Seth Morris - Guest Curator

Hey everyone, Seth from the Curated Success team here!

I'm taking the reins for Opt In Weekly this week as Ashley is in England detecting some metal.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Seth Morris and I'm in charge of Customer Experience and Support for Curated (and I help with some of the marketing). If you've ever watched a Curated help video or emailed support, then we've interacted!

But don't worry, Ashley is still here with us in spirit. She curated some amazing content for y'all before she went on vacation, and she's made sure to include any articles that she's found while she's been out.

I'll be providing a small bit of commentary for each link to make sure you still get the authentic Opt In Weekly experience.

Without further ado, let's jump into this week's issue!

Newsletter Tips

The “Newsletter Network Effect”: How You Benefit From More Newsletter Creations

Alex Kantrowitz brings an interesting point of view with what he calls “the newsletter network effect.”

“Just like each member of a social network makes the network more valuable, every additional newsletter writer makes reading news and analysis in the inbox more commonplace by introducing the behavior to new audiences.”

Discovered via Publisher Weekly

The Rise of “Zombie Subscribers” And How You Can Bring Them Back

As consumers are able to go out and do in-person activities, online subscription services that boomed in 2020 are starting to see disengaged users that Felix Danczak calls “zombie subscribers” (this is a perfect article as we head into October).

Read on to learn how you can bring these subscribers back to life.

Discovered via theCLIKK

Marketing

Post-Pandemic Content Marketing Tips That You Shouldn't Follow

“What? Why would you link me to bad advice? Can we get Ashley back already?”

I know that's what you're thinking, but this article serves the purpose of pointing out the bad advice and providing good advice in its stead.

Speaking of experts presenting at Content Marketing World, did you know that Ashley is one of them?

Ashley is speaking at Content Marketing World on Wednesday, September 29. If you want to attend in person or online, here’s the sign up link. Use her personal code GUTTUSO100 for $100 off.

Discovered via theCLIKK

Related: Are you making one of these common content marketing mistakes? Discovered via Smart Brief on Social Business

How Apple's Mail Privacy Protection Could Hurt Customer Engagement

iOS 15 launched to the public this week, and now we wait and see all the ways that it affects our emails.

Although this article was written a few weeks ago, it's focused on the long-term impact of the Mail Privacy Protection on marketing. It encourages us as marketers to do better in light of these changes instead of reverting to slimy marketing tactics of old.

There's already been so much said about iOS 15 and MPP and I don't have any unique insight to contribute, but Ashley's given her two cents about the matter in a previous issue that you should check out.

Psst! Curious about how MPP affects Curated specifically? Ashley addresses that in this link. Also, we're gathering feedback from our customers about any strange happenings with Curated newsletters due to iOS 15. We'll convert this information into a help doc that we'll share with you once it's ready. Keep your eyes on this channel.

How To Implement The 4 Ps Of Marketing

Mateusz Makosiewicz takes us back to school and does a deep dive on the 4 Ps of Marketing

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

Sometimes, going back to the basics is the best thing you can do.

Discovered via Publisher Weekly

Related: Content Distribution: Everything You Need to Know Right Now. Discovered via SmartBrief on Social Business

Writing

Learn How To Write Copy You're Proud Of At Margo Aaron's “The Copy Workshop”

Margo Aaron, creator of That Seems Important, speaker at Newsletter Fest 2021, and one heck of a copywriter, is leading a copywriting workshop that starts next week.

Curious about Margo's copywriting chops? Just check out the workshop description. I love this sentence from it:

“In this workshop, you’ll discover how to dramatically improve the results your words create.”

The sale is on until October 1, so be sure to snag your spot here.

6 Practices To Stay Grounded And Improve Your Writing

Staying grounded and avoiding a soul-crushing path to success is a reminder everyone can use.

Brad Stulberg breaks down the definition of grounded and how you, as a writer, can benefit from it.

Curation

8 Places To Find Content For Curation

Ashley and I both agree that a major part of curation is having diversified sources for your content. It's easy to find a few amazing publications that you frequently link to, but that's doing your audience a disservice by curating from within a bubble.

Check out this article for some ideas of where to look for new content sources.

Discovered via Smart Brief on Social Business

Publishing

This week's Publishing is a roundup of articles from across the publishing world.

• The worker-owned Defector, at a year old, has over 40,000 paying subscribers and $3.2M in revenue.
• Twitter rolls out some updates that publishers should be aware of.
• The Washing Post launches The 7, a new short-read newsletter that that can be consumed through multiple platforms.
• Small publishers have a longer runway to digital, but they still need to take off.
• European publishers make paid podcasts work. Examples from France, Germany, UK, Sweden and Poland.

Money Matters

8 Tips On Launching A Paid Subscription (And Making It Successful)

Josh Spector put together this great list of tips for launching a paid subscription. It applies to paid newsletters, communities, and products.

I love how he presents a point then clearly describes “How to do it.”

Click through to learn from Josh's expertise.

Related: 5 reasons why people will pay for your content with examples of paid newsletters that are doing it right now. Discovered via For The Interested

Also Related: A guide for pre-launching your online course & growing your email list.

Curated News

Curated Crash Course Is Going Strong!

Curated Crash Course has been going on for three weeks now and we've covered some great topics, like:

• Trends happening in the newsletter space
• What to be aware of when launching a newsletter outside of the U.S.
• Curating more than articles

We're meeting again today at 4:00 pm Central, U.S., so come get in on the discussion. You can register here.

A quick reminder that the first 30 minutes is dedicated to a quick Curated demo showing everything you need to do to send your first newsletter while the last 30 minutes is open for Q&A.

If you can't make it to the live session but still want to see what it's like, email me at support@curated.co and I'll send you a recording from the session.

I'll see you at 4:00 PM Central today!

ICYMI: You can always check our Curated Public Product Roadmap to catch up on recent releases and find out what’s up next.

Don’t want to click through? Our recent bigger releases include Paid Subscriptions and a Free Tier.**

Opt In Challenge

Rethink Your CTAs: Unusual CTAs That Actually Work

Your Opt In Challenge this week is to read through these examples of strange CTAs that perform well and rethink yours.

This article covers

• The psychology behind CTAs
• Odd CTAs that actually work
• How to write your own out-of-the-box CTA

Related: Convert more leads by using exploratory wording in your CTAs.

Signature

Thanks to Ashley for letting me guest curate this week's issue, and thanks to you for reading it!

I'll pop back in occasionally for a Curated News link, so you'll see me around.

If you like the newsletter, let us know! Reply, email Ashley at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find Ashley or me on LinkedIn to hit us with some feedback. we'd love to know what you think.