# Sponsored newsletter finder Human Guide

## What This Is For
Find newsletters your ICP reads, evaluate their audience fit, and produce a ranked shortlist ready for outreach. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Sponsored newsletter finder agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for sponsored newsletter finder.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Sponsored newsletter finder guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- "Find newsletters I can sponsor to reach [ICP]"
- "What newsletters does my target audience read?"
- "I want to test newsletter sponsorship — where should I start?"
- "Give me a ranked list of newsletters for [industry/role]"
- **ICP definition** — Target title, industry, company stage (e.g., "VP of Sales at Series A-C B2B SaaS companies")
- **Monthly budget** — Rough range for sponsorships (e.g., "$1,000-3,000/month")
- **Geography** — US only, global, or specific region?
- **Campaign goal** — Awareness (brand mention) or direct response (signup/demo)?
- Any newsletters you're already subscribed to or know about in this space? (Seeds the search)
- `newsletter.directory` for category browsing
- `paved.com` for sponsorship marketplace listings
- `swapstack.co` for newsletter ad network

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Use, Phase 0: Intake, Phase 1: Discovery via Web Search, Search Queries to Run, Phase 2: Evaluate Each Newsletter, Scoring Criteria, Data Points to Find for Each Newsletter, Phase 3: Competitive Intelligence, Phase 4: Output Format, Tier 1 — High Priority (Score 20-25).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- | **Sponsor accessibility** | No sponsor info found | Inquiry required | Clear pricing / marketplace listing |
- **Sponsor page:** [url or "inquiry required"]

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Sponsored newsletter finder human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the gooseworks-ai/goose-skills skill entry for `sponsored-newsletter-finder`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Sponsored Newsletter Finder

Find newsletters your ICP reads, evaluate their audience fit, and produce a ranked shortlist ready for outreach. Cheaper and faster than building your own list from scratch — newsletters already have the trust and the audience.

**Best for:** Seed/Series A teams with $500-5,000/month to test a paid distribution channel. Not for companies without budget or companies targeting a mass-market ICP.

## When to Use

- "Find newsletters I can sponsor to reach [ICP]"
- "What newsletters does my target audience read?"
- "I want to test newsletter sponsorship — where should I start?"
- "Give me a ranked list of newsletters for [industry/role]"

## Phase 0: Intake

1. **ICP definition** — Target title, industry, company stage (e.g., "VP of Sales at Series A-C B2B SaaS companies")
2. **Monthly budget** — Rough range for sponsorships (e.g., "$1,000-3,000/month")
3. **Geography** — US only, global, or specific region?
4. **Campaign goal** — Awareness (brand mention) or direct response (signup/demo)?
5. Any newsletters you're already subscribed to or know about in this space? (Seeds the search)

## Phase 1: Discovery via Web Search

Search for newsletters using multiple angles:

### Search Queries to Run

```
"[ICP industry] newsletter" sponsorship
"[ICP role] newsletter" site:substack.com OR site:beehiiv.com
"best newsletters for [ICP role/industry]"
"[ICP industry] newsletter" "advertise" OR "sponsor"
"[competitor company] newsletter sponsorship" (find where competitors are already advertising)
newsletter directory "[ICP industry]"
```

Also search curated newsletter directories:
- `newsletter.directory` for category browsing
- `paved.com` for sponsorship marketplace listings
- `swapstack.co` for newsletter ad network
- `sparkloop.co` for referral partnerships

Collect: newsletter name, URL, estimated subscribers, topics covered, sponsorship page URL if found.

## Phase 2: Evaluate Each Newsletter

For each discovered newsletter, score across 5 dimensions (1-5 each):

### Scoring Criteria

| Dimension | 1 | 3 | 5 |
|-----------|---|---|---|
| **Audience match** | Unrelated audience | Partial overlap | Direct ICP match |
| **Reach** | <1,000 subscribers | 5,000-20,000 | 20,000+ |
| **Engagement** | No open rate data | ~30-40% open rate | 40%+ open rate |
| **Niche specificity** | Generic business newsletter | Industry newsletter | Role-specific newsletter |
| **Sponsor accessibility** | No sponsor info found | Inquiry required | Clear pricing / marketplace listing |

**Total score: /25. Shortlist newsletters scoring ≥ 15.**

### Data Points to Find for Each Newsletter

Search for:
- Subscriber count (often on the "About" or "Advertise" page)
- Open rate (sometimes disclosed, often ~40-50% for niche newsletters)
- CPM or flat sponsorship rate
- Audience demographics (if disclosed)
- Past sponsors (who's already buying? = validation)
- Send frequency (weekly, daily, etc.)

For newsletters with no pricing page, estimate CPM from industry benchmarks:
- **Micro** (<5k subs): $50-150 flat rate
- **Small** (5k-20k subs): $100-500 flat rate
- **Mid** (20k-50k subs): $500-2,000 flat rate
- **Large** (50k+ subs): $1,000-10,000 flat rate

## Phase 3: Competitive Intelligence

Check if known competitors are sponsoring newsletters in this space: