Co-reg has a bad reputation in the newsletter world—but most people are doing it wrong.

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Tim Bourquin (Co-Founder of AfterOffers) to break down what actually works in co-registration today, how to scale list growth without destroying deliverability, and why activation—not CPL—is the metric that matters most.

What You’ll Learn:


— What Is After Offers & How Co-Reg Works
— SMS Co-Reg: TCPA, Compliance & Double Opt-In
— Tim's Origin Story: From LAPD to After Offers
— Co-Reg Pricing: CPL Then vs. Now (Email & SMS)
— Expanding Beyond FinPub & Why Topic Matching Is Everything
— Building Both Sides of the Network (The Chicken-and-Egg Problem)
— When to Use Co-Reg (and When NOT To)
— Email Frequency, Nurture Strategy & Activation Tips
— Tracking Performance & What Traffic Sources Are Converting Best
— Offer Count, Compliance & the 4-Layer Email Validation Stack
— Ramping Co-Reg Slowly & Welcome Email Best Practices
— The Future of Co-Reg: SMS, AI Matching & Identity Graphs
— The Future of Newsletters: Deliverability, Personal Branding & AI
— Mindset, Habits, Book Recs & Where to Find Tim

About Tim Bourquin

Tim Bourquin is the Co-Founder of AfterOffers, a co-registration platform working with 350+ publishers and 80–100 advertisers across multiple verticals including finance, health, and tech.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timbourquin/

X: https://x.com/TimBourquin

After Offers: https://www.afteroffers.com/

About Chris Miquel

Chris Miquel is the Co-Founder of Audience Bridge, helping newsletter publishers improve deliverability, optimize list growth, and scale revenue through smarter data and segmentation strategies.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter: https://links.audiencebridge.io/subscribe-v2

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismiquel/

Follow Chris on X: https://x.com/miqchris

What if the thing quietly killing your email program had nothing to do with your content, your subject lines, or your list size?

In this episode, Chris sat down with Armando Roggio, VP of Audience Development at Quartz, to dig into the deliverability blind spot most media operators never see coming — until it's too late.

Armando shares what surprised him most when they started fixing Quartz's email infrastructure, how activation rates jumped from 10% to 40%, and why the industry's obsession with list size and CPMs is pointing publishers in exactly the wrong direction.

They also get into the compounding nature of deliverability decay, why ISPs aren't exactly rushing to warn you when things go sideways, and the one question every publisher should be asking about their lead sources but almost nobody is.

Honest, specific, and packed with things you can act on — this one's worth a full listen.

Guest: Armando Roggio - Duplex (Quartz)

• LinkedIn - /in/armandoroggio/
• Website - Quartz
  
  

Host: Chris Miquel - Founder, Audience Bridge

• LinkedIn - in/chrismiquel
• X (formerly Twitter) - @miqchris

🔗 Learn more: www.audiencebridge.io
📧 Subscribe to Audience Bridge Insights: www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

Most newsletter publishers obsess over cost per lead. Nathan May, founder of The Feed Media (the largest agency for newsletter growth), explains why that's the wrong metric—and how one of his clients 10x'd revenue by increasing their CPL by 30%.

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Nathan breaks down:

• Why cost per lead is lying to you (and what to track instead)
• How creative became more important than targeting on Facebook
• Why "cheap" traffic sources quietly destroy monetization
• The deliverability mistake that kills inbox placement
• What smart operators do differently (and how they outbid competitors)

Key story: One newsletter increased their cost per lead by 30% and revenue went up 10x. Why? They stopped optimizing for "anyone who would sign up" and started optimizing for "people who would actually engage."

