This is the first month of my 12 startups on 12 months. The first product I am starting with is called “The Intelligent Commerce”. It's going to be a weekly newsletter dedicated to helping Shopify brands like yours tap into the incredible power of AI. It will provide tips, tricks, tools, and app recommendations.

I could have easily gone with a generic e-commerce newsletter, but I decided to niche down and focus specifically on AI for Shopify brands. I think it's important to cater to your specific needs and interests.

There are a few reasons why I chose this as the first project:

• Firstly, creating a newsletter is relatively straightforward, thanks to some great off-the-shelf tools available. This means I can get up and running quickly and really focus my efforts on marketing and growing the subscriber list. Plus, it gives me a chance to hone my marketing skills along the way.

• I recently read "The Minimalist Entrepreneur" which stressed the importance of building a community. By focusing on this newsletter, I hope to establish a following and gain insights into different e-commerce communities.

• Lastly, working in e-commerce myself, I believe this is an excellent way to generate ideas for future projects throughout this challenge. It's a win-win situation!

This week’s successes:

• I've successfully set up the newsletter in Beehiiv.

• The first post introducing "The Intelligent Commerce" is all set and ready to go.

• I've created social media accounts dedicated to the newsletter.

• I've also created a welcoming email for new subscribers.

This week’s learnings:

• Interestingly, there aren't many newsletters out there that focus specifically on Shopify brands. Most of the e-commerce newsletters I came across felt outdated and didn't prioritize tools and tips for brands like yours.

• I'm quite impressed with Beehiiv. It's been incredibly user-friendly, and I'll definitely be using it for other projects too, like this newsletter.

• Just because you create a newsletter and write a post doesn't automatically mean people will flock to read it. The initial challenge lies in driving traffic to the top of the funnel and getting those eyes on my content.

Next week

• I'll be diving into the Bullseye framework to figure out which channels are worth testing for growth.

• I'm also planning to build a growth experiments tracker to keep tabs on the progress of my various experiments.

• I'll be launching my very first growth experiment!

That’s it for this week’s update!

I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to share my newsletter with someone else: https://freddys-notes.beehiiv.com/

See you next week,

Freddy