newsletter content strategy
I've had newsletters stall for boring reasons. The ideas were fine. The issue was usually issue eleven, when the writing got ahead of the system and the system was basically a mood board with an inbox. I've seen that happen in my own projects and in
email deliverability
Most advice on how to improve email deliverability starts in the wrong place. It tells you to write better subject lines, use fewer spammy words, and clean your list. Those things matter, but they're not the main event. In my own newsletters, the inbox moved when I fixed
newsletter subject lines
Your subject lines are probably fine. They're just leaving opens on the table. I've spent years sending newsletter campaigns, moving lists across platforms like LetterBucket, beehiiv, Substack, and Ghost, and the pattern is consistent. The generic advice gets the shape right, but it misses the essential
making money with blogs
Everyone loves telling creators to slap ads on a blog and wait. I think that advice is mostly garbage for anyone without huge traffic. I've built blogs that made money, and I've also watched plenty of them stall because the owner treated pageviews like the business.
data from surveys
You've got a list full of readers who say they want “more value,” but that's too vague to help you price a paid tier, line up sponsorships, or decide what to publish next. I use data from surveys to force a sharper answer. I'm
newsletter format ideas
Most newsletter advice treats structure like a cosmetic choice. I don't buy that anymore. After testing digest issues, essays, interviews, alerts, and gated paid formats across LetterBucket, beehiiv, Substack, and Ghost, I've found that format changes engagement and monetization more than send cadence does. I also
advertorial
An advertorial is paid content designed to look and feel like a regular editorial article, but with the goal of advertising a product. In practice, the best ones usually feel about 70% informative and 30% promotional, which is why they work so well inside newsletters when you write them like
best newsletter software
Most advice about the best newsletter software is backward. It starts with feature grids, template counts, and generic “all-in-one” claims. I don't care about any of that until I've signed up, pointed a domain, imported a list, sent real campaigns, and tried to make
twitter tweet engagement
You post a solid tweet, wait a few hours, and get a handful of likes, maybe one reply, and no meaningful bump in newsletter signups. I know that loop well. I run newsletters, and I learned the hard way that Twitter tweet engagement only matters if it turns attention into
All my personal experience growing newsletters
You're probably staring at an email draft right now that looks great in the editor. Big hero image. Clean branded header. Maybe a GIF near the CTA because it felt smart at the time. I've sent that version more than once, and I've also
You're probably doing what I did at the start. You've got a draft ready, maybe even a few subscribers waiting, and you're still stuck with ten tabs open comparing free plans instead of publishing. That's a mistake. I've spent a
You get the email. A brand says they love your newsletter and asks for your sponsorship rates. Then you freeze. I've been there more than once. Early on, I answered those emails by gut feel, then spent the next hour wondering if I'd just scared the
Your template might be leaking subscribers. A bad newsletter template doesn't just look rough. It breaks on mobile, gets clipped in Gmail, and can hurt deliverability before your writing even gets a fair shot. I've spent a lot of late nights fixing padding, chasing broken dark
Your Sign-Up Form Is Losing You Subscribers Most newsletter sign up examples obsess over layout and ignore the harder question. When should you ask, what should you promise, and how much friction can you add before people bounce? My answer after years of testing is simple. Your sign-up
Stop Writing. Start Persuading. I write newsletters for a living. For years, I focused only on content quality, assuming great writing was enough. I was wrong. The single biggest leap in my growth and revenue came from learning how to persuade, not just inform. These aren't abstract theories.
You probably have a free newsletter, a decent open rate, and the same thought every serious operator eventually has. Should I turn this into a paid newsletter subscription? I've asked that question on my own lists, tested the switch on multiple platforms, and made the same bad assumptions
You're probably doing this right now. You've got a video ready, your newsletter is queued up, and you're staring at the editor wondering why email still makes this harder than it should be. I've tested this across Ghost, beehiiv, Substack, and LetterBucket.
Most advice on how to increase email open rates starts in the wrong place. It starts with subject line hacks. I did that too. I tested curiosity gaps, urgency, title case, lowercase, punchy verbs, all of it. None of that mattered when my authentication was off and inbox providers didn&
Your newsletter name isn't a headline. It's a handle. That's the part most naming advice gets wrong. People obsess over cleverness, wordplay, and brand aura. I don't. After launching a dozen newsletters, migrating lists between Ghost, beehiiv, Substack, and LetterBucket, and watching
How to Build Email List: My 2026 Playbook with my personal opinion
