296 - Why I'm Launching a Weekly Newsletter for Web Designers

This is going to be a shorty slash solo episode and I just wanted to take a few minutes to chat with you about my upcoming newsletter . So by the time you're listening to this , it may already be live If you're listening to this episode right when it comes out .

I am on the cusp of launching my weekly newsletter , which is called Web Biz Weekly , and this is going to be launching Sunday , november 12th 2023 . And it will continue indefinitely weekly .

Now I want to share in this episode a little bit about this newsletter and give you some updates on why it's been a little bit delayed recently but , more importantly , why I'm deciding to launch a weekly newsletter now , what to expect from it as a subscriber to my email list and then when to expect it , and just give you some details a little more about this

weekly newsletter . So it's called Web Biz Weekly and it's because the primary focus of this newsletter is to help you with the business side of web design and I'm really excited about this for many reasons , but I felt personally as far as why I decided to do a newsletter number one email is back , baby , and that is awesome . I love that email is back .

It's still my preferred medium . I'm fortunate to have really good control of my email and I found email more so than ever , is more important than ever , because there's so much . There's so many things are just so scattered online and it's so fractured .

Everyone's on different social media platforms , everyone's on different web design platforms , different online communities , different forums but there's one constant for everybody and that is email . When you need a password reset , they don't send it to your Tik Tok or to your Instagram .

They send it to your email , and there's a lot of reasons for that , but I mean it's the mail . I didn't really don on me until I was talking to my friend Amar on email deliverability , which was an episode we did a while back , but he explained email with the importance of it being that it's your mailbox .

It's like when you live somewhere you have a mailbox . That's what email is . It is so important . So that's one reason I'm taking it more and more seriously now .

But the reason I'm officially doing an actual weekly newsletter is because I've realized in my business and hopefully this will give you some thoughts about potentially doing one for years too is that I never really had an official touch point that was either monthly or weekly .

Now those of you on my email list you know I send emails every week , but I wouldn't say they're scattered , but they're basically just an email when I have a new piece of content or when there's something big going on or an announcement or something I wanted to feature . That's when you currently get email from me .

It's every podcast episode , every new YouTube video .

Unless you're in my community Web Designer Pro , you'll get updates and stuff from that , but publicly , to my audience at large , which is over 10,000 people on my email list , it's a little bit not disjointed , but there's not like a standard weekly touch point and I felt from my business personally that this is what was missing and I actually think for you as a

Web Designer , you should consider this too . Now , I'm not saying you have to do it weekly .

I would probably advise that you don't do a newsletter weekly , but I highly recommend that you have a monthly newsletter for your Web Design business and I like that term touch point because it is something that is going to keep you top of mind with clients and if you have not been listening to the podcast recently or if you're new , first off , welcome in .

But that's something you're going to hear a lot , which is nowadays more than ever . You have got to stay top of mind with your clients and for me , with my brand here with joshallco , top of mine is coming kind of randomly with the podcast episodes coming out in videos , but I didn't really have anything to this point .

That gave me an opportunity to just share something with you on an ongoing basis , and that's exactly what we're gonna do with this newsletter . It's a chance for me to be a little more personal , quite frankly , because the podcast emails that go out , they are all about the podcast episode and the guest , so I write those up .

I still write the descriptions for those . I love doing that Also , it helps me remember the guest and their website and what we talked about .

But it hasn't really been a chance for me to like connect with you and share something , and I do that on social media , not on a consistent basis , but I do share thoughts and quick hits on threads and Instagram and Facebook , but this gives me a chance to chat with you every week about something that's gonna be helpful to you and your web design business .

Would that be in the primary goal ? So we'll get into kind of what to expect next . But there's a few more reasons why I considered an email list or a newsletter and why I'm really big on it . And the delay came from the reason because it is weekly and it is consistent and I could totally do a monthly newsletter .

But the reason I decided not to is because I'm really gonna take this opportunity to share what was posted recently between podcasts and videos and then also what's ahead .

I think it's really gonna be exciting to be able to share what's coming up for you week to week and by nature these are gonna be pretty short and sweet to start , at least because I am producing a lot of content .

But , like I said , for me I felt like it'd be nice if there was just a chance to chat with you weekly , because every week I'm having these conversations with my members of Web Designer Pro and they're giving me such good feedback and advice and things they're going through and sometimes things require a full podcast conversation or a YouTube video , but sometimes

it's just a little thought and something that I just wanted to share with you and , oddly enough , one of the first thought that I'm gonna share with you , coming out on the newsletter this Sunday at the time of releasing this , is about a conversation I ever heard while in line getting my family donuts .

These college kids we were on OSU campus and I was in line to get donuts and these college kids behind me were talking about their dreams of their corporate careers . And one kid was like in 10 years I'm gonna make the big bucks , like 150K , and I'll share I'm sharing my thoughts with you in the first newsletter this Sunday .

But I was smiling just cause I was like , oh my gosh , really Like 10 years of 40 hours a week and commuting and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt , probably from this program , and that's the dream is 150K in 10 years . You need to come into Web Design , dude . We could do that in a year or two if you really wanted to .

