I am working on creating a weekly newsletter to send to my subscribers. My newsletter will contain the articles I published in the previous week and possibly a photo or some interesting tidbit of what I have experienced in my everyday life.
My newsletter will be free to subscribe to. That’s right, it won’t cost you a cent. It will be a weekly newsletter, so I won’t clog up your email inbox.
Once I have finished tweaking my newsletter, I will be ready to send it to my current subscribers. For new subscribers, I will include a link to subscribe at the end of my future articles.
My newsletter will not be hosted on Medium but by Kit.com. Once again, it will be free to subscribe to. At some point in the future, I may try to monetize it with a donate button or an affiliate ad, but it will always be free for my readers.
If any of my current subscribers do not want to receive my newsletter, please unsubscribe to receive Medium email notifications. I will be importing the current list in a couple of days. Whatever you decide to do, I thank you for your past support. Wish me luck!
Yesterday, I published a story titled “You Can’t Read What You Can’t See.” Today, I have been thinking about how there must be some way to circumvent the algorithm and let readers choose what they want to read.
Some people say that following a favorite writer or subscribing to their work is the best way to ensure people who want to read your work can find your articles. However, since I have been a member of Medium for quite some time, I feel this is not correct.
Even though most of us have numerous followers, we realize that often, once some of those followers follow us, we never hear from them again. Also, the fact someone is following us does not necessarily mean they will see our work once it’s published,
I think hitting the Medium subscribe button is entirely unreliable. I have had some bad experiences with subscribing to writers. In one incident, I noticed I was not receiving email notifications from those I subscribed to about newly published articles. After researching, I discovered that Medium had unsubscribed me from every writer I had previously subscribed to. The same thing happened to some of my subscribers.
I know some Medium writers publish newsletters in which they promote their work and offer products or services. I’m not interested in starting an e-business or making a bundle of cash, but I wonder if I could publish a weekly newsletter with my published stories for the week.
I plan to start a newsletter and place a link to subscribe to it in each of the articles I publish. If someone subscribes, they will receive one email each week that includes the stories I have published. I won’t try to sell them anything, either products or services, but I may share an interesting fact or something about my life. They will also have the option to unsubscribe.
If my newsletter is well-received, I may monetize it through ads in the future. But that’s wishful thinking for now. I will continue to publish my stories on Medium, as usual. If anyone feels they connect to my work or enjoy reading and interacting, they can subscribe. Otherwise, they can scroll on.
In the past, I tried something similar to a newsletter by creating a publication where I published a weekly summary of what I had published that week. The same problem existed — no one saw it. I also considered using Substack but soon realized it wasn’t right for me. I didn’t want my readers to pay for reading my work. I am also not a super prolific writer, which would hinder my progress on that site.
The problem with both Substack and Medium’s subscriber notification processes is that the subscriber’s mailbox is inundated with emails on a daily basis. If I implement my newsletter, I will only publish and email it once a week.
My newsletter is only an idea right now. I don’t know that much about starting and maintaining a newsletter at this time. It could be just another hair-brained idea that came to mind and will soon disappear, but I think it’s worth further thought.
I would appreciate it if any of my readers could share their thoughts about what I have just proposed doing. I am not tech-savvy or an entrepreneur, so I may be way over my head considering a newsletter. Thanks in advance for your input.
