I Let 8,000 People Slip Through My Fingers
How Ignoring My Email List Cost Me Thousands — And What I Do Differently Now as a Writer
I still cringe thinking about it.
The number stared back at me from my Aweber dashboard like some kind of silent accusation.
8,273 subscribers.
That was the peak of my email list during the height of the Content Champion Podcast.
Each week I was publishing in-demand interviews with top marketers. Episodes pulled in thousands of listeners.
I was blogging weekly too—those posts were ranking, bringing in over 7,000 visitors a month.
And I was everywhere on social media, promoting new content, guest appearances, you name it.
In short, I had traffic. I had attention. I had an audience.
And I blew it.
It’s like owning a vineyard and forgetting to pick the grapes
That’s the analogy I keep coming back to.
I spent years cultivating fertile ground—pouring time and effort into planting blog posts, podcast episodes, and lead magnets like carefully spaced vines.
My list grew organically, a beautiful byproduct of all that work. I even had a two-month autoresponder sequence ticking away in the background.
It looked like I had it all figured out.
But I didn’t.
Because while people were joining my list every day, I wasn’t actually emailing them.
Beyond that initial drip sequence, I didn’t send broadcasts. I didn’t build relationships. I didn’t make offers. I didn’t have a clue how to turn attention into income.
Instead, I just… kept creating more top-of-funnel content. More podcasts. More blog posts. More everything—except conversions.
Eventually, I stopped emailing the list completely. And by the time I came back months later, many subscribers had gone cold. Others unsubscribed the moment I reappeared.
I felt like a fraud.
I had this incredible asset—this tribe of people who trusted me enough to hand over their email—and I wasted it. All because I didn’t have a system to follow.
No email-first mindset. No strategy. Just scattershot content creation and a silent list.
So I’m trying again here on Substack - after all:
"Failure is success in progress." – Albert Einstein
Here’s what my huge email list oversight taught me:
Putting content first and email second is backwards.
Content gets people through the door—but email is what invites them to stay, sit down, and do business with you.
Today, I do it the other way around.
Email first. Always.
Every article I write on Substack now is the email. It’s not an afterthought—it’s the main event. That shift changed everything.
If I could go back, here’s what I’d tell past-me—and what I’d share with anyone stuck on the content hamster wheel:
3 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way
Always Start With the Offer
Know what you’re selling. Free essays are great—but this is a publishing platform, not a hobbyist diary.
Build around a paid product, service, or subscription. Teach the why for free, and sell the how with purpose.Your Post Is the Email—Write Like It
On Substack, you don’t need a separate newsletter and blog. They’re the same thing.
So stop writing like you're just “posting” and start writing like you're speaking directly to your subscriber.
Use story. Use rhythm. Build a weekly cadence that trains your audience to expect and want your voice in their inbox.Make Every Post a Step in Your Flywheel
Each article should do one or more of these things: attract new readers, deepen trust, or lead people closer to subscribing then buying.
That’s the email flywheel I use now—an engine that turns your words into subscribers and your subscribers into customers.
So what’s the takeaway if you're publishing on Substack—or planning to?
If you’ve got a list—or you're starting one—don’t make my mistake. Don’t let it go cold. Don’t ignore the most powerful asset in your entire business.
Put email first.
Make it the engine of everything else.
Thankfully Substack makes that easy.
And if you want help doing that in 30 minutes a day…
👉 Join the Weekday Writer Newsletter
Every weekday, I send one short, practical tip to help you build your content empire with daily writing reps.
Learn to write. Build your list. Make it pay.
👻 Content Champion Ghostwriting
Need content that sounds like you & grows your business (without writing it yourself)? Want to work with a 25+ year veteran copywriter? Let’s talk.
📧 loz@contentchampion.com