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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2XOnWxD-aSE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/2XOnWxD-aSE</a><h2>What is a paid newsletter?</h2>Many of us would be surprised to see a pop-up nowadays that asked us to pay for an email newsletter. With how rampant free newsletters are, paid newsletters are a weird new breed of emails, whose small but extremely loyal&nbsp;audiences run counter to the get-as-many-subscribers-as-humanly-possible methodology instilled in us. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2XOnWxD-aSE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/embed/2XOnWxD-aSE</a> How do you start one? Is it worth it? Who will actually pay for emails these days? Luckily, we were able to catch up with a <a href="http://sentiers.media/?src=rge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sentiers</a>, a paid newsletter publication, to get the answers and the details. <h2>Some Questions About Sentiers:</h2> Hi Patrick! Can you let us know a bit about your background?I was a freelance web developer for years, then I guess you could say this understanding of technology helped expand my interests in more and more different domains, to building a reputation for “generally knowing about stuff,” which led me to more of a consultancy role, using a framing I call Thought Partnership. How did the Sentiers newsletter start? Was there a reason that you picked email specifically?During that transition from development to consultancy, I helped co-invent a print magazine called <a href="https://thealpinereview.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Alpine Review</a>. That was a very bold project focused on “observing the things that matter.” The intent was for it to be a tool to project our ideas and understanding, to lead us into consultancy projects in parallel. For various reasons, we put that project on hiatus. <hr> <a href="http://sentiers.media/?src=rge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sentiers</a>&nbsp;and email is my way to keep that thinking going in a kind of solo and MVP (Minimum Viable Product) form. Same curation, same topics, same sense making, on as light as possible&nbsp;infrastructure. Back then I was also curating a newsletter and “online magazine,”&nbsp;<ol><li>We Seek&nbsp;for&nbsp;<a href="https://e180.co/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">e180</a>&nbsp;and loved the close interaction with readers and the much much higher engagement than with social media.</li><li>With print you have very few “live” metrics to know what readers are interested in, so I also enjoyed that much quicker feedback loop.</li><li>Considering that, making&nbsp;Sentiers&nbsp;a newsletter just made sense.</li></ol>I’d have to keep better track of this actually but it’s probably close to a 50/50 split between newsletters and Twitter. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/5b144e2f8ee64450b0f8c63a30c28e0a"> <a href="https://rge-staging.netlify.app/emails/25-off-codyhouse-pro-black-friday-deal-testing-tags-without-saving/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://rge-staging.netlify.app/emails/25-off-codyhouse-pro-black-friday-deal-testing-tags-without-saving/</a> Sentiers is a newsletter that I look forward to and read all of. How do you discover and curate the articles that you feature?&nbsp;Good to hear! I’d have to keep better track of this actually but it’s probably close to a 50/50 split between newsletters and Twitter.<ul><li>I subscribe to well over a hundred newsletters and I have a tightly curated main list on Twitter with interesting thinkers, I generally read pretty much every tweet from that (smallish) list.</li><li>I then use <a href="https://nuzzel.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nuzzel</a> to extract more links from a few other lists which I don’t read directly.</li><li>Interesting articles I either append to that week’s issue in my text editor (Bear) or send to Instapaper.</li></ul>I’d have to keep better track of this actually but it’s probably close to a 50/50 split between newsletters and Twitter. How did you create and maintain a member supported newsletter? How do the paying subscriber dispatches differ from the free newsletter?I used WordPress, Memberful, and Stripe to accept payments and paywall content, Memberful also syncs with <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/mailchimp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mailchimp</a> so I can send email only to paid members. The plan for Dispatches is for three formats: first like weekly issues but on a single topic, then adding long-form articles and interviews as membership rises. I’m lucky that members right now are also getting onboard to support the weekly, not just for the extra content. I just explain that clearly (I hope!) on the website and remind readers of the program once in a while. That’s pretty much it. <blockquote>Becoming a member helps sustain the free Sentiers weekly newsletter, and gets you some extra Dispatches to feed your curiosity. <a href="https://sentiers.memberful.com/checkout?plan=42264&amp;coupon=rge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Use this RGE link to signup.