Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#51

Post by mooreds » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:13 PM UTC

meetingthrower wrote: post #31

mooreds wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the audience size and makeup. I've seen tweets like this: https://twitter.com/petecodes/status/1548983470805876737 which talk about $400/month for a newsletter ad. Cooperpress has a lot of dev subscribers and I believe charges thousands of dollars for an add: https://cooperpress.com/advertise/ (run by https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petercooper ).

Thanks. Are there good equivalent ad networks like AdSense for newsletters (so you don't have to establish a sales department?)

> Are there good equivalent ad networks like AdSense for newsletters

My experience has been "no".

I don't know of any networks that do newsletter ad placements; our placements have all been direct with the publisher. Some publishers have more than one newsletter so you can get some scale with them, but it's still direct discussion with the publisher.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#52

Post by bilekas » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:15 PM UTC

I've signed up for a few pre-launch subscriptions as I know I woulnd't remember to check back and have found that extremely useful.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#53

Post by GnarfGnarf » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:22 PM UTC

One of the difficulties encountered with newsletters and email promotion, is that your email sending service (MailChimp, Keap/Infusionsoft, SendGrid, etc.) rates you on your customers' Spam Complaint Rate. If you exceed 0.1% complaints, you can lose your account.

Recipients at some of the more naïve addresses (Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, MSN) have a habit of clicking on the prominent "Spam" button (instead of the "Unsubscribe" link) when all they want to do is unsubscribe. You get tarred with the wrong brush. Very frustrating.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#54

Post by letmeoknmmm » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:23 PM UTC

Newsletters are getting a revival because people don't have a news reader and sites stopped pushing RSS.

Basically the only unintermediated contact.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#55

Post by zevulous » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:32 PM UTC

I run a newsletter (https://thisiscool.beehiiv.com/) about cool longform articles I find online, and it genuinely is nice to have a direct line to many of the people that follow and like my content (@zevulous on tiktok), especially if social media sites go down or delete my account for some reason.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#56

Post by 0xbadc0de5 » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:42 PM UTC

I've never signed up for a newsletter and never will. It's not so much the newsletter awareness push that irks me but the incessant pop-ups and pop-overs that must be dismissed each and every time I visit a site. It's almost paywall-level intrusive. I really miss the RSS days - if you wanted to receive regular updates, it was opt-in and didn't feel like being accosted by a panhandler.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#57

Post by nickdothutton » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:48 PM UTC

Web notifications are like the new search-engine windows toolbar spam. Probably some companies use these notifications responsibly, but half way through day 1 I turned them off and have been blocking them ever since. If I visited your news site once to read 1 article which may or may not have disappointed me, I’m not turning notifications on.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#58

Post by franze » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 12:57 PM UTC

svnpenn wrote: post #40

franze wrote: post #30

Channel Hedging If you depend on SEO, SEA, Adsense you depend on Google. If you depend on Facebook, Insta, you depend on Meta. If you depend on Linkedin, you depend on Linkedin. If you depend on Newsletters, you depend on Spamfilters. Every channel has its risk. So hedging your traffic channels is the best thing you can do. And Newsletter is the least annoying one, as Google and Facebook maximize for ad-spendings. Sp…

> Newsletter is the least annoying one That's not saying much. Those are still highly annoying, to the point where I will often permanently cancel service with companies that do it. Don't email me ads for shit, unless I told you to do that.

least annoying (in regards of the dependencies) for the publisher

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#59

Post by tedmcory77 » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 1:19 PM UTC

There are three types of traffic: Paid, Earned, Owned.

Paid - PPC and the like

Earned - Press, News Coverage, etc. Basically, causing a way to get yourself in the news cycle

Owned - Email is the best example. You, for the most part, control this and it's the easiest way to control your future. By getting newsletters people begin to know, like, and trust you and become more likely to buy.

Re: Ask HN: Do newsletters work? Why do websites push them so much?

#60

Post by ellisv » Mon, Aug 01, 2022, 1:22 PM UTC

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #24

Tangent: do web push notifications work? A lot of websites ask if I want to be notified via a web push, which I personally find very annoying and have never tried it. But perhaps people (consumers/users and sellers/creators) find them useful? Bonus question: are you subscribed to any web push notifications? Which ones and why do you like web push vs. a newsletter or RSS?

IMO a huge part of the problem for users is not really knowing what they're agreeing to since you don't really know what notifications you're going to get until they're turned on.