The Newsletter I Do Not Send (and Why That's the Right Call)

A short post on why I have not started the email newsletter, the cost of starting one, and the trigger that would change my mind.

The newsletter everyone says I should haveEvery "grow your blog" article I have read in the last 18 months has the same advice: start a newsletter. Newsletters are the best conversion path. Newsletters are the only way to reach an audience that does not depend on a platform. Newsletters are the future of independent publishing. Newsletters are the part the algorithm cannot take away from you.The advice is correct. The advice is also the reason I have not started one. The advice is correct because newsletters work. The advice is also the reason I have not started one because "newsletters work" is not the same as "newsletters are right for me right now."What starting a newsletter actually costsHere is the math, in time. A weekly newsletter takes about 90 minutes to write. That is 90 minutes of writing, on top of the 90 minutes for the blog post the newsletter is summarizing. The total is 3 hours a week, every week, for as long as the newsletter exists. The 3 hours is on top of the day job, the side projects, the family, the rest of life.The 3 hours is the cost of the newsletter when it is going well. The cost when it is going badly is more. The cost when it is going badly includes the weeks where the open rate drops and I have to figure out why, the weeks where I write a draft and decide not to send it because the draft is not good enough, the weeks where the newsletter is the thing I am not looking forward to and the looking-forward-to deficit leaks into the rest of the week.The cost of a newsletter is not the writing. The cost is the obligation. The obligation is what makes the newsletter different from a blog post. A blog post is "I will write one when I have something to say." A newsletter is "I will write one every Tuesday, regardless of whether I have something to say." The "regardless" is the cost. The "regardless" is the part I am not ready to commit to.What I have insteadThe RSS feed at /feed.xml is the version of the newsletter I have committed to. The RSS feed is opt-in. The RSS feed is updated when I publish a post. The RSS feed does not require me to write a summary, a subject line, a preview, an outro, or any of the other parts of a real newsletter. The RSS feed is "I wrote a thing. Here is the thing. Read it or do not."The RSS feed is not as effective as a newsletter. The RSS feed is also not as expensive as a newsletter. The trade is real, and the trade is the part I have made. RSS for the people who would rather subscribe. No newsletter for the people who would rather have me not. Both groups are served by the same content. The distribution channel is the part I am not committing to more than the minimum.What would change my mindThree things would change my mind, in order of how likely they are to happen.1. The site crosses 10,000 unique visitors a month. At 10,000 visitors a month, the audience is large enough that a newsletter is worth the time. The math works at 10,000. The math does not work at 1,000. The site is at less than 1,000 right now. The math is not there yet.2. I find a use case the blog does not serve. A newsletter is the right channel for things a blog is not. A "what I am working on this week" update is a newsletter, not a blog post. A "I shipped a new prompt pack" announcement is a newsletter, not a blog post. If I find a use case that the blog does not serve, the newsletter is the answer. I have not found one yet.3. Someone I trust tells me I am leaving money on the table. The "everyone says I should have a newsletter" advice is generic. The "you specifically, with this site, at this audience size, are leaving money on the table" advice is specific. I have not heard the specific advice. If I hear it from someone I trust, with a number and a use case, I will start the newsletter that week.Until one of those three things happens, the newsletter is a v2 problem. The v1 problem is the blog, and the blog is not done. The blog is 19 posts and a steady cadence of new ones. The blog is the part I am committing to. The newsletter is the part I am not committing to yet.What this is notIt is not advice against newsletters. Newsletters are a great tool for the right person at the right time. The right person is someone with a larger audience, a regular cadence, and a use case the blog does not serve. I am not that person yet. The not-yet is the part that matters, and the not-yet is the part most "start a newsletter" advice skips.It is not advice against committing. The 1-page project plan, the 5-hour cap, the 2-week break, the 4 rules from [the side-project post are all about commitment. I am committed to the blog. I am not committed to the newsletter. The lack of commitment to the newsletter is not a lack of commitment in general. The lack of commitment is specific to the newsletter, and the specific is the part that makes the no correct.What I would tell past-meIf I could go back and tell past-me one thing, it would be: not starting a newsletter is also a decision. The decision is "I am not going to spend 3 hours a week on this thing, because the 3 hours is not the right use of my time right now." The decision is a real decision. The decision has trade-offs. The trade-offs are the cost of not having a newsletter (lower reach, weaker conversion path, no platform-independent audience channel) and the benefit of not having a newsletter (more time for the blog, more time for the side projects, more time for the things I am actually committed to).The trade is real. The trade is worth it. The trade is the part I would tell past-me to be more honest about, because past-me spent a lot of time feeling guilty about not starting the newsletter, and the guilt was wasted time. The guilt was the cost of "everyone says I should have a newsletter" without doing the math. The math is: 3 hours a week, every week, for as long as it runs. The math is the part past-me did not do. The math is the part I did.What the post doesThe post does two things. The first is to model the kind of "what I am not doing" content I think is missing from most blogs. Most blog posts are about what to do. This post is about what I deliberately am not doing, and why. The post is the kind of post I would want to read, which is the test I have been using for every post on this site.The second is to be a small piece of negative space. The internet is full of "do this" advice. The internet has less "here is what I deliberately am not doing, and why" advice. The lack of negative-space advice is the part I want to contribute. The post is the contribution. The contribution is the part of the site that is not about growing the audience. The contribution is the part that is about thinking clearly about what to spend time on.The honest partI will probably start a newsletter eventually. The trigger will probably be the 10,000 visitors per month threshold, or a use case the blog does not serve, or a specific piece of advice from someone I trust. The newsletter is in my future, but the newsletter is not in my present, and the present is the part I am spending my time on.The blog is the present. The blog is the part I am committed to. The blog is the part I will keep writing. The newsletter is the v2. The v2 is a v2 problem, and v2 problems are the part I do not start until the v1 is solid. The v1 is not yet solid. The v1 needs more posts, more distribution, more case studies. The v1 is what I am working on. The v1 is what you are reading.Subscribe via RSS, not newsletterIf you want to know when I post, the RSS feed at [/feed.xml is the channel. The feed is opt-in, the feed is updated when I publish, and the feed does not require me to write a separate summary. The feed is the version of the newsletter I can commit to. Use the feed.Buy on Gumroad. $14

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