I'm self-referring 1,000+ clicks/week. Figured I'd share how.

Background: In June 2010, I started an email newsletter, Now I Know (http://dlewis.net/nik), which shares a 500-word story about an interesting fact each day, M-F. I've grown it to over 40,000 subscribers over that time period. I see the newsletter as a side project/lifestyle startup, not one where VC would make sense (or a $10mm exit possible). I'm always looking for new ways to get more subscribers, and what's worked best are endorsements -- basically, people telling others to check out the site. I've gotten a lot of subscribers from bloggers doing exactly that (and am glad to share examples if you'd like), and about a month ago, it occurred to me that I could probably put together a tumblr which would do exactly that.

Two weeks ago today, I started the sister project, a tumblr called Fact and a Photo (http://factandaphoto.tumblr.com). The concept is straight forward -- a photo and a related fact, published once a day. It's incredibly easy to upkeep -- I just need to keep dumping stuff into the tumblr queue whenever I find things. The tumblr is in the same "learn something new every day" genre as the newsletters.

Fact and a Photo is pretty minimalist. There's the photo, the fact, and on the top of each page, the title of the site. Below the title is a description of the site, and then, in the same-sized text "Want to learn more? Click here to learn something new every day." The last sentence links to Now I Know's landing page, and occasionally, a post will have a link to a relevant Now I Know issue.

In two weeks, I've sent 2,500 clicks from Fact and a Photo over to Now I Know, with 1,000 or so coming in the last seven days. About half went to my landing pages, and it looks like 15% or so are converting, maybe 20%, but regardless, that's pretty typical for a vague endorsement. In any event, I'm getting about 20 new subscribers a day from my own (other) site.

As a bonus, this accidental strategy works like any other decent blog would, hopefully building upon itself as it grows. I'm at about 800 followers on the tumblr, and I've had little success in getting links from that medium previously. So maybe in time, I'll become my own biggest referrer.