“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”

It was 3 a.m.

My just-turned-10-year-old was shaking and crying in my bed beside me.

Her ears were hurting.

BAD.

Even after a trip to the pediatrician.

Drops.

And some acetaminophen.

For the swimmer’s ear infection she was experiencing.

She couldn’t get comfortable.

It was as if she was a woman in labor, experiencing contractions.

The pain came in waves.

If you’ve ever held a child through intense pain,

Wished you could absorb it and take it from them,

Felt the weight of sleep deprivation,

And showed back up at the doctor the morning after,

Then you know my plight.

Apparently she had some mucus and debris in her outer ear canal keeping the drops from working well.

And the solution was either continuing the same approach and waiting through the pain…

Or having the doctor insert wicks.

They’re little compressed sponges that expand when you add drops and ensure that the medicine actually touches what it should.

Imagine your child walking around with foam earplugs.

It was still a rough day.

The process can only be accelerated so much and we’d not slept much the night before.

But we got a few more hours the next night and last night she didn’t wake up once.

I’m drafting this after a full night’s rest, and considering…

… how this can be related to newslettering:

Your subscriber is the child in pain, trying to get better but not experiencing success at a desired pace.

Can your newsletter be a wick?

Can you get them…

…the information they need

…the strategies they should try

…and the best advice

…faster than going it alone?

Evaluate your next issue.

Will it help your reader bypass pain?

Will it help them sleep through the night?

New motto: Be wicked good.

Ashley Guttuso  

A Newsletter Value Prop Template You Can Use

What problem is your newsletter solving?

How are you solving it?

And how does it benefit your readers?

In her LinkedIn post, Jess Cook provides a website headline formula that might come in handy in creating your newsletter value prop:

[Verb] [ideal state] without [painpoint].

Click through for an example and follow Jess for more insights.

linkedin.com  

Teach What You Know

Everyone knows something about something.

As a newsletter creator, the key is using that knowledge to develop content readers can learn from.

Josh Spector offers 10 ways to do this, including

1. Turn questions you’ve answered in emails into content
2. Create a list of what your audience should stop doing
3. Compile the expertise of others into one piece of content

Explore the rest.

joshspector.com  

Subject Line Tips To Improve Open Rates

Does your subject line really matter? Well, yes… but not nearly as much as the sender (and the reputation you earn early on for sending quality).

That caveat aside, Lily Ugbaja offers 6 tips to increase your open rates by using “human-to-human” subject lines.

Discovered via Really Good Emails.

literalhumans.com  

Have You Honed These Curation Skills?

This guide to interviewing for a curator role is packed with tidbits you might be able to apply to your current curation practices.

Test your knowledge.

climbtheladder.com  

New Curation Tool Roundup

In this Business 2 Community article, Meg Sutton lists a new collection of curation tools.

While we’ve seen plenty of these over the years, I like to share them for Opt In Weekly newcomers who are just starting to curate (and the veterans who want to check out the new bells and whistles in today’s market).

business2community.com  

Audit Your Content

“Most of us are so focused on publishing new content that we neglect the content we already have.”

Sound familiar? Joshua Hardwick explains how to do a content audit step-by-step here.

ahrefs.com  

LinkedIn Marketing Tips From LinkedIn

Newsflash: LinkedIn can be used organically for demand gen.

Here are some success tips I’ve seen shared lately:

Nick Bennet and his coworkers did a little LinkedIn experiment... and figured out they could generate revenue without talking about their company. Check out the results here.

Posting consistently is key. ​​Justin Simon explains how you can batch create content in 5 steps.

10 Bad B2B Content Marketing Habits

Are you creating boring content? Vladimir Blagojević identifies 10 B2B missteps that you’ll want to nix, including copying what others are doing and focusing on quantity.

linkedin.com  

Lessons From Francis X. Clines

“​​You’re always imagining whether you’re getting in the way of the reader or not. So you picture yourself staying out of the reader’s way, but also conveying what you thought was the most interesting thing, particularly the most interesting feeling. You know when you have an honest reaction.”

In this Poynter article, Roy Peter Clark shares writing advice from late NYT writer Francis X. Clines.

Discovered via American Press Institute.

poynter.org  

Want To Succeed As A Publisher?

This week’s Publishing Insights look at what publishers are doing right… and how you can take what they’re doing and apply it to your publication, too.

• Want to stay updated on all things news industry? Follow these 6 newsletters.
• Morning Brew recently hit 4 million subscribers, but they’re aiming for going bigger. Alex Sherman writes how the company is actively exploring M&A to expand.
• In this WNIP article by Esther Kezia Thorpe, Rolling Stone UK’s digital director shares 4 growth strategies.
• Why do people unsubscribe on the first day? Sarah Scire identifies the main reasons, including only wanting to access one article, disappointment with the full paid experience, dislike of auto-renewal, and more.
• Want to turn text into audio? Turns out it’s easier than you think. David Tvrdon explains how and why you should do it here.
• Next for Reuters: they are launching a subscription business aimed at individuals conducting research. Sara Fischer shares the details in this Axios article.

Shooting For A Million-Dollar Newsletter?

According to Jake Singer, it’s really not that hard, you just need 35,000 true fans.

substack.com  

Can Creators Make Money In Media?

Brad Esposito has strong opinions about the media industry, making money, and what’s to come for creators, including why creators usually get the short end of the stick.

The gist:

“[Spending 2 years outside of the media industry] made me realise that my media-trained skills were incredibly valuable and incredibly applicable in other jobs and with other companies.”

Discovered via The Rebooting.

substack.com  

New Products From SparkLoop

SparkLoop created 2 products designed to help you better monetize your newsletter:

1. The partner program
2. The SparkLoop partner network

Details here.

twitter.com  

Create An Intro Or Signature Category To Personalize Your Newsletter

Hey, everyone. Seth with Curated Success here.

Adding a face to your newsletter’s brand can be a great way to make your newsletter feel more personal and increase engagement. You can easily do this in Curated by adding an introduction or signature category that includes a profile picture and a note from you to your readers.

Here’s how to create an introduction or signature category:

• Go to your Settings in Curated
• Scroll down to the Issue Content section and select Categories
• Click New Category and create an introduction or signature category (name it something that matches your tone)
• Once created, click Look and Feel to the right of it
• Choose a Header Style that includes an icon
• Upload an image of yourself to act as the profile picture (we recommend a width of 100)

What you include in your introduction or signature is up to you. It can be a longer introduction like Ashley does with the Prologue, or it can be a brief greeting like Dawid from Software Testing Weekly does.

If you have any questions about this, let me know!

New to Curated? Make a copy of this Getting Started with Curated Checklist to help launch your newsletter (public, private, or paid).

Adjust Your Routine

This site graphs the routines of famous creative people like Benjamin Franklin, Charles Dickens, and Pablo Picasso.

This week your Opt In Challenge is to take a gander, reflect on your own daily routine, and assess if some adjustments (like, doing your creative work in the early morning hours) could be beneficial.

Discovered via theCLIKK.

podio.com  

Like this newsletter?

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.

Happy newslettering,

Ashley Guttuso