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Stop asking me if I exist.

Is this true for you? I keep getting emails from newsletters asking me if I’m still around. Maybe it’s because I use Apple products, which emphasize privacy, and mask a lot of opens and clicks that newsletters (still?!) use to determine engagement, as if we were living in

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This newsletter model is dead.

Matt McGarry just posted about what he’s calling Newsletters 3.0. “If you’re running a ‘newsletter business’ the way most people do, you’re doomed to fail.” His post could be mistaken for a summary of the topics in my book on newsletters, but his take is from

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What’s the job?

The Criterion Collection just put out their 4K edition of No Country for Old Men, which includes a new interview with the Coen brothers. The Coen brothers made two of my favorite films of all time: The Big Lebowski (a film about life trying — and failing — to change an oblivious

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Brands became bands.

Rick Beato just posted a video about why bands have disappeared from the charts, replaced by solo artists and collabs between solo artists. Before recorded music gained mass popularity in the 1950s, music branding was all about individuals. As the industry became a well-oiled machine with global distribution, bands became

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This will sound obvious in 3 years

From Digiday: “Newsletters are the darling of the digital media industry again. Publishers like Axios, Eater, The Guardian, theSkimm and Snopes are either growing or revamping their newsletter offerings, tailoring new emails to specific audiences with more personality-driven content…” This was the one of the most important predictions from my

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Social proof is overrated.

There’s so much bad advice in content strategy, that no one bothers to talk about what is merely overrated advice. After decades of email marketing, copywriting, and content strategy, I’ve can confidently say that “social proof” gets too much attention. It’s important, but it’s overrated. It’

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Creativity vs. Productivity 🥊

I saved this from a post by Tobias van Schneider, which has now been deleted. Spot on, though. Links are break quicker these days, which is just one more reason I need to create more of these link-sharing posts. Feel free to send me any that you think I should

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Personalization is creepy.

File these rules under “totally obvious advice that almost no one follows.” 1. Don’t be creepy. 2. Treat everyone online as if you’re talking to them in real life. 3. Long-term relationships build long-term businesses. 4. You are never automatically entitled to track a person. You wouldn’t

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Why would you write a book in 2023?

It doesn’t make much sense to write a book in 2023 — especially a nonfiction book. In fact, your readers would likely pay 10X as much to get the same information in a video-based course. But, for many reasons, some of us still prefer creating books over any other medium.

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Do Personal Brands Matter?

Many of you have asked me about the differences between personal and business newsletters, websites, and branding. There must be something in the air, because I’ve seen a lot of content spring up around the subject lately, including from Gary Vee, Seth Godin (in multiple new interviews), and Copyblogger.