x a week.

They target someone else than biz owners. Superhuman aims to answer questions that the “everyday folk” have about AI. So the newsletter explains how you can use AI , and how you can use it to become more productive generally.

It got started in February 2023 by Zain Kahn who had already a big twitter following. He got 5k subscribers within 2 weeks of testing it out as a side hustle.

As subscribers grew, Khan began exploring the possibility of opening up sponsorship slots. He did so and within 48 hours he sold out slots for the next 2 months. What's most interesting is that Superhuman grew from linkedin/twitter. Not paid growth.

What can you learn? Here are 3 key takeaways:

• Growth: your newsletter needs to have a meaningful amount of subscribers.

• Content: great content so people remain engaged with your newsletter.

• Monetisation: sponsorships will come if you have achieved the first 2 steps.

AI NEWSLETTERS
Ben’s Bites (100k subscribers)

Ben has the original AI newsletter. This is the newsletter that anticipated the AI Tsunami. It was started in October! of 2022! 1.5 months before ChatGPT launched.

It's a daily newsletter as a 5 min read. What's most interesting here is that Ben Tossel the founder has completely automated the advertising revenue.

Using OpenRates.co and automating ad-placements. Ben makes 50k+ per month.

Learnings or things to watch out for according to Ben in order to grow a newsletter:

• Technology driven trends.

• Changes in consumer behaviour.

• Regulatory shifts and regularizations.

AI NEWSLETTERS
TLDR AI (500k+ Subscribers)

Remember the big breakdown from last week? Talking about The multi-million dollar newsletter run by 1 guy? Well TLDR also has an AI newsletter.

TLDR was founded by Dan Ni in Aug, '18. In Aug ‘18 (launch of TLDR) he spent $50/day in ads and grew TLDR subscribers to 1K in 1 month.

Dan attributes TLDR’s growth to some key factors

Paid advertising: He recommends starting out with platforms other than FB and Google, for example Quora and Reddit.

Landing page optimization (specially for mobile): Using OAuth buttons (the option to quickly create an account with Google or Twitter).

Cross promotions with other newsletters: By being promoted in other newsletters. Dan was putting himself in front of people who already read newsletters. These folks like newsletters, so makes sense to market to them!

AI NEWSLETTERS
NeatPrompts (100k+ subscribers)

Another newsletter run by one of the most incredible entrepreneurs i know.

It's a newsletter that is also daily, founded in March 2023 and it Offers simplified AI prompts, viewpoints, and tools to help people remain advantageous to the competition. This might be my favorite read. its quick and to the point.

AI NEWSLETTERS
Lore (13k subscribers)

huh, only 13k subscribers? Who cares? Well this newsletter is not only run by a great operator, it's monetization method is incredibly smart.

Oh and they own lore.com which is like a $100k+ domain name lol.

It's a a weekly newsletter with 13K subscribers. It gives an overview of AI for busy execs and investors And it was also early to the game! Nathan Lands founded the newsletter in September of 2022.

How they monetise (AI video gen agency)

Why is this interesting? Well Alpha is a venture studio that builds AI-first businesses. Lore partnered with Tiny to focus on 3 areas.

• Marketplaces

• AI bots & Co-pilots

• Re-defining software

Alpha offers interface design, model selection, prompt engineering, configuring API usage and data protection to its clients.

They do it by understanding the world of AI, building tailor made generative AI products that fit the clients needs and continuously optimizing to ensure the most updated results.

I think partnering with Tiny here is a super smart move. Lore has the reach and Tiny has the operational chops to back up an agency. big plus from me!

AI NEWSLETTERS
AI Tool Report (400k subscribers)

Lastly, the AI tool report: It's a a daily newsletter with >450K subscribers. They talk about how to save time and earn more money using AI.

The newsletter shares tips and tricks related to AI tools to help the reader boost productivity.

That's it!

Need Help?
Time to help. Need Sales Advice? I got you..

Are you running a newsletter right now and are looking for an external sales-experts opinion on wtf is going on?

I’ve helped sell millions of dollars worth of newsletter advertisements. IF you want consulting advice i’m available for calls.

Reply to this email if you’re interested with your problem(s) + budget.

wait…
BEFORE YOU GO!

Don’t forget

Don’t forget to come back for Fridays newsletter where I will cover:

• The weekly media company break down. (How this Solopreuner uses his brand to make millions)