I am not going to lie. I went into this thinking it would take a weekend.
It took one night. 🌙
Here is exactly what happened, what I messed up, and what you actually need to launch your first newsletter. No fluff. Just the real stuff.
Why I Even Started This 🤔
I wanted a place to put my thoughts. Playbooks, how-tos, frameworks, lessons from figuring things out in real time. Not tied to my job. Not tied to anyone else. Just mine.
The problem was I kept overthinking the setup. Do I need a website? Do I need a developer? Do I need a custom domain first?
Turns out the answer to all of those is no.
The First Decision That Almost Derailed Me 📧
Before I even touched Beehiiv I almost made a classic mistake.
I was going to use my personal Gmail. The one I use for everything. Work stuff, personal stuff, random subscriptions. That would have been a mess.
If you are building a personal brand, even a small one, you need a dedicated email for it. Something that matches your brand name. Mine is [email protected].
Takes five minutes to set up. Do it before anything else.
One thing worth mentioning though. You do not need a custom domain to get started. Beehiiv gives you a free subdomain right out of the box. Mine is thefirst1percent.beehiiv.com and it works perfectly. Try the whole thing out first before spending money on a domain. If you stick with it and feel good about the direction then buy the domain. If not you saved yourself twelve dollars and a decision you did not need to make yet.
Picking The Platform 🛠️
I looked at Substack. I looked at Notion. I even thought about building something from scratch using AI.
Here is what I landed on and why.
Substack has a built-in network which sounds great until you realize they take 10% of every paid subscription forever. Notion is great for organizing but it is not built for newsletters. Building from scratch is overkill when you have zero subscribers.
I went with Beehiiv. Free plan, clean design, built-in blog, subscribe forms, analytics, and monetization when you are ready. No technical setup. No coding. Just sign up and go.
But honestly at the end of the day this is a personal preference. I am not here to sell you on Beehiiv. There are other great platforms out there and what works for me might not work for you. What matters is that you pick something and start. Do not let the platform decision become the reason you never launch.
The Brand Name Came First 🎯
Before I touched any settings I locked in the brand.
I had an idea I wanted to explore. Something around the concept of the first 1%. That feeling of being at the very beginning of something. A new role, a new business, a hard decision. The part where everything is uncertain and figuring it out is the whole game.
But before I committed to a name I did something I would recommend to anyone starting out. I talked it through with AI first.
I went to Claude and just started sharing what I was trying to build. What it was for. Who it was for. What I wanted people to feel when they read it. And I asked it to challenge my thinking. Push back on the name. Poke holes in the concept. Make me defend it.
That conversation helped me get clear faster than I would have on my own. I did not just want a cool name. I wanted a name that meant something and held up when someone asked me what it was about.
If you do not have a name yet, do not just brainstorm in your head. Open Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini and have a real conversation about what you are trying to build. Tell it your ideas and ask it to challenge you. You will land somewhere much sharper.
Mine ended up as:
Name: The First 1% URL: thefirst1percent.beehiiv.com Tagline: Practical moves for people figuring it out.
Simple. Clear. Defended.
Setting Up Beehiiv — What To Fill In And What To Skip 🧩
Okay so you have your email, your platform, and your brand name. Now you actually set the thing up. Here is every screen I went through and what actually matters.
Publication details
This is your first impression. Fill in your name, tagline, and description fully. Do not leave placeholders. Write it like a real human, not a marketing deck.
For the description I used:
The First 1% is for anyone in the early stages of something. A career, a business, a new role, a hard decision. No fluff, no hindsight bias. Just practical frameworks and honest takes from someone still in it.
Short. Specific. Real.
Email sending details
Set your sender name as a person not a brand. People open emails from people. I used Jon from The First 1% instead of just The First 1%. Small thing, big difference in open rates.
Set your reply-to as your brand email. That way when people reply they are not hitting a dead inbox.
