Skip to content

blogging

Members Public

A Good Philosophy for Personal Publishing

From Om Malik [https://om.co/2021/05/31/some-changes-2/]: > “I have often lamented that the ‘why’ of blogging got overtaken by the ‘what’ and the ‘how,’ with the tools and format becoming the primary focus. Ironically I made the same mistake with my newsletter. I don’t work

Members Public

Ghost Resurrects, Haunts Substack

Ghost has doubled its revenue this year, by focusing on reader/creator experience. From founder John O'Nolan [https://www.indiehackers.com/post/whats-new-nonprofit-blogging-platform-ghost-hits-3-3m-arr-48787565ad] : > “Nobody needs to know what Ghost is. I want people to know the creators that we power, instead.” This is what platforms like Substack

Members Public

My Personal Publishing Principles for 2021

It’s a semi-annual tradition around here to summarize all the knowledge I gather, and link to, in simple, general statements that can be applied across all the topics covered. This year is a little different. I’ve started giving these summaries their own pages to be continually updated. I

Members Public

Experiments Check In

A few of you wrote to me to ask about how my year of experiments is going. To refresh everyone, for 2021, I changed personal websites, started blogging daily again, changed book publishing models, moved to a new newsletter host, and tried to fix an old guitar with my son

Members Public

Get Your Ass Kicked

From Brené Brown [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9855106-if-you-are-not-in-the-arena-getting-your-ass] via Weekly Thing [https://weekly.thingelstad.com/]: > “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback. There are a million cheap seats in the world today

Members Public

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.

Members Public

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 love it. Just about

Members Public

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

Members Public

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. When

Members Public

Who decides?

Young me: I’m only going to write about things that matter. Older me: You don’t get to decide what matters. The reader does. Young me: Then, how should I write? Older me: A lot.