No, I Don’t Want to Create an Email Subscription
Why pandering for emails sounds God-awful to me
I see them all the time — webinars to increase email subscriptions.
Whether you are pitching to companies to add to their bottom line, or you’re trying to gain a following you can send correspondence to every 24 hours, the pervasive use of email is pretty obvious.
“Come join my newsletter where I give you links to my writing, Quotes of the Day, current thoughts I’m having in the shower, and too many pictures of my kid!”
How about no.
You know those people. They’re peppered all over Medium. At the end of every post, there’s a Call to Action, followed by an opt-in opportunity. You type in your email, get a welcome email, and then congratulations! you’ve just gained another newsletter from another blogger/entrepreneur/publication.
To me, newsletters are the magazines of the 21st century.
Do you remember getting magazines in the mail? I do (Sports Illustrated, baby). You’d flip through the parts that caught your eye, appreciate certain advertising ploys, and be envious at how beautiful people looked in print.
Now it’s the same deal, except online.
We scroll through our subscriptions faster and spend less time going in-depth on the articles that catch our eye. Our attention spans could no longer compute how a magazine works.
And then you’d subscribe to waaaay too many magazines. And so you’d de-clutter, cancel subscriptions. You stopped getting swamped by information overload and get on with your life.
We need that spring clinging mentality again.
That’s 50% of the reason why I won’t start a weekly newsletter.
I mean, yeah, it keeps me at the forefront of people’s minds, but I really don’t want that. I’m not trying to plug products or care how many Instagram followers I have. (Plus, if I’m at the forefront of your mind, that’s pretty sad. Only my girlfriend should be able to say that and not be considered creepy.)
I want to put out great content for my audience. That’s it.
The other half of the reason why I won’t collect emails at the end of posts is because I simply don’t want to do it. It’s busy work. It takes away from my creative pursuits. I want my money making to be as passive as possible so I can focus 90% of my efforts towards short stories, novels, and helping other writers achieve their goals.
I understand I would have a gigantic following full of devoted fans if I began to invade their inbox with which color I felt like this week, but honestly that sounds like crappy work. Shoot me before I have to curate emails about what I’ve already done this week.
So what’s the alternative?
You’re reading it. Medium is my alternative. (And Patreon in the near future.) I want to give quality content. I do this best on Medium, which is where I thought-dump and hope it can be applied to other people’s lives. (#SorryNotSorry)
If you want to read what I have to say, you’ll find me on this platform. If you really want to cling to my words, that’s what Patreon is for. Other than that, I will have my novels and short stories. Simple.
So no, in a roundabout way I do NOT want to create an email list. I get emails about gaining an email following, which I personally think is meta as hell. You can bet your ass I’m unsubscribing from those.
Anywho, I think it’s high time I get back to my daily writing goal. Happy rant time is over.
Jacob Lyda is a man on a mission…he just happens to change that mission constantly. He is currently writing a novel/short story collection and will — most likely — be documenting his journey of writing on Medium. Follow him at your own risk.
If you enjoyed this snapshot of his hectic life, click the heart (*sorry, “clap”*)or leave a comment so he knows to keep rambling on and publishing his unfiltered thoughts.
