The newsletter train 🚂 ✉️

If you don’t have a newsletter today, you are nobody.

Or at least that’s what it looks like when people writing on the web are moving. Platforms like Substack are taking the place of those like Medium, which were very popular a while ago. The dear old emails are back in fashion in 2021. Who would have thought that?

🥶 Medium

Sure, surfing the internet is fun, but sometimes it takes a lot of time to find valuable content. Medium was my favorite site because it solved this problem. The algorithm always offered me a lot of interesting articles. All the people whose thoughts I care to read were there to write. Now the situation is different, everything is behind a paywall.

Both creators and users look for platforms that don’t make it difficult to read the content. The use of Substack seems to me to be an answer to this need. You are following the author, not the platform, so it will only be at the author’s discretion whether or not to charge for the content. So the platform doesn’t affect too much from that point of view.

💭 I have to investigate how business is going for Medium. Apparently, they’re having success given the good number of subscribers.

🎙️ Synergy with podcasts

I’m noticing that newsletters and podcasts are coexisting very well, becoming synergistic with each other.

For example, a newsletter that has many subscribers can set up a podcast and immediately have a large audience available. Or a podcast can keep interest high by sending periodic emails reminding you to listen to the episodes.

Of course, each means of communication can be combined and work together. But this combination works particularly well because of is using two different senses, hearing and sight.

Let’s accelerate 🏎️ with some pros and cons of newsletters.

✅ Strengths of newsletters

They are convenient because of arriving directly in your inbox. You don’t have to search for content that is worth reading on your own.
Everyone has an email, so the friction at the entrance is low. Enter your email, click on Subscribe, 💥.
Usually, they treat specific topics. If you sign up for a designer’s newsletter, they will hardly write about botany.
The content is written to have fast-reading content.

❌ Some flaws

They accumulate in the inbox.
The experience depends a lot on the software with which you read.
They make us lazy. Seeking information is a skill that should be kept in mind.

👽 Extra / Links