Financial Newsletter Writer (Full-Time Contract, Remote)
About The Average Joe
The Average Joe is a newsletter-first media company covering financial topics that help consumers make better financial decisions.
Our flagship daily newsletter reaches over 200K investors with coverage on the US market, investing trends and other personal finance topics.
Why newsletters? Ever since the dawn of Google, media companies have been trying to game the algorithm to land on that highly sought-after 1st-page ranking.
In the process, financial articles have become unnecessarily long, are being stuffed with more keywords than a Neil Patel article and will put you to sleep faster than watching paint dry**.**
With newsletters, we can change the status quo.
- We have open rates of 50%+ that shatter the industry average — which means every day, over 100K people read what we (you?) write.
- Our readers show up not because we rank first on Google, but because they actually enjoy our content.
If you’ve become a slave to the algorithm, this job isn’t for you. But if you want to produce high-quality content, keep reading.
Our writing values
- 📰 Content-driven Being a newsletter-first organization, we can focus on quality over quantity, insights over redundancy and conciseness over word count.We don’t pump out content just to appease the Google search ranking algorithm gods. We don’t rely on clickbait titles to get our subscribers to read. They follow us because we create content that is good enough to share.
- 🧬 Be human In a world where AI is about to change everything we do — we believe that the only way to stand out is to be human. That becomes even more important with Google about to be dominated by AI-written articles.But don’t lose hope, because humans still have an advantage over robots — our personality — which we’re not afraid to bring out in our writing.
- 🥇 Strive for excellence We may be called The Average Joe, but our team members are anything but average. We take our work very seriously and are willing to go the extra mile to ensure that our writing is the best it can.There’s a reason why hundreds of thousands of readers (soon to be in the millions) consume our content everyday. Because they can see that we care about what we do.
- 🤓 Reader first We’re listeners first and educators second. We suck in feedback like a vacuum and dish out insights like we’re m—f’ing Warren Buffett. Feedback and constant improvement is the only way to go from good to great.Listen to what our audience wants, add insights that they never knew they needed — and deliver it in a way that blows their mind. Write for our readers because without them, there is no writer.
Job Description
This is a full-time contract position that will require 35-40 hours per week. This individual will research, write and contribute to our daily financial newsletter which reaches over 200K investors.
You’ll be joining us on our journey to grow from 200K subscribers to over 1 million — while expanding our coverage across various financial topics including personal finance, real estate and crypto.
As an early member in our editorial team, you will have heavy influence on the direction and tone of our products — while gaining first hand experience building a bootstrapped media startup in the early stages.
Responsibilities
- Craft informative and entertaining stories to save readers from the clickbait SEO-focused stories that overpopulate the internet.
- Pitch topic ideas, research and ensure the right balance of topics are being covered throughout our various editorial products.
- Collaborate with other members of our content and editing team to craft our flagship daily newsletter.
- Assist in launching new products and help with other initiatives to grow the business.
Who are we looking for?
- Must be able to work Monday to Friday Eastern Standard Time zone hours.
- At least 2-5 years of experience in journalism, financial/business writing, financial services or in a news room setting.
- Someone that can adapt and write in The Average Joe tone (conversational and concise). See our past issues for samples.
- Strong writing skills (shocking) and a love for writing — because if you hate it, you’re gonna be in for a bad time.
- Ability to break down complex financial topics in a simple and concise way.
- Bonus: Someone with a “voice” or “writing personality” — and isn’t afraid to show it in their writing.
Total compensation: $70-90K per year depending on experience. Successful candidates after the first year will be given equity.
How can you apply?
It’s trial by fire. Write a 300-350 word article on a financial topic that you think will fit well into our newsletter to show us you can thrive on the job.
The topic must be relevant and be anchored around a recent news event on a specific company or industry. Do not write about crypto.
Writing style and structure should be similar to our existing newsletters. See past issues here for samples. We’re looking for someone that can hit the ground running.
The article will be judged based on:
- Structure and flow — does it read well?
- Conciseness — are you able to convey the key information in as few words as possible?
- Content choice — is the article relevant and insightful?
- Writing style (conversational) — does it fit with our publication?
Please follow these submission instructions:
- Put the article in a Google Doc and email the writing sample to victor@readthejoe.com
- Label the email subject headline “TAJ Writer Application – [YOUR FULL NAME]”
- Attach your resume/CV and any past writing samples you would like to show off.
- Answer and include the following questions:
- Why do you want this position?
- Why do you think you’re a good fit for this position?
- If you had to choose one item to bring with you to a deserted island, what would it be and why?
