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How I lit $28,000 on fire with ads, and what it taught me about building a sustainable author business

I tried to scale a working newsletter with paid ads, and found out the hard way that growth without strategy burns fast.

Russell Nohelty's avatar
Russell Nohelty
Aug 04, 2025
∙ Paid

Hi,

My saga with ads is long and sorted. There have been over a half dozen articles about my experience dropping over $50,000 on ads over the past year. I think this one will close it out, but maybe not.

If you want to catch up, here are all the other articles.

Why (and how) I fell back in love with advertising

Why (and how) I fell back in love with advertising

Russell Nohelty
·
February 21, 2024
Read full story
Advertising and unsubscribe rate update - mid January 2024

Advertising and unsubscribe rate update - mid January 2024

Russell Nohelty
·
January 16, 2024
Read full story
WTF happened in the last two weeks...

WTF happened in the last two weeks...

Russell Nohelty
·
May 22, 2024
Read full story
Ad reports from growth agency

Ad reports from growth agency

Russell Nohelty
·
May 24, 2024
Read full story
Daily newsletter testing

Daily newsletter testing

Russell Nohelty
·
July 3, 2024
Read full story
2024 advertising analysis

2024 advertising analysis

Russell Nohelty
·
December 14, 2024
Read full story
Why I cut 11,756 people from my email list

Why I cut 11,756 people from my email list

Russell Nohelty
·
July 13, 2025
Read full story

Let me take you back. Over a year ago, I ran paid ads to grow my newsletter. I spent over $50…

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