Let’s think about how your newsletter can be what someone didn’t know they really needed.

If you want readers who open and engage with each issue, then you’ve got to create something worth the effort it takes to do that.

In fact, you’ve got to create something that makes it feel like it’s NOT EVEN EFFORT.

This past weekend, my youngest daughter was determined to walk the neighborhood on Sunday afternoon looking for treasures. We’ve discovered that this is when everyone puts out quality stuff they want to get rid of (trash pickup is Monday morning).

The previous weekend my husband had taken the girls and their cousin out and they found a set of elongated souvenir pennies. Score!

Some people make an effort to post pictures of what they’re putting out in a Buy & Sell neighborhood Facebook group. They title the post “Curb Alert,” and if you time it right you might snatch up something good. Our next door neighbors grabbed a bouncy house this way.

But others just put it on the curb and let the vultures scavenge.

Josie, 9, was obsessed with getting out Sunday and finding something.

So off she and Sal went—she on her scooter and he on foot—scouring boxes of junk that might have something worthwhile. Treasure hunting, they called it.

Meanwhile, I relaxed at home, searching Amazon for a pineapple lamp to go in her new room. Her bed was due to arrive this week and her comforter has pineapples on it, so I thought it would be fun to get a lamp that matched, but I wasn’t having much luck. Nothing was just right.

Turns out they went around the entire neighborhood and didn’t see anything good. They’d even had to hang out under a tree during a quick summer storm and decided to call it a loss and head in after.

Then, as they turned on our street, they saw a pile of little girl room goodies that hadn’t been there earlier. And—get this—one of the best things was a light pink pineapple lamp the color of her new bed!

She was ecstatic.

It was perfect.

After a quick cleaning and drying session (the rain!), they tested it and IT WORKED!

Days later, she is still giddy. “It matches sooooooo good!”

Are you creating a newsletter that prompts this level of contentment?

Imagine your newsletter is my neighborhood on Sunday.

Is it worth exploring?

Walking in the rain for?

Treasure hunting?

Is it an adventure readers continue to take because they know there’s a pink pineapple lamp (or something more fitting) waiting for them in the next issue?

If not, can you make it one?

Now, let’s shed some light on the newsletter world.

Ashley Guttuso