Prologue

Are you truly thankful for your subscribers?

I’m sending a message of Thanksgiving this week because I’ll be taking next week off for the holiday.

We’re going to head to a mountain cabin with my parents and my brother’s family and spend the childrens’ week-long school holiday eating good food and adventuring.

It’s become an almost annual tradition this time of year.

The last time we went we made the entire vacation as a celebration of my mother’s triumph over breast cancer.

This time, it feels like a celebration of simply being alive and past the worst of the pandemic.

I’m looking forward to the memories.

Each meal.

Each game.

Each hike.

Each smile.

Each time a child says something wonderful, like when my youngest got in the hot tub last trip and said, “Ah, this is the life.”

Each giggle that type of thing gives the grandparents, who are so very in love with their young descendants (that one’s for you, Mom and Dad).

Several weeks ago I mentioned how Dennis Shiao advises us all to take newsletter unsubscribes personally.

This week, as I contemplate thankfulness, it feels appropriate to focus on something simple, yet challenging:

Be thankful for your subscribers.

The real people on the other side of your letter, experiencing the world you are creating for them issue after issue.

Show them you appreciate their attention.

Their smiles.

Their willingness to go on this adventure with you.

It’s easy to get caught up strategizing how you’ll double your subscriber count.

Which tactics might yield the fastest growth.

But don’t forget that if each person already subscribed—already along for the ride—is having an amazing time, they could each be inspired to invite a friend. That alone would double subscriptions in the best way possible: word of mouth referrals from engaged subscribers.

I want to thank you for inviting me into your inbox each week and let you know I appreciate the honor of your attention.

Thank you especially to those who’ve shared Opt In Weekly with other newsletter creators.

The team at Curated.co is on a mission to empower you with resources to fuel your process… because we appreciate you.

This week’s issue has me contemplating the newsletter’s place in the evolution of journalism, the power of word-of-mouth marketing, and the value of each and every subscriber. I hope you enjoy it.

PS: If you read last week’s report on the status of my daughter’s middle school honor society woes, you might be excited to learn that the registration deadline was extended and she’s in. I’m thankful for that, too!

Screen Share

Your Newsletter Should Evolve Issue By Issue

When I asked Josh Spector to talk about challenges he’s faced through the years as he’s published hundreds issues of For The Interested, he explained that he focuses on one issue at a time and tackles new ways of creating and making money iteratively.

Check out his response in this short clip from our longer interview. It’ll be especially helpful if you find yourself overwhelmed as a newsletter creator.

Newsletter Tips

Newsletters, Platforms, & The Fate Of Journalism

This piece is not so much a newsletter tip as an opportunity to consider the genre’s current role in the balance shift between media companies, independent creators, and the tech platforms that profit from their content.

In this Wired article, Chris Stokel-Walker proposes that though Substack has created what cofounder Chris Best claims is a better alternative to the broken world of social media—especially for those like Alex Berenson who have been “deplatformed”—that it’s not really that different:

“Substack has managed to build an impressive business predicated on the idea that people will pay for good journalism—and prefer to support writers directly, rather than mediated through monolithic media organizations. But is what Best proposes all that revolutionary? Or is it just doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past in a zeitgeisty disguise?”

He includes remarks from Chris Best and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

“‘Every platform, large or small, whether long-established or new, whether very public like Twitter or much more private like email newsletters, will face questions about content moderation,’ says Nielsen. ‘We’re at the beginning of the discussion around how content moderation works in semiprivate spaces like email newsletters and podcasts.’ The question is where that discussion leads—and whether Substack’s approach can hold up to further scrutiny.”

A stat that surprised me (it’s a bit hidden in the article if you’re scanning): in the US, 22% of people get their news via email newsletter.

Discovered via American Press Institute.

The Newsletter Exit Strategy Dilemma

What’s the “right” way to quit? Delia Cai looks at how difficult it is to exit a newsletter in this Vanity Fair article.

