Are You Thinking Of Starting An Email List?

Photo credit to Christin Hume on Unsplash.

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Back in October 2022, I launched my website/blog and email list (both can be found at mollymcternan.com). Since then, I have grown and learned so much and now want to share some thoughts and tips that I have with others! Feel free to comment with any further questions you might have at the end of the post!

Firstly, I want to share my main thoughts and tips:

• Have a theme - Before you start, it is incredibly important that you have a definite theme for your list. Not only should you have genres and sections to your newsletter that are cohesive and consistent, but your colors and styles should also reflect that. For example, I use my list to share Scripture, blog posts, writing news, community announcements, and reading and music recommendations. My main color theme is green because that is my favorite and it fits! Of course, this will look different for everyone.

• Have a goal - Another thing that I highly recommend is to have goals. Not only what you hope to share with your list, but also how many subscribers you have. Don’t be too ambitious, but also make it be something that you know you’ll have to work for - 100 is definitely something to both aim for and celebrate. My first one was 50, then 100, and now it’s 150. When you launch, I recommend reaching out to friends to help share your launch and to share your goal with your subscribers when you get closer to your next goal when you are first starting out.

• Give back - Many people use a lead magnet for their newsletter. This is basically just a free gift that you send to anyone who signs up and it can really help up your subscriber count. The most common idea is a short story and the cool idea about that is that it isn’t actually published, but you still get to share it with people. In addition to giving a gift to your subscriber (which isn’t needed, but is helpful), what is also super important is that you ask questions in your emails and encourage responses. Getting replies to your email is such a good feeling and it really makes everything seem more personable for both you and your reader!

Now, on to the different email provider options:

• ConvertKit - Many people use this provider and big reason is that they allow you to use their company’s address. If you scroll to the bottom of author emails, you’ll always see a little address at the bottom, but many people aren’t comfortable sharing that. Because of that reason, ConvertKit can be especially appealing! They also allow you to have up to 1,000 subscribers for free! Some cons would be that they don’t allow you to have automated sequences (a series of planned emails) on their free version.

• Mailerlite - This is one of the other widely used providers and the one that I personally use. Mailerlite also allows up to 1,000 subscribers for free but has more customizable options such as offering automated sequences on the free version. That being said, they do require you to use your own address, but they are unique in that they allow you to just put the city if you are more comfortable with that.

• Email Octopus - While this isn’t a super popular provider yet, I’ve been seeing it around a bit more and wanted to share a little about it. One really cool about them is that they allow you to have up to 2,500 for free, which is obviously more than double the ones I mentioned above. I don’t really know too much about them, but if that sounds appealing to you, I’d recommend that you do further research.

Buying a professional email:

• Porkbun is the company I use for both my website’s domain (mollymcternan.com) and my author email. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I like their user friendliness and would definitely recommend them. Now, buying these do cost money, but Porkbun has sales pretty regularly and it’s really helpful in looking professional and working efficiently. The website domain typical costs around $10 for the whole year and the email is $24 - so only $2 a month! There are other options out there, so I’d encourage you to look around before fully deciding, but I do recommend!

• A little note: You might have noticed that some lists use free Gmails that they send from and so might be asking ‘Why would you pay?’. Well, the answer is that 1. It is a lot more professional, 2. Gmail and Yahoo addresses are much more likely to be sent to spam, and 3. Many companies now suggest or require that you use a paid one.