How long do you spend on your newsletter each week? [Poll]
I just finished the latest issue of my weekly curated newsletter Small Tech Business. I spent about 5 hours on this issue.
My time breakdown is roughly:
1 to 3 hours finding and preparing links to articles, podcasts, blog posts
- I use a Notion page for each issue and store links and notes
2 to 4 hours compiling and writing the newsletter issue
- I will often re-read articles and posts prior to writing my short snippets/descriptions. This is also when I decide which content "makes the cut" for the issue.
Overall, I spend probably 4-6 hours per week
I just finished my 6th issue, and I think I am getting more efficient which is great. I am able to make decisions faster and I spend less time rewriting parts. I think overall I'd ideally like to get my system down to just 2-3 hours a week.
How much time do you spend on your newsletter each week?
Even before I started writing a newsletter I would read articles and books for 3-6 hours a week.
So I don't really count that as part of the newsletter preparation...
Is that cheating?
Find the same with my newsletter - about 4 to 6 hours. I'm hoping to get this down to 3 hours soon. Like everything I guess it's trial and error before I can be a bit more efficient. I'm having fun though so it doesn't feel like work!
P.s . I signed up to your newsletter there - looks good 👍
I do between 7-10
As a curator, being able to differentiate between single and noise when doing research can be quite the timely process.
I also use a lot of gifs in my newsletter as well, and quite surprisingly, this also takes a lot of time to find the right ones that I think will fit for that issue.😂
Totally agree with you on the signal vs noise, as my "research" can easily turn into browsing shitposts on reddit for an hour (or is that just me?).
Your newsletter looks really interesting, certainly a lot more visual than mine haha.
(link his newsletter for others: https://theslice.co)
What do you think has been the best source of growth for your newsletter?
In the beginning I actually created my own growth loop by accident doing this.
Feature a product/SaaS/blog made by a founder.
Post a weblink to the newsletter on twitter tagging all featured founders.
Because they were featured, a lot them were reluctant to give a retweet, thus furthering that weblink to their own audience.
Gain more subscribers from that weblink, and then repeat that process the following week.
I have since stopped doing this actually, but a lot my early growth came from that. I also made a lot posts reddit and Indie Hackers, and had a few hit or miss days on Hacker News
Nowadays it’s mostly referrals through word mouth. I won’t lie, it’s a lot slower now, but I find that I get a higher quality subscribers like that, and overall better open and CTR🙏🏻
Thanks so much for sharing. I’ve been trying out a similar Twitter approach.
What sub-reddits worked well for your newsletter? I have done a post of r/SideProjects but it doesn’t feel like the ideal audience for my newsletter.
I put 4-6, however, that for both my newsletter (Thursday) and my extra article/essay (Tuesday). The newsletter has been averaging about 1000 words and 4 curated links/discussion points.
The extra articles are long-form and pushing around 2500 words. https://TheStakeholderReport.com
That's great! Do you find yourself enjoying writing the curated newsletter or the essay more?
Honestly, the essay.