Category: E-newsletter Fundamentals

Why Newsletters Fail

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12 COMMENTS

Maybe you’ve noticed … here in America, we’ve got two distinct types of holidays. First, you’ve got your “A-list’ celebrations. Things like Labor Day, New Years, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving. Among their fellow commemorative events, these are the heavyweights, the celebrities. If there were a People Magazine of Holidays (not that I am suggesting this), you’d see New Year’s Day on the cover frequently, looking thin and pale while entering a rehab facility in Arizona. Next, and much lower in the pecking order, are the auxiliary holidays. These are the ones – […] Click to read more…

One-Armed Bandit

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15 COMMENTS

For the past two weeks, I’ve had my arm in a sling. That’s because a week ago Thursday, I had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder. Apparently, this is pretty significant stuff, and so for the month or two leading up to the event, I was focused on the surgery itself. Fortunately, all went well. But, as I soon learned, the procedure, at least from the patient’s perspective, is not the hard part – all I had to do was show up on time and go to sleep (insert your […] Click to read more…

How I Write This Newsletter

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30 COMMENTS

(Listen to this post, here.) My wife and I were in Atlanta last week visiting our son Evan who moved there from Memphis a few months ago. Wow. What a great city. And it didn’t hurt that the weather was beautiful, bringing people outside for all kinds of eating, drinking, walking, pedaling, and scootering activities. I knew when we headed down there that I’d uncover some story fodder worthy of inclusion in this newsletter. But, rather than just writing it as I usually do, I’d like to walk you through the […] Click to read more…

Simply the Best

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25 COMMENTS

(Listen to this post, here.) Over the past 20 years, science has delivered a ton of interesting and useful inventions. Smartphones. 3-D printing. And don’t even get me started on the burning-bush-level miracle that is Lady Gaga Oreos. Overall, the point of innovation is to make life easier, better, more efficient. Sometimes, however, things move in the wrong direction. Take liquid “body wash.” Why this is considered an improvement over bar soap (which has been around for 5,000 years) is beyond me. Whenever I visit someone and this is the […] Click to read more…

Don’t Do These 2 Things

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33 COMMENTS

(Listen to this post, here.) I arrived at my office yesterday morning as always. But I kept on going, until I drove eight more miles, wandering aimlessly through my little town. Why? Because the odometer of my 2013 Ford Focus read 99991, and I wanted to see it when it reached 99999. I knew I’d forget to look if I didn’t make a deliberate effort, so I drove around until I reached this impressive milestone (see photo). I’m quite pleased that my car has fared so well with few needed repairs, […] Click to read more…