How Noor Chopra grew Touristy to 100k+ subscribers 100% organically

Enjoying the podcast? Then you'll LOVE the Send & Grow newsletter where we share deep dives, tips, and news for smart newsletter operators like you.

Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop's Dylan Redekop chats with Noor Chopra. Noor writes the Touristy newsletter: "quick bites on Business, Tech and the Future of Consumer Culture, served with a side of millennial sarcasm."

Touristy, loved for its witty tone and skimmable format, has captivated a diverse audience, soaring to an impressive 111,000 subscribers in just four years. The impressive part? She's grown it 100% organically. 

In this episode, Dylan & Noor discuss…

• The Birth of Touristy: How a pivot during the pandemic led to the creation of a unique newsletter platform.
• Growth Tactics: The unscalable yet effective strategies Noor employed to kickstart subscriber growth.
• Content Creation: The art of curating engaging and relevant content that resonates with readers.
• Monetization Journey: From the first ad dollar to a diversified revenue stream without spending on ads.
• Engagement Secrets: Maintaining an astonishing open rate and the role of visual content.
• Future Aspirations: Noor's vision for Touristy and potential ventures into podcasting.
• ...and much more!

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED
Touristy newsletter
Noor on LinkedIn
Noor on Twitter/X
Dylan on Twitter/X
SparkLoop.app
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SparkLoop Partner Programs — grow your newsletter at 10x speed.
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Discover how the best media brands and solo operators are winning at newsletter growth & monetization.

Hosted by SparkLoop's cofounder Louis Nicholls and SparkLoop's newsletter nerd, Dylan Redekop—we take you behind the scenes and share the strategies, trends, and tactics you need to know to build your email audience and revenue.

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Noor Chopra: 00:00

I love GIFs. I'm obsessed with memes and GIFs. I spend so much time, I would say I spend hours before every week finding the perfect name, perfect GIF, like perfect photos. I'm obsessed. A huge part of tourist is not just the jokes in the written, but also the graphics.

Noor Chopra: 00:16

I wanna make it visually appealing.

Dylan Redekop: 00:19

Welcome to the Send and Grow podcast. I'm your host, Dylan Redekop. In my day job at SparkLoop, I spent all my time analyzing how the best newsletter operators and media brands in the world grow and monetize their audiences. I get a behind the scenes look at how they're growing their newsletters and driving revenue, and there is so much to learn from their success and from their mistakes. With this podcast, you get that access too.

Dylan Redekop: 00:41

Every week, I sit down with a different guest from industry experts to successful operators, and we go deep on the stuff that you need to know so you can become really effective at growing and monetizing your newsletter. Today on the podcast, I want to introduce you to Noor Chopra of touristy, a newsletter distilling the biggest news stories but served with a side of millennial sarcasm. Noor started touristy during the pandemic as a pivot from her travel blog of the same name. Today, her newsletter reaches over 111,000 subscribers, and she hasn't spent a dime on paid growth. Instead, Noors leveraged her college network, unscalable growth tactics, and the power of consistency to grow.

Dylan Redekop: 01:20

In this episode, we dive into these strategies that propelled touristy's growth, the challenges of monetizing a free newsletter, and the future plans that Noor has for her burgeoning media empire. Noor, it's fantastic to have you with us. Could you kick things off by us a bit more about the inception of Touristy and what makes it unique?

Noor Chopra: 01:40

Hey, everyone. I'm Noor. I'm the founder of Touristy, a short form newsletter on business and tech. Touristy uses a witty tone and super skimmable format, which appeals to Gen Z, millennials, you know, lots of jokes, lots of memes. But also, I feel like it would appeal to anybody who wants to be educated and entertained in a quick way.

Noor Chopra: 02:02

So while I would say the broader audience would be 18 to 35, You know, it's for anyone who wants to stay up to date with news. And so, yeah, I've been doing it for 4 years now.

Dylan Redekop: 02:13

That's awesome. And what kind of news do you do you share?

Noor Chopra: 02:16

Business, big tech, finance, a little bit of everything. So I don't have a niche. I'm not specifically focused on crypto or AI or tech. So, I don't have a niche. I would say just a mix of the latest in the business world.

Noor Chopra: 02:30

That's what I'd say.

Dylan Redekop: 02:31

Okay. Amazing. Okay. So, we'll get into your content a little bit more later on, but I wanted to I wanted you to take us back to like March 2020 when kind of the world was kind of shutting down and, a pandemic was, was kind of hitting us all. So you decided to, at least according to my research, you decided to start touristy the newsletter.

Dylan Redekop: 02:52

So can you take us back to that and what kind of spurred on that decision to start that?

