Improved: Receive my Blog Posts via Email

Thousands of people have been receiving my blog posts via email, but with the recent upsurge of blogging due to my daily creative challenge, many have been unsubscribing since the daily frequency of emails is too much for them.

I understand the desire to reduce the number of emails, so I found a way to let you set the frequency. Now you can receive an email for every 1, 5, or 10 new articles – your choice. So you can drop it down to 3 emails per month if you prefer to receive the 10-article digest version to get the highlights.

The original feature was provided directly by WordPress and didn’t allow any real customization. Another drawback of using the WordPress version is that people can’t reply to those emails since they’re sent from a “no reply” email address, so if someone replies to one of those emails, I never receive it. That’s a lot of potential feedback that probably gets lost in the void. Moreover, the WordPress version tends to mess up the formatting of some posts, and it doesn’t show some elements (like videos) at all. Since I expect to share more videos this year, that’s not a good fit.

This week I moved this feature to a different system, run by ActiveCampaign, which allows more customization possibilities. I started using AC in the summer of 2019 for my main email list. It’s not cheap, and there’s a learning curve to get started with it, but now that I’ve learned to use it pretty well, I’m really liking how flexible it is. Their support is great too.

If you like the old system, you can stay with it, and it will still work, but I’m no longer offering the old one for new subscribers due to its limitations.

The blog posts by email sign-up form now sends everyone to the new system. Once you confirm your email address (I only use double opt-in), then you can set the frequency as you wish:

You can change the frequency as often as you like. Every email sent includes convenient links at the bottom to do so as well. Whichever one you click last will take effect. If you want to do a 30-day challenge of reading my blog daily, then you may want daily emails. When you’re busier with other projects, you might prefer to slow down the pacing. It only takes one click to change the frequency, so that’s as simple and straightforward as we can get.

The new system won’t send you the full text of each post. It will send you the title of each post with a link and the first paragraph or so. Then you can decide if you want to click to read the posts on my website.

That’s partly for aesthetic reasons. I tested sending full posts by email with the new system, but as with the old one, I just didn’t like the output. The formatting of some posts looks a bit ugly. This would also result in giant 10K- or 20K-word emails for the 5- and 10-article versions. I like symmetry and consistency, so that’s why I went with the short versions that invite people to click through if they want the full article. There are no third-party ads on my site, so I genuinely think that loading up the site directly is the best aesthetic experience too.

Additionally, I often make small corrections (like typo fixes) within the first day after a post is published, so this way you’re always seeing the freshest version from my website whenever you click through. Sometimes I make minor additions to a post after it’s published as well, such as if I see that a section could use a bit more clarification.

That said, if you’re a stickler for getting the full post by email, you can stick with the old system while WordPress continues supporting it.

I think the new system is especially nice for the 5- and 10-article versions since you get a convenient digest that you can skim though. It will give you a nice overview of my recent writings. Then just click the links to read articles that interest you.

Another advantage of the new system is that if you’d like to provide feedback on any article or suggest other topics you’d like to see, you can reply directly to any of these emails. Be aware that I don’t provide email coaching though – that would be untenable. I can’t get into deep personal questions with you, but I do appreciate feedback, suggestions, and especially stories of how you’re applying the ideas I’ve shared. I learn a lot when people share their results.

I also like that I can customize these emails to make them a better fit for the ways in which people like to engage with my work. I can easily modify the templates to include extra announcements, like if we have a new workshop coming up. That way if people miss a key blog post announcing something they’d love, they may still catch these short reminders at the bottom of the article emails. People grow so much faster when they step up from only reading articles to participating in the deep dive courses, so I especially want to encourage more people to take that step. Every week I get more feedback from people who share the positive results of doing so.

The new system is up and running, so you can sign up for it now if you’d like. You may also want to unsubscribe from the old system if you like the new one.

And since the new system is… well, new… just let me know if you encounter any issues with it, and we’ll get it sorted out.