A Better Lemonade Stand #286

Insights, trends & tools to build a better online business.

Hey,

Me again. Hitting you up to share this week’s insights, trends, tools, and opportunities for building better online businesses.

Quick thing I need from you this week. I’m hunting for top-notch newsletters that I might not know about.

I just cut a dozen or so newsletters from my weekly reading list and looking to fill the void with new, interesting, exciting, and emerging newsletters in digital marketing, AI, and no-code.

Your favorites might just redefine my feed and our future discussions.

Ok, let’s get into this week’s curated content:

  • 📰 Newsletter Template Guide: Explore newsletter templates by Matt McGarry to tailor your content to your audience.

  • 👤 Personalize Your Email Marketing: Get strategies to blend your personality with tailored content for effective email marketing.

  • 🏷️ Master Startup Acquisition: Learn how to acquire, grow, and sell startups successfully.

  • 📱 TikTok Rewards Program: TikTok offers content creators tailored rewards, insightful analytics, and support to fuel their growth.

Plus, insights on balancing your personal and professional life and insider lessons from Andrew Pierno, who has built and acquired over 40 products.

P.S. I wanted to remind you that 100DaysOfAI is about to start (April 1st). It’s a commitment to learning AI for 30 minutes every day for 100 days, along with 8,000 others. A straightforward way to boost your skills with daily, bite-sized learning. (Completely Free)

P.P.S. Don't miss this week's sponsor highlight - The Rundown. It's been a staple in my newsletter diet for the past year, consistently delivering valuable insights on essential tech and AI developments. Highly recommended.

AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI might. That’s why 500,000+ professionals read The Rundown – the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news and teaches you how to apply it in just 5 minutes a day.

 💡 Insights

📰 Matthew McGarry's Guide to Newsletter Templates

Matt McGarry curates tailored newsletter templates to help target your audience's interests effectively based on your content style.

  • Engaging Visuals: Discover how Chartr, Growth Design, Bay Area Times, and Visual Capitalists leverage infographics and charts to make complex information more accessible and engaging.

  • Machine Learning: Learn how Refind and Essentials use machine learning to curate personalized content recommendations based on user interests.

  • Short and Daily: How newsletters such as A Word A Day and Get 8 AM provide bite-sized insights or information to subscribers daily.

👤 Add Your Own ‘Voice’ to Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Inbox Collective provides insights into creating emails that blend your personality with tailored content that resonates with your reader.

  • Strategies for Adding Personality: Explore techniques such as storytelling, welcome series tactics, and personalized notes to humanize your emails.

  • Implementing Personalization: Discover methods like dynamic content, progressive profiling, and leveraging personalization tools to deliver targeted and relevant content.

  • Enhancing Engagement: Learn how to maintain consistency in tone and style across your email communications.

🏷️ A Proven Guide to Master Startup Acquisition

Ryan Kulp, founder of Fomo.com, shares a free course on "How to Buy, Grow, and Sell Startups."

  • Strategic Acquisition: Learn how to Identify, negotiate, and acquire startups tailored to your skill set and investment goals.

  • Efficient Scaling: Get battle-tested techniques for scaling acquired businesses efficiently and developing marketing plans for rapid growth.

  • Maximizing Returns: Gain knowledge on structuring deals, financing options, and crafting exit strategies to maximize returns on your startup investments.

🛣️ Andrew Piernos’s Path to Entrepreneurship

Andrew Pierno shares his insights from successfully building and acquiring over 40 products.

  • Buying vs. Building: Discover the advantages of purchasing existing businesses over starting from scratch, and learn how to leverage your skill set effectively.

  • Stacking Experience: Explore the significance of continually sharpening your skills and diversifying your expertise to gain a competitive edge.

  • Multi-Tasking Mastery: Uncover Andrew's secrets to managing multiple ventures while maintaining productivity and balance.

📰 22 Lessons from Successful Newsletter Creators

Explore insights from successful newsletter creators in this two-part series, offering strategies for growth, monetization, and content creation.

  • Create a Paid Growth Flywheel: Reinvest revenue to fuel growth by running newsletters like startups, maximizing resources for scaling efforts.

  • Craft Irresistible Content: Blend sweet and informative content into "Chocolate-covered Almond" style newsletters, offering both enjoyment and substance to readers.

  • Own Your Niche Perspective: Carve out a unique space in the market by delivering content with a distinctive perspective, attracting loyal subscribers seeking a fresh take on relevant topics.

🌱 Balancing Personal and Professional Fulfillment

Discover how you can flourish in both your personal and professional spheres, overcoming barriers and optimizing growth opportunities.

  • Culture of Purpose: Align your business goals and values, and find meaning in your entrepreneurial ventures.

  • Building Resilience Amidst Challenges: Look at setbacks as opportunities for growth.

  • Fostering Authentic Connections: Prioritize genuine customer relationships that fuel innovation and foster mutual flourishing.