Noor Chopra: 02:56

Okay, so to be very honest, it's not like I had some plan to launch a business newsletter during COVID. Like that was not the plan. I was already used to writing. I actually used to run a travel blog called Touristy, but that never really took off. So I had been used to years of writing, doing something that didn't really work out.

Noor Chopra: 03:16

And then, you know, COVID hit, travel shut down. And, I just I just pivoted to another area that I was really interested in, which was business news. And more than anything, I wanted to find something that was really authentic to me that people enjoyed reading. And I feel like I kind of found my tonality with it. And once I saw early signs of traction, I kind of doubled down on it.

Noor Chopra: 03:40

You know, also, during COVID, it's important to note traditional news had become so negative that year that what really just prompted me was to make, like, just give the same news, but make it light, fun, informal tone of voice, you know, no political bias, just the way me and my friends talk. So there was no master

Dylan Redekop: 04:10

the general news, which is kind of a refreshing take on it when, you know, so much of news is very, you know, cut and dry and lacking personality, so to speak. So I definitely appreciate that about about Touristy. We should actually, not bury the lead. You have been running Touristy, like you said, for about 4 years, but you have also grown in the 4 years to over a 100,000 subscribers, right?

Noor Chopra: 04:31

Yes. Yes. And we are at north 111,000 subscribers today.

Dylan Redekop: 04:35

Congratulations. That is no small feat. That's very impressive. That leads me that, you know, I have to ask you.

Noor Chopra: 04:41

A lot of work. It's been a lot of work.

Dylan Redekop: 04:43

It leads me to ask you, like, what what have you done? Especially maybe in the early days, like the 1st year or 2, what were you doing to grow the newsletter?

Noor Chopra: 04:51

Okay. To be a 100 percent honest, in 2020, I did anything to get it off the ground. Yeah. Like, really, I just followed Paul Graham mentality of doing the unscalable. I did things that don't scare for months.

Noor Chopra: 05:04

I was knocking on doors, but behind the screen for months. You know, I just wanted to get moving. Like I just wanted the ball rolling. At this point, I had had a travel blog that didn't carry take off. I was stuck to a room behind a laptop and, you know, so I did anything and everything to make it work.

Noor Chopra: 05:22

And if that meant reaching out to hundreds of people, that's what I did. In fact, I think about it now, and I'm like, shit, no. Did I really do that? Because I don't know if I could do it today. I mean, I messaged so many people.

Noor Chopra: 05:36

I guess it was like a do or die approach. I was just going at it. I just wanted to get the ball rolling. And, obviously, with time, I would say something that's really important is that I had finished my master's in London the year before. So I leveraged that college network.

Noor Chopra: 05:52

That definitely gave me an opening.

Dylan Redekop: 05:54

Mhmm.

Noor Chopra: 05:54

And I went to NYU, which, you know, I was a part of a lot of WhatsApp and, like, Facebook communities. I've been in touch with a lot of my friends. So while I could not grow touristy while I was at college because I did it post graduation, I did take advantage of my network to get the word go. So I would say number 1 would be doing things that don't scale. And the second would be leveraging my social network 100%.

Dylan Redekop: 06:20

Where were you messaging people? Was it on LinkedIn or email or?

Noor Chopra: 06:25

LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, any channel online where okay, so a lot of alumni from my university. So that kind of gave me an up, obviously. Right? And then I asked a lot of my close friends that and, you know, I wasn't transactional about it also. Like, it's not like I messaged somebody, hey, subscribe to my newsletter.

Noor Chopra: 06:48

It was, I would show a glimpse into my content. I'd be nice about it, that if they liked it, then maybe they'd wanna sign up. And you would be surprised how kindness can actually work like a charm for new readers. Like, I was actually surprised because so I feel like everybody was on their phone that time. And I kind of, I don't know if the creator economy took off in 2020, but I, I don't know, feels like it.

Noor Chopra: 07:11

At least to me, I, I double down on it. But no, I just be like, for example, like, Hey, Dylan, I just started this newsletter. This is the kind of stuff I'm writing about. Do you want to check it out?

Dylan Redekop: 07:22

And people were pretty warm to that? Yeah. To your your invite?

Noor Chopra: 07:26

I mean, not everyone. Not everyone.

Dylan Redekop: 07:29

You either get people either just ghost you or maybe say stop messaging me kind of thing.

Noor Chopra: 07:33

People will ghost you. And what's so funny is that I remember the first few times when somebody was like, Meena ghosted me, I used to take it so personally. And by the end of like, I feel like doing this. It's it's really uncomfortable. I it is uncomfortable.

