On November 9th I sent the 300th issue of the Weekly Thing. I sent the very 1st issue on May 13, 2017. It took 7 years 5 months 3 weeks and 6 days to get to 300.

So, what have I learned from sending 300 newsletters? What insights have I gleaned? In no particular order…

  • Structure and process is key. There is no way I could do this for 30 issues much less 300 without having robust automation and process to make it easier. It is still very similar to what I wrote in 2023 at How I Find Links for the Weekly Thing, Task Management for the Weekly Thing, and How I Build the Weekly Thing.
  • Breaks in summer and winter. For the first while I didn’t do this and then I read how James Whatley of Five Things on Friday takes a break and decided I should do that too. I’ve taken July and August off of the newsletter for a summer break as well as Dec 15 to Jan 15. This works really well since we often take a vacation and have very busy summers in July and August, and the winter break covers Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. Without these breaks I’m pretty sure I would have burned out by now.
  • Fun to play and experiment. I started sending the newsletter to learn and experiment. I’ve continued that. Sections have changed over time. I created the Weekly Thing Forum which isn’t busy but is meaningful. I just started Supporting Memberships to raise money for digital non-profits. I’m playing with Straw Polls as a new section. I want to keep this evolution.
  • People unsubscribe and that’s okay. Most every week people unsubscribe after I send a new issue. On the whole, a few people sign up each week and about half of that unsubscribe each week. It is just human nature but the unsubscribe signal at half the volume is more impactful to me than the subscribe signal at twice the volume. I mostly ignore unsubscribes.
  • I am so glad I don’t know what you click on. I’ve written on audience capture before and I couldn’t be happier that I’m completely ignorant if you click on anything in the Weekly Thing. In case you are not aware most email newsletters track every link that is in the email and track when you click them. This would completely mess with my brain and I no matter how much I try I know I would start including links because I might think they would get clicks. I have no idea what or even if anything is popular with you.
  • Writing the intro can be challenging. It may surprise people but I often find the intro to be the hardest thing for me to write. Covering the links is topical. Currently is pretty obvious. The Journal is my blog syndicated. But the intro? That is only for the newsletter and I often find myself looking at a blinking cursor thinking “Huh?”.
  • People like blend of personal and professional. One of the things I consistently hear from people about the Weekly Thing is that they love the blend of professional and personal. The fact that there are links about super technical topics, and then a Journal post about picking Apples or something. Many people have commented that the Weekly Thing is the only newsletter that does that and they like it. Perhaps there are folks that dislike it? 🤷‍♂️
  • Buck most trends of growing newsletter. I’ve ignored a ton of advice on how to grow, grow, grow the popularity of the Weekly Thing. It is much longer than most would suggest it should be. It has a ton of links which Gmail doesn’t like it probably puts it in the promotions or junk. I don’t have a topic that I focus on and instead meander around. I’m okay with this.

With those thoughts… where might the Weekly Thing go in the future? I have two ideas that have persisted long enough that I feel they will happen when the time is right.

  • Weekly Thing Podcast. I’ve pondered a podcast to go along with the Weekly Thing for more than a couple years now. I’ve taken this one a ways actually. I’ve worked through the structure and approach. I already have automation built to help me create the outline of each issue. There are two barriers for me on this one. First, getting comfortable with audio versus writing. I’ve been told I have a good voice for it, but I’m not super comfortable on the microphone. Second, the time required. Recording and editing a podcast takes a good chunk of time. And I ultimately would like to have guests on as well. So, this will wait for a while.
  • Yearly Thing. I keep thinking about taking each year of the Weekly Thing and creating an ebook and maybe even a printed book that captures the content from that year. It could be in part almanac? I’m not sure. The idea would be to publish one a year.