Hi all, You might remember around 3 months ago I posted about how I had started an email newsletter. Since then I haven’t had much time to post on here, although I’m hoping to get back into it now things have settled down.
I didn’t share a link to it or even what it was about as I wasn’t really sure what people would make of it. While in a way its loosely related to why people might be on JustAbout (bounty payments & organic rewards), it’s doesn’t fit too much into the usual content you see on here.
So what is it?
It’s www.pocketpounds.com - in summary “Bookmark directory, email newsletter & blog about earning a few extra £'s, from completing surveys to playing free mobile games.”
It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s geo targeted at the UK, as well as being a quite specific niche subject.
How’s it going after 3 months?
After a very rocky start it’s going well, I have circa 300 subscribers & I’m over the moon with these numbers!
I pivoted to a membership website/blog with an email newsletter. Some content is open to all & others are for members only.
I am now running on the Ghost cms on a small managed hosting provider who offers me a fantastic service at a very competitive price. I really like this CMS, it’s laser focused on being for membership sites (free or paid all built in) with an email newsletter, no feature bloat & endless paid plugins needed. Very easy to use.
I have drastically improved the landing page and overall look & feel of the site over the months. The homepage landing page improvements, & finding the right balance between guest preview & members only content, has resulted in a big increase in visits v sign ups.
lessons learned:
Pay close attention to the acceptable usage policies of the email newsletter service providers. These are all very strict in what type of content they allow & you might be surprised to find that your content falls foul of their policies, even though there is actually nothing wrong with it. In an effort to not have spammers on these platforms, well meaning people, abiding by their own local rules, get caught up in the crossfire.
I got banned on my first platform of choice (no names) because of this & had to very quickly get set up on another one in order to maintain working unsubscribe links for my members, a very stressful time.
The 2nd platform I chose, pre-vetted my content & legal compliance as part of a email convo with me and concluded it was absolutely fine & welcomed me to join…. Research & choose your provider carefully.
Compliance with a countries rules & regs:
Email “marketing” in the UK, processing of personal info (email addresses) & any content that could be classed as an advert (affiliate links) have rules that need to be followed. You need to be registered with the ICO for a start, have a registration number & a decent privacy policy. All your emails have to have a physical postal address on them in the footer. Make sure all this is in place for before you launch (I did do this & had it all in place ready). Read up on the guidelines for using & declaring affiliate links.
Keep control of costs:
With an office address needed to go on the mails, domain name(s), email provider, ICO registration , site hosting fees, bulk email provider fees, licensing images (with indemnity cover for any potential rights issues),marketing, website design or theme purchases, plugins (like cookie banners, seo etc)… it’s very easy to let your costs get wildly out of control.
Realistically you are never going to break even for a long time, if ever. Do everything you can to keep your costs down.
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