Noor Chopra: 07:48

I wouldn't say it's comfortable. And I think about it now, and I'm like, did I really I keep thinking, I mean, did I really do that? I mean, I mean, I guess I did. Right? So

Dylan Redekop: 07:57

So how much of your subscriber base would you say you're able to get going with that strategy?

Noor Chopra: 08:02

Couple 1,000.

Dylan Redekop: 08:03

Couple 1,000. Okay.

Noor Chopra: 08:03

Couple 1,000. I remember that by the end of 2020, I had around, like, 8 to 10, couple 1,000 for sure.

Dylan Redekop: 08:11

8 to 10000?

Noor Chopra: 08:12

By the end of 2020, yes.

Dylan Redekop: 08:14

Okay. Okay. So that's that's a pretty good 1st year in business, I would say. And so that's about just under 10% of your current subscriber base. So what are you what have you been doing since then that you found, has worked really well for for growth?

Noor Chopra: 08:28

Okay, so touristy has actually been word-of-mouth driven. At this point, I've been incredibly consistent. I haven't missed a single week in 4 years. Wow. I think that commitment has definitely built some sort of credibility within my community.

Noor Chopra: 08:44

Mhmm. I also make sure that in all of my personal social channels, there's a call to action button with the link to subscribe. Obviously, needs to be there. I've asked a lot of my close friends, you know, who are in college. I mean, at this point, it's a little broader than college students, but I would say early 2021, I'd ask a lot of close friends.

Noor Chopra: 09:03

I'd ask family to spread the word, but I would say largely we are word-of-mouth driven. That has been my largest source of growth. And I've not had any overnight growth. I mean, I've been consistent in terms of growth. As in I by the end of year 1, I had 10,000, by the end of year 2, I had like some 40, by the end I've consistently added 30 to 40% every single year up until now.

Dylan Redekop: 09:30

So there hasn't been like this, you know, you're trekking along, and then all of a sudden there's this growth inflection point.

Noor Chopra: 09:35

Yeah, yeah. It's not been like straight. It's been kind of steady now for 4 years. And I have not missed a single newsletter issue.

Dylan Redekop: 09:42

So weekly newsletter issue every week for 4 that's amazing. That's amazing. That's, you know, some people can't publish for 4 weeks straight, let alone 4 years. So that's really impressive. We just had Tarzan Kaye on our podcast a few weeks ago, and she just was had said, you know, I've been publishing for 7 years straight, and I've just kinda like these people with their, you know, consistent publishing that we've got we've got to have them on the podcast more often to to talk to us about it.

Dylan Redekop: 10:06

Yeah. So you said it's mostly all word-of-mouth, but have you invested at all in any kind of page strategies at all?

Noor Chopra: 10:12

We haven't spent a dollar on PayRats.

Dylan Redekop: 10:14

Wow. So it's been all word-of-mouth, all organic?

Noor Chopra: 10:18

All word-of-mouth, all organic. There was a time at the end of 2021 where I ran a college ambassador program. I basically put it on my newsletter that, hey, if anybody, you know, loves the newsletter, has been subscribed, wants to spread the word, please, like, email me back or whatever.' I had, you know, had a lot of people apply, to be honest. I had a lot. I was quite surprised.

Noor Chopra: 10:42

So I do feel putting it out there within your own community is definitely like one thing as any creator is that your users are your biggest marketers.

Dylan Redekop: 10:50

Mhmm.

Noor Chopra: 10:50

Sometimes we just need motivation. Now, whether you do that, like, by free merch or, you know, just any sort of perks, I mean, that's truly important to keep in mind. I had luck with, like, 2, but I'd say that got me around 7 to 800, which is a lot. A lot of subscribers, but I wouldn't say it was significant. And I did it for like a month or 2, and then it was done.

Dylan Redekop: 11:11

Gotcha. Okay. That makes sense. Let's talk about your the content that you actually create and publish every week for 4 years. You cover, you know, like you mentioned earlier, a pretty decent variety of topics in tourist.

Dylan Redekop: 11:23

You said it's more broad appeal, not a specific industry that you're covering. So I'm curious how you, you know, go about sourcing all the content and then deciding what to include and what not to include.

Noor Chopra: 11:34

Okay, so in general, I'm up to date with business news every day. Okay. I do not like to research all at once. So mentally, when I start writing, I already know what I'm writing about. Okay.

Noor Chopra: 11:48

That's number 1. Obviously, before the newsletter goes out, which is every Tuesday, I edit it a lot. Like, I have to go through it. If a bigger story comes up, I will include it in Tuesday. So I do always leave 1 or 2 articles on the morning of sending it.

Noor Chopra: 12:05

But, you know, in general, I feel like at this point, I've, I've written so many newsletter issues that even just looking at the data, I know which newsletters get more engagement, more traction, more open rate. And so that's kind of given me a good idea of what my community enjoys.