So anyway , I'm gonna share my thoughts on that in issue one here . But it's those kind of things where I was like I mean , I could make a podcast episode about it , but I just like the idea of doing a newsletter Also for me personally . I'm in a season of life where doing video content is sometimes kind of hard .

I'm already doing quite a bit , but I'm excited to be able to just sit at a coffee shop or sit down with my laptop and just share with you a quick thought every week just to help you in your web design business and kind of pull in all the content that I'm releasing , cause I know you as a listener of the show and a member of my audience in some way ,

or especially if you're in my program , web designer pro , or you've been in any of my courses there's a lot going on . I'm sure it can be difficult to know , like what was released recently . You know there's like hundreds of episodes , hundreds of videos .

This is a chance for me to really pull stuff together and it's kind of the glue that's gonna like hold everything together and be in touch with it every week . Also , one reason you might wanna consider having a newsletter is because it will create a healthier email list .

If you are just sending emails when you have a promo or something to sell , you're gonna start getting flagged . It really is .

There's a lot going on with email right now and the goal that I'm really pursuing moving forward is to not only build my email list but to make a healthier email list , because anytime I've ever done a campaign for core sales or membership boosts or anything , it's always email that converts the highest .

And you , as a web designer , if you have not experienced that yet , it's probably because you haven't had an email or or email list or you just haven't really sold via email as much . But I'm telling you right now , if you have a healthy list , your conversions will skyrocket .

When you do have offers and upsells to provide to your audience and to provide well for you , it's probably gonna be , as a web designer , just a client list , quite honestly , or colleague list . So healthier email list , that's a biggie . And then I'm really excited personally to be able to engage all of you , cause I know a lot of you listening right now .

You may not be in one of my courses or you may not be in my membership program , web designer pro , yet , but I do still wanna engage with you and provide more value for you in a better way , even outside of just the podcast . So before I share with you what to expect , perfect plug to make sure you sign up for the newsletter .

If you have not yet signed up for it , you can go to joshallco slash weekly and that's where you can sign up for my newsletter here . If you're already on my list , you're already getting emails from me . Then you're gonna get automatically , so no need to sign up for it .

In fact , if you try to sign up for it , it should tell you hey , you're already signed up on the list , so go to joshallco slash weekly if you're a listener of the show but you are not yet on my email list , so you can get the first issue this Sunday talking about the 10 years to 10 , 150k article , and then we'll go from there . So what to expect ?

These primarily , at least for phase one of the newsletter . I'm gonna keep them pretty short and sweet . Some of that is , by nature , because I wanna just give you something , a good thought , something that's actionable that you can apply to your business , or something that really makes you think about making your business better in some way .

They're gonna be short and sweet and actionable to start . Some of that is also because I am producing a lot of content and I don't wanna burn myself out .

I don't wanna overwhelm myself and that's one reason I have been delaying for a while on doing the newsletter is because I'm very I learned this principle , this quote which is be very slow to start something consistent , meaning , if you're gonna commit to a podcast or a networking group or a newsletter or something that is going to require consistency for the long

term , don't just jump into a bunch of different things because you're likely gonna not do it .

How many times have you seen people start a podcast or a YouTube channel or a networking group that you're a part of and then they come for three or four weeks and they're done and you just know well , they're a dabbler or they're not serious about this , and that's fine . You don't .

You know there's a time and place for certain things , but if you are serious about something that's consistent , you need to make sure you are prepared for it . It was the same thing with this podcast . I delayed this podcast for a year . I originally was gonna come out with this in 2018 . I didn't bring it out until the fall of 2019 .

And that was because I just was not at a point where I could do it consistently and do it well , which is the same thing for the newsletter . I've been wanting to do a newsletter for like a year and a half but I was just like God , I'm already doing so much content and emails and I just don't know how I could do one more thing .

But I'm at a place where this makes really good sense to me for all the reasons I just mentioned as far as why a newsletter , weekly touch points , chance to hang out with you and be a little more personal , a healthy email list and be able to engage everyone as a whole .

So that's why I'm really excited about this and for you , I think it's gonna be really cool for you because it's a short , little , bite-sized thing that you can implement , often immediately . So that's what I'm really excited about . It's not gonna be like a huge blog post .

Sometimes I'll be referencing some content , but in most cases it'll just be a quick thought and , if you're anything like me , there's a power in brevity and there's a draw to brevity .

Now , and I'm a huge shocker long form content fan I love podcasts , I love blog posts , I love books , I love things like that , but I also don't like reels and quick , short social media content that disappears .

So I feel like this is kind of a different short form content avenue A nice little newsletter , weekly , short and sweet tip and give you a heads up on what was published recently and what's ahead . Like I'm gonna , on Sunday , when you read the issue , you'll get a feel for the next upcoming podcast episodes who's coming up ahead .

I'm also gonna share with you something cool that may be something cool that's going on right now in the business Also might be a tool that I'm using , or it might be some content that will help you out . I'm happy to share some nifty tools too .

