š Top Link Per Category
Screen Share - Choosing a Newsletter Revenue Model
Newsletter Tips - Want More Newsletter Subscribers? Start Here
Curation - The Twitter Hashtag Curation Method
Marketing - How To Create Episodic Content
Writing - How To Master Conversational Copywriting
Publishing - The Impact Of Product Thinking On Publishing
Money Matters - Wait, Is Facebook Saying It Wonāt Always Be Free?
Curated News - Shout Out To Some Recent Launches
Opt In Challenge - Master The Acronyms Of Deliverability
š 10 Most Popular Links
New Not A Newsletter Released Earlier This Week
This monthās āNot a Newsletterā by Dan Oshinsky is packed full of newsletter links, tips, and best practices that are not only practical but helpful, too. Highlights include:
He also includes an article from Yanna-Torry Aspraki, an email deliverability expert, answering the question, āHow do they know if Iām a good or bad sender?ā
Set aside some time to read the full March edition (yes, itās a Google Doc) here.
Newsletter Creators Struggle With Gmailās Promotions Tab
You are not alone.
But I bet thatās not super comforting.
Brian Contreras wrote this interesting piece about the very real struggle unpredictable email deliverability can be for Los Angeles Times.
The best quote came from an anonymous newsletter sender (anonymously because he doesnāt want sponsors to understand how little he can guarantee the newsletter lands in the primary inbox):
āLike some ancient, unknowable deity, Gmail āhas this influence over our lives, but we donāt know ... how theyāre making decisions and how it will affect us from one day to another. We just know that itās always changing, and sometimes itās good news and sometimes itās bad news.āā
Click through to read about just how arbitrary the Gmail inbox placement process can be and why it keeps newsletter writers up at night.
Discovered via American Press Institute.
Psst! Curated does everything we can to keep you primary, including instructions for new subscribers to take actions to show they want you there and curating stories on deliverability to keep you up to date.
How Curated Handles The Scariest Acronyms: SPF/DKIM
Hey, everyone. Seth with Curated Success here.
Did you know that Curated automatically handles SPF and DKIM for your newsletter to improve your deliverability score?
In short, correctly configured SPF and DKIM records show email providers like Gmail and Outlook that the sender is safe, which lowers the risk of your emails landing in spam. If you want a deep dive into SPF and DKIM, check out this article.
By default, Curated only sends email thatās been verified with valid SPF and DKIM. This affects your newsletter in 2 ways:
Youāre still able to set the reply-to email address for your publication in the Email page of your settings so you can receive responses.
*If youād like to remove the ācuratedmail.coā portion of your sender address, youāll need to configure your own SPF and DKIM records by following these instructions or watching this video. Weāll continue to send from our valid SPF and DKIM records until yours are correctly set up.
If you have any questions, let me know!
Tip: Make Your Archives Easy To Browse And Search (+ Treat Opt In Weekly Like An Idea Repository!)
Last week, a friend posed a question about a topic I try to follow: ungated marketing content vs publisher paywalls. While I had an initial response (theyāre different beasts to tackle), Iāve curated 6 articles concerning gating in this newsletter. I used the publication site search function to revisit those articles (and my commentary) to share one article with him.
I asked Seth to create a GIF showing how that works in case you want try it in your own newsletter. Or maybe you want to test it out to see what Iāve published in the past about topics like deliverability, Gmail clipping, and getting listed in newsletter directories.
Curated users who have publication sites enabled (issues can be published to the Curated.co domain or a custom domain) can show archives and allow search by going to Settings > Hosting, Subscriptions, and Publishing > Web.
Great search example in the GIF, Seth!
How To Strategically Clean Your Email List
Hey everyone, Seth here.
In this monthās issue of Not a Newsletter, deliverability expert Yanna-Torry Aspraki shares some best practices around list management, avoiding spam traps, and how cleaning your list of unengaged subscribers is ultimately good for your newsletter.
You can read all of Asprakiās insights here.