Dylan Redekop: 12:21

Yeah, it's, it's important with those, you know, taking care of those data points, looking at them and seeing what people are actually gonna click on and open and read. So that makes sense. Exactly. So as so as the week goes, you're saving articles or saving news stories, and then do you write them all the one day before you publish? Or is it something you're just kind of slowly putting together as the week goes on?

Noor Chopra: 12:42

I slowly put it together, but I start on the weekend. So it touristy goes out every Tuesday at 8 AM EST. Okay. I start on Saturday or Sunday. Okay.

Noor Chopra: 12:52

Because it's important for me to get because I only cover, like, 6 to 7 stories per issue. It's important for me to choose the ones that I find are most relevant to my community. And then I'll always leave like 1 or 2 articles for the morning off, just in case something happened the night before.

Dylan Redekop: 13:10

Yeah. I guess that's the challenge with writing a weekly newsletter on kind of current events and news and stuff like that is that potentially by the time you know you actually go to publish on Tuesday morning something that happened on Wednesday the week before might be old news and something more important or more relevance come up. Yeah, that makes sense. Have you ever considered publishing more than weekly, more often?

Noor Chopra: 13:29

So very few people know this, but touristy was actually biweekly. So in 2020, it used to go out twice a week. But the thing is, it was going out twice a week for me, my brother, my mom, and my dad. Like, this is the complete reality. I used to have 5 email addresses of my own, 3 of my moms, 2 of my dads, just to make it seem like a big number, but it was just me plus 3 people, you know, in my home.

Noor Chopra: 13:52

So it was taking me days to write and use that. You know, I hadn't quite found my voice yet. I had no users. So it just didn't make sense to put in that much work. So I just I just went weekly.

Noor Chopra: 14:06

It was getting too much. It was getting too much for me. My whole week was just going in content, and I didn't have any growth at the time. But I did have it twice a week, if I remember, for at least 3 months. At least 3 months.

Dylan Redekop: 14:18

At the and that was right around the beginning?

Noor Chopra: 14:19

Yeah. That was right around the beginning. Yeah, I was I was twice a week. I think I did Tuesday Friday. Okay.

Noor Chopra: 14:24

From what I remember.

Dylan Redekop: 14:25

And you mentioned something about, you know, finding your voice. I think I had read in an interview you did with another publication that you had said something about it being a little bit you're not really sure how to necessarily write in your own voice and that took a little bit of time. Do you want to talk about that a little bit about how that experience went to go from maybe writing something a little bit more formal to something more kind of casual, like the tone that you have now? How, what was that process like finding that?

Noor Chopra: 14:49

Okay, so I just wanted to find something that was very authentic to me that other people enjoyed. And the thing is that this is just how I talk locally to my friends. I mean, all of us are online all the time. The way you talk with your friends, it's light. It's informal.

Noor Chopra: 15:05

You know? Also, the content that I'm covering can be dry and dense. You know what I mean? So but the truth is touristy is still giving you the facts. It's still educating you.

Noor Chopra: 15:15

It's just entertaining you at the same time. And anything that's my thoughts is in italics, so that makes it clear. I always have our our thoughts section in the end, which is obvious that it's me. Yeah. But, you know, a lot of people who are subscribed to touristy don't even know that it's me who runs it because I haven't really put my name there yet.

Noor Chopra: 15:32

Right. So I got a lot of responses saying, like, we had no idea that you write touristy. So I I get that a lot. And then I think another way is that I love GIFs. I'm obsessed.

Noor Chopra: 15:44

I'm obsessed with memes and GIFs. I spend so much time. I would say I spend hours before every week finding the perfect meme, perfect GIF, like perfect photos. I'm obsessed. A huge part of tourist is not just the jokes in the ribbon, but also the graphics.

Noor Chopra: 15:59

I want to make it visually appealing. There's a lot to do with a single photo. There's a lot you can do.

Dylan Redekop: 16:04

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, know, what was he saying? A photo, you know, speaks a 1,000 words? Something along those lines. A GIF might be a million.

Dylan Redekop: 16:11

Yeah,

Noor Chopra: 16:13

exactly.

Dylan Redekop: 16:14

And that's one thing I did notice when I was, you know prepping for this interview going through touristy. You do include a lot of imagery, a lot of memes and GIFs that are very relevant to the article. They add some, you know, humor, some levity to the article which I think is again something that's kind of lacking in these more dry topics. So I can tell that you do put that effort in. Have you heard from readers, you know, just feedback that they enjoy the effort that you put in or is it just something that you're doing because you you feel that you want to include that?

