Got my blogging sh*t together & sent an email to 1307 humans!

I launched the Optemization website in March and since then collected 1307 email subscribers, to whom I sent... nothing

I captured emails primarily through my website and an upcoming PH Ship page. I had Zapier automation capture both submissions and combine them in one Airtable table.

I struggled with performance anxiety. While I freely expressed my opinions and shared my writing on Twitter, email felt like much a much bigger deal that I wasn't ready for. I kept thinking that I needed to get it "right." I couldn't settle on insignificant stuff (in the early stages) like publication name or branding. And I felt like I didn't have sufficient enough of a content pipeline.

However, this past Friday I finally tore the bandaid off and sent a Substack email to the 1307 subscribers...

Primarily I realized that although I'm growing a presence on social media, its FAR less reliable than email to gain traction. I noticed how much stuff I missed on social that I eventually I did see in my inbox. It's a way to game the algorithm a little bit.

But also I felt confident! I got more comfortable with publishing my writing and sharing online. I published seven "good" content pieces on Notion that did really well on Reddit and Twitter, so I felt like I was missing out on a lot of upside attention by shying away from email.

The other thing is that I am a sucker for clever naming. I came up with the name "Digital Opssessions" only after I reflected on the content I am drawn to sharing. Its digital operations + productivity written in a rather obsessive manner :)

I linked the first blog post above but in it I shared a brief intro on myself, the ambition of the newsletter, and a teaser for some content, and I think it's not too bad because the subscriber count went from 1307 to 1314! Now, I really want to work on consistently sharing.

My plan is to actually publish issues on my website and then distribute it via Substack, Medium and social — let's see how that goes! I'm also, separately, wanting to write and publish a personal blog that dissects the inner workings of building Optemization but that's another story for another time!