</a></blockquote> What has been your experience using Mailchimp as an ESP? Have you felt the need to tweak the design of the newsletter over the years? Have you run any tests with your emails?It’s been good. One of the things I take seriously is the design of everything I do and Mailchimp is one of few solid solutions that let you completely design your template. That and the fact most other platforms offer support for their API (like Memberful and a WordPress plugin) are the two main factors that made me pick their platform, and keeps me there so far.&nbsp; I have to say that as they seem to be switching ever closer to a marketing platform, it means I’m also constantly keeping an eye on other services but custom templates are a deal breaker for me. The template is constantly evolving design wise but with the new identity introduced 5-6 months ago, it’s been pretty stable. I run a spam test every week with Mail-Tester but I’ve run A-B tests only a couple of times. Mailchimp suggests having at a bare minimum 5000 subscribers for tests to be worth it and I’m “just” in the 3000s right now. What challenges do you face with growing a membership supported newsletter? What is your biggest hurdle currently?The biggest challenge is producing the extra content. Just writing the weekly takes quite a bit of time, adding the Dispatches is still not something I can consider as replacing a client revenue wise, although it’s going well. Right now the percentage of subscribers who are also paid members is rising so that’s excellent. The challenge then is growing the subscription base to the weekly. I’m at a level where it’s hard to get mentions in big enough “outlets” that it results in significant bumps in subscriptions, thus it’s largely through organic week on week growth. Getting large newsletters or accounts to talk about me without annoying them with spammy reach outs is thus the biggest hurdle. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/c5ecc90933fe49e1be81d0ec5c182fa5"> What’s next for niche publications? Is the ad-based business model still relevant?The use of the word “niche” is a bit misleading because it also relates to the size of your operation. For example I’m not sure the Stratechery niche is big enough for a medium to large scale operation but for a one person outfit, it’s a huge spot to be in and quite lucrative, if most reports are to be believed. To me there are basically two types of publications, those who aim for a niche (although that can be relatively big, as mentioned above), and those aiming for an order of magnitude or two more members. The first usually aims for high engagement, and a close relationship with readers. They are better served with membership models and usually fit the relationship better. The latter will have lower engagement and higher churn but at such a scale that they can likely make more money. The ad-based model, which is (in my opinion) less respectful of the readers, fits this scale and churn model well, although more and more of them are going with subscription models too, often in addition to ads. In terms of “next” I’d say probably bundles (multiple newsletters for one price). I’ve got a few articles lined-up on the topic but haven’t researched how it might work yet. <h2>Some Questions About Thought Partners:</h2> Can you explain what A Thought Partner is?It’s an evolving model but my base definition is “someone who, through a practice of researching, reading, learning, asking questions, and writing, helps partners in developing their ideas, knowledge, and thinking.” The basic goal is to bring outside ideas and connect them to the needs, thinking, and strategy of an organization to broaden, strengthen, and accelerate their thinking. People are usually going full speed with no time to look sideways and to blindspots, I do that work for them. Why do you think A Thought Partner is beneficial to an organization?&nbsp;It’s pretty much impossible right now to effectively stay in business by looking exclusively at your own field and thinking no one, no event, no policy, no technology will ever affect how you work. Knowing what’s going on alongside your domain or further out on the edges is essential in planning. And honestly, it also makes for a more agile and creative brain to know more and look at things from different perspectives. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/603475454460488fa2cd8f57253e7ad7"> Do you feel “curators” are still valuable in our current web environment?More than ever. We’ve seen time and again that algorithms picking content can fail and are often tweaked to reinforce a business model like advertising. Curators are not perfect either but people don’t approach a personal selection by one person the same way as they do the Facebook feed, for example. Are there tools or frameworks for us to become Thought Partners within our own organizations? Or does that role work better as an outsider?