How to start your own newsletter

You decide to start a newsletter. You open Substack or Beehiiv and get hit with funnels, lead magnets, welcome sequences and segmentation. Days later you're still in setup, or staring at an empty draft.

That's not a writing problem. Most newsletter guides are written for a newsletter that already has thousands of readers, so you build that stack first and issue one never gets written. A blank chatbot doesn't fix it either. It has no order, so you get generic advice.

But the job at 15 subscribers is the same as the job at 15,000: find a problem, answer it. What you need is an order for today. Here's one, and what it looks like when it runs.

Watch it run

This is an example, not a customer's run.

Example run

The premise is just one sentence on who it's for and what they get. A minute ago they had a Substack account, three guides open and a blank draft. Now they have a name, an angle and a premise. Next they give Cleve one thing from their week, and it drafts issue one with three subject lines. Platform setup comes last, on purpose.

Try it yourself

[Get the Start a Newsletter resource]

It arrives already installed. You only do three things.

Drag the "Start Here" document into the chat. It's the first note in the folder. Drop it in the chat box on the right. This tells Cleve to refer to this doc while helping you, so you never need to explain it.

Type what you'd tell a friend. Rough is fine. For example: "want to start a newsletter about side projects for ppl w a 9-5. no idea what my angle is. help me based on this document."

Check it worked. You should see a saved note called 02 Branding and Positioning Strategy, plus a name, premise and angle in the reply.

Add more of your own context into Cleve. For example, a brand or voice guide, past posts, or notes on your reader. You only do it once. Cleve keeps them, so everything later starts with what you already shared.

What is Cleve

Cleve is an AI second brain. You keep your notes and docs in one place, and the AI uses them to help you think and write.

Where it stops

It won't grow your list. It holds funnel and growth work back until you have real replies. It's also thin if your reader and topic stay vague. "Everyone" and "productivity tips" give a bland premise. If Cleve stops and asks you one or two questions, that's the tell. Name one real person and the exact bad advice they follow, then run it again.