Very kind of Mattias to share his process in such detail. I'm doing similar experiments at the moment with a wristwatch-focused newsletter, which is still tiny but requires minimal effort from me - usually just running a command once a week. My flow is:
1. A python script checks the RSS feeds of a handful of relevant blogs and pulls in any new posts.
2. The script checks a couple of relevant subreddits and pulls in the top discussions.
3. The script combines the posts/discussions and sends them to a handlebars template.
4. The result is then sent to the SendGrid API to send out to subscribers (although I send a test version to myself first, just in case).
There's no commentary in the newsletter which would be nice to have, but my priority is on establishing a quick and simple process that works – fancy stuff can be added later if I feel like it. SendGrid allows me to disable link-click tracking within the newsletter, and also handles subscribing/unsubscribing through an embedded iframe[0] so that's another thing I don't have to worry about.
Too bad Mattias has paused his newsletter. It had great content- like short weekly summary of hacker news with most important stuff. Are there any similar newsletters around?
https://www.abyteofcoding.com/issues/most-recent/ "links and summaries for three high quality technical deep-dives"
https://bengtan.com/interesting-things/ "interesting stories and links from technology; adjacent fields such as indie business, science, and productivity"
I have one too (https://learnbyexample.gumroad.com/l/learnbyexample-weekly) - resources and tools on Python, Linux, Regex, Vim, etc.
Great newsletter, interesting to know how you curate it.
Site crashing on Android Chrome.
I don't think it's that combo. I didn't have 1 site crashing ever on chrome Android.
S20 currently.
Hi, the newsletter looks great. I have a similar thing, just that I use a pip package - markdown to create the html There is also [Dominate](https://pypi.org/project/dominate/) incase you want to edit the finer details. I quite enjoyed using it since it deals with the tags by using a context manager which makes code look clean especially when you need to generate lists with li tags (which is what most of the newsletter is)
I actually have a different question for you: Once, you're all set and done with the tech and it works flawlessly, How exactly do you go about marketing and making your newsletter known? Currently I have my friends and family on it but that's about it. I have posted it on twitter once but that got me only about 3 new subscribers.
This is where I am stuck at the moment. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
I author a Python data science focused newsletter https://buttondown.email/NotANumber , I've built it up over 4 or so years to a couple of thousand readers. I don't use automatic link gathering but hand-write advice in each newsletter (and yes, this can take some time). I've started to interview respected people which offers a nice chunk of value for my readers.
For promotion I've found that sharing appropriate ideas in a private community (e.g. data science slacks) where I'm known & trusted can be a good lead source. Tweets on particular topics help. LinkedIn helps with specific advice. Linking to relevant articles in another newsletter and getting a reciprocal mention helps (but the link has to be useful to the readers and the other audience has to care about my newsletter, else no point), that only works if you know the other author.
In each of my strategic client sessions I mention the newsletter. One chunk of value I offer is to do job listings - having your job in front of my curated audience who trust me offers much more value than e.g. LinkedIn (and a _much_ smaller reach).
In short I think try to find relevant communities, do not spam (obv.), share relevant links, offer to share something cool from someone else with no requirement for reciprocation (if it is good - share it anyway) and maybe they'll reciprocate in some way. It takes a lot of effort but is a sure fire way to build up an engaged audience who trust you.
Funnily enough, that’s the problem I have now! I don’t have the solution but my current strategy is to work on making the website as a whole more helpful and valuable to users, improving SEO and being more active in the target community. The knock-on effect will hopefully be more subscribers, and maybe more feedback for improvements.
Thanks for the extra Python advice by the way.
;-; why seiko only
Your newsletter has a seiko monopoly
;-;
This made me wonder tho, if there is a newsletter for watch movements.
Sorry, I'm trying to focus on one brand (my favourite) so I don't get overwhelmed or distracted. Might broaden into other brands in future though.
No worries haha, Im gonna subscribe today :)
Thank you for making a newsletter like this !