Email footer
You legally need a physical address here. CAN-SPAM law. I skipped it for now since I am just getting started but you will need to add one before your first real send. Options are your home address, a PO box, or a virtual mailbox service. I will sort this out before I hit send to real subscribers.
Preset emails — the welcome email
This is the most important thing you will set up. Every single subscriber gets this email the moment they sign up. Make it count.
Do not make it corporate. Write it like you are texting a friend who just joined something cool. Tell them what to expect. And always end with a question. Ask them what they are working on right now. People reply and that reply trains email clients to trust your future sends.
Also check the variable syntax before you paste anything in. I tried to use a first name variable with the wrong format and it broke. Beehiiv has its own syntax. Click the merge tags button in the editor and use exactly what it shows you.
Content access
Keep everything free. Do not put up a paywall when you have zero subscribers. Your only job right now is to build trust and get people to know you. Free content does that. Paywalls just add friction before you have earned it.
Website template
Beehiiv gives you three options. Link in Bio, Simple Blog, and News Site.
I went with Link in Bio because I am leading with a newsletter, not a blog. It is clean, fast, and gets people to subscribe without distractions.
If you want people to browse your posts and read on the web, go with Simple Blog. News Site is overkill unless you are running a publication with multiple writers and daily content.
Button links
Keep it to one button for now. No empty placeholders. One clear call to action. Mine says Join the waitlist. Clean and simple.
As you build out your social presence, add those links later. For now less is more.
Categories
Pick the one that fits best. Mine is Career and Self Development. Do not overthink it. You can change it later.
The Mistakes I Made So You Do Not Have To 🤦
Okay here is the fun part.
Mistake 1 — Two subscribe buttons
I accidentally set up a Link in Bio button that said Subscribe AND the built-in email form was already doing the same thing. Two subscribe options stacked on top of each other. Looked messy. Deleted one and kept the cleaner version.
Mistake 2 — Wrong variable syntax
I tried to add a personalized first name to my welcome email. Used the wrong format. It did not work. Always click the merge tags button inside the Beehiiv editor and use exactly what it gives you. Do not copy syntax from other platforms.
Mistake 3 — The draft URL confusion
I could not find my public post link for way too long. The URL kept showing draft=true at the end which meant nobody could see it. Turns out you need to click Preview from the Review screen to get the real public link. The shareable link has no tracking code or draft tag. Just the clean URL.
Mistake 4 — Overthinking the tools
I almost spent hours going down a rabbit hole of Notion, custom domains, and building everything from scratch before publishing a single word. None of that matters until you have content and subscribers. Start simple. Upgrade later when you actually need it.
Mistake 5 — Skipping the bio details
I moved through some settings too fast and had to go back. Take your time on the bio and description. That is what people read when they are deciding whether to subscribe. It is worth getting right on day one.
What You Actually Need To Launch 📋
Forget everything else. Here is the minimum viable setup.
A brand name you believe in. Do not skip this step.
A dedicated email address for your brand. Not your personal one.
A Beehiiv account on the free plan. No domain required.
A profile photo. Use a real one of yourself. People subscribe to people.
A welcome email that sounds like a human wrote it.
One post ready to publish on day one. Do not launch empty.
That is it. Everything else is extra.
The Result 🎉
By the end of the night I had a live newsletter. A published first post. A public link I could share with anyone. And a welcome email waiting for every new subscriber.
Total cost: zero dollars. Total time: one evening. Tools used: Beehiiv and Claude.
The hardest part was not the setup. It was just deciding to start.
If you have been thinking about starting a newsletter or a blog this is your sign. You do not need a website. You do not need a developer. You do not need a perfect plan.
You just need to start. 💪
Want to build yours tonight? 👇
Here is the exact URL to get started:
👉 beehiiv.com → Sign up for free
Sign up with a dedicated email, pick your name, and follow the steps above. Every single thing I walked through is in this post. You have everything you need.
And if you want more posts like this, subscribe below. The First 1% drops practical content for people figuring it out in real time. No theory. Just what actually works.
See you in the next one. 👋