Topics covered:

• Intro: The cost per lead trap
• What's changed in paid media (Facebook evolution)
• Optimizing for engagement vs. signups
• The 10x revenue story (CPL up 30%)
• Building proper revenue attribution
• Scaling campaigns without losing quality
• Defining quality traffic sources
• The deliverability mistake killing newsletters
• Why CPMs are the wrong metric
• Why open rates are misleading
• What smart operators do differently
• The invite-only newsletter strategy
• Rapid fire questions
• Where to find Nathan

Perfect for:

Newsletter publishers, content creators, digital media operators, anyone running paid acquisition for email lists

Guest: Nathan May - Founder, The Feed Media

• LinkedIn - in/nathan-may1
• X (formerly Twitter) - @_May_Ham
• Website - The Feed Media
  
  

Host: Chris Miquel - Founder, Audience Bridge

• LinkedIn - in/chrismiquel
• X (formerly Twitter) - @miqchris

🔗 Learn more: www.audiencebridge.io
📧 Subscribe to Audience Bridge Insights: www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

Most publishers would look at the Catskills region of New York and say "too small to build a real business." Michael Kauffman proved them wrong.

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, I sit down with Michael Kauffman, founder of Catskill Crew, a local newsletter that's rewriting the playbook on community publishing.

Here's what makes his approach different:

• 42,000 subscribers in a "small" market
• ~$0.30 average subscriber acquisition cost
• Sends once per week (not daily)
• Monetizes without becoming an ad billboard
• Built a real business that could be bought and sold

But the numbers aren't the story. It's HOW he thinks about newsletters that changes everything.

What we cover:

• Why local newsletters have a built-in growth advantage
• How Michael made ~$8K in one week with a simple "bulletin" section
• Why he only sends once per week (and why it works better than daily)
• Why events, products, and IRL experiences beat more email sends
• How he's using snail mail as a premium subscription (yes, actual mail)
• Why newsletters are becoming legitimate businesses you can buy and sell
• The one mindset shift that separates winning publishers from dying media

Key quote:

"If you prioritize advertisers over subscribers, you're already losing."

Who this episode is for:

• Local newsletter operators (or anyone thinking about starting one)
• Publishers feeling pressure to send more often
• Anyone looking to monetize without wrecking engagement
• Founders building sustainable, community-driven businesses

Guest: Michael Kauffman, Founder of Catskill Crew

🔗 Catskill Crew Newsletter

🔗 The Newsletter Club

🔗 Michael Kaufmann on X

Host: Chris Miquel, Founder of Audience Bridge

🔗 Learn more: AudienceBridge.io

📧 Subscribe to Audience Bridge Insights: https://www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Ryan Deiss, founder of DigitalMarketer and Traffic & Conversion Summit, to break down why email remains the most valuable channel in digital marketing — even as social platforms, SEO, and paid ads continue to change.

Ryan shares hard-earned lessons from two decades in digital marketing, including what happens when algorithms change overnight, why owning your audience matters more than ever, and how modern email strategy has evolved beyond long automations and generic broadcasts.

This conversation goes deep into email deliverability, list hygiene, segmentation, AI’s impact on education businesses, and why most brands are still measuring the wrong metrics.

If you run a newsletter, media company, or any business that depends on audience growth and monetization, this episode will change how you think about email.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why email was the first social network (and why it still wins)
• How algorithm changes wiped out businesses overnight
• The biggest mistakes marketers make with email today
• Why long email sequences no longer work
• How segmentation and list hygiene protect deliverability
• The 3–6% rule of engagement
• How AI is reshaping education, courses, and content
• Why owning your audience is the ultimate leverage

If you run a newsletter or scale revenue through email, this episode will help you protect deliverability, grow smarter, and avoid the hidden mistakes that quietly destroy inbox reach.

🔗 Connect with Ryan Deiss:

LinkedIn → ryandeiss

X → ryandeiss

Youtube → RyanDeissOfficial

🔗 Learn more about Audience Bridge:

Website → https://www.audiencebridge.io

Newsletter → https://www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with one of the most respected deliverability experts in the world — Matt Vernhout, Principal Consultant at Email Industries, founder of EmailKarma, co-chair of the BIMI Working Group, and a 20-year veteran in email policy, authentication, and sender reputation.

We dive deep into what’s really happening inside Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft right now, how authentication is changing, and the new rules every sender needs to follow heading into Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the 2025 holiday season.