&nbsp;It probably works better as an outsider but that can sometimes work as simply outside of specific teams. Thought Partnership, in my experience, is often delivered as text, which means you can easily can pigeonholed as a content creator or a marketer. Nothing wrong with that per se, but you then get sucked in those departments’ deliverables. You need to at least be outside of them (or sales) to focus on looking outside the organization for insights. <h2>Some Questions About Technology:</h2> What are your thoughts on email tracking and privacy? Are there better ways of asking our subscribers how to serve them better?Some people are arguing that there shouldn’t be tracking at all. I’d love to know nothing about individuals but have list-level stats like open rate and click rate. You can’t have those numbers without tracking individual emails but there’s no solid reason why I should be able to go to someone’s profile and know which email they clicked. At a minimum it’s useful to have open-rate, in my case it’s pretty stable so when it suddenly goes down 4-5-6%, I know Gmail decided to send my emails to a folder or there was a problem elsewhere and I can try to fix it. It’s also a basic idea of your pertinence to readers. Click-rates show me which links work best. I have quicker takes at the bottom of every issue and it’s often one of these that is the most clicked. So instead of getting me to focus on fewer topics, as people would expect that stat would do, it actually reminds me that my readers are interested in a broad variety of topics. Do you believe AI will have a greater role in marketing? Do you think it will complement current processes or replace our roles?&nbsp;Newsletters are often associated with marketing but that’s not a side of the “craft” I pay much attention to. In general though, I think AI is much much more interesting when considered as an augmentation to human work than a replacement. There’s more near-term potential there than in autonomous products, it’s a more realistic expectation, and it keeps humans in the loop. Near term, if it replaces roles it will be by making 8 people as effective as 10, not by taking over that role completely. <img src="https://files.reallygoodemails.com/blogContentImages/3a0b26760bee47cfa115b372ea68e8cb"> Do we “owe” anything to people who open and read our emails?Respect for their time. I could get bigger bumps in memberships and subscriptions by being more aggressive but I tend to be overcautious and refrain from the vast majority of such “ploys.” In terms of content, I include anything I find interesting. In terms of the readers’ time and using “hacks,” I do only what I’m comfortable in receiving myself. <h2>Lightning Round For Kicks</h2> What is one piece of advice that you could give about building a brand through communication?Be interesting. That very seldom means talking about yourself. Write about what you know and/or what you are curious about, not your product or services. What other emails inspire you? Which company that you subscribe to does email the best?For email and print, I’ve been a big fan of Kai Brach and his Offscreen magazine and <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/dense-discovery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dense Discovery</a> newsletter. I’m not sure if there are any lessons for companies there but everything <a href="https://www.robinsloan.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robin Sloan</a> does is smart, well thought out, and worth your time. <a href="https://hiutdenim.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hiut Denim</a> and the DO lectures (same founders) are also great models of email communication (and comms in general). They built their business on emails. Lastly I’d said Jeff Sheldon with <a href="https://ugmonk.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ugmonk</a>. Like Kai, everything is smart, thought through, well designed, and he does super clear communication with his personality front and center. What was the most recent spam message you got in your spam box? What was the subject line?“Hello! Lovely girl wants to talk with you! I hope for an answer!”&nbsp; What is your favorite book?Considering the topics I cover in Sentiers this will be blindingly unoriginal but the Pattern Recognition trilogy by William Gibson. I have to say though that over the last couple of years another trilogy as popped to mind even more often and it’s the Analog trilogy by my “internet friend” <a href="https://www.eliotpeper.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eliot Peper</a>. Spot on on so many things. Caffeinated beverage of choice: Coffee, Tea, Soda?Coffee. <blockquote>To support the weekly newsletter, and get extra dispatches of deeper thinking, become a member of Sentiers. <a href="https://sentiers.memberful.com/checkout?plan=42264&amp;coupon=rge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Use this RGE link to signup.</a></blockquote><h2> </h2>

