Thread by @damn_ethan

Let's talk about newsletter tech.

Most people ask, "What ESP should I use?"

But that's only the beginning. There are actually 5 key tools that power a newsletter biz.

Here's a quick overview for beginners...🧵

The combination of tools that power your newsletter is called your "stack."

There are 5 key parts:
🖥️ Website
📜 Registration Software
💸 Payment Processor
✉️ Email Service Provider (ESP)
📈 Analytics

The most important thing to know: Your stack is always a work in progress.

A quick breakdown:
🖥️ Website: For publishing blog posts & landing pages

📜 Registration: Adds people to your list

💸 Payment: For billing subscribers/advertisers

✉️ ESP: For designing & sending the email

📈 Analytics: Measures newsletter, marketing, and website performance

Tools in the newsletter stack exist along a spectrum:

All-In-One <--------------------------->Custom-Built

...................☝️This is often where you want to be if you're just starting out (ex. Substack, Mailchimp, etc...)

All-in-one tools like Substack make it easy to publish emails, create landing pages, track visitors, and process payments.

The trade-offs:
-Price goes up as your list grows.
-Limited customizability.
-Platform dependence (sucks if they go out of business).

Stacks often evolve through 3 main phases based on number of emails sent per day.

1️⃣ Early Phase (0-100k/day) - All-in-one tool.
2️⃣ Growth Phase (100k-1m/day) - Multiple tools, some custom.
3️⃣ Mature Phase (1m+/day) - Many tools, several custom.

~100k emails per day is an important point for newsletter businesses. They often:

1️⃣ Start monetizing and have money to spend
2️⃣ Make first technical hire (full- or part-time).
3️⃣ See significant bounced emails, affecting income

If you're <100k pick whatever tool is easy/cheap.

Early on, it's more important to get started than to pick the perfect tools.

Ryan Holiday literally started with Gmail.

ryanholiday.net/from-zero-to-5…

Whenever you're considering a tool for your newsletter, your goal is to balance power and simplicity.

Non-technical people on your team should be able to do as much as possible without help from developers.

E.g. build/publish the email, landing pages, blog posts, etc...

You also want to consider:

Compatibility: Will it work with other tools in your stack?

Flexibility: Can you modify it to suit all your needs?

Popularity: It's easier to hire devs for more popular tools.

Longevity: Will the maker be around long-term for support?

I'll be doing a deeper dive on each tool (with recommendations) in the coming days, but the TL;DR is:

-Your newsletter stack has 5 parts (not 1).
-It's a constant work in progress.
-Focus on balancing power & simplicity.
-You can stick with an all-in-one tool until ~100k subs.