Discovered via The Media Roundup.

Email Is Evolving (Not Dying); These Stacked Stats Tell The Story

This round up of statistics capture the changing role of email. Bookmark them to share with the next person who tells you email is dead.

Discovered via theCLIKK.

Marketing

Stop Wasting Your Customer Case Studies

What should you do with those customer case studies? Refine Lab’s Chris Walker shares what to do (and what not to do) in this 2.5-minute video clip.

Update Your Marketing Glossary: Dark Social

Dark social = Marketing activities you know are building brand awareness on platforms you can’t measure very well, like social media, podcasts, Slack channels, etc. Lane Ellis with TopRank Marketing shares her definition and advice here. It’s a decent article to skim and familiarize with if you’ve not heard the term yet.

Discovered via Social Media Today.

Have You Tried These Word-Of-Mouth Tactics?

After analyzing nearly 500 Indie Hacker interviews, Darko identified 3 word-of-mouth tactics that work.

Discovered via Marketer Crew.

Content Strategy Q&A Series From Contently

Which newsletter format works best?

That’s one of 3 questions Joe Lazauskas recaps in this LinkedIn newsletter summary of Contently’s new Ask a Content Strategist series. I’m looking forward to future episodes.

Curation

Curation Tips From Willow

Willow is a new content curation tool we hadn’t heard of yet. Learn more about it, plus curation tips in this article by Esther Van den Eynde.

Publishing

Publishing is changing. This week’s insights look at how, why, and what you can do to adapt.

• In this Poynter article, Tom Jones discusses The Atlantic’s decision to become the latest news outlet to jump into subscription newsletters.
• Which publications have the most subscriptions? William Turvell has put together the rankings.
• Adapting to our changing culture is no longer optional. These survey results identify how specialist publishers are keeping up.
• Speaking of changes, Reuters Institute has identified 2 challenges publishers are facing: hybrid working and improving diversity.
• What is your product mission? Brian Morrissey advocates for aligning your business model to it in the latest issue of The Rebooting.

Money Matters

Creator Funds You Should Know About

In this blog post from Shopify, Fadeke Adegbuyi identifies 13 creator funds that are now paying online creators for content.

Discovered via Ghost Newsletter.

Are You Giving Your Subscribers What They Want?

If you have a love/hate relationship with paywalled content, Simon Owens shares why you might consider switching to a patronage model.

Discovered via The Media Roundup.

Could You Productize Yourself?

Jack Butcher productized himself and created a seven-figure, one-person business. Learn how he did it.

Discovered via Marketer Crew.

Curated News

Every so often I like to round up some recent Curated.co newsletter releases and praise them for being amazing. I'm really enjoying these:

🪝 Klamath News

It’s about ecological issues in the Klamath region.

🎓 Academic Rebels

This duo tackles disrupting the status quo

♾️ Meta Week.ly

It launched before Facebook rebranded and covers all things metaverse

😶‍🌫️ Enneagram Insider

What’s your number?

Nice work, new newsletterers.

Curated Crash Course Today At 4 PM Central

As usual, Curated Crash Course is today at 4 PM CT. The first 30 minutes include a tutorial on getting started with Curated followed by a Q&A session that begins at 4:30.

If you have any questions about Curated or newsletters, we created a Google Form where you can easily ask them.

Seth will answer them live at Curated Crash Course during the Q&A segment of the session, but if you can't make it, he’ll send you a recording so you can see your questions answered.

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 (0% commission!) and a Free Tier.**

Opt In Challenge

Survive The Holidays With These Deliverability Tips

No matter your feelings on Christmas content before Thanksgiving, we can all agree that we want our emails to actually reach the inbox. This week, put (at least) 1 of these 8 deliverability tips from Jennifer Nespola Lantz’s Kickbox article to the test.

Discovered via Really Good Emails.

Signature

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.

Happy newslettering,