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The great personal newsletter migration

For the third week in a row, about a dozen of my favorite indie newsletters have landed in the spam folder — newsletters I’ve opened and click-through hundreds of times. What gives? I love how Apple, DuckDuckGo, Neeva, and others are making our online lives a little more private and

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35 Lessons from 35 Years of Newsletter Publishing

My first newsletter was about ninjas in 1987. I was 12. Since then, I’ve been obsessed. I’ve created small newsletters for my own projects, and big newsletters for corporations. What ties them all together? Probably hundreds of things, but I’m lazy, so let’s start with 35.

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Mies van der Rohe Marketing

Have you heard about the latest “trend” in online marketing? It’s not really a trend — good publishers have been doing it all along. But with the recent privacy changes at Apple (and soon many others), online publishers have had to resort to some old-school methods of getting the word

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Experiments Check-In 2

I have a few updates since my last 2021 experiments update [https://www.cjchilvers.com/experiments-check-in/]. I do these mostly for myself, but I figure they may help others on similar journeys. The Good * Readership and follows are still going up across all platforms, but especially the newsletter [https://www.

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A Good Philosophy for Personal Publishing

From Om Malik [https://om.co/2021/05/31/some-changes-2/]: > “I have often lamented that the ‘why’ of blogging got overtaken by the ‘what’ and the ‘how,’ with the tools and format becoming the primary focus. Ironically I made the same mistake with my newsletter. I don’t work

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The Problem with Newsletter Advice

I started following a bunch of new newsletter publishers recently to see what advice they were giving out to young people. I don’t disagree with the things they say, but I usually disagree with the context. Personal newsletters should have no rules. They are where you find your audience,

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Generosity Comes from People

Fom Josh Spector [https://twitter.com/jspector/status/1386759740772999176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]: > “No one wants a newsletter from a company, but lots of people would like a newsletter from a smart person who works for that company.” This is where everything is going, especially as data from email

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Algorithm vs. Audience

From Rene Ritchie [https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/1387781270344699905] (who recently went from employee to independent publisher): > “Replace ‘algorithm’ with ‘audience’ and it’s 900x better for your mental health. From powerless to empowered. You’re the one at bat, picking the swings. You won’t connect every time.

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Put relationships first.

This has been the conclusion I’ve reached at middle age as well — about marketing, publishing, business, parenting, everything. We’re hardwired for this. That’s why it’s so prominent in my personal publishing principles [https://www.cjchilvers.com/personal-publishing-principles/]. From Cal Newport via Lex Fridman [https://youtu.be/

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Audience First Vs. Product First

Every year (maybe six months lately), creators post about why you should create a products, then build an audience for the product; or build an audience first and create products based on their needs. It’s a false choice. Reject this premise. You need both. Both need constant attention. Both