Bookmarked:
Robin Rendle explores his love for email newsletters vs. his preference for publishing on the web (accessibility warning: scrolljacking; try “Reader view” in your browser).
The piece is really worth reading in its entirety, but two slides about half way summarize the key points:
Newsletters killed blogs because…
- They’re impossibly easy to publish.
- Your inbox is a notification stream.
- Writers can actually, ya know, get paid.
Alternatively, websites today…
- Are difficult to make.
- Can’t notify people of new work.
- Aren’t able to pay writers easily.
I, too, have been fascinated by personal newsletters (not the marketing crap) for a long time, both as reader and author. And I just as much would hope we could solve those problems – first and foremost the notification/subscription challenge.