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CJ Chilvers

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Pick a day, any day.

I recently attended a meeting in which a certain humungous marketing and sales company (which starts with an “S”) was advising our marketing department to send email on Tuesdays and Thursdays because that when people are most likely to open more email in general. I’ve been hearing that advice

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Strategize long before you monetize.

I don't want to discourage you, but I want you to realize that for the great majority of newsletters, monetization is byproduct, not the product. I get all kinds of questions about monetizing email newsletters, so I'll make some generalizations and say: don't worry

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Meet your subscribers.

If you want engagement, you have to be engaging. Get to know as many readers as possible one-on-one. Skype with them, have conversations on social media, and, yes, meet them in person. I’ve always wondered why it’s considered normal for podcasts to hold meetups, parties, and other live

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Automate when it makes sense.

All parts of the newsletter process can be automated, not all should be. Years ago, I use to write essays weeks ahead of time. I'd plug them into Mailchimp and schedule them to go out at regular intervals. When published, the final version of that newsletter (sometimes I&

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The Smartest Things Ever Said About Email Newsletters

“To all my talented friends: please think about going back to a simple blog or newsletter that you update at a regular frequency. It would be so nice to meet your thoughts and words and images on your own turf, in a simple, peaceful context again. This site is no

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Attracting Readers: Social Media

I won’t go into the usual ways to promote your newsletter on social media, because there’s too many strategies to name: automations, DMs, who to follow, etc. I’ll just tell you about two strategies that have worked for me more than any others I’ve done (and

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Have a personality.

It’s easy to replicate a business model. It’s really hard to replicate a personality. Chances are, whatever your newsletter will be about, there will be many others sharing the same ideas and links. The only thing that separates you is personality. Be vulnerable. Be honest. Be real. People

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Get started.

I’ve received and responded to dozens of great questions the past few weeks, but most of them have a common theme, like this one from Kevin: > ”This month’s theme about newsletters is a daily kick in the groin. I’ve wanted to start a newsletter for a

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Attracting Readers: Forwards

Email newsletters allow for a kind of discovery not possible with other mediums: the forward. If someone loves your newsletter enough to forward it to a friend or colleague, it becomes both a method of discovery and a testimonial in one. It's word of mouth that actually includes

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New Newsletter: Creating Your Newsletter Week 2

I go on a bit of a rant this morning in my personal newsletter about the controversial “spy pixel” manifesto and add a bunch of links that don’t show up on this blog. I just wanted to let you know that there’s more going on in my newsletter