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How Sentiers Grows Its Newsletter Supported by Paying Subscribers (New Title)

<a href="https://rge-staging.netlify.app/jay/collections/EVpXGzwdIVD5ZT5pQpMD/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://rge-staging.netlify.app/jay/collections/EVpXGzwdIVD5ZT5pQpMD/</a>Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Vivamus erat felis, tristique at sagittis nec, dictum nec elit. Suspendisse luctus tempus nisl, ut aliquam risus tincidunt sit amet. Morbi sit amet sem semper, vestibulum lectus ac, tristique sapien. Cras in libero vel dui consequat pulvinar. Curabitur non dignissim velit. Mauris imperdiet tincidunt ullamcorper. Phasellus non laoreet mauris, vitae suscipit neque. Cras auctor urna in nisi condimentum, sagittis cursus neque maximus. Proin rhoncus ut sapien sed tincidunt. Proin et placerat lorem. Morbi sagittis lacinia elementum. Mauris ornare dignissim varius. Vestibulum metus enim, iaculis non justo quis, semper vestibulum nunc.

Morning Work

2014. It was the&nbsp;<a href="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BasicFabulousChickadee-size_restricted.gif" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">year of our lord</a>, Two Thousand and Fourteen. That’s when&nbsp;<a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ReallyGoodEmails.com</a>&nbsp;poked its little gofer head up into the internet. It wasn’t some type of site that we spent months white-boarding, debating where to add text or buttons, figuring how to attract Monthly Active Users, or securing some of that cash-money from VCs. We knew we could get a few of our email friends to help us out because it was going to be good for the internet and we all love “good.” Since the beginning, RGE has been a place for us to share screenshots of emails that are, in our experience, well…really good. <a href="https://rge-staging.netlify.app/jay/collections/olHz0AkCDyK4vmINXQSs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://rge-staging.netlify.com/jay/collections/olHz0AkCDyK4vmINXQSs/</a> We posted thousands of emails and millions of visitors showed up at ReallyGoodEmails.com again and again despite our warnings that taking email seriously would result in a rare rash. Over the next four years we grew older and more decrepit—particularly Matthew—and the site was failing to keep up with demand. It was years wasted. Wasted because it was crummy in both performance and our vision of what it could be. <a href="link" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://files.rgestaticstaging.com/blogContentImages/4089fe7a1354445284f0820e48b1f59d"></a> <a href="https://rge-staging.netlify.com/emails/get-5-off-for-every-friend-you-refer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://rge-staging.netlify.com/emails/get-5-off-for-every-friend-you-refer/</a> With ideas piling, and several false starts that would make your brain hurt, we pulled together all the gold we’d been hiding away in our gringots vault (converted from muggle money from sponsorships), speaking fees, consulting, and the like, and hired some&nbsp;<a href="http://nicer.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amazing friends</a>&nbsp;to build a spiffy new site with us. (Is spiffy still a word?) Despite all four of us having full time jobs with other great companies or running our own businesses, we’ve spent the last 5 months making it special. We’ve rolled out some hot new features. Even&nbsp;<a href="https://media2.giphy.com/media/YDXE9q7x9lT6E/giphy.gif" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mugatu</a>&nbsp;thinks these are steamy. Some of the new features will move to pro accounts but for now we wanted everyone to see what’s under the hood. <h1>New features for Really Good Emails 2.0</h1><h2>Collecting</h2> Our most requested feature is front and center. As you hover over any email or dive deep into the detail-view, you’ll find it easy to save the email into a collection. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1698/1*OvnyZFCxbuslu8FymulDRQ.png"> Creating a new collection gives you the ability keep your favorite emails all in one place. But don’t stop there — you can create any collection you want. Want to collect only transaction emails with the red CTAs? Weirdly specific, but go for it. Want to collect emails from brands that start with the letter “Q”? The world is your oyster. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3676/1*enBQL-VfHFai6egn8SSPcg.png"> We see people creating collections for all sorts of reasons. For example, take&nbsp;<a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/tedgoas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ted Goas</a>, designer at StackOverflow, who uses the collection feature to track ideas and analyze trends. Or&nbsp;<a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/rodriguezcommaj/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jason Rodriguez</a>, community and product evangelist at Litmus, who links to his collections from articles, webinars, and more. And because collections are (currently) public, they are easily discoverable from the site search and can be followed by others as you update them with more emails from the site. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1270/1*DDMKzh2ET-we7SDUvzZmsA.gif"> <blockquote>RGE is already an authority for email design, which makes using RGE collections the best place to collect and share competitive teardowns around a specific email theme. —&nbsp;Ted Goas from Stack Overflow</blockquote> Collections, as a foundation to the site, also allows us to build a private mode and team mode in the future. We are also looking at the ability to collect other content types, such as articles, videos, or code snippets related to your collection. Keep an eye out for those updates later on. <h1>Smiling (aka “likes”)</h1> Giving a smile is an outward expression to yourself and others that an email is especially good and a vote to be highlighted more on the site. Also smiling sends dopamine through your brain. If you see someone over-smiling, they are probably smile addicts and like a lot of things. The more “likes” an email receives, the higher it will occur in popularity rankings. To “like” an email, simply hover over it and the smiley face will appear. Clicking on it gives all the good feelings. