Hey – it’s Janis.
This newsletter is about newsletters.
If it’s not your thing, feel free to check in next time. 😉
Build an email list.
Every few months, someone declares that email is dead.
Yet here we are – 4 BILLION of us!
Some of my creator friends claim it’s the most valuable business asset they have.
Build it. Deliver value to people in it. Nurture it. Profit from it.
Improve welcome email replies.
Can you spot Harry Dry's genius?
It's not a typo – it might seem like a system error, but I assume Harry intentionally created it to give people an extra nudge to reply. Just another innocent incentive for new subscribers to hit that "reply" button.
Replies from new subscribers signal to email providers that your emails are valuable, keeping them out of spam and promo folders. Yay!
I respect Harry and love his newsletter. He puts tremendous effort into every piece. If you're into marketing or content, check him out.
Two other welcome email tactics:
- Ask new subscribers about their biggest challenges in your niche – their answers can inspire future issues.
- What I do? When new people subscribe, I send them the last issue – because that's what they signed up for.
There's no right or wrong approach, but it's worth thinking through.
What are some clever welcome emails you've seen?
Why I moved from Kit to Substack back to Kit?
I was happily using Kit for most part of my creative career.
Great open rates, full customization, and a creator-first company.
So why did I move to Substack in November 2024?
Few thing happened at the same time:
I hadn’t sent a newsletter for 90+ days and google trashed my domain reputation.
I ended up in spam and got 15% open rate instead of my usual 50%-55% range.
Ouch.
Kit team helped restore my domain reputation. I cleaned up the list and open rates went back to around 45%. I was still frustrated that 90 days of silence can cause such mess. Grrrr-google!
Around the same time, Substack Notes launched. A Twitter-like feed that made it easy to convert short posts into Substack newsletter subscribers. Curious…
My list was quite large, around 13K, but I was not really prioritizing newsletter at that time and did not use any of the fancy automations Kit offered, so I started to question is it worth moving to Substack?
I didn't like several things about Substack, and I wasn't considering other newsletter providers as Kit had everything I wanted. The only negative was that it cost me around $130 a month for my list size.
I knew my short-form visual content could perform well on their platform. Plus, Substack's business model was different – free to use, with a cut only if you enable paid-newsletter feature.
I pulled the plug and made the move.
Now, one year later, I'm writing this from Kit.
What was my experience with Substack and why am I back with Kit?
In short, the biggest positive in Substack was fast subscriber growth.
In that year, I grew my list by around 10K.
My short-form visual content performed well. Substack notes brought in around 5K new subscribers during that time!
As I post almost daily, it accumulated to a lot.
It's a good place for a relevant (not shameless) plug to my Explain Ideas Visually Course & Community.
And there are several negatives.
While my subscriber count grew, open rates dropped to 38%. More importantly, the engagement, replies, and buzz were noticeably lower than before.
Substack's one-click subscription from notes and recommendations, plus network effects, makes it easy to end up in someone's list with very low friction.
So the growth is fast, but you get plenty of people who aren't that interested in your stuff.
But in general, who cares? You can just remove inactive subscribers or do a better job at engaging them than I did.
Here’s the main thing I did not like:
Substack branding is everywhere. They push people to their platform in every issue. In the header, in the footer. It’s everywhere and you can’t remove it.
Another geeky detail: you can't embed a clean form on your website. Instead, you have to use their branded embed with all their styling.
They also push their monetization model by adding pledge support buttons everywhere unless you dig through settings to remove them.
Obviously, that's how they make money, and it's fair game when you're using their tool for free.
It feels more like another platform than something you own with complete creative control.
Is that bad?
As long as they allow users to export their subscribers, more power to them. It's an all-in-one platform. You get social media plus a newsletter. And if you're not a geek about customizing and tailoring stuff, it might be just right for you.
In a different context, I might still use Substack for my newsletter, but not anymore.
I'll keep using Substack notes to funnel subscribers over to Kit. 💀 😂
So what's my context for wanting to use Kit?
It’s in Kit’s tagline:
“The email marketing platform for creators who mean business.”
I'm running a one-person business here. I do freelance work, create content, teach students, plus I have a life I want to live well with my wife and two kids.
For the past 6 months, I've been trying to grow my business in a smarter way instead of just brute-forcing it Hormozi style.
Okay, to be fair: I'm absolutely brute-forcing right now. Up by 4:30 every morning trying to build a better future. 💪
I want my business to remain small, lean, and profitable — so I'm building systems and flywheels to help me do that. I need Kit to do this.
Also, in the coming month I'm migrating from Circle to a modified Campfire solution for my course and community. So I will cut the Circle subscription costs and will be able to use Kit to email students and handle all that good jazz. 👍
This was a long one.
I always welcome your replies and questions. ❤️ But I'll reply back the first part of next week. Have some freelance to finish and decorate a fake 🇪🇦 Christmas tree. 🌲
Lots of love and intention! Speak soon.
– Janis Ozolins / ozo.art
P.S. – I only share affiliate links if I use and like the company. Here you can visit Kit if it sounds like a good fit for you.
P.P.S. – Join Explain Ideas Visually Course & Community.