I send email newsletter (almost) every week. In each email, there are 4 parts.
- What I’m working on lately.
- A productivity tips or thoughts on web technologies.
- Links I collected throughout the week. Mostly in web, accessibility, development, and productivity tips and tricks.
- Occasionally there are code worth sharing, inspirations worth sharing, or some fun stuffs.
On and off, I have managed the email newsletter since 2014. You can find all my archives here: https://makzan.substack.com/archive
And now I’m migrating my email newsletter to HEY World. Since there is no import feature yet, I’m now taking this chance to clean up my list. If you want to keep receiving my weekly email with productivity and web dev tips and tricks, please consider subscribing here. The form is down there at the bottom of the page👇🏻
Why switching?
In these years writing my weekly emails, the most barrier is the troublesome of the email editor.
For example, I found myself using more time configuring the email template in MailChimp than writing the actual email. Or I was manually copying the links into plain text in Substack to create non-trackable links, because they don’t allow disabling the tracking.
Last year, I switched to using Sendy. It allows me to disable tracking. But the email editor is somehow buggy. That WYSIWYG editor is not too reliable that I have to keep checking the source code.
These kinds of troublesome create barriers. All I need is focus on the content and send them out as easily as possible. That’s what HEY World shines.
Email to email
The style of my email newsletter is minimal to look like an email. There is no fancy layout and header/footer. So writing email newsletter directly in email composer makes this a real email instead of a marketing campaign.
Constraint from email composer is good
Constraint = Focus. In email composer, I cannot do much instead of focusing on writing. The context allows me to focus on conveying the messages to my readers. All I need is write the email, click “send”, and done. There is no configurations. There is no cover photo setting. There is no A/B testing. Just simply an email.
No-tracking
I wanted to disable email tracking for years. Back when I was using MailChimp, their no-tracking configuration was not working. The “Don’t track open” checkbox had no effects. Tracking was the main reason I switched away from Substack too. HEY World comes with no open tracking, no links tracking, and no options to turn them on. The email you received is yours. Use the tips and links I shared whatever you like, with no one spying which links you clicked.
That’s my email newsletter, starting a new journey here, until the end of internet.
–Thomas Mak, 2021-03-04.