Ask IH: What's stopping you from starting a newsletter?
Hi Indie Hackers,
I see a lot of people running newsletter these days, but there are still many who may be thinking of starting one but haven't started any yet.
If you are one of those, please share what's stopping you.
Thanks!
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It was a combination of imposter syndrome and procrastination. Throw a new born into that mix and it just gets hard not just to create valuable content for the newsletter but also to distribute it.
Now I've looked at my goal to start the newsletter as a self-learning exercise. Focus on the content to help me build domain expertise rather than audience building.
I managed to launch my newsletter last week 🥳
https://www.builtwithemotion.com/
Looks cool, I would work on the fonts though, the landing page is quite hard to read, good luck!
Thanks for your feedback. I'll work on how I can make it legible :)
I am the slowest writer! I’d like to start something like a newsletter or blog. But each post would take me hours.
I have the same problem!
It's a serious obligation. And I don't like to have too many of them.
But I think with a proper process in place it's doable. This is why I started to collect emails for my product's mailing list.
Just an assumption: If I'd know how to make a paid newsletter and I know each issue earns me money, I'd write regularly. I'd spend most of my time on it cause it's my business earning me money.
I agree with you!
I only have handful users so I'll write a letter for each of them for a while to get attentions. I'm assuming this post is about product release notification newsletters. not general articles. I don't think writing general newsletter helps a product to grow.
I'm so busy with things such as developing the product, creating videos, etc., that writing a regular newsletter would simply be too much.
It would be different if the newsletter was the product...
That's a good point. I have the same reason.
I'm probably not the target person you expected to reply. But here's what's stopping me from starting a newsletter now...
but first back story: I made a weekly newsletter and ran it 3 years. Sold it end of 2020. I started a newsletter for my new project and don't run it consistently. I made early this year a new daily newsletter and instead of stopping it, or selling it, I gave it away.
What's stopping me now, is that for my current projects I'd rather do email marketing, or customer support via email. While I do see a long term free, open newsletter as a thing. I have one set up but I don't send to it... I'd rather focus on sales and customer now. Customers are way more responsive than free subscribers.
I'm too naive to figure out its utility for https://recocards.com .
Plus I'm biased that SEO writing is more fruitful at the moment than newsletter writing.
I like to write, but I am too slow to for high quality writing. Don't want to send out 80% done stuff as well.
Therefore, no newsletter. Unless I find somebody who does most of the legwork for me and I need only to add finishing touches.
I started one but haven't sent my first newsletter yet. My issue is commitment.
Newsletters are a great way to communicate with your audience, but sometimes I feel the audience can be picky about things.
If it's a daily newsletter, that's too much like Morning Brew and The Hustle.
If it's a weekly newsletter, it has to be long form like IH newsletter.
There are so many opinions and personal views about newsletters and it can be discouraging.
That's how I feel about it.
I beg to differ, I feel like 2-3 weeks with a succinct and value-packed newsletter is the sweet spot, don't waste people times and let them wait for the value.
Just start out with something you feel you would like.
That's my concern - How do you know if you are wasting people's times? If they unsubscribe, great.
If they stay in your list, they can contribute by giving you feedback. That's great too.
What happens when you get tons of feedback to change? You will lose sight of your vision and it gets discouraging.
Indie Hacker Newsletter is a great format to follow.
Don't overthink it (coming from an overthinker lol). When you get to that bridge try to figure it out. First get to 100 readers.
I feel the same things, Charlie.
Hi, Hammad. This is a great question.
I started my own newsletter, but I can't write it regularly because I don't have enough time. It takes me one or two working days to write one issue. That's a lot of time!
Guys, for a quick start with newsletters and blog: amazing tool Surfaces.one: SEO optimized blog pages, easy to use newsletter tool.
You may publish a blog post on your public page and send it as a newsletter if you want.
For followers acquisition - "subscribe now" mini landing pages: you may offer valuable pieces of content as a lead magnet and collect subscribers!
Doubt I would monitorize it
It's too much work. Plus: chicken egg problem, do you start writing hours for a newsletter with 0 subs or collect subs and then start writing? IMHO a newsletter only works if you have an already built audience and starting at 200 subs or more.
In my opinion, the newsletter is the audience builder! It's a bank of content you can reshape to meet others on all sorts of different platforms.
Starting one and failing hard :)