ProloguePrologue

Surprise!

Itā€™s another Friday delivery of your (favorite?) newsletter about newsletters.

Savor it. There will be no issue next week because Iā€™m taking the week off and moving back to my home state of Mississippi.

Iā€™ll spare you the surge of emotions Iā€™m feeling about leaving Florida, and focus instead on the most exciting feature in our new house (and Iā€™ll attempt to metaphorically tie it into the act of newslettering).

Itā€™s this thing Iā€™ve been wishing for since I began working from home in June 2019. So, you know, two years in the making. Itā€™s an office withā€¦ a door!

I feel like a child who is getting her own room for the first time: stinking ecstatic.

You see, Iā€™ve been working in an open concept living room for the past two years and it hasnā€™t been pretty.

I love my family.

Really.

I do.

But achieving deep focus while their lives take place around me has been challenging.

Add to that a pandemic and the longest spring break ever (March - September 2020), and you might be able to understand why Iā€™m an adult woman who fantasizes about closing a door. I seriously have daydreams about not getting interrupted in the middle of typing a sentence.

So Iā€™m really concentrating on that door as I box up belongings and say goodbye to the coastal life I love.

Now, how can my closed door fantasy support your newsletter ambitions?

I think Iā€™ve teed up a lesson about distractionsā€”recognizing them and figuring out how to limit them.

And this isnā€™t just about not having an 8-year-old practicing piano five feet away.

Itā€™s about understanding how you work best and creating that scenario for yourself.

Itā€™s about evaluating opportunities that present themselves and not overcommitting.

Itā€™s about identifying the digital doors you need to close (cough, coughā€”Slack) and concentrating.

As a subscriber of many newsletters, I can tell you this: the very best ones come from people and teams who prioritize the deep focus it requires to win inbox attention.

Figure out which doors you need to close to keep your subscribers opening.

Todayā€™s issue has a few real downer stories mixed in with some very solid tips and advice.

Maybe Iā€™m a little melancholy about the move or maybe the reports about the state of writing and trust in journalism are suffering from a shadow cast by the pandemic?

As always, let me know what you like or dislike. I look forward to your responses almost as much as Iā€™m looking forward to my new door.

Ashley Guttuso  

Newsletter Tips



Marketing



Curation

Publishing



Not Really News: People Donā€™t Trust Media These Days

Speaking of meta, hereā€™s a round up of stories from fairly trustworthy news sources about how untrustworthy people think the industry has become:

Gallup reports that the ā€œpercentage with no trust at all is a record high, up five points since 2019.ā€

Whatā€™s New in Publishing unpacks a recent Reuters Institute report ā€œbased on open-ended conversations with cross-sections of people in Brazil, India, UK, and the US.ā€

NiemanLab encourages adding overlays to images that convey misinformation to point out their inaccuracies instead of amplifying their messages.

 

Money Matters

Curated News Curated News

Adjust Your Footer Subscribe Method Text

Cool news, Curated users: weā€™re chasing last weekā€™s release of settings that support private newsletters with an email footer customization option you might find helpful.

By default, the email footer says ā€œYou received this email because you subscribed via the Opt In Weekly site.ā€

But because you can turn that site off now (and because youā€™ve been able to embed subscription forms wherever you want, use the API, and import subscribers), it makes sense that you might want to customize this language to be less about publication site sign ups.

For instance, I have one that says, ā€because you are a [BRAND] customer.ā€

To adjust this, go to Settings > Header and Footer > Footer > Subscribe Method Text.

Youā€™ll be able to replace the default with a phrase that makes sense for each publication you send through Curated.

 

ICYMI: We now have a Curated Public Product Roadmap! Check out our recent releases and whatā€™s up next.

 

Opt In ChallengeOpt In Challenge

Like this newsletter?

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. Iā€™d love to know what you think.

Also, Iā€™d appreciate it if you shared it with fellow email newsletter creators. All archived issues will be available on OptInWeekly.com, so you can send them the link to check it out.

Have a great week sending, yā€™all.

Thanks for reading (and sharing?),

Ashley Guttuso