QUICK POLL

THE MAIN THING

 📈 Paying for the best content ideas

Are you currently part of a paid community in your niche?

One of the most reliable ways to find content ideas for your newsletter is to join a paid community. 

When people pay to play, it changes their behavior. 

Paid community members aren't like casual browsers on Reddit or Facebook. They're knowledge seekers with real challenges, and they care enough about their problems to pay for advice and solutions.

People share specific struggles, not surface-level complaints.

Collecting content ideas is simple:

1. Create a basic spreadsheet with two columns: One column for the questions people ask and another column for the theme or category of the question.

2.  Filter your spreadsheet by a category, and you'll see all the questions related to that topic.

For example, if the category is 'Sponsorships and Advertising' you might see the following questions:

• How do I get my first sponsor?

• What should I charge for ads?

• How do I calculate CPM?

When you sort by topic, you'll see clusters of pain points, questions, and objections. These provide the basis for your newsletter issues, articles, and digital products.

But, what makes this especially useful for newsletter creators is the intent. 

A paid community member has already decided the group matters enough to open their wallet. This gives you an opportunity to design income-generating services and products (or a paid newsletter) that help people with the exact problems they need solved.

However you use this tip, you'll likely get higher engagement and deliver more value to your newsletter subscribers.

Have you done this? 

Reply with 'Yes' if you think paid communities are an excellent resource for content ideas.

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THINGS IN BRIEF

1. WTH Substack!

Over the past week, Substack has attracted a lot of attention from both readers and writers, but not in a good way.

Readers are being forced to download the Substack app to finish viewing a newsletter. 

After clicking, there is no way to escape the app loop and read the rest of the newsletter.

Who wants to be forced to download another app?

It seems this quiet change was a surprise to writers, too.

Substack should give people the option to decide where they read a newsletter, and I personally like mine in my inbox. 

Do you publish on Substack, or have you seen this in any letters you subscribe to?

Hit reply and tell me if you're considering moving from Substack or canceling your subscriptions due to this change.

2. A snippet of email deliverability advice

The idea of mailbox providers using “spam trigger words” to filter your emails is outdated. But subscribers still don’t like “spammy behavior.” Using all caps, tons of emojis, and other scare tactics could make subscribers manually mark your email as spam.

3. 6 newsletter lessons

Gunnar S. Holm shares 6 lessons he learned after helping newsletters add millions of subscribers.

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ONE LAST THING

☝️ What happens next?

Since open rates are no longer the best metric of success, here's a question to ask yourself:

What happens after someone opens my newsletter?

• Do they think differently? 

• Do they remember the idea? 

• Do they share it? 

• Do they act on it?

• Does it influence how they see you?

Too many newsletters answer "no" to those questions, which means they're wasting attention.

You work hard to get in someone's inbox, so make sure opening your letter matters. If your newsletter doesn't create an 'aha' moment, start a conversation, or shift someone's perspective, you're competing for attention without earning it.

I'm pinning the question above to every draft I write in 2026.

Will you?