Building a Newsletter from Scratch

My No-Budget, AI-Powered Experiment

In the newsletter world, there’s this persistent myth that you need deep pockets and a huge following to succeed. As someone who’s built two thriving newsletters before, I’m here to tell you that’s simply not true.

In fact, I recently decided to challenge myself to launch a brand new newsletter with absolutely no budget, relying heavily on AI tools to get the job done.

The Challenge: No Money, No Audience, Just AI

I set some pretty strict ground rules for myself:

• Scrappy and AI-Driven: I’d use AI tools as much as possible throughout the process.
• Zero Budget: No spending on research, building, or launching the newsletter.
• No Existing Audience: I couldn’t promote the newsletter to any of my current followers or networks.

If I broke any of these rules, I’d consider the experiment a failure.

The RBL System: My Proven Framework

I’ve always used what I call the RBL system to guide my newsletter launches: Research, Brand, and Launch. Here’s how it played out this time around.

Research: The Foundation