Noor Chopra: 16:44

I started hearing that in 2020. Ah. That's when I really googled down on it. In fact, if I go through my I never had a single GIF in, like, 2020 or 2021. It to be more of written words until I started getting feedback.

Noor Chopra: 16:57

I'd get so many emails. I'd get, you know, messages on my personal accounts. And I I feel like once I found my tonality, I knew I had product market fit. Mhmm. And I doubled down on that tonality.

Noor Chopra: 17:10

See, once I had that tone of voice, I knew that, okay, this is something, you know, kids my age are enjoying. And, you know, and I and I love what I do, Dylan. I mean, the truth is I love what I do. So I really just, you know, I don't do a half hearted job on any issue, no matter how busy I am. And I try and find something that genuinely adds value to my reader and makes it fun.

Dylan Redekop: 17:30

Which is, which is awesome. I mean, it's, it's fun to do a job quote unquote that you actually enjoy doing, that you love doing. That's kind of really finding the sweet spot in life, I think. So you are doing touristy, now we haven't we haven't talked about this yet. Is this a side gig for you, or is this your your full

Noor Chopra: 17:48

time focus? The side. I don't have time to do anything else. I'm a solopreneur. I do not have time to do anything.

Noor Chopra: 17:54

We're word-of-mouth driven. We've been completely bootstrapped. So, no, this is now my side. This is definitely my man.

Dylan Redekop: 18:01

Amazing. And so that leads us to, you know, the question of, well, how do you make a living doing this if this is your main thing? So let's start off with maybe how you the story of how you monetize, like how you earned your first dollars, and then we'll talk about maybe your revenue streams that you have right now.

Noor Chopra: 18:15

Okay. So my thoughts are dollars.

Dylan Redekop: 18:19

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Dylan Redekop: 19:06

And now back to the episode. Let's start off with maybe how you the story of how you monetized, like how you earned your first dollars and then we'll talk about maybe your revenue streams that you have right now.

Noor Chopra: 19:17

Okay. So my first ad dollars was an inbound request via Twitter around May 2021.

Dylan Redekop: 19:24

Okay.

Noor Chopra: 19:24

So, like, a year after, almost a year after. At this point, I had, like, 18, 19,000 subscribers, if I remember clearly.

Dylan Redekop: 19:30

Okay.

Noor Chopra: 19:31

Okay. Something like that. That was an inbound request by Twitter. Keep in mind, I started building on Twitter in 2020. Around October, by the end of 2020, I realized for what I do, it's kind of important to build in public and promote myself there.

Noor Chopra: 19:48

So that was important. I had some tweets go viral. That helped.

Dylan Redekop: 19:52

Mhmm.

Noor Chopra: 19:52

My one of my one of my tweets that went viral is well, mini viral, I wouldn't call it viral, but mini viral is my pinned tweet, which also kind of breaks down my journey.

Dylan Redekop: 20:01

Okay.

Noor Chopra: 20:01

So, yeah, the first one was inbound, and it was it was a significant amount, which also kind of showed me, which also kind of showed me, like, the potential that touristy had. Right? Like at that point, monetization was not even a focus. It was just growth. And, you know, I didn't know much about newsletters as well.

Noor Chopra: 20:18

Just coming on Twitter, you know, reading articles, I was kind of getting a sense of newsletter, you know, world, but that was that. And then I did a fair amount of, I would say, affiliate marketing by the end of the year.

Dylan Redekop: 20:31

Okay.

Noor Chopra: 20:32

But just for a short period, I'd say like 5 to 6 months. So I did a lot of affiliate marketing as well. So that was another source of revenue. But I would say the most amount of monetization or the mainly of monetization especially, and a little more consistently has been last year onwards for me, which has been a mix of inbound and outbound. And I do feel fortunate enough that at this point with the word-of-mouth and the scale, the inbound has been significant.

Noor Chopra: 20:58

So that's been good.

Dylan Redekop: 20:59

Wow. That's great.

Noor Chopra: 21:00

Yeah. But, I mean, inbound has been good, which I'm because, I mean, you need to learn how to sell. It's not like magically sponsors are gonna line up, so I'm very aware of that. But, you know, I also do a fair amount of outbound, And that is my focus now, especially. And also, it's not like I just blast emails for just like an ad.

Dylan Redekop: 21:19

You

Noor Chopra: 21:19

know, honestly, for me at this point, it's not about ad dollars. For me, if I see a company or a brand that can genuinely add value to my community, fits within the demographic, you know, I feel like regionally, location wise, demographic, there's alignment, then I don't hesitate to reach out to them at all. I mean, I'm really comfortable shooting somebody an email. Sometimes it has worked out really well

Dylan Redekop: 21:43

Mhmm.

