I recently found in Dan Oshinky’s newsletter a reference to an article by CJ Chilvers, who published his first newsletter way back in 1987: “35 lessons from 35 years in newsletters”. There are so many good pieces of advice in this article about consistency, creation, building relationships, and being authentic.
I did choose my top 7 out of the 35:
1. There is no competition for your personal voice
2. Best metric: Replies.
3. Perfection is boring.
4. Curation matters.
There are way too many creators and not enough editors. This scarcity creates value.
5. There’s bravery in brevity.
“Small is considerate, difficult, and valuable. Most books should be a blog post. Most blog posts should be a tweet. Most tweets shouldn’t be.”
6. Add your newsletter link to all the things.
Make it the center of your online universe, because it’s where relationships are built. If you build a newsletter of value, it’s your duty to expose it to as many readers as possible.
7. Ask for testimonials.
New readers want to know why they should care about your newsletter. Give them real reasons from real readers.
Here is the full article: https://www.cjchilvers.com/blog/35-lessons-from-35-years-of-newsletter-publishing