Quit Stalling And Start Your Email List

The stories we read, the big press items, the articles that go viral – they’re basically all text, an image, and some more text.

We’re all just moving images and text the internet.

All that to say, your email newsletter doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel.

An image, followed by some text. Just like… Instagram.

Should you use Substack? Mailchimp? CovertKit? TinyLetter?

It doesn’t matter, just fucking start your email newsletter.

Find someone who has an email newsletter you admire and ask them about it. Hell, ask me for some advice, just reply to this email with a question!

Let me help you start your Social Media Escape Plan for 2022. You can do this, I promise.

What’s the alternative?

You think you’re going to beat the algorithms? Become an expert at the next platform that pops up? Are you ready to make dance videos and point at words until that becomes tired and old, and we’re onto the next?

The great thing about starting an email list using one of the services I mentioned above is that if you get sick of it, or you outgrow it, you simply export your subscribers and move to another service.

Try that with Twitter. Or Facebook.

Metal Bandcamp Gift Club started on Twitter back in 2016. Then in 2019 I moved it to Revue, then to Mailchimp, then to Substack (here). And it’s fine!

Start small with TinyLetter, and if you blow up, move your operation to something more robust. It’s your email list.

The technology, the tools… it’s all secondary to your story. Your art. Your magic.

Tell a story, then tell another.

Don’t just tell your fans you have a new album.
Tell your fans why you have a new album.

Don’t just share a photo with a hashtag and a date.
Tell your fans about running into the band before the show, and eating burritos with them.

Don’t just post a link to your podcast.
Talk about how magical your conversation was.

We have all these stories, all this magic inside of us, and we’re getting lost in algorithms and systems and formats.

And yet this technology that we call email which started in the early 70s can help you connect directly to your fans in 2021.

Believe it.