Electric Speed is a biweekly newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. Sign up here.
A note from Jane
When selling our house in Virginia, we worked with a real estate agent who often shares the following advice: Every once in a while, sleep in the spare bedroom and see what happens. (Or: go inhabit the dormant spaces of your home.)
I wish I had followed his guidance. Over the holidays, a guest made the unfortunate discovery that our guest shower does not drain. It was ironic because we had taken great pains otherwise to improve the guest area. But we hadn’t used the shower.
A similar rule can apply to your online presence. Have you tried using that contact form at your website lately? What experience do people have? Do your website’s social media buttons link to the correct accounts? What do your online bios say? What’s your sign-up sequence for your newsletter? In tech, this is called eating your own dog food. It’s a valuable exercise to put yourself in others’ shoes and also decide if what you crafted and presented perhaps years ago still best expresses who you are.
If you don’t eat your dog food regularly, keep your eyes or ears open to what your guests say, where confusion or misunderstanding lies, or where you have to help people frequently. It’s a sign that something might need improvement.
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Here are some of the latest things I’ve discovered. (I am not paid to mention any of these resources; there are no affiliate links.)
Bypass long narratives and media on recipe sites
It’s a cliche at this point: you find the perfect chia pudding recipe at someone’s blog, but it has an extended 12-minute read that spins a long childhood yarn about puddings, as five video ads follow you down the page.
Now I don’t want to steal away these creators’ earnings (you are getting a free recipe, after all), so why not go ahead and load the recipe website, and let those videos play. Then copy and paste the URL into a new browser tab and type cooked.wiki/ at the beginning of the URL (before the https://). You’ll get the ingredient list on the left and the basic instructions on the right. I can already feel my stress level go down as I type that.
I did not know about the Stanley Quencher
I subscribe to a newsletter, Digital Native, that goes very long on tech/culture trends. So if you decide to subscribe, be prepared—it is not for everyone. I subscribe because it often alerts me to things I somehow remain oblivious about, like the viral phenomenon of the Stanley Quencher cup.
Before it took off, The Quencher “was a lesser-known Stanley SKU ... with a handle and a tapered base to fit into a cup holder.” And I mention it in this newsletter because, well, the virality seems to be deserved. Just try reading about this cup without considering a purchase. (I have so far succeeded, though.)
Set up DMARC for your newsletter
This year, Gmail and Yahoo require DMARC for anyone who sends 5,000 or more emails per day to their users. What’s DMARC? It’s an authentication protocol that prevents other people from sending emails using your email address as the sender. (Such a scam is not as hard as you might think. And it doesn’t mean you’ve been hacked if it happens; it is not about account/login security.)
Even though I’ve had DMARC set up for my email/newsletters for a while now, I did not monitor DMARC reports (it’s a little tricky), nor did I implement strong enforcement that would absolutely stop delivery of emails that spoof my address. Last week, I did set a strong enforcement policy and started monitoring it. I recommend doing the same if you’re sending a lot of email or depend on it for marketing. (Again, the article above explains what to do. Hire someone to help, as needed, if email is part of your earnings picture.)
Another note (and correction) about Beehiiv
In the last issue of Electric Speed (Jan. 6), I mentioned in passing Beehiiv as an alternative to Substack if you’re interested in running a paid newsletter. I said it was “highly leveraged,” but this is not the right description. Beehiiv is a startup company founded in 2021, which was reportedly running a profit in spring 2023 until it got an influx of VC funding. It has yet to reach profitability again, but it seems to be doing well. (Substack is also a VC-funded startup still reaching for profitability.)
I’ve always been wary of relying on VC-funded companies for growing a business, especially in the media and publishing sector. Years ago, when I launched a digital magazine, it was built on top of two platforms that were VC-funded. Even though they attracted top-shelf publications and personalities, neither platform achieved profitability and they went out of business years ago. Some studies say 75 percent of startup ventures don’t succeed—maybe more. So take heed when deciding where you build your empire.
NEXT ONLINE CLASS
Jan. 24: Analyze Story Like an Editor with Tiffany Yates Martin
Arguably the most important, useful skill an author can learn is how to study other storytellers and analyze how they elicit reaction and engage their audience. This course offers plenty of specific techniques for developing and deepening your knowledge of story craft that you can practice every day: how to assess a story’s strengths and weaknesses by observing its effect on you, the reader/viewer, and tracing back how the author elicited it; how to analyze and dissect specific story techniques–like creating suspense, maintaining momentum, developing character–to see what makes them effective (or not); techniques for bringing an objective, assessing eye to your own writing, and more.
In the last issue, I asked you to share colored pencils or similar art supplies that you enjoy, with a preference for those that travel easily. I received these lovely and thoughtful recommendations.
I love Prismacolor pencils; the colors are lovely and have a bit of translucence to them, plus they’re oil-based, so if necessary, you can blot color off the paper using a kneaded eraser. However, without the eraser, the color doesn’t smear or rub off of your drawing. I carry the basic list of 25 or so pencils recommended by Wendy Hollander, a botanical artist, though I’m not primarily a botanical artist. I find that with the pencils on her list, I can create any color I need by layering them. Those, plus a ruler, a kneaded eraser, a pencil sharpener and a couple of regular pencils are all I take with me. I carry them in a small leather zip case from Sonnenleder, which I absolutely love. —Laura M.
A friend gifted me with a tiny (3.5" x 5.5") watercolor journal from tumuarta and travel paint set from Winsor & Newton. As I pondered what to do with it, I hit on a combo of painting/sketching and journaling that is really feeding my soul right now. All you need to add is a marker and a cup of water. I’ve been posting some of the images on Instagram. —Kelly O’Dell Stanley
For travel sketching, I think a Pentel Aquash water brush and an Art Toolkit pocket palette is the way to go. It’s faster to put a bit of color on a sketch with watercolors than it is to use pencils. Their palettes are very durable, it’s a US-based small business, they have great customer service, and they stock the best accessories. —Katie Elzer-Peters
I enjoy playing with watercolors and really enjoy using Viviva colorsheets. The colorsheets hold vibrant paints in a convenient booklet smaller than a cell phone. All the Viviva products are handcrafted, eco-friendly, and biodegradable so I keep coming back for more supplies. They also make great gifts! —Emily English
Next question: Asking all the chocolate lovers out there: your favorite purveyor of chocolate for special occasions? Hit reply to this message, or head over to Discord to share.
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