If you want to follow Asprakiās advice and clean your list in a strategic way, you can do that in Curated by using the Activity Filter in the Email Subscribers page to send unengaged subscribers a reconfirmation email. It asks them if they want to stay subscribed to your newsletter. If they donāt click āStay Subscribedā, then theyāll be unsubscribed from your list.
Note: Engagement is filtered by how long itās been since a subscriber clicked a link. Try using 6 months or a year to see what percentage of your total subscriber list might be ready to unsubscribe.
You can learn more about our reconfirmation workflow here.
Iāve got a problem.
I really, really hate creating something that isnāt considered unique and memorable.
If you want to watch me spiral into misery, tell me to go do a thing the way someone else did a thing.
It
drives
me
insane.
I dread mediocrity.
And, even more, I NEED whatever I create to stand out.
Which brings me to a current project that Iāve decided to share with you because I think you can help me:
Curatedās website is now on Webflow and I can actually make changes to it (it used to be inside the appās codebase).
We went ahead and added our free tier to the site to communicate that loud and clear via CTAs (calls to action buttons like āStart for Freeā).
Next, Iām planning to update the Features page. Hereās where my problem comes into play: I donāt want a boring list of features with meh descriptions.
I want to focus on the results those features help newsletter writers achieve.
I want narrative.
AND I want site visitors to feel like itās easy to navigate to the features that would most benefit them (itās not the same for every persona).
So before I just go write and design it the way I think it should be communicated, I thought I would ask your opinion. Itās really important to me that we donāt just assume you value a feature for what we think it does for you, but that we understand what you use it for and why you like or donāt like it.
So Iāve created a Google Form that asks you to rate how important a feature is to you and explain why you like having it.
This is NOT EXCLUSIVELY FOR CURATED USERS.
Itās for newsletter creators.
So I can understand and serve you better, even if you donāt use Curated.
I would be insanely grateful if you took a few minutes to fill it out and doesn't require an email address. You can rank and type responses, just rank, or just type a fewāitās up to you how detailed you want to get.
Hereās a list whatās included:
The newsletter lessons in this?
Thank you for indulging me in this request.
Iāll be back to more relevant storytelling next week.
He crawled in the bed as if maybe he hadnāt woke me using the bathroom and brushing his teeth and said āIāve got a surprise for you in the morning.ā
Could YOU have gotten back to sleep?
I tried.
But the harder I squeezed my eyes shut the more awake I became until 2 (maybe 5 or 10?) minutes later I responded,
āYou cannot do that.ā
āThereās no way I can sleep now. I have to know.ā
Iād been asleep for 2 hours already.
It was 12:30 a.m.
But Sal is a night owl and after I fall asleep he goes to his study and does whatever until late.
Sometimes I wake up when he returns.
Sometimes I donāt.
But I definitely do if he says āIāve got a surprise for you in the morning.ā
WHAT IS THE SURPRISE?
Either tell me or donāt hint.
Between REM cycles is a fragile time. You canāt dangle surprises there.
You either have sleep-disrupting-worthy news or you stay as quiet as possible and respect the beautiful thing that is a full nightās rest in progress.
He knew what he was doing, too.
And when he told me the surprise (after months of looking heād found the exact used SUV I wanted in the ONLY GOOD COLOR with low mileage in San Antonio at a CarMax, immediately reserved it, and it would be hauled to our local dealership), I could feel the potential energy turn kinetic.
Of course he had tested to see if he could wake me up to tell me.
Heād just pounced on an opportunity.
You know how that feels.
Youād risk a grumpy wifeās nightās sleep to celebrate the win.
Newsletter lesson here:
Make each issue worth disrupting someoneās day.
Be the surprise deliverer.
Imagine the subject line jetting across their phone: āPsst! Iāve got a surprise for you when you read this.ā
Then deliver. Make them feel as special as me having a husband who spends his late nights trying to find me the exact SUV I want.
This weekās issue has some newsletter advice worth clicking through to read. I hope you like it.
P.S. Lunar Rock is the only good color.
P.P.S. I got back to sleep around 4.
