Weekly Thing
A short pointer to my Weekly Thing newsletter. This category links out to weekly digests of interesting articles and personal updates; the actual archives live over on the newsletter site.
- How do you find the things you put in the Weekly Thing?
- How do you create each issue?
- How do you maintain consistency?
- My task template that I use for each week
- The automation that I have created to build each issue
- The overall toolchain that I use to create it
- Specific tactics to maintain sustainability of a long-term project like this
- Having a well defined structure that I flow content “through and in” has been key to making this something I can do over the long haul. If I started each week with a blank document I don’t think it would work well.
- It is surprising how often the hardest thing is writing the little intro bit in the beginning. Sometimes I find myself with traditional writers block. Other times major things in the world have brought a seriousness to the week that needs to be addressed. I didn’t expect this when I started this project.
- Getting a new photo every week is difficult in the winter when the daylight is so short.
- I’ve been able to get to know a lot of readers more than I ever would have any other way. Email is much more personal than blogging or social media.
- The rare times that an issue doesn’t go out on Saturday at 7am CT, I often get pings from people asking what is up? I love that. It’s fun that this has become part of a few peoples Saturday morning routines.
- It is harder to keep up with the email replies I get from people. If you sent me a reply and I didn’t get back in a few days, or at all, I’m sorry. I read it all!
- I love the archive that is created by writing every week. In addition to blogging, this is a very rewarding activity that I plan to keep doing.
- Automate as much as possible. This keeps the busywork down. I’ve got extensive automation to keep everything humming.
Hosting Minnebar 17: How to Newsletter
Update: Sorry to say that this session had to be cancelled. We had some travel plans come up and we will only be able to attend Minnebar 17 for half the day. We are still going to do the POAP session though.
I’m going to host a session at Minnebar 17 on How to Newsletter: Lessons from 250 Issues of The Weekly Thing. This is my first time presenting at Minnebar in several years. I’m excited to do it again!
If this is interesting to you, register on the Sessionizer and indicate that you might attend this session.
I have been publishing The Weekly Thing since May of 2017. With 250 issues of the newsletter complete I’m hosting this session to share the common questions that I get about:
Additionally I will be covering:
This session will be focused on the creator and building. We will not be covering marketing, social media, or anything related to newsletter monetization or subscriptions.
With Labor Day and some additional travel, I decided to extend the Weekly Thing summer break for two more weeks. Issue 226 will resume on September 17th!
Gift for Weekly Thing POAP Holders
I saw this HELLO “Ink” on Nifty.Ink and I just thought it was a fun image. The author had minted 100 of them for only 0.10 DAI ($0.10 USD) each and an idea sprung into my mind.
I should send one of these to everyone that has minted a Weekly Thing POAP token! 🎁
I went to the Weekly Thing #200 and Weekly Thing Five Year Anniversary event pages and downloaded the CSV of the addresses that have it. Deduplicated the list and then proceeded to buy and send a copy of HELLO to every address.
If you hold a Weekly Thing POAP, you will now find that you have HELLO in your wallet on Gnosis chain. 🎉
I just sent issue 219 of the Weekly Thing, which also marks the Five Year anniversary! It is also my first issue back after an unscheduled break. It was fun to get things going again. Subscribers got a PAOP token to mark the occasion.
I’ve been using Telegram recently to stay in contact with folks in Ukraine. I decided to create a channel for thingelstad.com and a channel for the Weekly Thing. If you like getting things in Telegram, there you go.
Update: I deleted these channels after a few months as they didn’t prove valuable.
I didn’t get the Weekly Thing done last night, but I got up early this morning and finished issue 190 with 28 minutes to spare! 😅
Four Years of the Weekly Thing
Today marks the four year anniversary of the Weekly Thing! Issue 1 was sent May 13, 2017. When I started this project I figured I would do it for a year and then see. Now it is four years later and I’m still enjoying it.
Here are some learnings I would share.
And now onto the years ahead!
1,000 Subscribers
I’ve had a “soft” goal for the Weekly Thing to get to 1,000 subscribers and it got there today! Plus it is fun that Buttondown sends a note like this.