Noor Chopra: 21:43

And sometimes it hasn't. So I'd say it's a mix of inbound and outbound at this point. Yeah.

Dylan Redekop: 21:48

Okay. So when you first started, it was in you had an inbound request. Now it's, I'm That was my vaper. Yeah. I'm curious, when you got that first inbound request, looking back, do you think the ad advertiser was, like lowballing you in terms of price?

Dylan Redekop: 22:02

Or do you think it was a fair offer?

Noor Chopra: 22:04

I think it was a fair offer.

Dylan Redekop: 22:05

Yeah, it was. Okay. And so

Noor Chopra: 22:07

It was a fair

Dylan Redekop: 22:08

offer. Well, that's good.

Noor Chopra: 22:09

I have a good open rate. See, at this point, 1 year into it, I had no background in emails, but at this point, I kind of knew. I mean, I'm living behind the screen, so I'm reading enough to know that at my scale and size and open rate, what is okay, what is not okay. I kind of had a fair sense. And, you know, my my goal was to get maximum traffic to my advertiser, and they actually advertised with us 2 more times.

Dylan Redekop: 22:34

Oh, that's great.

Noor Chopra: 22:35

Yeah. Even some of the affiliate marketing I did turned into recurring advertisers, which I've been fortunate enough. So I make sure to really just give them my best, give them maximum traffic. I'm not too fussy. Like, I work with my I work with the brands that, you know, I feel where there's mutual value for both my community and, yeah.

Dylan Redekop: 22:54

Which is usually the best recipe for success when there's, you know, that alignment between your readers, the brand, you take extra time in crafting the copy. You recently posted on Twitter or not Twitter, on LinkedIn that you had an ad drive, I want to say 480 or 430 clicks or something along those lines. For a sponsor?

Noor Chopra: 23:15

Yeah, I've had more than that. I've had more than that.

Dylan Redekop: 23:18

Which I mean

Noor Chopra: 23:18

But you know, our open rate is good.

Dylan Redekop: 23:20

Yeah, which really, do you mind sharing what your your open rate engagement rate is?

Noor Chopra: 23:23

Yes. So one thing that has been most important to me has been the open rate. Like that is the most important. I mean, I would advise anybody who's even looking to monetize any platform, it's more about engagement than the count. I mean, you know, I got my first check when I was at 20,000 subscribers, and I didn't need a 110 too.

Noor Chopra: 23:43

I had the open rate though. Yeah. Right? I still have the open rate. So I would advise anybody, it's really important to focus on engagement.

Noor Chopra: 23:49

And instead of trying to acquire new users, focus on who you have already. And, my open rate is, even till date, averages 40%. I would say the minimum I've had is, like, 35. Maximum has got 50, but I mean, 50 is quite high, that's rare, but 41, 42 consistently. And also making it weekly has been really good for the open rate, to be honest.

Dylan Redekop: 24:12

What else do you think plays a part in your open rate? Is it subject lines or just the content you've created in the past?

Noor Chopra: 24:18

Well, I 100% go through all the past issues and see the open rates that were like insanely high. Yeah. And I look at the decline for sure. I look at the content. I look at the subject line.

Noor Chopra: 24:29

I look at the I mean, my time is kind of fixed. The time works. Tuesday, 8 AM EST. That's my standard. But, subject line definitely matters.

Dylan Redekop: 24:37

Yeah. And have you played around with your send time as well? Because you seem to be pretty, you know, focused in on that 8 am Eastern time.

Noor Chopra: 24:43

I can't do so much. I do one thing at a time.

Dylan Redekop: 24:46

Fair enough.

Noor Chopra: 24:47

I keep it simple.

Dylan Redekop: 24:48

Well, let's talk about that because you are the solo operator for the newsletter. So as the solo operator, how do you what percentage of your time goes into general operations like, you know, going through your engagement metrics and that sort of thing, soliciting feedback, creating, I guess relationships with advertisers and, you know, pitching ad spots, and then crafting the newsletter? Like, what does that what does your time allotment look like for the average week?

Noor Chopra: 25:16

I think I've, at this point, 4 years into it, I have a good system. So because I went from twice a week to once a week Mhmm.

Dylan Redekop: 25:23

And

Noor Chopra: 25:23

like I thought, I only start writing on the weekend. Saturday or Sunday is when I really just start. But obviously, mentally, I already know if there's something from the previous week that I'm going to write about. I would say I spend the week on all of this except content curation. And then I start writing, I'd say, majority, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

Noor Chopra: 25:43

That's what it is.