I'm gonna , for a while probably , have a section every week that is a tool that I'm using or some of my students are using that it's really cool that you might consider helping your business , and then I'll probably share some student wins as well , just to show you what you can do with your web design business as a form of inspiration and some help for you

as you take every step forward in your web design journey . So that's a little bit about why I decided to launch , finally , a newsletter , which is Web Biz Weekly , and what to expect moving forward . Now . One question you might have is when are you gonna send these , josh ? Well , I'm gonna send them on Sundays and I'm gonna start sending them at 10 am .

So every Sunday at 10 am Eastern , you can expect me and your inbox with the recent issue . The reason I'm doing Sundays is I know there's a lot of people that say don't send on Sundays , don't send on weekends . Engagements are lower .

But for me personally , this is by nature , something that's a kind of a personal touch point every week and it's also a chance to say here's what was published this week , here's what's up ahead , and I don't want to do that on a Wednesday , I want to do that on the weekends .

But I also there's something about Sundays that I love in the way of you're not tied to your email inbox .

Well , aside from getting this newsletter terrible time to mention that , except for this newsletter , of course , but you know what I mean Like you're not in work mode , likely on most Sundays , so it's a time to be able to kind of break through the noise .

And actually I have a good friend , jay Klaus , who's the founder of Creator Science , and he sends his emails out every Sunday , probably around the same time , and I actually love getting those . I look forward to those , cause not only is Jay a friend of mine who is just killing it in the creator industry right now the creator economy .

But he also has really good thoughts and because I read those on Sundays , I'm not distracted by calls that are coming up on my schedule or to-do lists . Like Sunday is a day where I just enjoy being able to not only hang out with family and to have some time off , but also just to think about the week ahead .

Like Sunday , nights are actually some of my favorite times because it's like ooh , exciting week ahead , here's what I'm gonna work on .

So I think Sunday is a really cool day personally for me , hopefully to follow up with you and give you this little thought to think about for the week ahead , along with what was published , in case you wanna check it out , et cetera . So that's why I'm gonna start it on Sundays . Now , this is all subject to change , I should say too .

I was debating on whether or not to put weekly in the name , because if I do decide to scale back and go to monthly , I'm gonna have to change the name . But Web Biz Weekly just sounded cool and I had a bunch of different names .

I do have to think everyone inside a Web Designer Pro , because I published this in my community and I said help me name my newsletter .

And I gave a bunch of options I was thinking through and then , man , you guys gave me such good advice and actually some really good names that some of you had on your mind as well , and I was like , ooh , I like this one . Like I was gonna do Web Design Weekly , but that's already a newsletter that's already out there .

Web Designer Weekly was available but I felt like , even though that would be a good lead into Pro potentially , I just felt like I really wanted to make the emphasis on business as much as possible . So Web Biz Weekly was available and that's what we're rolling with for now . But , as you know , names can always change .

But the core of this is to help you in your Web Design business every week with a quick thought that you can implement and get you pumped for the week ahead . Because I want you to , I really do , I want you to enjoy your journey as a Web Designer and a business owner . That my hope is .

Every Sunday I'll be in your inbox with a little , a little ray of newsletter sunshine . Maybe that's what I should call it Web Design , the Web Design Ray , the Web Design Beam . All right , this is getting terrible . Thank God , I already named it , so that's a little bit of the process for naming . So there we are .

I'm really excited to be in your inbox every Sunday . Again , drop on the list . If you have not yet joined my email list , go to joshallco slash weekly to sign up . It is free and it'll just give you a quick tip every week to help you in your Web Design business . It's gonna be fun , gonna be short and sweet .

We're gonna have a good time and give me a chance to hear from you as well , because I want to hear from you . As I said earlier , I have really good control of my email . I'd rather be in my email than DMs and anywhere else , so I want you to feel comfortable with email me back .

If I send you something and you're like God , that was good , reply back to me . This is your open invitation to reply back to me . I do manage my email personally still , and I get those .

So if something hits you , good on this first issue , if you're , if you have thoughts about this corporate dream of 10 years to 10 or $150,000 , hit me back , reply back and I would love to hear from you personally . So there was your open invitation Again . Go to joshallco slash weekly to sign up for the newsletter .

If you're listening to this as it drops live , I will see you on Sunday . If you're listening to this after the first issue has come out , don't worry , you can still get on the newsletter . I may even be working on something for repurposing the older issue so you can still check out the backlog . So I'm working on that .

So don't be , don't listen to this and think , man , I really want to hear that issue but it's gone . Now I'm going to . I got something on my sleeve for you and that will be in the issues every week on how to get the backlog . All right , friends , joshallco slash weekly . I will see you Sunday for the first issue of web is weekly .

Make sure to subscribe because we have got some awesome interviews and episodes up ahead here . I really don't want you to miss them . Super important in web design right now . Some of the topics we're covering so sorry about the Yoda super important topics Covering guests Web is weekly .

Jotterco weekly Yoda would be terrible at domains , he'd be like weekly Joshco slash .