Marketing · 11 recordsStart a newsletter

Most newsletters stop at issue three. This sets the goal at ten, because ten is roughly where a cadence becomes a habit, and pairs the writing with the far less fun work of giving people a reason to subscribe.

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Goal

Publish ten issues Month 5

Ten is roughly where a cadence stops being a decision each time.

Write the first ten Month 5

The actual work. Everything else is in service of this.

  • Decide what it is about, in one sentenceDo firstDay 3
  • Pick a cadence I can hold badlyDo firstDay 5
  • Send issue oneWeek 3

Give people a reason to subscribe Month 4

The unglamorous half, so ten good issues do not go into an empty room.

  • Set up somewhere to sign upDay 10
  • Tell the people who already know meWeek 4

Routines

  • Write for the next issueweekly
  • Note one idea worth sendingweekly
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Ten issues

Most newsletters stop around issue three — late enough to have taken real effort, early enough that nothing has compounded. Ten is the target because it is roughly where writing it stops being a fresh decision.\n\nPick the cadence you could hold on a bad month, not a good one. Fortnightly that happens beats weekly that stops.

Questions

Start a newsletter, answered.

Whatever you can hold for ten issues without dreading it — usually fortnightly rather than weekly at the start. The cadence you can sustain badly is worth more than the one you can sustain brilliantly for a month.
Because that is roughly where writing it stops being a decision each time. Most newsletters stop around issue three, which is late enough to have taken real effort and early enough that nothing has compounded yet.
No, but you need somewhere they can come from, which is why growth is a project rather than an afterthought here. Writing ten good issues into an empty room is the other common way this ends.
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