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🍴You have to actually like it

🍴You have to actually like it

Is this the world's most basic advice?

Maria Marchewka
February 21, 2025

428 words ⬇️

"This is gross... Want a bite?"

Imagine if someone said this to you. You'd probably pass on their appetizing offer.

Same thing applies to your newsletter. When you're not genuinely excited about the topics you cover, your readers will sense your lack of enthusiasm and hit unsubscribe.

Right now, everyone’s pushing newsletters.

We feel pressured to start one because social media is, as the internet dubs it, rented land.

But I’m here to tell you to pump the brakes.

Don't start a newsletter just to start one.

Before you go down this path, you want to be sure you enjoy it. Or, it'll become another task gathering dust and angst on your to-do list.

And who wants that?

There’s a reason 400,000 professionals read this daily.

Join The AI Report, trusted by 400,000+ professionals at Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Get daily insights, tools, and strategies to master practical AI skills that drive results.

1. Take Inventory

What can you talk about without getting bored? What posts do you naturally gravitate towards on social? What advice do your friends and peers usually come to you for?

For example:

Maybe you're the person everyone goes to for book recommendations. You give feedback that rivals Goodreads.
You love testing productivity hacks to see what works and what doesn’t.
You’re OBSESSED with Fantasy Football and know every stat line possible.

2. Topic Brainstorming

Can you easily think of 10 email topics?

Would writing about them be easy?

Let's say you're interested in productivity. Can you quickly list ideas like:

The morning routine you actually want to wake up and do.
This “weird” productivity hack freed up 30 minutes of my day.
Why I deleted social media apps from my phone
The night-before-routine to improve your morning
Three productivity "rules" I break regularly.

3. Stress Test

Now that you have content ideas write a sample paragraph for each of your top five.

This exercise is your litmus test. It'll help you identify which topics make your eyes light up and your fingers fly across the keyboard.

An added bonus of this step is that if you pursue a newsletter on this topic, you have already started five posts!

The Truth About Newsletters

Starting a newsletter isn’t the hard part. It’s sticking to it that’s challenging.

Genuine enthusiasm will fuel your content creation. So, before you begin, run through this three-step process to help you uncover your overarching topic.

One final test: Pick one of those ideas you listed, set a timer for 15 minutes, and build on your sample paragraph.

If you find yourself checking the clock, you might have just saved yourself months of newsletter guilt.

The best newsletters transfer excited energy from the author to the reader.