Introducing the Jamie McSloy Newsletter
There’s one thing that internet experts, direct marketers and business gurus repeat over and over again.
Build Your List From Day One!
It’s a great idea. After all, no business owner would want to pass up the opportunity to connect with likeminded people, potential customers and partners or just people who are interested in their particular style or information.
I have a small brain, but luckily, I’m only a year and a half behind the curve on this one. Today, I’m launching my mailing list. It’s going to be fantastic.
Introducing… The Jamie McSloy Newsletter
If you’ve been browsing the site today, you’ll have noticed “Subscribe” boxes appearing and disappearing seemingly at random. That’s because what I thought would be an hour’s job at most took me all day.
… You don’t need to know about that. What you need to know is that there’s a widget on the sidebar and a widget beneath each post that’ll allow you to sign up for my mailing list.
(I’m taking suggestions for a good name to be honest. “The Newsletter” and “The Mailing List” aren’t cutting it in my mind.)
Why would you want to sign up for my mailing list?
What The Jamie McSloy Mailing List Isn’t
Let’s talk about what I’m not going to do first of all.
- I’m not going to spam you.
I already write 1000+ words for this site every day. I’ve got no intention of sending a ton of emails on top of that. I’m only going to send mail to my list when I’ve got something worth saying. (For those of you who have a different idea of “worth saying” to me, there’ll be an unsubscribe button at the end of every email.)
- I’m not going to sell your details
This one should go without saying, but if you’ve ever been in the habit of signing up for newsletters, you’ll know that some nefarious characters get your email and promptly sign you up to a million lists selling you god-knows-what to god-knows-who.
Needless to say, I’m not going to do this. You’ll be on my list for as long as you wish to be and nothing else.
- It’s not a place for me to hard sell
You might have noticed that I don’t do any hard selling of anything on this site. That won’t change with the mailing list. If I find an awesome product, I might email you, but I don’t anticipate using the list as a primary sales driver any time soon.
- It’s not a barrage of “Check My Blog”
Some people use their mailing list to draw attention to new blog posts. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with that, if I were to do it, I’d drive everyone insane and fill their inboxes pretty quickly.
So I’m not going to do that either. The way I see it is that if you’re subscribed to my list, you probably read my blog already. I might do a “Check out this particularly awesome link” email now and again, and possibly do a “These are the posts you need for X” to combat the increasingly chaotic structure of the site, but other than that, no “Check out this new article!” emails.
- It’s not an invite to a secret base on a private island.
You’ll have to check back later in the month if you want that invite. It’s a different thing entirely.
So, now we’ve discussed what it isn’t, let’s talk about what the mailing list is.
What Is The Jamie McSloy Mailing List?
Inadvertently, I’ve pretty much summed up the general direction of the mailing list for the near future.
However, I’ve missed a key component that’s driving the thinking behind the move to get an email list going. That component is that I want the site to become a bit more of a two-way street.
I write every day and sometimes I feel like a mad-hatter, talking to myself.
That said, I sometimes get emails asking for help and whatnot. Some I answer publicly on the site, some I answer privately.
I figure that part of creating a mailing list is to give people the opportunity to get more personalised advice, and ask questions via replying. So that’s a first goal for the mailing list.
You ask questions, I answer them.
Secondly, the blog is becoming chaotic. I’ve talked about a lot of topics over the course of the past year, and despite my efforts with categories, tags and the like, specific things can be tricky to find. (Sorry about that.)
So, every so often I’ll send out an email list with those posts collated and put in an order that’s helpful.
Thirdly and quite obviously, I’m going to give you all tips, tricks, hints and other goodies across a broad spectrum of subjects (related to what I discuss on the blog.)
Sometimes, I have good ideas I don’t want to share with the world.
Other times, I have ideas that are good but better suited to a couple of hundred words rather than a 1000+ word blog post.
Sometimes, I have stuff that’s a little too good to give away for free to everyone. I know that’s vague… that’s the point.
But mostly, an email list is a way of turning this soapbox into some form of community at some later point.
Anyone who wants to join in and doesn’t mind receiving the odd email now and then is welcome to sign up.
Final Thoughts
Well, there we have it.
If you want to sign up to the mailing list, feel free to do so by either putting your details in the box below or the box in the sidebar.
No doubt there’ll be other methods in the future, but I’ll aim to keep it as unobtrusive as possible.
For now, drop your name and email, (then confirm your subscription!) and we’ll leave it at that.
See you in your inbox!