Ask HN: Are curated email newsletters a good idea?

#1

Post by jaredbrown » Mon, Aug 29, 2011, 5:03 PM UTC

I am exploring the concept of adding user-curated sections to my fledgling site, Talentopoly.com. In a nutshell the site is a place for programmers, designers & IT folk to share links to what they're discovering online. Yes, it's similar to HN. But that's a different discussion. By far the most popular feature of the site is the weekly "best of" email. The top ten most popular links get emailed out each week. I'm thinking of expanding on this concept and allowing users to curate tags. For instance, 1 or more users could sign up to curate the PHP tag. They would be able to add links that were posted to the site under that tag to a curated list that they could then send out as a newsletter. Those users who have subscribed to that tag would receive the newsletter.

I really value the feedback ideas get here on HN so here are some of the things I'm questioning. I'd love to get some critique of these ideas going in the thread below.

1) Should I limit the curation of a tag to 1 user or allow many? 2) Should the newsletter list the curators, thus giving exposure to those doing the work. 3) Should I mandate a max or min frequency to the newsletters? For instance, should the curators be poked if they haven't sent out a newsletter in over a week? 4) Is this something you'd find interesting and would sign up for? 5) Should I allow curators to enter their own descriptions for the newsletter or just include the link and title in it?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Ask HN: Are curated email newsletters a good idea?

#2

Post by ravipathak » Mon, Aug 29, 2011, 5:24 PM UTC

Should I limit the curation of a tag to 1 user or allow many?

I guess having more than one tag would be better simply because one article can actually fall in multiple category. Also you can do some good on user to tags to get a sense of users interests.

Should the newsletter list the curators, thus giving exposure to those doing the work.

Better even, but with small well knit community to start with, who can sustain with you.

Should I mandate a max or min frequency to the newsletters? For instance, should the curators be poked if they haven't sent out a newsletter in over a week? I think that depends upon how your relationship is with Cratory.

I'd not sign up as its not perfect interest to me but if you start product management i'd do that.

Should I allow curators to enter their own descriptions for the newsletter or just include the link and title in it?

I'd suggest against doing it at start, but later on, with a good set of rules, you should do it.But better part is probably measuring all the emails using the google analytics campaign tagging.

Re: Ask HN: Are curated email newsletters a good idea?

#3

Post by jaredbrown » Mon, Aug 29, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

ravipathak wrote: post #2

Should I limit the curation of a tag to 1 user or allow many? I guess having more than one tag would be better simply because one article can actually fall in multiple category. Also you can do some good on user to tags to get a sense of users interests. Should the newsletter list the curators, thus giving exposure to those doing the work. Better even, but with small well knit community to start with, who can sustain…

Thanks for the valuable input.

Re: Ask HN: Are curated email newsletters a good idea?

#4

Post by giberti » Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 11:35 AM UTC

Curated newsletters are only as good as the curator. If you are going to crowd source the curation, even allowing multiple curators per topic, you should allow the readers to also rank the curators. You could do this passively in the email through analytics or more directly with a direct response, such as HN's up arrow.

You should most certainly give credit to the curators! I would also include a digital nanny to remind them periodically to prepare a newsletter. It's easy to forget those sorts of commitments if there isn't a direct reward attached to it.