newsletters
Why I Just Unsubscribed 400 of You
The goal of my newsletter is to connect with my readers. It’s a simple, clear goal, but it’s not easy to maintain. Higher open rates on fewer emails are worth vastly more to me than lower open rates on many emails. Because of this, I periodically unsubscribe large
Craig Mod on What Makes a Good Newsletter
Craig Mod, prognosticator of publishing, recently tweeted [https://twitter.com/craigmod/status/1062225639619551232] about newsletters: > “There's a tendency to over-design newsletters as of late. I think this misses the point, the *power* of a newsletter is from its intimacy. You can design intimacy out of an experience
The Value of a “Good Old Newsletter”
From Kai Brach [https://click.densediscovery.com/recipients/dd6f7cc0-7dae-460e-8cf6-cc6766b6b381/web_view] , Publisher of Offscreen magazine and the Dense Discovery newsletter: > “Funny enough though, the good old email newsletter is currently experiencing a bit of a comeback. Perhaps as a reaction to the bottomless, anxiety-inducing social feeds, the email sits
Best Practices for Newsletters
I've had a personal newsletter [https://www.cjchilvers.com/subscribe] since around 1999. I've found it to be the most effective means of communication the internet has yet to produce. It's portable, open, universal, and personal. I was asked recently to compile a list
My Favorite Newsletter
As an evangelist for email newsletters, I'm often asked for examples of the best. The problem is, the best are often niche newsletters that only a few hundred or a few thousand specific readers care about...but they REALLY care about them. That's exactly where you
Book Review: Do Open
I believe the email newsletter is the most effective form of communication available online. As popular as they are, I believe they are still incredibly under-used. Nothing brings a return, whether in terms of money or relationships, like the email newsletter. My focus has been solely on relationship building, but
The Importance of Curators
I posted about the The Gruber Model [https://www.cjchilvers.com/the-gruber-model/] last week as a theory for how news could be made more profitable and ethical through the filter of a good “curator.” I theorized the current ad model is just a race to the bottom. I didn’t
Trust Is Scarce
How is it that a lowly email newsletter has become one of the most trusted news outlets in America? Ask Dave Pell, the creator of NextDraft, one of the most successful newsletters on the internet [https://medium.com/thoughts-on-journalism/how-dave-pell-created-one-of-the-most-successful-newsletters-of-the-internet-2dfff4725ba7] : > "It is no surprise as to why Dave
The Importance of Being Small
I've received hundreds of suggestions about how to grow my list [https://www.cjchilvers.com/subscribe] (my primary publishing outlet). Dozens of people approach me about doing podcasts on everything from music to photography to self-help, so I can boost my "visibility" to the creative community.
You Shouldn't Need to Be Forced to Respect Your Reader
This past week Google decided pop-up ads and newsletter sign-up forms are such a bad experience, they will penalize sites still using them starting in 2017 [https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html] . I've been running newsletters since the 90s. I know they're bad for