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/880/1*dm2NiV8BROjI6dW2WSOdcQ.png">You can also use the “like” feature to quickly bookmark one you want to remember for later. This is because all “likes” are tracked to your profile for easy reference. (More on Profiles below.) If you want to remove one of your “likes”, simply click on the button again and it will remove the like. We can’t be held responsible for the pain and suffering you may end up causing an email when you unlike it—nor the email uprising the may ensue if the emails band together with all their hurt feelings. <blockquote>I’ve been using RGE for years now, to find inspiration, whether design or content. Having the ability to easily bookmark emails is really amazing for that!</blockquote><blockquote>—&nbsp;Elyssa Verhoogen from SkyScanner</blockquote> <h1>Code View &amp; Editing</h1> Wondering how an email was built? Now you can. With Code View (click on the “view code” button at the top of a full-email), you can jump right into instant geek mode. If you know your way around HTML, simply edit it in real time and see the changes render while you are connected to the internet. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2540/1*MmR-UtBSPlGpWiu4GPNBBg.gif"> What’s neat about having the code stored in RGE’s database is that it allows us to do some cool stuff that we haven’t been able to do before. Look out for updates for this feature, such as saving code edits, exporting to an ESP or email tool, or even getting some code help from other geeks. <h1>A profile to rule them all</h1> Having a profile is crucial to making the site more personalized and functional as a user. While you can browse and search without a profile, having one gives you access to the new features we’ve mentioned above, get alerts, and connect with other users. If you decide to have natural jerry curl like our friend Aeryk, that’s up to you. <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3704/1*vQ2VE8QpE0S1THrXcSTr_A.png"> As more people interact with your profile or collections (or you interact with them and their collections), the alert feature will keep you up to date on what’s going on in your email network and ecosystem. Watch for the alert bell at the top of the page to indicate a new notification pertaining to your account. This will come handy especially when you are following a company (i.e.&nbsp;<a href="http://reallygoodemails.com/nike/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nike</a>), a category (i.e.&nbsp;<a href="http://reallygoodemails.com/categories/newsletter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsletters</a>), or want to catch up on the latest updates from RGE. As we march into the future, we’re excited to be able to finally do things with email automation that many of our partners and the companies we’ve collected from have been doing well for ages. Yippee we’re joining the future! <img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1620/1*RCAyTjBDK4kEofFoX7ezMQ.png"> We are already thinking of ways to make profiles even better, such as connecting with Slack / Microsoft Teams, showing off your “status” (i.e. freelancer for hire) and skills (ie. Salesforce certified), controlling your company page, and much more. <h1>Search &amp; Reccos</h1> While it may not seem like a huge feature, we’ve rebuilt search and discovery from the ground up. Yes, you can still browse by categories, but our semantic search finds keywords and also determines the intent and contextual meaning of the the words a person searches for as they are typing it. This is why we’ve downplayed categories and increased the search box size. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4480/1*a8exOprONJIy17ZWwnrSWA.png"></a> As you find an email and view it in full, you’ll notice related categories and emails are constantly updating based on correlated searches and onsite click behaviors. We’ve done this specifically so that that the recommendations stay “so fresh and so clean.” And if you were wondering, “Reccos” are not tribal raccoons; they are a neat word for recommendations. All the kids are saying it now — trust us. Our goal is to make search go deeper and more connected, such as reaching into our entire email code database (i.e. show results for all emails that contain&nbsp;font-family:’Cereal’) or proactively recommend an email category for you to follow (i.e. because you searched for “hello,” you should follow&nbsp;<a href="http://reallygoodemails.com/categories/welcome/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">welcome emails</a>). <h1>Third-party integrations</h1> Because RGE is now built off of some wicked APIs, that means that we can use our data to match it up with other information out there. For example, we are pulling details about companies and matching their logos, their sending habits, or their Email Service Providers of choice. <a href="https://reallygoodemails.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/4244/1*6vDZu9Ua9XQUxOstiaHbbg.png"></a> What’s next for our integrations? Maybe even more data about the companies that send emails. Maybe a chrome plug-in for your G-suite inbox. Maybe a connector with an email testing company. Maybe email job openings you’d be a good fit for based on your LinkedIn account? You’ll have to wait and see. <h1>More to come</h1> This post is full of plans to make Really Good Emails better than it currently is, but we cant do it without you. If you want to let us know how we are doing, what you want to see next, or just want to see if we’ll respond, send us a chat on the site or send us an email: hello@reallygoodemails.com. <h1>And of course, thank you</h1> We are regularly humbled by the incredibly positive community of designers, marketers, thinkers, VCs, web folk, and other lovely humans who cheer this small team on to do amazing things. Seriously. Thank you. We’re really excited to finally have a home where we can all participate.

A Case Study with <a href="https://google.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chris Keene</a> of <a href="https://square.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Square</a>

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How Sentiers Grows Its Newsletter Supported by Paying Subscribers (New Title)

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Both Hansel and the new Really Good Emails are so hot right now✨

Article headline that’s really long and shouldn’t really be this long but whatever

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New Artice

How Sentiers Grows Its Newsletter Supported by Paying Subscribers (New Title)

Morning Work

Both Hansel and the new Really Good Emails are so hot right now✨

Article headline that’s really long and shouldn’t really be this long but whatever