This guest post was written by John Shea, host of the online show Voices Of Marketing.
15 Email Newsletters From Top Entrepreneurs You Can’t Miss
I decided that after being online now for well over a year I’d write a post about my top 15 favorite email newsletter lists that I’m subscribed to from top entrepreneurs.
I wanted to talk a little bit about each newsletter, why I like them, briefly tell you about who these people are, and finally, what value they offer to subscribers who are on their email lists.
Some of these people I’ve been following for close to a year, and others not quite as long. I picked these people based on a couple of simple factors:
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Consistency of emails and the frequency they are sent
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If they are offering me value in their emails vs. just trying to make a dime from me
I tend to be more in favor of email lists that send emails out frequently enough to stay engaged, but not so much that I feel overwhelmed and want to hit the unsubscribe button.
There are many other email lists that I am on that don’t provide enough value (pitching me a product too often), or that I don’t hear from much at all – if ever – after signing up.
So with that said, let’s move on to the list!
Derek Halpern of SocialTriggers.com
Derek runs a blog that is focused mainly on psychology and marketing. He shares a lot of quality, evergreen content through blog posts and professionally made videos he publishes to his YouTube channel. He also hosts the Social Triggers Insider Podcast.
Derek sends out some of the most valuable emails of any list I’ve ever been subscribed to. His emails generally contain a lot of easy-to-consume text content with images taken from the videos he creates in addition to his blog content.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“How to Increase Email Clicks By 35%”
“3 psychological tactics for gaining instant credibility”
“How to Ask Great Questions (A Rant + A Request)”
Here is an example excerpt from an email Derek sent to his subscribers about “What You Should Do When Your Friends And Family Don’t Support You”:
Email Frequency: Derek sends out emails on average once every 4-7 days to his subscribers.
Learn more about Derek and subscribe to the Social Triggers newsletter
Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com
Pat runs a blog focused on the idea of “Work hard now to continually reap the benefits later”, with various passive income streams including affiliate marketing, niche sites, iPhone apps, eBooks and even product creation.
Pat is also is the host of one of the biggest marketing Podcasts: The Smart Passive Income Podcast.
Pat offers 100% value for his email subscribers, he never directly pitches any products to his subscribers, and he always sends out really useful information among current happenings with his blog.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“How to Test Your Product Before It’s Even Made”
“An RSS Feed Secret for WordPress Users”
“Here’s Why I Don’t Create a Daily To-Do List”
An example email from when Pat released his book Let Go, featuring a free, live Q&A Session with him:
Email Frequency: Pat sends out emails to his list once every 3-7 days on average, sometimes longer.
Learn more about Pat and subscribe to his email list
Ana Hoffman of TrafficGenerationCafe.com
Ana’s blog focuses on traffic generation, SEO, Social Media and email list building tactics. Her blog posts are written with an epic amount of detail, including eye catching photos, resourceful links and tons of content in each and every post.
Ana typically sends out what she calls “The Weekly Marketing Skinny”, which contains a lot of useful current trends, news and what’s currently happening in the online marketing world.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“The BIGGEST Traffic Strategy Mistake You Can Make (and What to Do Instead)”
“How to HACK Google Authority [FREE 26 pg. PDF]”
“[TrafficHacks] Sneaky but legit way to get traffic with trackbacks”
Here is an example email from April:
Email Frequency: Ana sends emails to her subscribers generally every week.
Learn more about Ana and subscribe to the Traffic Generation Cafe newsletter
Shane Melaugh of ImImpact.com
Shane creates various types of software products that focus on the marketing niche. He generally focuses on software that serves a need that other products are unable to provide.
Examples include an advanced lead generation WordPress plugin, social media content locking, and Webinar conversion software. You can learn more about his software on his product page.
Shane tends to email his list with helpful tips, contest give aways, free mini-courses, software releases and other useful content.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“Help Me Build Ridiculously Awesome WordPress Themes (quick survey)”
“What Marketers Need to Know About the New Gmail Tabs”
“New Contest: 2 WordPress Traffic-Generation Plugins and a Kindle Up for Grabs!”
Here is an example of a recent email on the topic of “What would you do differently, if you had to start all over?”:
Email Frequency: Shane tends to send out weekly updates on Sundays with videos for his subscribers. Sometimes he sends emails only once every 2 weeks.
Learn more about Shane and sign up for his email newsletter here
Ramit Sethi of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com
Ramit’s site is focused on helping people with personal finance and entrepreneurship. He helps college students, recent college grads and everyone else. He is the author of the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
He also has created training courses that focus on various topics like earning your first $1,000, How To Land Your Dream Job, Negotiating A Lower Rent and more.
Ramit sends out emails that contain various stories, financial tips, psychology topics, contest giveaways, readership insights, and sometimes he even mentions when he’s hiring people to work for him!
Ramit was recommended to me by Derek Halpern after a conversation we had on Facebook earlier this year. When I interviewed Pat Flynn, I asked him what email lists he subscribes to, and Ramit Sethi was his first pick despite being someone in the financial niche.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“So…I love studying human behavior”
“Live presentation — How to build multiple streams of income”
“The 3 biggest mistakes I made while trying to hit 6 figures”
Here is an example of a recent email on the topic “10 little life hacks you can use today”:
Email Frequency: Ramit sends emails on average once every 2-4 days.
