s
J
Justin Welsh
Esc
Researched profile.
Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from
80
public sources — the founder didn't write it.
Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort.
How this works →
How Justin Welsh Grew
Courses and resources for aspiring solopreneurs
How did Justin Welsh grow?
Summary of the sourced claims below
Justin Welsh grew his business primarily through organic social media content, especially on LinkedIn where he built a large following by writing about his journey and posting daily. He also grew his email list by funneling traffic from LinkedIn and Twitter to his newsletter, which helped build trust with his audience. His growth was supported by SEO improvements and word-of-mouth referrals from course participants and an affiliate program.
Channels
15 channels · grouped by how Justin Welsh grows
-
Organic social media
· 13 mentions · 13 sources“the secrets to getting hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and LinkedIn...I think the most important thing to think about, if you can commit to getting on social media, choosing a topic you're passionate about, really educating yourself about it, and then going out and writing consisten...”
highShow 12 more quotes
“I bounce ideas off of a great group of online friends from both Twitter and LinkedIn. We jump on a Zoom or meet out for a beer and just chat through the issues or challenges we’re facing.”
medium“Twitter doesn’t track analytics as effectively as LinkedIn. But a manual export shows that I did 198,410,000 impressions on Twitter in 2022. That activity led to 129,200 visitors to my website.”
high“I have built a large following on social media, with 380K followers on LinkedIn and 330K followers on Twitter.”
high“All of this is powered by his LinkedIn, Twitter, and newsletter”
medium“550K+ people are following my journey on LinkedIn and 480k+ on Twitter. And I have 215k+ subscribers on my weekly newsletter.”
high“Welsh focused heavily on content creation to drive traffic, posting on LinkedIn every day for nearly four years. This discipline earned him over 600,000 followers across LinkedIn and Twitter, which in turn funneled customers to his courses.”
high“This was achieved through 100% organic social posting on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram, writing my newsletter, and with SEO. I never ran any paid ads.”
high“Content OS, he provides a 9-step system you can use to create one high-quality newsletter and 6–12 pieces of social content every single week. With LinkedIn OS, Justin leverages knowledge gleaned from his own LinkedIn success to help others create, grow, and monetize their own personal brand on t...”
high“He relocated to Catskill Mountains, NY, starting LinkedIn content in August 2019, growing to 600K+ followers.”
medium“What really drives his biz is his massive social media following, boasting 380K fans on LinkedIn, 330K on Twitter...Justin was all about dropping one unique piece of content on LinkedIn every weekday. ... In the latter half of 2022, he upped his game to posting twice a day, seven days a week, rac...”
high“My primary channel has been LinkedIn since 2019, where I've grown to over 230,000 followers over the last 3 years. I generally post 2x per day, each morning at 7:15a CST and each afternoon around 12:05p CST. I'll likely cross 100M impressions from my content there this year.”
high“relying on daily LinkedIn/X posts”
medium -
LinkedIn
· 8 mentions · 8 sources“The first one is what I call discovery. And that is just getting discovered by new people at the top of funnels. So on Twitter, on LinkedIn, people who have never discovered me, who have no idea who I am, who have never seen my name and face before, I want them to find me on those social media pl...”
highShow 7 more quotes
“I have built a large following on social media, with 380K followers on LinkedIn...My flagship products are two digital courses...The first course, The LinkedIn Operating System... With over 11K students enrolled, this course is considered the most helpful LinkedIn course on the market.”
high“So before leaving, I started building my brand on LinkedIn. And the results were pretty phenomenal. ... In just six months, I grew from zero followers to over 20,000 and used that to build a pipeline of qualified consulting clients.”
high“This was achieved through 100% organic social posting on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram, writing my newsletter, and with SEO. I never ran any paid ads.”
high“With LinkedIn OS, Justin leverages knowledge gleaned from his own LinkedIn success to help others create, grow, and monetize their own personal brand on the platform.”
high“Batch 7 posts Sundays (4 AM); repurpose top 20% to Twitter/X; test headlines for 10x reach.”
medium“My business is fueled by my social media following. I have 380K followers on LinkedIn and 330K followers on Twitter.”
high“Justin Welsh started with helping solopreneurs who wanted to grow their business and make more sales with the help of LinkedIn.”
medium -
Newsletter
· 6 mentions · 6 sources“I have a newsletter that's approaching 100,000 subscribers. So I sell sponsorships to companies who want to get in front of, you know, their ideal customer if that person or group of people happen to be my readership.”
highShow 5 more quotes
“Additionally, my weekly newsletter, The Saturday Solopreneur, has 80K subscribers.”
high“My newsletter is The Saturday Solopreneur.”
high“This was achieved through 100% organic social posting on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram, writing my newsletter, and with SEO. I never ran any paid ads.”
high“I have a newsletter with 30,000 subscribers and I'm also starting to become active on Instagram since roughly 3 weeks ago.”
high“a trust-building newsletter”
medium -
Affiliate program
· 6 mentions · 6 sources“With over 11K students enrolled in his course, a whole bunch of them are part of his affiliate program. Loads of students, plus a generous 35% affiliate fee, has been Justin’s secret sauce to “swarm the market.” ... To date, his affiliates have drummed up over 1,570+ conversions ... contributing ...”
