No newsletter!

[ssandra]

(I'm putting this here because for me it has more to do with following your values and intuition and less about business ).

I've decided that I am going to cancel my aweber subscription and I will not do newsletters anymore.

Although newsletters can be very powerful and I know that they are in every Online Marketing 101 book, I don't feel aligned with it.

I resisted this for a long time because "common knowledge" dictates that having a mailing list is valuable for business...
Yet at the same time, because I wasn't aligned with it, I also resisted creating valuable emails.

That way, of course having a mailing list isn't valuable. Not for me, not for my clients and not for the greater good

So... listening to my intuition (I'm on a roll!) I've decided to focus mainly on Facebook and Twitter as a way of connecting. And cancel my newsletter.

People who want to know when a new article comes out can use the RSS feed or Twitter or Facebook.

Is there something that you are doing in your life (or business) that is considered a "must" but your intuition is telling you not to do this? Are you still doing it or not, and why?

[Weena]

I'll share my little secret with you: I almost never read newsletters. I see they are newsletter, and I delete them without opening them nine times out of ten. I don't plan on ever starting newsletter myself. On top of that, the newsletter I received well...as you said often I follow on Facebook for example, or even on here, so it's a repeat. I've started clicking on all the unsubscribe links just to clear out my inbox a bit. The only one I read would be from one of my suppliers because their stuff is so expensive, I don't want to miss on a sale .

My point? Just that I think you are doing a smart thing. It'd be interesting to see a poll of how many people actually like to read newsletter.It might just be me who doesn't .

[Agota]

..talk about coincidences..

Two months ago, when I launched my blog, I thought that my email list will be my main asset. My strategy was to increase traffic and build a massive email list by providing my best content, like best articles and interviews, exclusively to my email subscribers.That sounds like viable strategy, right?

The problem was that it was out of alignment with my values. I want my best content to be seen by as much people as possible, since it can help them by providing some fresh insights. As a result, I started to procrastinating on my newsletter and write short articles for it. It felt like a burden.

Idea of building an email list seemed more and more unappealing to me. It was confusing, however, since everyone is raving about building their emails lists. I gave it a thought and decided to do what feels right to me and stop writing newsletter (I'll send out a message about that tomorrow). I decided to focus all my energy on creating great content and generating traffic and not worry about building an email list which I don't really want. Different aprroach, different results, right?

[Clint Cora]

I've stopped doing an official newsletter as well but do produce regular videos instead since for me, I'm comfortable with that medium and announce it to my free subscribers when new episodes are out. I also announce on Twitter and Facebook.

[ellie]

I'm not a big fan of newsletters. The only one I read is Steve's.

[Agota]

I really think that newsletters are overrated, since people often register to so many newsletter that they don't even read those emails, yet internet marketing gurus still say that having a newsletter is a neccesity..

[Erin Pavlina]

I think the "necessity" is having permission to email people.

Years ago I read in a Jay Abraham book that getting people's permission to email them is the single most important thing you can do in business. So whether you call it a mailing list, a newsletter, or a subscription, the people who sign up for your list are giving you permission to reach out to them. What you DO with that permission is up to you. You could write a newsletter each month, or just send out updates or events or specials or sales etc.

For me, my traffic and my sales go way up by a factor of 5 every time I "reach out to my list" which for me is a newsletter.

But I too have been thinking about how I want to structure all of that. I don't have time to read other people's newsletters and I am sure many of my subscribers don't have time to read mine.

I love the idea of using facebook and twitter. All good thoughts and questions. And kudos to you Ssandra on following your intuition!