Matt breaks down:

🔹 Why more emails are landing in Gmail Promotions (and why that’s not bad)
🔹 The #1 misconception newsletter operators have about deliverability
🔹 How authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) really affects inboxing
🔹 What DKIM2 and DMARC 2.0 (“DMARCbis”) mean for the future
🔹 How AI is changing filtering, classification, and spam detection
🔹 Why warmup services are failing — and when they might still help
🔹 How subdomains and sender domain strategy impact your reputation
🔹 How to prevent cross-contamination across teams, tools, and ESPs
🔹 The right way to run reactivation + winback campaigns
🔹 What every sender MUST do in the next 2 weeks before Black Friday
🔹 Why data hygiene, validation, and new-user segments matter more than ever
🔹 How to avoid destroying your domain reputation in Q4
🔹 What’s coming next in email protocols and global platform policy

If you run a newsletter, send marketing campaigns, or rely on email revenue — this episode is packed with strategic, tactical, and future-focused insights that will save you time, headaches, deliverability failures, and lost inbox reach.

🔗 Connect with Matt Vernhout:

• LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/vernhout/
• X → https://x.com/EmailKarma

🔗 Learn more about Audience Bridge:

• Website → https://www.audiencebridge.io
• Newsletter → https://www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

In this episode, Chris Miquel sits down with LoriBeth “LB” Blair, a full-stack email solutions architect and one of the most respected deliverability experts in the industry.

LB has helped top newsletter operators, e-commerce brands, and major ESPs fix the toughest inboxing and deliverability challenges — saving clients millions in the process.

Together, we break down the real reasons your emails aren’t inboxing and what you can do today to fix them.

🔥 Topics Covered:

• Why your content is getting filtered (and it’s not “spam words”)
• Image compression, code bloat & secure links
• DMARC, SPF, DKIM, and BIMI explained in plain English
• How hackers use “list bombing” & how to protect your forms
• Dedicated vs Shared IPs — which one’s right for you
• When your deliverability crashes overnight (what to check first)
• Google’s One-Click Unsubscribe enforcement
• How LB saves brands millions on email infrastructure
• What to audit before selling your media or newsletter business
• Where to find LB & final thoughts

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Bloated HTML and uncompressed images are killing your inbox placement.
• DMARC is no longer optional. Start at p=none, collect data, then move to reject.
• Shared IPs are fine for low senders, but serious senders need dedicated infrastructure.
• Google now enforces one-click unsubscribes. Non-compliance = lower reputation.
• Your deliverability = your revenue. Stop guessing, start measuring.

🔗 Connect with LB Blair:

• LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/lbblair
• Send Edge Consulting → https://www.sendedge.com

🔗 Learn more about Audience Bridge:

• Website → https://www.audiencebridge.io
• Newsletter → https://www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

🔗 Inside this Episode:

• Image Compression → https://tinypng.com/
• Spamhaus Reputation → https://www.spamhaus.org/domain-reputation/
• Gmail Enforcement → https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414

In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Tyler Morin, founder of The Water Coolest and Leverage Letter, to unpack how he built, scaled, and reclaimed one of the most successful business newsletters in the game.

Tyler shares the behind-the-scenes story of selling The Water Coolest to Barstool Sports, buying it back, and building a new media model centered around authenticity, voice, and sustainable growth.

We dive into:

✅ The secret to creating a newsletter people actually look forward to
✅ How Barstool taught Tyler to scale with personality
✅ Paid vs. organic growth — what’s working in 2025
✅ The power of voice, tone, and consistency in email
✅ How AI is changing content creation (and how to use it without losing your identity)
✅ Why engagement is the new deliverability metric
✅ What the next wave of newsletter media looks like

If you’re building, running, or scaling a newsletter — this is a must-watch episode.

📩 Subscribe to Audience Bridge Insights for weekly deliverability tips: https://www.audiencebridge.io/subscribe

Mentioned in this episode:

📨 The Water Coolest → https://thewatercoolest.com/
📨 Leverage Letter → https://www.leverageletter.co/
🎙️ Letterland Pod → https://www.youtube.com/@LetterLandPod
𝕏 Tyler Morin → https://x.com/JPMorinChase
[in] Tyler Morin → https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylermorin/
𝕏 Chris Miquel → https://x.com/miqchris
[in] Chris Miquel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismiquel/