How I Pre-Sold My Paid Newsletter

67 customers & $5,500 in revenue—in just 72 hours.

Hey, Daniel here!

Welcome to issue #12 of AI Email Marketing Prompts - the paid newsletter that helps you use AI to create high-converting:

• Newsletters

• Lead magnets

• And email sequences

…all in just a fraction of the time.

Now, today we’re talking monetization.

More specifically, how to sell something before you even build it!

Quick context:

A few months back, I pre-sold THIS very newsletter you're reading right now - and generated $5,500+ from 67 customers in 72 hours.

All without:

• Building a single issue

• Creating a sales page

• Setting up a fancy funnel

5 emails and a checkout link.

That was it!

And today, I'm giving you the exact framework (and AI prompt) to replicate this for your own products.

Let's dig in.

The "Build First, Hope Later" Trap

Here’s how most creators launch products:

• Get an idea you're excited about

• Spend weeks (or months) building it out

• Perfect every detail

• Finally launch...

You're expecting sales notifications to blow up your phone. Instead?

Crickets.

That's when it hits you:

You just poured months of your life into building something nobody wants - solving a problem nobody actually has.

All because you skipped the most important step:

Validation.

And here's the worst part:

Every week you spend building an unwanted product is a week you could've spent building something people are literally asking to buy.

But what if you could avoid this painful problem altogether?

What if you could get people to pay you BEFORE you build anything?

Well, that's exactly what I'll teach you how to do today.

How To Pre-Sell Before You Build

You don't need a finished product to make sales.

All you need is:

• A clear value proposition

• The right sequence of emails

• An engaged email list (even a small one)

That's it.

A simple 3-day pre-sale campaign tells you everything you need to know before you actually start building your product:

• Is there real demand for this idea?

• What objections do people have?

• Which benefits resonate most?

• What bonuses seal the deal?

Instead of guessing what people want, you get paid to find out.

If it doesn't work? You've only lost a few days - not months. And you can pivot immediately based on real feedback.

But if it DOES work (like mine did), you get:

• A list of engaged customers waiting for launch and eager to give you feedback

• Crystal-clear validation that you're building something people want

Now let me show you the exact sequence that made this happen:

The 5-Email Pre-Sale Sequence That Generated $5,500 (Before Even Writing My First Newsletter)

Before digging into the sequence itself, let me give you a quick overview of the “launch strategy.”

There were 2 big components:

The Pre-Sale Offer

I knew I needed to give people some sort of "reward" if I wanted to incentivize early action.

However, I wanted to avoid discounting this product.

So instead, I came up with a special, expiring "founding member" bonus for anyone who joined during this 3-day, pre-sale period.

On top of that, I added a money-back guarantee to lower the risk.

The Email Strategy

I also knew that I would leave money on the table if I only sent 1-2 emails.

But I also didn't want to send a full blown "launch sequence."

So I landed somewhere in the middle.

I ended up sending 5 emails over the course of 3 days:

• 3 of those emails went to everyone on my list.

• The other 2 I only sent to "clickers" (people who had clicked on one of the previous emails but hadn't bought).

As far as "themes," here's what I covered in each email:

Email 1: The Announcement (Day 1, 10 AM → everyone)

This email does the heavy lifting:

• Announces the product clearly

• Breaks down the core value proposition

• Introduces special "founding member" bonuses

• Sets a 3-day deadline

• Addresses initial objections in the PS

I opened with "BIG news!" and immediately told them what I was launching. No beating around the bush. Then I spent most of the email explaining exactly what they'd get each week, why it was valuable, and what special bonuses they'd unlock by joining early.

The 3-day deadline created urgency without being pushy.

Email 2: The Objection Handler (Day 1, 2 PM → clickers only)

Just 4 hours after the announcement, I sent this to everyone who clicked but hadn’t bought yet.

The entire purpose of this email was to address the #1 objection stopping people from buying.

In my case, I got this perfect response:

"$20/mo for a few ChatGPT prompts??? That's way too expensive!"

Bingo. If one person's thinking it, dozens more are too.

So I opened Email 2 with that exact objection, validated it, then completely reframed the value proposition.

Instead of getting defensive, I acknowledged their concern was valid.

Then I explained they weren't paying for "prompts" - they were paying for 5 years of email marketing expertise condensed into plug-and-play frameworks.

I compared it to hiring me as a consultant for $20/month. Suddenly, it seemed like a steal.

Pro tip: If you don't get an objection email from a reader, just think about what YOUR biggest hesitation would be if you were the buyer. That's usually what everyone else is thinking too.

Email 3: The Sneak Peek (Day 2, 10 AM → everyone)

People need to see what they're buying.

So I gave away 2 full prompts from the newsletter - completely free. No strings attached.

I literally said "if you're on the fence, I have good news" and then delivered immediate value. One prompt helped them audit their newsletter landing page. The other helped them craft a compelling value prop.

Both were meaty enough that people could use them right away and think "if the free stuff is this good..."

This accomplished two things:

1. It demonstrated the quality they could expect

2. It built reciprocity (I gave value first)

“But how did you send a ‘sample’ if you hadn’t built the product yet?”

Even though I hadn’t technically written any paid newsletters yet, I had already created some AI prompts that I could share with people as “proof of concept” as part of my LinkedIn content.

Which also illuminates a meta-lesson: One of the best ways to begin to validate a product idea is to make content around it!

Email 4: The Last Chance FAQ (Day 3, 10 AM → everyone)

With 24 hours left, I addressed every question I'd received (or I thought people could be asking themselves):

• Who is this for?

• What if I don't find it valuable?

• What kind of prompts will you create?

• How is this different from free prompts online?

I structured it as a helpful FAQ that people could easily skim to find answers to their most pressing questions.

I even tackled the guarantee upfront: "If you don't find it valuable, cancel anytime. But I'm so confident, I'll refund your first month if you're not impressed."

That removed the last bit of risk.

Not surprisingly, this email had the highest conversion rate of the entire sequence.

Email 5: The Final Reminder (Day 3, 4 PM → clickers only)

Finally, the last email was:

• Ultra-short

• Sent 6 hours before closing the cart

• And only to people who showed interest but hadn't bought yet

This email was meant to just serve as a final nudge and remind our warmest leads about the offer AND the deadline.

Which is why you can keep it short and sweet.

That's the entire sequence.

5 emails. 3 days. $5,500 in revenue.

The key here is compression - you're creating a concentrated burst of value and urgency (instead of dragging it out over weeks).

And notice the segmentation:

Only people who showed interest got the objection handler and final reminder.

No need to hammer your entire list. With every single email if they haven’t showed any signal of intent.

Now, I know what you're thinking...

"This sounds great Daniel, but I'm not a copywriter. How am I supposed to write 5 high-converting emails that don't sound like a robot wrote them?"

Well, that’s where today’s prompt will come in handy!

Your 5-Email Pre-Sale Sequence Generator

I've created a mega-prompt that generates your entire pre-sale sequence in minutes.

Here's how to use it:

1. Copy the entire prompt below

2. Fill in your product details at the bottom

3. Paste into Claude or ChatGPT

4. Get your complete sequence in about 60 seconds

5. Review, tweak if needed, and schedule

One last pro tip: You can find a copy of ​my exact pre-sale emails here​. I highly recommend making a copy of this document as a PDF and attaching it to your prompt to maximize the quality of the output.

The prompt includes:

• Exact email structures that work

• Subject line formulas

• Tone and formatting guidelines

• Psychological triggers for each email

• Where to place CTAs for maximum impact

So without any further ado, here’s the prompt: