When I write something, I sometimes stop and ask myself, “Should I make this an email, or should I turn it into a blog post?” Though the question may seem trivial, sometimes it’s not.
A little history
When I started back up after my long hiatus, I was determined to write an email a day. For those of you who are on my email list, you know I have failed to do that. There’s a story behind that but for now, we’ll just acknowledge that I haven’t done it. Oh, I did at first, but that died as I got caught up in my head about the best ways to go about it.
Also, I knew I should be writing blog posts. After all, if you want people to read your stuff, and add people to your list, you should regularly be posting things to your blog. I used to blog regularly. That also fell by the wayside. That is also another story for another time.
And sometimes, I started writing an email and it seemed like I should also turn it into a blog post, but if I was doing that then it just seemed like extra work BUT if I made it a blog post then it also seemed like my list wasn’t getting the preferential treatment that they deserved if I did it that way.
So what was my solution?
SO my solution is actually fairly simple.
When I write an email, it goes only to the subscribers on my email list (duh), but when I write a blog post, it’s both public and a notification of the post is sent to the subscribers on my email list. That little feature is something I set up in my autoresponder.
That way I am emailing my list at the same time I’m updating the blog thus killing two birds with the proverbial stone.
Now if only I did that consistently…..
How I give my list the preferential treatment it deserves is within the criteria that I use.
The criteria I use
First of all, what I DON’T use is length. It doesn’t matter how long or short it is. There are perfectly acceptable long and short posts just as there are perfectly acceptable long and short emails. The length depends on saying what I need to say.
Secondly, is it something that is special or unique? Things like a special discount or a free gift for my subscribers would definitely NOT be a blog post. Basically, if it’s for only a few people, it goes in an email, if it’s available for anyone, it becomes a blog post.
In conclusion
Isn’t that so easy, so simple, so… obvious that no one in their right mind should have to struggle as long as I did to come up with that solution?
Yes, but sometimes we don’t see the obvious. That’s just human nature. Plus, I can be pretty dense.
Have you ever struggled with that? What did you do to address the situation?
Jeffery