New Email List (Again) | Aaaargh

Well, here we go again. About a year ago, I decided I couldn’t take it any more and finally quit Mailchimp, after deleting all my subscribers.

I moved to Buttondown and started again. Buttondown is beautifully simple, designed for sending straightforward newsletters. The man who runs it, Justin Duke, is personally helpful and has a great spirit. In short, Buttondown is the antithesis of Mailchimp’s overly commercial experience, always nagging at me to do this, do that, in order to “maximise revenues” etc.

Alas, one thing Buttondown doesn’t¹ enable me to do is send automations: pre-designed sequences of emails, going out on a schedule.

And automations, I’m coming to see, could provide a tiny bit of relief from the panicky feeling I get whenever somebody signs up for my emails – the sense that I owe them something, had better get on with it, I’m not doing enough…

With automations, I could curate a kind of “greatest hits” for new subscribers – variously entertaining and informing (I hope) from the moment they sign up.

Automations might let me breathe again.

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After thinking it over for a while, I’ve set up a new email list with Convert Kit, which does allow automations. One thing that drew me to Convert Kit is that it does seem to be designed for people “like me” – individuals and tiny organisations whose livelihood is based on writing, drawing, speaking, and publishing.

It’s a paid account, and I’ve been thinking hard – still am – about how best to set it up.

I post a lot of content, here and there, and I’d like to share it. I know some people would like to see it.

But aaaaaaaaaaaargh how the heart sinks!

What finally got to me this morning was reading about failing to do what the law requires regarding people’s consent to receive this, or that. About GDPR, which is about as dismal a series of letters as any I know.

I need to lie down.

¹ Automations. Buttondown DOES now allow users to send automations.

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