Writing to describe myself or one of my projects is hard for me. Those little “About” boxes all over profile pages on the web fill me with dread. For the Weekly Thing having a strong description is critical and I knew it needed improvement. I found Josh Spector’s Five-Day Plan to Grow Your Newsletter and his first item was to improve your description. I liked his framework so gave it a go.

This is what I started with.

The Weekly Thing is a weekly newsletter highlighting helpful, interesting, or insightful articles from the week. I am a voracious reader of technology, culture, leadership, privacy, and many other topics as my interests roam. Each article I share is framed with personal commentary combining my decades of experiences. My goal is to positively impact your journey with knowledge and insight.

It is certainly accurate, but I didn’t love it. I don’t think it represented what you actually got by subscribing. It didn’t even include my name.

I wanted to make sure that it

  • included a solid description of what you would expect to get
  • included my name so you know who it came from
  • included some validation points like quotes and subscriber count
  • referenced that I include more than just links

I took Spector’s framework as a starter and then worked it over and over. This is what I finished with.

Join over 1,000 subscribers to the Weekly Thing by Jamie Thingelstad!

Each Saturday morning, you will get my thoughts on technology, leadership, productivity, culture, privacy, and anything else interesting. I add commentary combining my decades of experience leading teams and building technology. I also include my personal writing, what I’m currently into, and a photograph of the week. There is even a fortune at the end! 🥠

A friend once described the Weekly Thing as a “direct feed from Jamie’s brain.” 🧠 There are no ads, your email will never be shared, your privacy will be protected, and it is free.

Subscribe now and positively impact your journey with knowledge, insight, and perspective!

Here is what others have to say. 🙌

“I’m a better person and leader because of the Weekly Thing!” — Jenny
“I look forward to reading what you are digging.” — David
“I don’t find the interesting links you share anywhere else!” — Andy
“It’s a perfect start to every Saturday!” — Phil

I took the time to run the confirmation email, where this same text is included, through Mail Tester. The previous message was too short and was being heavily penalized by spam tools. The new length and text scored a perfect 10/10 score. For newsletter authors this is an important thing to get right!

I’m not A/B testing and I don’t use surveillance tools on my signup page but I should still be able to see if signups increase, and very important if the number of unconfirmed subscribers, that seem to never get the confirmation email, drops.