[update] "Watch me grow this email list"

Yo. I told you I’d keep you up on my list-building experiment. Here’s what I’ve done so far. (results at the bottom)

When I deactivated my Instagram account, I didn’t tell anyone about it. I didn’t make a big deal about it before I did it. I didn’t make a post announcing that I was going to do it.

I just woke up one morning and decided “fuck it, today’s the day.” Then I turned it off.

I’ve heard from a number of people who thought I blocked them — and I’m sure there are hundreds who still have no idea.

Sure, I did have the best account on Instagram. And yes, I was the sole reason many people even opened the damn app — so they could find out what I was going to do next.

But still, I shudder to think of those lost souls, wandering around aimlessly, looking for somewhere to plug their umbilical cord in — not knowing what happened to their hero. 😔

I’m doing my best to get in front of them — and only them. I’m making no effort [yet] to find new people.

I’m using the Custom Audiences I built last year in FB/Meta’s advertising system. (if you don’t know what Custom Audiences are, you should. Here’s a link to FB’s boring documentation. I’ll do a sexier explanation soon.)

I have one comprised of people who interacted with my IG [before deactivation, obviously], one built from people who watched at least 50% of any of my videos, and one built from an old [2500-person] email list.

The ads themselves are just 60-second talking videos. I’m not being salesy or pushy — just telling them where to find me. I’m serving them primarily on Instagram — in the newsfeed and Stories. Here’s one of three:

When someone clicks the link, they bypass the email squeeze (opt-in) page — and go straight to the archive of all of my recent writing.

For sheer numbers & growth, my setup is less than optimal.

So far, about 200 people have clicked. 120ish have read some stuff and ~20 subscribed.

I started one week ago and since then, I’ve spent about $20.

Nothing to write home about, but considering that I’m not using the opt-in page, it’s actually better than I expected.

I’m going to keep doing this for another 7-10 days, and then I’m going to change some things up as well as increase the spend.

PS - I’m thinking about doing a Zoom meeting with anyone who’s interested in learning more about how to set this up for themselves. It’d be in a couple of weeks. And it’ll be free. Reply to this email (or leave a comment on the post) and me know if this is something you’d be interested in.