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April 21, 2023

Deep dive into TLDR, a newsletter with around one million subscribers.

👋 Hello newsletter enthusiasts,

We've got a special treat for you this week - a deep dive into TLDR, the daily newsletter that's all about getting smarter about tech in five minutes.

TLDR has ~1 million subscribers and features links and summaries of interesting stories in startups, tech and programming.

Our deep dive is taking a new format, a Figma board.

The Newsletter Newsletter

Take me to the TLDR deep dive (link)!‍

If you have not used Figma, it’s a collaborative, web-based design tool. You don’t need an account to view.

We went with Figma to create a visual and interactive guide to some of TLDR’s processes, hopefully making it easier to understand and follow along. We’re a big fan of visuals!

It's a new format for us, and we're excited to share it with you!

Figma tips:

  • When you first open the board, you’ll notice a “👋 Welcome! Start here,” section along with a Table of Contents. The Table of Contents is clickable if you are on Desktop, so you can navigate to the various sections of the board.
  • Navigate around the board by holding the spacebar and the left click of the mouse. If you’re on Mobile, feel free to “Pinch-to-Zoom”.
  • Zoom controls are in the top right-hand corner. You can also zoom in and out by holding CTRL on Windows or Command on Mac while using the scroll on the mouse.

We’ll take you through their sign up flow: Highlighting the landing page, welcome email and an example newsletter send.

You'll also find details about their how they do sponsorships.

We know many of you are looking for ways to monetize your newsletters, and TLDR is a great example. They've got a detailed Media Kit, clear sponsorship rates and even mention that they follow up with advertisers with a stats report.

We hope this deep dive into TLDR has been informative and helpful for your own newsletter journey. Don't forget to share your thoughts and feedback with us by replying to this email!

đŸŸ Stay pawsome.


🔑 Key observations

  • Clean landing page. So clean, there wasn’t even a navigation bar. Just the email address box.
  • The sign up flow is a simple form with only one required field: email address. There is no verification method.
  • No post signup steps. After you enter your email address, that’s it. You’re signed up. No surveys, recommendations, etc.
  • Welcome email sent shortly after sign up. The Welcome email’s Subject Line is: “Confirm your TLDR Marketing sign up! 🎉” However, in the email there is no way to confirm. Maybe opening it is confirmation?
  • Expansion. TLDR currently has 15 newsletters, but only three are Active. TLDR launched sign up pages for various newsletters like “TLDR Marketing” or “TLDR Web Dev”. The sign up process is the same, all that is required is an email address. However, by casting a wide net across various industries and topics, TLDR can use it as a litmus test to determine which newsletter to launch next based on sign ups. It also provides data for TLDR if they would like to incorporate advertisers for the yet to be launched newsletters.
  • Consistent mentions of how to advertise. TLDR mentions advertising opportunities towards the bottom of most emails. The link goes to a survey.
  • Detailed media kit. Clear sponsorship rates, process and metrics for potential advertisers. They also provide stats seven days after the placement.

🎉 Have a great weekend!

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