Learn more about Ramit and subscribe to his email newsletter
David Siteman Garland of The RiseToTheTop.com
David is the host of The Rise To The Top, where he interviews what he likes to call Mediapreneurs: “Mediapreneurs have a platform online (like a web show, blog, podcast, video blog or some combination thereof) and leverage it to help people make money.”
David adds a lot of his own personality into his emails and typically uses a lot of unique headlines.
His email content includes contest giveaways, webinars, feedback requests from the audience, interviews, mini-courses and more.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“that’s what she said :)”
“my famous 1 hour heads up (replay + offer coming down)”
“call me…maybe?”
Here is an example from a recent email “3 ways to build scarcity into your offers (without being a jerkface)”:
Email Frequency: David emails his list once every 2-7 days.
Learn more about David and subscribe to his email newsletter
Corbett Barr of ThinkTraffic.net (now The Sparkline)
Corbett Barr is the Founder of Think Traffic. He helps online entrepreneurs create websites and blogs that matter so they can build thriving audiences and successful online businesses.
Corbett is well known for writing epic blog posts and has created popular training courses such as How To Build A Blog That Matters and his latest membership course, Fizzle.
Crobett also Co-hosts the Fizzle Show Podcast with Chase Reeves and Caleb Wojcik.
The Think Traffic Newsletter typically features Fizzle content updates, Podcast shows, and various articles on different marketing topics.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“Write Funny Shit”
“30 Day Blog Challenge Results: 100% More Traffic, 30% More Sales and #1 on Amazon”
“Rethinking How To Get More Traffic (FS022)”
Here is an example from a recent email titled “Is It Too Late?”:
Email Frequency: The Think Traffic Newsletter goes out on average every 4-7 days.
Click here to learn more about Corbett and subscribe to the Think Traffic newsletter (Sorry! This link was active when this post was first published in 2013. This resource is no longer available.)
Jon Haver of AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com
Jon has a blog that focuses on various SEO and Internet Marketing tactics. He has written some very extensive guides on topics such as using Expired Domains for SEO purposes.
I even had a chance to even interview him about using Expired Domains and have since been blown away by how much free content he shares with his audience.
Jon usually sends emails to his list that contain free tutorials, SEO guides, income reports, and special offers exclusive to his email list.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“5 Productivity Tips While Traveling and 5 Failures”
“New Public Case Study – Sneak Peak”
“My Website Purchase Revealed – Generating $10k in 1 Month – kinda”
Here is an example from an email titled “4 Ways to Get Great Content Created (email list exclusive)”:
Email Frequency: Jon emails his subscribers once every 7-14 days.
Click here to learn more about Jon and subscribe to his newsletter
Spencer Haws of NichePursuits.com
Spencer focuses on building niche sites that have allowed him to generate enough income to quit his full-time job. His blog primarily focuses on tons of resourceful content regarding SEO, picking a niche, keyword research, link building, and his experiences after building over 200 niche sites.
He is currently working on a public case-study by helping a student build a site from scratch with a goal of passive income.
He is also the creator of the keyword research tool Long Tail Pro.
Spencer shares tons of free, valuable updates regarding his niche site projects, link building tactics, keyword research, and even his monthly income reports. I’ve found his content to be very valuable and have even interviewed multiple people who have had success stories featured on his blog.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“Should You Build 1 Large Site or Many Small Sites?”
“Outranked! Was My Niche Site Copied?”
“5 Keyword Examples on Video + New Domain Auction!”
Here is an example from an email titled “How to Promote Your Website: Niche Site Project Update!”:
Email Frequency: Every 3-7 days; however, lately his emails are sent out every couple of weeks.
Learn more about Spencer and sign up for his email newsletter
Alex Becker of Source-Wave.com
Alex has created a massive community following for people who want to learn various advanced SEO tactics, such as utilizing expired domains with blog networks. Alex uses a lot of humor in his blog content and videos he releases on what he calls SourceTV. (Sorry! This link was active when this post was first published in 2013. This resource is no longer available.)
Alex tends to give a ton of free tips and value for his community but also has a private SEO membership site. He also has released multiple products like SEO Omega and SEO Zen to help others rank content on Google.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“Here’s That Ultimate PR Training We Talked About (Remember?)”
“Unfair White Hat Tactic? Did You See This?”
“If You Don’t Do This, No SEO You Do Will Work. Period.”
Here is an example from an email titled “Are You Bad At SEO? (It Is Okay Dude)”:
Email Frequency: Alex usually emails his list once every 3-5 days.
Learn more about Alex and sign up for his email newsletter (Sorry! This link was active when this post was first published in 2013. This resource is no longer available.)
John Lee Dumas of EntrepreneurOnFire.com
John is the host of EntrepreneurOnFire. John decided to create a Podcast where he interviews successful online entrepreneurs 7-days a week. He has now interviewed over 400 entrepreneurs!
He also recently launched a private membership site, Podcasters’ Paradise, to help others create, grow and monetize their own Podcasts.
