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CJ Chilvers

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2 Dutch Sayings You’ll Use Every Day

I learned these from Adam Curry, inventor of podcasting and former MTV VJ. I use them almost daily (as mantras in my head when dealing with difficult projects and people). “Wat je zegt ben jezelf, met je kop door de helft.” Loosely translated, it means: What you say about others

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Reading Is An Action

And it takes time. So, why do treat our reading (of RSS, social media, email, books, etc.) in the same way we treat non-active parts of our life? An aside: I’ve given up giving lifehack-y, productivity tips. As lucrative as they have been for some, I’ve

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Practice Avoids Perfect

I love this from Tim Stoddart [https://www.timothygrant.co/]: > “Hate to break it to you, but the people who read my morning blog read my worst work. Which is actually the point. This is my warm up. This is my set of jumping jacks before I do burpees.

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Hey, World! It’s About Time!

I’ve spent months trying to duct tape together what the team at Basecamp just unveiled: Hey, World [https://world.hey.com/jason/hey-world-b02a6f2e]. In short, they’ve taken their email service, Hey [https://hey.com], and turned it into a privacy-friendly, old-school publishing platform. I

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Ask.

You have to ask. It’s humbling. It’s takes guts. But if you need help, you need to ask. If you want customers, you have to ask. The problem is that some businesses ask too much and don’t provide enough value. The heart of content marketing (and just

Ask.
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David Lee Roth Predicted the Future

30 years ago, David Lee Roth made a prediction in a music video about what he’d look like and be up to in 2021. How close did he come? [https://www.vhnd.com/2021/02/17/when-david-lee-roth-predicted-2021-in-1991s-a-lil-aint-enough-video/

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Why Chaos May Reign in Newsletter Design

My personal newsletter has no set design. It used to. Maybe it should again. But here’s why it probably won’t. My metric for newsletter success [https://www.cjchilvers.com/how-to-measure-your-newsletters-success/] is the replies (relationship building). Some of my metrics for delight in the

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What should your personal newsletter include?

This is another common question I get about both blogs and newsletters, and it’s not easy to answer, because most newsletters must conform to their audience. Personal publishing is different. With personal newsletters, you should ask yourself, “What delights me about the personal newsletters I like?” Here’s a

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How to Measure Your Newsletter’s Success

The best metric in email newsletters isn’t opens or clicks, but how many replies you received. The reply is the greatest advantage the small-timer has. It may also be the greatest fear of large organizations. Building relationships is what it’s all about, no matter what the medium.

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RIP Email Again

Dan Oshinsky is back with his monthly look at email newsletters, Not a Newsletter [https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1pySiYQ_5OMsj1U4r5XXLPru0NtiVg2FVaO5INBlNffk/mobilebasic] , a terrific resource if you’re not already subscribed. This month, he writes about how he’s expecting another round of articles proclaiming the death