On Sunday, I asked members of my Telegram group how many email subscribers they have. I wanted to figure out what type of content to create. Over 50% of respondents said they don’t have an email list. 33% of respondents are running a list with over 100 subscribers. The rest are running lists with over 1000 subscribers. I was surprised by the results. My thesis? Some respondents find setting up and growing an engaged list overwhelming, while others get distracted by the lure of social media. I...
1 day ago • 2 min read
Yesterday, I wrote a newsletter about the merits of running a paid newsletter on Kit and Substack. A reader asked why I’m using Substack if I already run this newsletter on Kit. They also wanted to know why I’m creating a Telegram group, which I teased in that newsletter. I started my email list on MailChimp back in 2015. I moved to ConvertKit in 2016 as it’s a better fit for creators. I use ConvertKit (now Kit) because it’s connected to Become a Writer Today via landing pages and forms. I...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Running a paid newsletter is all the rage. You can turn on paid subscriptions on Kit or Substack by connecting them to your Stripe account, pressing a button, and asking people to subscribe. A paid newsletter looks crazy attractive. Substack even slapped a calculator on the homepage at one point so aspiring newsletter owners could salivate over potential monthly profits. All you have to do is write your newsletter and forget about all that marketing. What creator wouldn’t love that type of...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader I've tried many different SaaS productivity tools over the years. I keep coming back to Trello. It works for managing a newsletter, my YouTube channel, and blogging. I like Trello because it's easy to use. So I decided to document my work flow. Simply, plan a creative project on a single board... and limit what you work on. Write on, Bryan Collins Grammarly Discount I've partnered with Grammarly for this newsletter. It's a tool I use for my business. I use this app daily for grammar...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader Over a million of young Italians left their country in the past 10 years. These 25–34-year-olds are saying arrivederci to cities like Rome, Florence and Milan because of low salaries and job opportunities. A few years ago, Ireland faced the exact same problem. Thousands of Irish my age quit the country and boarded planes to countries like Australia and the US because the Irish government bailed out the banks. A good chunk of these emigrating Irish never came home. A few friends of...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Forget the algo. Don't worry about going viral. The real action lies in building an email list or newsletter. Many paths to monetization exist for newsletter owners. Here's one: Build an email list, and you'll get invites to 3rd party bundles and promotions. I say no to most 3rd part promotions. They're either not a good fit or I don't believe they'll convert. But, I regularly partner up with InfoStack. If you haven't heard of them, they bundle courses and products from across the...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader Google is facing BIG problems in 2025. And I don’t just mean the US Justice Department telling the boffins at Mountain View to sell off Chrome. Search is one of Google’s core products, and frankly, it’s broken. As a search user, finding what I want is harder because the results are often wrong, unhelpful, or take ages to wade through. As a content publisher and creator, ranking a site in search is harder because the algo favors Reddit and giga-chad brands like our ex-friends at...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I discovered a fun website the other day, nohello.net, which offers some contrarian netiquette. When you’re DM-ing or messaging someone, stop saying hello, hola, heya or Dia Dhuit (that’s Irish for hello). Excessive politeness is the equivalent of answering a ringing phone, greeting the caller, and putting them on hold. It’s maddeningly frustrating. I’m on board with the contrarian piece of netiquette for two reasons. Reason 1: It rings alarm bells I get messages from scammers via...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I was sitting in a pub a few days ago with a copy of The Power Broker by Ron Chernow. A man sitting beside me said, “Can you write a book report on that for tomorrow?” He was joking about the size of the book. It’s over 1200 pages. In between scoffing mince and polishing off a cheeseboard, I’ll spend the next few days making inroads on it. Wish me luck, I could still be reading it next Christmas. Here are the 5 best books I read in 2025 (4 new, one old). Shattered by Hanif Kureishi...
14 days ago • 2 min read