🧰 Apps & Tools

🛒 Microns - Use this marketplace to find affordable startups for sale without breaking the bank, saving valuable time and effort by buying ready-made projects without paying commission fees. You can use this to skip the hassle of building from scratch and start with ready-made projects that align with your vision.

🧹 Aboard - If you find yourself constantly juggling between multiple projects and ideas daily, you can use this tool to help gather tabs and docs, and turn them into perfectly organized boards, doing a well-structured online workshop that you’ll love to visit every day, to help tackle each project and idea with clarity.

🎙 Podwise - This app simplifies extracting insights from podcast episodes. It can be integrated with tools like Notion and Readwise, allowing you to transfer podcast knowledge into your notes and making them easily accessible for future reference for your projects.

📸 Flair.AI- Access AI-generated backgrounds and objects to showcase your product. This will help your products stand out in a competitive market and save you time and money from spending on props.

🫂 Eternity - Create your digital clone by turning your thoughts and selfies into life-like 3D avatars that answer questions based on the user’s prompt. This allows you to stand out as it answers questions from your target audience 24/7.

🧠 Marblism - Create powerful apps with just one single prompt. It takes care of the front-end and backened for you. This allows you to focus on core ideas and business objectives without technical complexities.

🤝 Dub - A link management tool that shortens your links and helps you track link metrics. This can help you decide where to focus your growth efforts.

✍️ Sebora - This AI-powered blog post generator creates articles with images and tailored keywords. You can integrate this with WordPress to schedule posts and boost your visibility on Google search results.

🗞️ News

AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI might. That’s why 500,000+ professionals read The Rundown – the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news and teaches you how to apply it in just 5 minutes a day.

🤖 Microsoft Appoints Mustafa Suleyman to Lead AI Initiative

Microsoft announces the appointment of Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection, to accelerate the company's AI efforts and commitment to advancing consumer AI products like Copilot.

  • Strategic Leadership: The infusion of talent from Inflection enhances Microsoft's consumer AI research and product development efforts.

  • Renowned Expertise: Mustafa's background includes founding successful ventures like DeepMind and Inflection. He brings visionary leadership and expertise to Microsoft.

  • Continued Evolution: This strategic partnership with OpenAI underscores Microsoft’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of AI technology.

📱 Introducing TikTok's New Creator Rewards Program

TikTok introduces the Creator Rewards Program. This gives creators tailored rewards, insightful analytics, and support to fuel their growth on the platform.

  • Optimized Rewards: Explore a refined rewards formula that recognizes high-quality, original content over one minute long.

  • Insightful Dashboard: Access a dashboard for updated analytics and deeper content analysis.

  • Support for Growth: Utilize the Creator Academy and improved Monetization module to enhance your TikTok journey.

🤖 GPT-4.5 Turbo Leak Reveals OpenAI's Next Breakthrough

Look inside at the leaked details of OpenAI's upcoming GPT-4.5 model.

  • Unveiling the Leak: Bing and DuckDuckGo indexed GPT-4.5 Turbo before the official announcement.

  • Breaking Down the Teaser: Explore the potential enhancements in speed, accuracy, and scalability.

  • Speculations and Insights: Analyze the implications of GPT-4.5's leak on the AI landscape with its potential to disrupt industries.

🖇️ Interesting Links

📈 Trends

The Future 100 annual report was just released, and it reveals 100 micro-trends around creativity and connections with expert research and predictions beyond 2024. Use this to identify new opportunities for innovation and adapt new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. (Link)

🎟️ Virtual Event

Get exclusive insights into the journeys of how successful solopreneurs have started, operated, and scaled their businesses by signing up for Summit today (26th of March). (Link)

📑 Newsletter Growth

This Reddit ads experiment generated $0.35 per subscriber, totaling 510 subscribers for their newsletter project. Typically, paid ads cost $1 to $2 or more per subscriber, making this experiment an attractive and cost-effective option for you to explore. (Link)

💰 Investments

Pieter Levels reveals his investment portfolio, showing that he is generating $120k monthly returns. Understanding how Pieter diversifies his investments can give you the inspiration and knowledge to optimize your own investment portfolio. (Link)

🛒 How to Acquire a Business

Ryan Kulp gives his insights on the most effective approaches to sourcing, negotiating, and acquiring digital businesses in this free course from Acquire. (Link)

What a journey each week's newsletter is—curating, writing, editing, and publishing. It's a task that has grown more complex than I ever anticipated when I relaunched A Better Lemonade Stand’s newsletter a year ago.

Yet, here I am, feeling more invigorated and clear-headed about the path I want to pave for A Better Lemonade Stand in the coming year than I have in a long while.

To those of you still reading, I appreciate you. 🖖 

Whether you're opening my newsletter for the first time or you've been a part of this journey for longer, thank you for allowing me to share my insights and interests with you.

I'm just an email away, so don't hesitate to hit reply. Tell me about the exciting projects you're embarking on, any challenges you're facing, or any groundbreaking tools you've discovered.

Until next week, stay curious and connected.

Richard 👊🏼