Running a daily AI research newsletter on beehiiv and stuck around 300 subs. What actually moved the needle for you?

Hey everyone,

I run a free newsletter called Research Audio (researchaudio.io). The idea is pretty simple. I take the most important AI breakthroughs, papers, and tools each day and turn them into a short 5 minute read for your inbox.

A few things I learned so far:

1. Specific subject lines work way better than vague ones. When the issue says exactly what paper or tool is inside, more people open it.
2. Curating less is better than curating more. A few strong items with a clear takeaway feel more useful than a huge list of links.
3. Keeping it short and easy to read matters more than being thorough.

I built it on beehiiv and I like the platform, but growth has been slow past a few hundred subscribers. I tried Recommendations but haven't seen big results yet.

For anyone here running a niche newsletter, especially in tech or AI, what actually helped you grow early on? Not the stuff that sounds good in blog posts, the stuff that actually worked.

Happy to share more about what I tested too. And if you want to check out the landing page and give feedback, it is researchaudio.io.