Thread by @samjulien

Crossed a big milestone recently: 1000 subscribers to Developer Microskills 🎉

A few people have asked me about my process for writing & marketing the newsletter & how I repurpose issues into blog articles. Here's a thread full of images and resources to help!

I rely on Newsletter OS in @NotionHQ by @JanelSGM to track everything. First I create a new issue in the Newsletter Issues db. I use properties to keep track of issue status (more on this later). I don't put notes or outlines here but do add links I may want to use.

I draft every issue in MD using @draftsapp -- it's fast and I can export it anywhere. I tried to do this in Notion but it's just too slow because of the processing it runs on the text.

Once I'm ready to go, I create a new broadcast in @ConvertKit. I have a tag that gets added whether someone signs up at the landing page or my site.

I create a social card (og image) in @figmadesign using a community template. I can re-use this image for the RSS feed, my blog, or Twitter threads. (Yes that's @domitriusclark hiding in the template 👀)

The template is free: figma.com/community/file…

I have a specific template I use for the newsletter that has little touches I've added over time. e.g. the special tag lets people unsub from the newsletter without completely opting out and the archive url lets people share the issue w/friends.

Drafts has an action lets me copy the MD as HTML, which I can then paste into the legacy editor of @ConvertKit (doesn't work with the new editor).

I learned this trick from @jhooks: joelhooks.com/use-markdown-e…

Once I've proofread the issue, I schedule the broadcast in @ConvertKit for 5 am PST on Friday. I've debated about changing the day of the week because a lot of people don't open it until Monday, but so far my open rate is still pretty good (usually 40%+ by Monday).

After I schedule the week's issue, I head back to Newsletter OS and make sure I've updated the previous week's analytics & issue properties like the issue's public URL or an article or thread I've created from it. Also have checkboxes for cross-posting to places like @hashnode.

To create a blog post, I have a script to create a folder & MD file in my repo & set up the frontmatter. Thanks @robconery for teaching me this in Imposter's Handbook. It's hooked up to Keyboard Maestro so I can trigger it with a shortcut & UI.

github.com/samjulien/samj…

I can then just copy and paste the MD from Drafts, edit it to be more like a blog article, and copy the social image I already created. The script uses a naming convention for slugs and images. Once I publish a commit it deploys with @netlify.

The following week I also create a Twitter thread w/ @chirrapp based on the issue. This has proven exceptionally good at driving sign-ups. You can see here in @useFathom that most of the newsletter landing page traffic is coming from Twitter.

What makes a good thread (so meta)? I've found:

- Value from the 1st tweet
- Each has an image, diagram, or link
- Use real numbers
- <10 tweets, 6-8 is the sweet spot
- Only CTA is in the last tweet, asking to sign up (learned from @GoodMarketingHQ)

ex:

https://twitter.com/samjulien/status/1362095905730490368

This writing & publishing process has been working pretty well, though I still need to automate a few things to speed it up. Let me know if this has been helpful and if you have any automation advice!

To see the results of this process, check out developermicroskills.com

If you're on @IndieHackers and prefer a non-thread format, I've created a post version of this: indiehackers.com/post/my-newsle…