What problems do you have with reading newsletters?
The motivations for reading and subscribing to newsletters are pretty clear: relatively long form, quality content. I was curious about the problems readers face with this media.
Specifically, I have the following questions for my fellow newsletter readers:
- How do you currently deal with reading a high number of newsletters?
- Do you ever find that you're overwhelmed with the quantity of newsletters you subscribe to? Asides from unsubscribing, what strategies do you employ to deal with this?
- What are some of the issues you face with the whole user flow of subscribing and reading newsletters? Do you have any issues you gripe over when it comes to newsletters in general?
- What aspects of other media do you wish newsletters had?
Appreciate it!
I'd be happy to get more multi-media newsletters. Trying this out with Better Sheets, sending a little writing (now very little) with a link to a video.
Many newsletters debate between writing in email vs linking to the written word.
What'd I'd prefer the debate to be about is how to give the right information in the right medium.
Substack has an awesome feature very under-used, podcasting. I delivered audio notes with my newsletter for a while. I wish others would do the same.
Doesn't need to be a produced interview of the week.
Just talk to me for 5 minutes about your newsletter and the key takeaways.
sketchplanations is an awesome single image.
Visualize Value... in my inbox is awesome.
I'm curious about Substack podcasting. Did readers like that over a written newsletter?
Did you find that creating a written newsletter was easier than a podcast?
they aren't different things. you have to write the newsletter and upload or record a podcast in the browser.
I see. Why did you like audio notes?
offered a way to digest the information for the reader in a different way. I liked the ease of production. talk at my computer with the newsletter in front of me.
I basically just stop reading the ones I don't pay for. Basically trimming it from 50 newsletters down to 5.
How easy was it to trim it down? Also, how do you discover high-value newsletters?
I pay for @dru_riley's Trends, @Kevcon80's.
The free one's I kept:
That and the economist.
Everything else I unsubscribed from.
I only subscriber to a few I find valuable to me.
I also prefer shorter and to the point material. I just don't have the time to sit and read for an hour. That's just me though.
Do you have the same thought process for other media, like articles, YouTube videos or podcasts? Also, how do you discover valuable newsletters?
I find that I unsubscribe if I feel the newsletter doesn’t respect my time. I’ve subscribed to many, but have only kept three:
I do newsletters so I don’t have to watch videos or listen to audio. I typically check them while I, at work, which means I’m on a video call that may not be super important. In general, I give two issues before I unsubscribe.
Interesting, James Clear's newsletter is great. How do you find these newsletters? Do you find it tough to discover high-value newsletters that suits your interests and needs?
I don't really seek them out, truthfully. There's so much stuff coming at me all the time, I feel like I spend a lot of my energy trying to get rid of stuff that I don't care about. If someone sends me something that sounds neat, I'll give it a shot, but I'm definitely not intentionally sitting down to find new newsletters to subscribe to.