How this creator earned $10,000 in 7 months and jumpstarted his business with Paid Recommendations

Creator Cole Bridge started his newsletter Junto as a personal finance how-to, but it quickly morphed into something more.

“When I graduated from college, I had more than $70,000 of student loan debt which I paid off in three years. I learned so much from that experience that I wanted to share it with others,” says Cole. “But as I picked up new skills in life and business, I realized I wanted to share those too.”

He began writing in December 2022, with only 150 X/Twitter followers, to try and spread the word.

But this strategy went nowhere fast.

The challenge: Traditional list growth tactics weren’t growing his list fast enough

When you’re first starting a newsletter, it’s difficult to figure out how you can quickly monetize new subscribers while working on the other areas of the business too.

Promoting his newsletter from scratch on X/Twitter and Instagram felt impossible without already being an influencer. Instead, Cole started with paid ads to drive traffic to his newsletter landing page.

Unless you’re sitting on a stockpile of cash, you need to make money to invest in growth. I had limited growth budget and needed to test free strategies. These are effective, but take up a lot of time.

Juggling Junto with his day job meant Cole needed to prove the value of his side-hustle quickly. After struggling with organic social media and feeling like there was never enough time to pursue traditional cross-promotional strategies like giveaways or guest posts, Cole discovered SparkLoop (now part of Kit) and Paid Recommendations.

The solution: Setting up Paid Recommendations in the Creator Network as a new income stream

With Kit’s Creator Network, users collaborate with other creators to help each other grow their newsletters through Recommendations. Since opening its doors, the Creator Network has helped creators grow their list an extra 9% than if they weren’t in the network.

But with Kit’s acquisition of SparkLoop, you can also turn your list growth into a newsletter revenue stream by adding Paid Recommendation spots alongside your free recommendations, like Cole did.

In just 7 months, Cole earned $10,000 just by recommending creators he admires to his new subscribers as they joined his list. And that $10,000 helped get his new business off the ground.

Once I started getting paid with Paid Recommendations, my growth took off. It’s helped me earn more money and earn more quickly so I can reinvest into growth. I grew my newsletter profitably without having any major revenue source.

The result: Faster newsletter growth with the Creator Network’s Paid Recommendations

Starting a newsletter from scratch is an uphill battle. You need to make money to earn money, but how can you start building your list with only a few followers to your name?

Using Kit’s powerful referral features give you the opportunity to get going more quickly.

Earning earlier in my creator journey kept me going when I was struggling. Adding revenue right away helps you push through the challenging days at the beginning.

Paid Recommendations give you the momentum you need to find your footing. “Once you see the impact on your business, I doubt you’ll turn back. It’s the simplest way to add revenue with a quick payback period,” says Cole. “My newsletter would be much smaller if not for Paid Recommendations.”