highShow 5 more quotes
“The rest of my income comes from course sales, coaching, newsletter sponsorships, affiliate deals, and more.”
medium“One cool thing to note is that he’s also become an affiliate for several of the companies whose tools he relies on to run his business. ... All for passively recommending tools he already uses.”
medium“At the halfway point of the course, people are encouraged to leave a testimonial and sign up for my affiliate program. I built the same automation at the conclusion of the course. I now have 3,247 affiliates that have generated $600K in revenue.”
high“Affiliates add $25K+ yearly.”
medium“With over 11K students in my course, I’ve enrolled a lot of them into my affiliate program.”
high -
SEO
· 5 mentions · 5 sources“January 2022 saw another big move. Justin switched his website from Carrd to a platform called Kajabi. ... Justin got busy churning out free articles, guides, and a weekly newsletter, now with over 60 issues ... Organic traffic went from being almost non-existent to driving over 45K new visitors ...”
highShow 4 more quotes
“And I make sure those articles are SEO-optimized, again for top-of-funnel discovery. That is all the marketing that I do.”
high“This was achieved through 100% organic social posting on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Instagram, writing my newsletter, and with SEO. I never ran any paid ads.”
high“I started producing free articles, guides, and a weekly newsletter that has over 60 issues to date. Organic traffic went from being negligible to driving over 45K new website visitors in 2022.”
high“I also worked with my buddy, Brendan Hufford, to drastically improve the SEO of my website.”
high -
Email List Growth
· 5 mentions · 5 sources“I started producing free articles, guides, and a weekly newsletter that has over 60 issues to date.”
highShow 4 more quotes
“Regular Growth C2A’s: Every week, he promotes his newsletter once the day before the email goes out (“sign up to get XYZ tomorrow”) and once the day after. I’ve already begun testing this at Hampton and it’s extremely effective, sometimes driving more clicks and signups than even our most popular...”
medium“a blog, a newsletter, email automation, email triggers, one-click upsells... I moved to Kajabi and had all that stuff under one roof”
medium“He funnels LinkedIn/Twitter traffic to a 175K+ email list, then converts via evergreen courses like LinkedIn OS ($200) and Creator MBA, hitting 90% profits through no-code automation and self-serve sales.”
medium“What really drives his biz is his massive social media following, boasting 380K fans on LinkedIn, 330K on Twitter, and a 100K strong weekly newsletter called ‘The Saturday Solopreneur.’ ... Justin got busy churning out free articles, guides, and a weekly newsletter, now with over 60 issues under ...”
medium -
Online Community
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“To find clients for my consulting business, I started writing about my journey building PatientPop on LinkedIn, which was an unconventional platform for sharing advice and thought leadership back then. My content stood out, and I attracted a small following of 20K people over seven months.”
highShow 1 more quote
“I opened a private community for creators and charged $199 for an annual membership. Those who completed my course were prompted to join the community.”
high -
Weekly newsletter
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“In 40 months, I've grown The Saturday Solopreneur readership to 185K subscribers while pruning the list regularly.”
highShow 1 more quote
“And I have 215k+ subscribers on my weekly newsletter.”
high -
Word of mouth
· 1 mention“Welsh’s organic growth is fueled by his daily social media content and word-of-mouth referrals from course participants.”
medium -
Earned media
· 1 mention“I was doing a podcast with Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole, showing their audience my system for creating content.”
medium -
Twitter
· 1 mention“In October 2021, I decided to add Twitter to the mix. I’ve now posted over 500 days in a row and grown my following from 8K to 325K in 16 months. ... That activity led to 129,200 visitors to my website.”
high -
Content marketing
· 1 mention“The great thing is that my business runs on content. And content works for you while you're not working yourself. That's why I love a content-driven business. ... So, I kept writing articles that talked about problems and positioned my products as solutions. That's it.”
high -
Peer Community
· 1 mention“Justin Welsh cultivates a tight-knit network of creators and entrepreneurs through his “Unsubscribe” community (835+ members), hosting intimate in-person events in places like Belgravia for deep connections beyond noisy Discords.”
medium -
Lead magnets
· 1 mention“So every day, what I'm trying to do is move people from Twitter and LinkedIn onto my website. Once I do that, it's pretty simple. Discovery, trust, expertise, and authority. And then it's a presentation of an offer...newsletter for trust, authority, and expertise, and then asking people to buy so...”
high -
Referral Program
· 1 mention“This selective circle—born from LinkedIn OS course alumni—drives his $10M ecosystem via referrals, not scale.”
medium
How 2,878 businesses grow
Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each —
Justin Welsh’s highlighted.
-
Referral/Word-of-mouth68% ◀
-
Social media62% ◀
-
Search/SEO58% ◀
-
Email48% ◀
-
Community36% ◀
-
Content/Inbound34% ◀
-
Partnerships32% ◀
-
Events25%
-
Paid ads24%
-
Outbound/Sales18%
-
Press/PR18% ◀
-
Marketplaces/App stores10%
-
Podcasting3%
-
Building in public3%
