How Jake Rayson uses Buttondown

– Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.

I’m a Biodiversity Assistant for Ceredigion Nature Partnership at Ceredigion County Council. My job is to bring together various partners, including wildlife charities, schools, community groups, businesses, and landowners, to work on nature recovery projects. In my previous career, I was a front-end developer, so I got to work on websites. 

– What do you write about in your newsletter?

Gill Clarke is the hero of the newsletter, writing one each month with news flashes in between. She writes about what is going on in nature recovery in Ceredigion, West Wales, and across the nation. Everything from local activities, online events, funding opportunities, and specific topics such as water, plastic pollution, farming, etc. The newsletter is bilingual, Welsh and English, and we work closely with our translator, Mary.

– Where did you first learn of Buttondown and what made you decide to give it a try?

We had to move from using Outlook for newsletters, which meant there was no online archive or shareable subscribe link. I used to use Substack, a very nicely designed platform, but it has a nazi problem which it continues to have. I've always found MailChimp bloated and confusing, and then came across Buttondown via Talia Lavin’s The Sword & The Sandwich.

– What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?

The ability to have a signup page and searchable online archives is so nice, particularly while we’re waiting for our new website, which will have an embedded signup form. I personally love Markdown, so being able to paste content straight from Obsidian into Buttondown is very nice. And the flexible styling options are pretty neat as well on the paid tier (which we get a discount for by the way, as we’re a not-for-profit). Finally, the support is exemplary, people are super helpful, and they fix things!

– What are some things you’d be excited to see Buttondown build in the next few months?

I feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what Buttondown can do. To be honest, it easily matches our basic requirements, but I think it‘s the incremental improvements that really make a big difference to the day-to-day experience. So, please keep improving! The one feature I would like is a like button! 

– Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for a darned cool newsletter platform.