Dylan Redekop: 25:44

Okay. Tuesday is

Noor Chopra: 25:45

just kind of fine tuning everything. Tuesday is like the final 10%. But I would say Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, a little bit of Saturday goes in content curation. But the second half of Tuesday, when Wednesday, Thursday, Friday goes in that. And also I work all day.

Noor Chopra: 26:00

Like, I have my phone on me all the time. So, I mean, there's no it's not like I have a set schedule or anything. I work, I work for myself. I work when I want to. Some days I want to pull in all night at work.

Noor Chopra: 26:10

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't schedule, like, you kind of learn on the job when you know, you gotta do it.

Dylan Redekop: 26:16

Yeah, you're your own boss, right? Yeah. So in terms of, like finding sponsors and that sort of thing, how much of your time in the week does that usually take up dealing with advertisers?

Noor Chopra: 26:28

See, like I said, because it's important for me to find alignment, the research is a decent amount. Yeah. You know, so I do agree because I'm not just randomly blasting people for ad dollars and just doing anything. I would say now it has been a little more of a focus now. I've been incredibly focused on growth and doing everything for growth in the past 2 to 3 years.

Noor Chopra: 26:50

So I would say 2 hours a day. Okay. 2 to 3 hours a day. Okay. 2 to 3 hours a day.

Noor Chopra: 26:55

When I'm focusing, I think if you're focused and you come across a good company and you do some research and you gen genuinely see alignment, I mean Yeah. Why not? It's important to personalize the email to show them why they'd want to advertise with you.

Dylan Redekop: 27:08

Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Noor Chopra: 27:10

It's getting inbound and it's the same thing. I mean, there needs to be mutual value for both parties. So I do spend that time.

Dylan Redekop: 27:17

Mhmm.

Noor Chopra: 27:18

And I, you know, I I do care about my community and I'm, you know, wanna give them something they genuinely can benefit from. So, I mean, it does take a fair amount of time, I won't. Like Yeah. That's that's definitely true.

Dylan Redekop: 27:29

And I think it's worth worth investing the time, like you said. I wanted to ask you, listen, I can ask you 2 versions of this question. 1 would be what's the biggest mistake that you see newsletter operators making? Or I'd be curious to know actually what you think sort of maybe your biggest mistake you've made operating the newsletter is that you would, you know, kind of it would almost be your number one piece of advice of what not to do. You can answer either of those 2 questions or both if you want.

Noor Chopra: 27:54

So I don't know about mistakes. But the mistake that I see other people making is that they don't do enough to get it off the ground. Organic content is everything. You need to realize that your users will become your biggest marketers. I think a lot of people just think spending money is the answer to growth when it's not.

Noor Chopra: 28:15

And especially in your early days, and for me at this point, early days is going 4 years into this. I don't know if it's early days. Right? I'm I'm I'm not that I'm opposed to paid ads at all, but I'm just saying, I don't think I would have gotten here had I not focused on growing this organic. Whether that means repurposing content, whether that means finding discovery channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, whether that means leveraging your social network, whether that means doing that scalable, whatever it takes.

Noor Chopra: 28:41

I think more people need to do what it takes to get it off the ground. And I think people need to have a long term mindset. I mean, isn't that important? Like it's been 4 years of me doing this. I mean, I, God knows how many news that the issues I've said at this point.

Noor Chopra: 28:56

So consistency plus a long term mindset, everything. Everything. That's where you got to focus on. I'm going to stop looking at the scoreboard.

Dylan Redekop: 29:03

That's right. Newsletter is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a, you know, maybe some

Noor Chopra: 29:09

Die, die trying.

Dylan Redekop: 29:10

What's that?

Noor Chopra: 29:11

I said die trying. Die trying.

Dylan Redekop: 29:13

Yeah, that's right. Exactly. It's a long term it's a long term play, right? And, I mean, you're proof of the success you can have when you don't just, you know, try to grow something and, you know, find success within the 1st 6 months or a year because had you done that you might have you might have quit within that time frame, right? But keeping a long term mindset saying no, I'm just going to do this, I like doing it, I see the potential of it, I'm getting great feedback, I'm just gonna keep going and see where it takes me.

Dylan Redekop: 29:41

So really good proof of that. What would be, I guess I kind of asked you this already, but do you have a number one piece of advice for somebody who wants to start kind of a news based newsletter similar to, you know, touristy, if they wanted to start growing and monetizing that?

Noor Chopra: 29:54

I would say you firstly have to be really up to date with news. Don't think they're just going to read everything on the last day and just put it out there in general. You have to assume today's user is smart and switched on. We're in the world of like digital media. Everybody knows everything.

Noor Chopra: 30:11

So you really need to a newsletter especially works because you kind of sift through the chaos and the information overload and provide value directly in the inbox. So you kind of need to find your tone of voice and do something that's unique to you. Mhmm. I mean, there's so many new outlets out there. Why would you I think if you do something that's unique to you, it works.

