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Prologue

What can I send you today that even makes sense in the wake of tragedy?

A hug, I suppose.

In the form of a newsletter.

I have a tradition with my 4th grader.

I ask her what God gave her, to which she responds “A beautiful heart.”

Then I ask what she should do with that beautiful heart.

“Love.”

This week’s curated content was in revisions by Tuesday afternoon when the news of Uvalde spread to our hearts.

I tweaked a bit here and there yesterday, perhaps comforted by the distraction.

There’s some good content you can use to improve your newsletter.

But I’m unable to bring my usual energy to this introduction.

My storytelling steam is low.

Their stories deserve the focus right now anyway.

—hug—

Newsletter Tips

Get Really Specific... Or Go Broad?

If you’ve had a newsletter for any amount of time, you’ve likely encountered the dilemma Justin Murphy identifies here. In summary:

“A highly specific brand will grow faster than a vague or mysterious brand. However, the more specific your brand, the less freedom you’ll have.”

So, how do you choose a newsletter topic that has the “right” amount of specificity yet gives you the freedom to write about what you want to write about?

Justin examines personality, preferences, and longevity, plus offers a chart of “indifference curves” that makes the choice feel scientific.

Take a look and let me know your thoughts. I’m constantly struggling to balance the urge to be as multi-faceted in my writing choices as I am in my life interests with a desire to hone in on a niche and own it and it alone.

Discovered via JD Graffam, owner of Simple Focus Software. He shared the link in a text because he knew I’d be intrigued.

What Do You Want For Your Newsletter?

What is your vision for your newsletter? What about your goals (or anti-goals)? Shaan Puri wrote a Google Doc when he first started “My First Million” podcast that shares the vision and goals he had. Maybe they can help you, too.

Discovered via For the Interested.

Build Your Subscriber List From Zero

We all start with zero subscribers. Ghost is sharing how to get started and find your founding subscribers in bite-sized increments here.

Discovered via Ghost Newsletter.

Marketing

John Bonini’s Content Marketing Advice Is 🔥🔥🔥 This Week

If you don’t already follow John Bonini on LinkedIn, now’s the time. The Director of Marketing at Databox and Founder of Some Good Content had 2 posts that made me like / comment / share / collect (gee, that Curated Chrome extension sure is handy) this week.

First, check out this one about getting out of the content-creation-for-the-sake-of-ranking mill and actually creating something meaningful for your target audience.

Then, chase it with this one about how content isn’t some overnight growth hack but, instead, a long game that takes commitment to continue publishing, even when it feels like no one’s reading / watching / listening.

The Key To Reaching Gen Z

Turns out Gen Z doesn’t just want personalized ads… they expect them. In this Smart Brief article, Jo Hamilton explains the findings of a new study by Unsupervised. It turns out 81% of Gen Zers said they like personalized ads. His take on the study includes a few pointers on what makes an ad “bad”.

Discovered via Smart Brief on Social Business.

What Stresses You Out?

If you’re in marketing, it could be one of these 7 things, according to Ashley Segura (Ward). Don’t worry, she offers ways to deal with each marketing-induced issue.

Discovered via theCLIKK.

Writing

6 Tips For Beating Writer’s Block

Roy Peter Clark has written or edited TWENTY books, so he knows a thing or TWENTY about writer’s block. He recommends that when we get it, we should:

Stop reading
Stop writing
Clean something
Zero draft
Lower our standards
Write something else

Get the full breakdown here.

Discovered via American Press Institute.

Don’t Let Bad Copywriting Kill Good Content

Your newsletter may be full of great content, but Justin Welsh believes that if you make these 4 copywriting mistakes, none of that matters.

Discovered via Marketer Crew. Note: This link is correct but appears to be broken. Maybe their site is down?

Publishing

The Balancing Act: Audience Engagement And Subscription Success

It’s predicted that the subscriber economy will only continue to grow. Faisal Kalim identifies 7 trends publishers should be aware of here.
In this 40-minute episode of The Media Voice podcast, Toolkits Co-Founder Jack Marshall answers the question, “What’s next for subscriptions?” by addressing ads and subscription relationships, subscription slowdowns, and the next iteration of subscriptions.
Do you need a new engagement strategy? WNIP offers insights from industry experts on how to better engage audiences and turn that engagement into value.
“A user is unlikely to give you credit for something unless you tell them what you are trying to accomplish.” If you want your audience to trust you, Lynn Walsh suggests you start here.
Have you utilized a registration wall yet? Jack Marshall identifies their benefits.

Money Matters

How To Create A Strong Reader Revenue Plan

How do you decide how much to charge for subscriptions? After extensive testing, Bild discovered this: “pricing structure can evolve and change.” Michelle Palmer Jones explains how they came to this conclusion here.

Discovered via The Rebooting.

Are Your Readers Paying For News?

There are 3 main reasons people don’t pay for news:

access to free news
commitment
technical issues

In this article, David Tvrdon identifies strategies publishers are using to change readers’ minds.

Discovered via Editor and Publisher Magazine.

Curated News

From Mobile Scroll To Collected Link

Seth’s enjoying some vacay time this week so I (Ashley) get to take over this section.

I thought I’d share one of my favorite ways to collect links to my Curated newsletters when I’m on my phone scrolling social sites, especially now that people post more content right in social feeds and they function as micro blogs.

A few minutes of setup will let you to use a secret email address to capture links directly to your Curated account.

Using your secret email address:

Every user of every Curated publication (aka each newsletter) has a unique email address for that specific newsletter.

Go to Collected Links > Click the blue Learn How link in the top center of this page > Scroll to Collecting Links via Email > Copy the address > Save it as a contact in your preferred email client.

Now, when you see a post you want to collect, look for a share via email option (this varies per platform; in LinkedIn you have to click the 3 dots at the top right of a post—not the Share option below the post—then pick the app you want to use to share). Choose your email client and send it to your secret email address. The link to the post will be waiting for you in your Collected Items when you go to draft your next issue.

Bonus: You can automatically assign links to a category when collecting them via email by inserting the word you chose for the “Tag for Email Submissions” (e.g. “news”) when you configured your categories.

So, when I see a LinkedIn post that would be a great newsletter tip, I quickly share via Gmail to a contact named Opt In Weekly with newslettertips in email body.

Next Curated Crash Course Session Is June 2

Curated Crash Course for today, May 26 is canceled, but Seth will be back on June 2nd to walk through creating a Curated account and answer any questions about newsletters.

If you have any questions about Curated or your newsletter before June 2nd, reach out to our support and we’ll be happy to help!

New to Curated? Make a copy of this Getting Started with Curated Checklist to help launch your newsletter (public, private, or paid).

Opt In Challenge

Do You Have Accessibility Issues?

Parcel has developed an accessibility checker designed to evaluate emails for issues and best practices. Your Opt In Challenge this week is to head to this site and submit your next email for evaluation.

Discovered via Really Good Emails.

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. I’d love to know what you think.

Happy newslettering,