Thanks for doing this, Ernie! Really interesting to see that you have a full-time job and publish your newsletter (I do the same). Any suggestions/tips on how to juggle both? Have you come up with any strategies/approaches for working around the demands of your day job to get your newsletter issues done? Love to hear your thoughts.
I would set aside specific times that you work on the newsletter. I think that one of the things that made ShortFormBlog difficult to do was that it was tied to the news cycle, which meant there was always a pressure to post something new. But by keeping it to once or twice a week, you can manage it better, so, say, it’s a weekend endeavor rather than an all-consuming project.
Hey there, that was a relationship that I ended up working out with them—basically, they liked the content and reached out to me, and we ended up signing an agreement for syndication. It’s been ongoing for close to five years now. I’ve had other deals that were a little more informal, where I started the conversation. But in whatever case, it’s a situation where I built relationships and was able to build on those over time. Thanks!
I was briefly featured on Planet Money back in 2017, and even though it was maybe a 30-second mention, I remember that helped me get above the 5,000 subscriber mark.
Beyond that, my pieces often work well with Hacker News, and as a result, they drive a bit of traffic and some new eyeballs on the newsletter.
Thanks for doing this, Ernie! Really interesting to see that you have a full-time job and publish your newsletter (I do the same). Any suggestions/tips on how to juggle both? Have you come up with any strategies/approaches for working around the demands of your day job to get your newsletter issues done? Love to hear your thoughts.
I would set aside specific times that you work on the newsletter. I think that one of the things that made ShortFormBlog difficult to do was that it was tied to the news cycle, which meant there was always a pressure to post something new. But by keeping it to once or twice a week, you can manage it better, so, say, it’s a weekend endeavor rather than an all-consuming project.
Can you expand a little on syndication and how exactly do you get to push your stories to places like Vice or Motherboard?
Hey there, that was a relationship that I ended up working out with them—basically, they liked the content and reached out to me, and we ended up signing an agreement for syndication. It’s been ongoing for close to five years now. I’ve had other deals that were a little more informal, where I started the conversation. But in whatever case, it’s a situation where I built relationships and was able to build on those over time. Thanks!
Can you tell me about a few of the times where you saw huge jumps in subscribers all at once and what triggered those jumps?
I was briefly featured on Planet Money back in 2017, and even though it was maybe a 30-second mention, I remember that helped me get above the 5,000 subscriber mark.
Beyond that, my pieces often work well with Hacker News, and as a result, they drive a bit of traffic and some new eyeballs on the newsletter.