John typically sends out emails containing actionable tips, strategies, resourceful articles, and current happenings with his Podcast show.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“Action-Packed & On FIRE”
“Are You An Early Bird?”
“Resources Abound!”
Here is an example from an email titled “Do You Use Video On Your Websites?”:
Learn more about John and sign up for his email newsletter
Email Frequency: John usually emails his list every 3-7 days.
Marie Forleo of MarieForleo.com
I liked this excerpt from Marie’s about page because I think it describes her best:
“My goal is to add more value to your world than you ever dreamed possible by giving you tools that you can immediately use to improve your business and life. Translation?
I’m here to make you rich.”
Her bio further explains: “Marie was recently interviewed by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation. Her mission is to help you realize your greatest potential and use your unique talents to change the world. She reaches over 200,000 readers in 191 countries worldwide and leads dynamic training programs that teach individuals to succeed in business and life. She’s the creator of the award-winning show MarieTV and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Glamour Magazine, Self Magazine, Forbes.com and The New York Times among others”
Marie’s email list generally contains tips, intriguing questions and actionable advice shared through her show MarieTV. Her emails captivate you with videos, which she includes in almost each and every one she sends to her subscribers.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“why my mom hates MarieTV”
“being present vs. planning your future”
“how do you deal with Qs from competitors?”
Here is an example from an email titled “Do you procrastinate? Maybe you should”:
Email Frequency: Marie usually emails her list every 7 days.
Learn more about Marie and sign up for her email newsletter
Ramsay Taplin of BlogTyrant.com
Ramsay has built various blogs in the past that he has gone on to sell and earn a profit from. He decided to start BlogTyrant.com with a unique persona hoping to sell it in the future. He eventually decided to reveal his identity and has become quite well-known in the blogging community.
He has published guest blog posts on sites like Copyblogger, ProBlogger, Smart Passive Income, and more.
His about pages states “I’ve developed other blogs and online businesses in various niches and formats to help me work from home, travel overseas each year and generally avoid a real office job. I quite like working from the couch and often tell people that I run a couch-based blogging business.”
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“The Ultimate Guide to Making an Affiliate Income from Your Blog”
“How to get 9,229 (useless) visitors to a single post every month”
“It’s easier than ever to grow a mailing list – why are you struggling?”
Here is an example from an email titled “The penultimate guide to making money with paid content”:
Email Frequency: Ramsay usually emails his list every 7-14 days. Lately, he has been traveling so his emails have been less frequent the past couple of months.
Learn more about Ramsay and sign up for his email newsletter
Jaime Tardy of EventualMillionaire.com
Jaime is the Host of the popular interview show Eventual Millionaire. She has created an awesome resource for people to learn from some of the most successful entrepreneurs out there: people who are millionaires!
Jaime has interviewed over 100 millionaires and she’s still counting.
She states on her about page, “I help entrepreneurs focus their money and their strengths to create an amazing life while they build their net worth.”
Jaime usually emails her list with current interviews, challenges for her subscribers, contests and engaging questions to help people out.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“September Challenge: How Millionaires Are So Productive”
“Percentage of overweight millionaires?”
“How to Find “Your Move” in Business – and why you need to know yours!”
Here is an example from an email titled “Interview worth over $1,000 in online marketing advice with Rand Fishkin”:
Email Frequency: Jaime usually emails her list every 5-7 days.
Learn more about Jaime and sign up for her email newsletter
Neil Patel of QuickSprout.com
I thought this excerpt from his blog said it best:
“Neil Patel is the Co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations.”
Neil quite honestly creates some of the most epic online marketing content I have ever seen. He produces an astonishing amount of free content on his blog, producing popular guides such as “The definitive guide to growth hacking”, along with his latest guide, “The beginners guide to online marketing”.
Neil typically keeps his emails very clean and straight to the point, only announcing to his subscribers that he has posted a new blog post or epic guide.
Here are a few headlines from past emails:
“The Anatomy of a High Converting Landing Page”
“The 7 Things Every (Great) Checkout Page Needs”
“11 Content Marketing Lessons Learned From 20 of the Top 100 Blogs”
Here is an example from an email titled “Move Over Content Marketing: Why Creating Tools Can be a Better Investment”:
Email Frequency: Neil usually emails his list once every 4-5 days.
Learn more about Neil and sign up for his email newsletter
As a reader, email newsletters are a powerful way to stay connected with your favorite entrepreneurs.
Each and every one of these people I’ve been able to learn something new and valuable from, and I highly recommend all of them.
Depending on your goals and what you want to learn about for your own online business ventures, you can check out each of their websites to get an idea of what you will learn about while being a part of their mailing list.
What’s your favorite email newsletter that you’re subscribed to? Share with us in the comments section below!
John Shea is the host of the online show Voices Of Marketing where he interviews successful online marketers and bloggers. John also writes and contributes to The Blueprint Entrepreneur on iTunes, an Apple Newsstand magazine for smart entrepreneurs that want actionable content to start and grow their business. John focuses on providing value to the marketing world both with written content and interviews. Find him on Google+, Facebook or Twitter.