Noor Chopra: 30:32

I mean, you know, when I started, so many people told me this space is saturated, overcrowded. And I mean, there's super low, if any, you know, barriers to entry to start a newsletter today. There's so much out there. So if you are not unique and if you do not provide an authentic tone of voice, it's going to be extremely difficult. So I would say anybody doing news based, you, you need to find your tonality.

Noor Chopra: 30:56

You need to know who your reader is, and, and you need to love what you do. Otherwise, you're not going to speak to her. I mean, you need to be obsessed with doing. You need to be obsessed with doing this. It's not a side gig.

Noor Chopra: 31:06

I would not say it's a side gig.

Dylan Redekop: 31:08

If it is, it probably won't probably take off as well or as quickly because you just

Noor Chopra: 31:13

I must turn really lucky.

Dylan Redekop: 31:14

Yeah. You need that you need the focus and the time to really sink into it, which which you've done really well. So what is next for Noor and Touristy in 2024?

Noor Chopra: 31:24

You know, right now I'm just focused on unlocking growth even more. Mhmm. I feel like at this point, I'm at that point where we could have exponential growth within within the year, the coming years, if I really double down on it. So, I mean, growth is 100%. That's a full time job for me, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Noor Chopra: 31:45

I'm at it everywhere, whatever I can do. But also something that's on my mind maybe would be like a podcast. I mean, it's been on my mind since a while. Yeah. There are so many creators out there that are crushing it.

Noor Chopra: 31:57

And just like what you do, it's amazing to just have a platform to connect with people and, you know, hear about their stories and their journeys. And it's it's amazing, you know. In fact, I've watched some of your previous episodes, and I loved what some of the people had to say. You know, I thought I thought it like, I learned so much, and I feel like if somebody can even take away anything from this, like, that would, that would make me so happy, and that motivates me to even do better. And so, I mean, maybe a podcast that is that is on my mind.

Noor Chopra: 32:29

Yeah. When I say maybe I'm leaning towards it, because it'd be nice to do that.

Dylan Redekop: 32:32

Yeah, that's great.

Noor Chopra: 32:33

Because in this space, so many creators today.

Dylan Redekop: 32:35

Have you ever thought about doing an audio version of your newsletter? No. No. No. Not much interest in doing that?

Noor Chopra: 32:43

No. No. No. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Dylan Redekop: 32:46

But I have

Noor Chopra: 32:46

to remember I'm a solopreneur. Like, that's important to remember. So

Dylan Redekop: 32:50

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. That's fair. So it'd be more like a Noor and Friends take on, you know, The Week in Business kind of thing maybe or something along those lines that would pair complement with touristy?

Noor Chopra: 33:01

I I did think I did think in the past 2, 3 months, except a podcast, the second thing that's been crossing my mind is to go twice a week again.

Dylan Redekop: 33:09

Okay. Okay.

Noor Chopra: 33:10

Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Why not? You know, once a week is good enough.

Noor Chopra: 33:13

It's great. But at this point, the community is significant enough. And, I did run a survey recently, and I've been frequently asking my friends and, you know, within my network and people I engage with. And a lot of people have been open to the idea of it. And, that is something that I could do, make it twice a week.

Dylan Redekop: 33:31

Yeah. That also kind of potentially Well, Nora, it's been awesome having you on the podcast today. Can you share really quickly where people can find you online and where they can subscribe to touristy?

Noor Chopra: 33:51

Okay. So you can find me on touristy.substack.com. That's my newsletter. Just enter your email, you're subscribed. Otherwise, I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, everything it takes to grow this newsletter.

Dylan Redekop: 34:05

So Amazing.

Noor Chopra: 34:06

And, yeah, and the link to subscribe

Dylan Redekop: 34:17

Thank you for taking the time today to talk to us about how you've grown your newsletter and, we wish you all the best in 2024.

Noor Chopra: 34:24

Thank you so much, Dylan. Thank you. This was so fun.

Dylan Redekop: 34:26

You're welcome. Thanks for coming on.

Noor Chopra: 34:28

Thank you. Bye.

Dylan Redekop: 34:30

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Send and Grow podcast. If you like what you heard, here are 3 quick ways that you can show your support. Number 1, leave us a 5 star rating and review in the podcast app of your choice. Number 2, email or d m me with some feedback with your questions or with suggestions for future episodes. And finally, number 3, share your favorite quote from the episode on social media and tag both me and our guest.

Dylan Redekop: 34:57

All of the links for that are in the show notes. And whatever option you choose, I am really grateful for your support. Thanks and see you next week.