He spends $1M per month on ads. And makes $50M per year.

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“Most people underestimate how long it takes for anything meaningful to happen.” — Matt Paulson, MarketBeat

Matt Paulson is the founder of MarketBeat, one of the largest independent financial media brands on the internet. What started as a scrappy side project eventually turned into a multi-newsletter business serving millions of investors, driven primarily by search, disciplined publishing, and long-term thinking.

In this episode, Matt walks through how MarketBeat grew over time, why newsletters became a central growth lever, how monetization evolved alongside the audience, and what most creators misunderstand about “overnight success.” This is a grounded, reality-based look at building a newsletter business that lasts.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why Matt believes most newsletter creators reach for paid growth far too early
• The channel Matt actively avoided for years, even as others obsessed over it
• The two most important metrics Matt pays attention to
• MarketBeat's sign-up flow that earns back paid growth spend 
• The surprising channel Matt is most bullish on today and why it prints money
• What “organic growth” actually looked like when it wasn’t glamorous
• How MarketBeat evaluated channels based on profit, not attention
• The point where “more traffic” stopped being the goal
• What Matt would double down on today if starting from zero

LINKS MENTIONED

• MarketBeat.com
• MattPaulson.com
• MarketBeat YouTube Channel
• NewMediaSummit.com (use GIR20 for 20% off your ticket)
• Take your newsletter to the next level with Chenell & Dylan — join GIR Pro today
• All of Chenell's Free Content → 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

• Chenell: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Dylan: LinkedIn | Substack | Instagram

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

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