August 1, 2024

Can you explore deeper subjects on a daily list?

A few people have asked me about how deep you can really get into a subject if you’re sending emails every day.

They generally have two obvious concerns:

Overwhelming Effort—The longer the daily emails get, the longer they’ll take you to write them.
Overwhelming Readers—The longer the messages get, the less likely people are to read them and/or stay subscribed.

So...

Does daily email require that you stick to a shallow “tips and tricks” style of writing?

Nope!

Not at all.

Yes, I think it’s true that you and your readers will start to feel a burden if you try to send them a 2000-word email every day.

But!

Just because you’re pressing the SEND button every 24 hours doesn’t mean that you can’t dig deep into a subject.

Email is a serial format.

Think of it like a TV series...

Breaking Bad didn’t describe Walter White’s complete arc in one giant episode.

It took 62 episodes across five seasons to do this.

Was it, therefore, a shallow character exploration?

Uh, no. Not at all.

(If you haven’t watched the show, you can take my word for it.)

Here’s the thing...

Just because you’re publishing every day doesn’t mean that your overall point has to be made every day.

In fact...

There’s an art to leaving unanswered questions, using open loops, and crafting cliffhangers in a serial format that keeps people rushing back to their inbox day after day.

Yours,

—J