What I Learned About Growing a Newsletter, Content Marketing, and Email Magnets

My email list lost subscribers at a 3:1 ratio last year. For every new person who signed up for my newsletter, three people left. There were several factors at play. But the main one was that I stopped producing content regularly and removed my “email magnet,” a method that had been bringing in around 50 new subscribers a month. I want to talk about this method, my experience using it and abandoning it, and why it works. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and use the method to grow your own email list, which is essential for nonfiction authors, photographers, or any other kind of content creator looking to build a platform.

Email Lists vs. Social Media: Why I Bet on Email

Every time I open a social media app, my feeds are filled with content from accounts I don’t follow. An algorithm decides what I see, not my preferences. If you’re a creator or a business hoping to leverage social media, this is problematic because there’s no guarantee your followers will actually see what you post. Now you’re competing against slop and cat videos. Of course, the opposite is also true; an algorithm ensures your content has the potential to reach non-followers. But let’s not forget that in the days before algorithmic media became all the rage, both good and bad content was shared and went viral. It is reasonable to declare the follower dead in terms of reach and discoverability on social media platforms.

Beyond that, building a platform on someone else’s property is risky. A social media site might go kaput, change its algorithm, get sold to a questionable buyer, or promote voices and ideas with which you disagree.

The benefits to having an email list should be obvious in this context. You get to directly communicate with those who wish to hear from you. The relationship is direct and unmediated by a third party. Moreover, having a strong platform can help your career. For example, agents and publishers take author platform into consideration when deciding on whether to accept clients and buy book rights (in extreme cases, platform is the deciding factor).

What I Did Right (And Then Stopped Doing)

From 2019 to 2023, I ran a podcast and website called Travel Writing World. I published a new episode every two weeks. Around 2021, I was consistently getting 50 new email subscribers on average every month. For a small niche like travel literature, this was a huge win.

My secret formula? Publishing regularly + an email magnet.

An email magnet is a free resource — a PDF, guidebook, worksheet, zine, ebook, or any type of digital download — that you give someone in exchange for their email address. Mine was a 40-page PDF document related to travel writing.

The value exchange was clear: I’ll give you a helpful resource if you join my monthly newsletter. It worked consistently, month after month.

The Mistake That Cost Me

I stepped away from the podcast to focus on my own writing and photography projects. I stopped publishing regular episodes, reduced my social media presence to almost nothing, and I took down the email magnet from my website.

The result? In 2025, my subscriber-to-unsubscriber ratio inverted and hit 1:3.

Were there other factors for the unsubscribes? Probably. Reduced engagement, fewer touchpoints with my audience, less consistent content. But the biggest factor was 1) not publishing content regularly and 2) removing the incentive for new people to join my list.

The Two-Step Method for Email List Growth

After analyzing what went wrong, the solution became clear. Growing an email list consistently requires two things:

Thing 1: Show up regularly and create content people want to engage with.

This could be YouTube videos, podcast episodes, blog posts, social media content, or whatever format works for your niche, goals, and audience. The key is quality, consistency, and value.

Thing 2: Direct people to your newsletter’s email magnet.

In every piece of content you create, include a call-to-action that leads people to a valuable freebie (an “email magnet”) in exchange for their email address. Many creators skip this step because email lists can take a while to set up and because creating a worthy “email magnet” can be difficult.

You can create content all day long, but without a clear call-to-action or incentive for people to give you their email address, your list won’t grow at the rate it could. And you’ll be subjected to the caprice of a social media site.

What Makes a Good Email Magnet?

I believe your email magnet should be relevant to your work and your audience’s interests. In other words, a travel literature podcast shouldn’t offer a PDF on growing tomatoes. The magnet will be irresistible if it is helpful, valuable, and interesting for your audience.

Examples of email magnets include: a checklist or worksheet, a how-to guide or tutorial, a template or framework, behind-the-scenes content, a mini-course or video series, a curated resource list, a sample chapter from your book, an entire PDF book, etc.

The format matters less than the alignment and value.

How I’m Rebuilding My Email List in 2026

I’m currently writing a book proposal, and the reality is that agents and publishers like to see authors with established platforms. So I’m rebuilding mine, and that means bringing back a regular content touchpoint and an email magnet.

For my regular content touchpoint, I’ve decided to double down on video this year. I’ll be doing a series of YouTube videos and, hopefully, convert them to short-form video for cross posting on social media. I don’t want to do regular podcast interviews anymore, unless they specifically relate to mountains — and even in this case, focusing on my own work and research is my priority.

For my email magnet, I’m considering two options. The easy route is to offer a book I wrote a few years ago as a free PDF or EPUB. The work is already done — I just need to set up the signup form. The harder (but potentially better) route is to create a new resource specifically tied to my mountains project — something like a guide, zine, or behind-the-scenes document that offers real value to people interested in my kind of work.

More soon!