UPDATE



Hi. This is an old, unmaintained blog. You may find these sites more to your liking:

Carson Brackney: This is my primary site.

Ad Astra Traffic: Content production/article writing service.

Ad Astra Traffic Team: For those who'd like to get writing gigs with Ad Astra.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Content Done Better Report... Newsletter...

If you glance over at the right sidebar, you will see a place to subscribe to the Content Done Better Report. For those of you who watch Stephen Colbert and may be curious, please note that you may pronounce the "t" in "report."

Why should you sign up for a newsletter from me?

Fair question. Here's what I plan on doing with it. If this sounds good to you, I look forward to having you as a subscriber.

  • I like to find free things online that make my life easier and more interesting. I am a chronic beta-tester and tend to uncover some groovy stuff. That kind of information doesn't always fit well with this blog, but it will be a regular feature of the newsletter.
  • Running updates on the $125K challenge. I will keep the piggy bank tracker running on the blog and may comment on the challenge occasionally here, but I don't want the blog to devolve into a play-by-play of how I plan to reach that goal. Many people seem to have a genuine interest in the process, and the newsletter will be a good way to provide that kind of information.
  • Links to good stuff about writing and the content industry. Sometimes, when I am particularly smitten with something, I mention it at the blog. However, there are plenty of valuable nuggets that I don't get around to posting. Instead of hoarding them for myself, I figure the newsletter will provide a place to share them.
  • Feature article(s) by interesting people. I want to have at least one third-party article in each newsletter edition. These might be notes about what buyers look for in content (from a buyer), how a writer handles a particular challenge (from the writer), etc.
  • Anything extremely important to the online content industry that deserves specific mention. This really should be at the heart of each issue.
  • Idiotic babble. Okay, that's not a selling point. It also isn't planned. It may, however, occasionally happen so I thought I would state it right up front.

Here is what the Content Done Better Report will NOT have...
  • Retread articles. Everything will be new.
  • Excessive advertising. I am using a free service to handle the newsletter. They will undoubtedly include an ad in each issue until I can determine whether this is a viable project upon which to spend money. Thus, you will see their ad. I will probably fail to resist the siren song of moneymaking and may, occasionally, direct readers to something I am selling or with which I am affiliated. If I do this, I will do so in an unobtrusive manner.
So, onto a few questions...

How often are you planning on doing this? Two times every month. If I have a ton of great information and just can't wait a month, I might sneak in an occasional supplementary issue. You don't need to worry about getting a million emails from me, though.

What if I hate it? You can unsubscribe. It's easy. The service I am using for managing the newsletter makes that kind of thing simple. You won't hate it, though.

How much money do you want? None. Well, that's not true. I want whatever you have available. I am not requiring any of it, however. It's free.

Will you abuse my email address? No. I won't mail you anything other than the newsletter. The service handling management is mega-reputable and will not be doing anything with it to which you don't agree, either.

What if I read that part about feature articles from other people and thought, "I would love to contribute?" Great. Email me at cdbrack[at]gmail.com and let me know what you have in mind. I will be taking at least two outside articles per month and I will be paying for them. If you want to be a contributor, just pitch me on your idea and we can take it from there.

When can I expect Issue #1? Two weeks from today. For those of you finding this post in the future, all old issues will be archived.