About Lewis

I’m a UK-based founder. My company is UDG Development Ltd, registered in Wales, and it operates this site.

What I’ve actually done

• Grew Anywhere Income to 12,000 subscribers. My biggest mistake with it was trying to make it about a bit of everything. With newsletters you really do need to niche down and stick to it.
• Bought ads. Roughly 60% of those subscribers came from paid ads.
• Grew organically. The other 40% or so was organic, and most of that came from Twitter.
• Used beehiiv, Substack and Mailchimp. beehiiv is the one I like most. Mailchimp is very strict about anything promotional: it removed my matched betting newsletter, even though matched betting isn’t gambling, so I wouldn’t rush back to it.
• Attended Matt McGarry’s newsletter bootcamp. One of the main lessons I took away: a landing page should be dead simple. One benefit-led promise, an email field and a Subscribe button, and nothing else. Two options only: subscribe or leave. His own landing page works exactly like that.

What I know and write about

• Why you should prune your list. My rule: if someone hasn’t opened in about three months, send a few “are you still interested?” emails, then remove them. Let non-readers pile up and your emails stop reaching inboxes. See list pruning and open rates.
• Why open rate is a misleading metric. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can record opens that never happened, so I track replies and the actions people take after they click, not opens or even clicks on their own.
• How to build sequences and segments, the automations and groupings that make a list work. See how to start a newsletter.
• Ad networks. Refind cost me about $1.50 per engaged subscriber, and it only charges for subscribers who open within their first seven days. That’s fair, but you still have to prune those subscribers regularly or you build up a list of people who don’t read.
• Paid growth and social growth, and how they differ.

What I haven’t done

I’d rather you read this than guess.

• I haven’t used every platform on this site. I’ve used beehiiv, Substack and Mailchimp. I haven’t used Kit, MailerLite, AWeber or Ghost, so those reviews are research-based: prices and features come from each vendor’s own pages, dated and linked. None of the reviews are lab-style test reports.
• I haven’t run surveys or collected data across platforms, and there are no star ratings.
• I’m not a deliverability lab. I describe what I know from running a list, not a measured benchmark.

How the site makes money

Some links to vendors are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you sign up. Some aren’t. I have no other relationships with any vendor: no sponsorships, no paid placements and no free accounts in exchange for coverage. The disclosure page lists which is which, and how we review explains the rules I follow so this doesn’t bend the advice.

Where to start

• New to this? Read how to start a newsletter.
• Choosing a tool? Try best newsletter platforms or the pricing tracker.
• Have a list that isn’t performing? Read pruning and open rates.
• Want to see every review? They’re in reviews.