What I wish I knew 250 days ago

_{Day 250/100}

Hey—It's Tim. 

Today's day 250 of writing daily emails.

That's 250 days in a row. No skips. No "I'll just post twice tomorrow."

The first 100 was fun. The second 100 was painful. The last 50 have been okay again.

I want the next 100 to be my best work.

Here's what I wish I could tell me on day 1:

Lesson 1: Run your analytics way earlier

Don't wait 200+ days to figure out what's working.

Get your numbers in the first 50 days.

Build your 70/20/10 before you burn out guessing. I lost six months writing emails I thought people wanted instead of emails the data said they opened.

Lesson 2: Write buffer emails now

Life happens.
Shit hits every fan in the room.

Have 3-5 emails already written that you can just send. I don't do this anywhere near enough and it's cost me sleep, sanity, and one very panicked 6am writing session at an airport.

Lesson 3: "I said I would" is enough

Remember who you're doing this for. The reason of "I said I would" is more than enough to keep going. You don't need a business case or a growth chart to justify showing up.

Commitment is the entire strategy.

Lesson 4: Unsubscribes are actually great

You don't want to read my emails? Good. I don't want to write for you. You're actually doing me a favour. Every unsubscribe tightens the audience and makes the next email easier to write.

The biggest open rate increase I ever got was from cutting 500 people from the list.

Lesson 5: Get better at lead magnets ASAP

I'm still learning this one. But the emails that convert aren't the clever ones - they're the ones with a thing people can download, copy, or use right now. Templates. Checklists. Calculators. Build the attachment first, write the email second.

Doubly so for building the list in the first place. I’m sitting at a pretty stagnant growth rate because I haven’t done any list building in far too long.

It should be as much of a priority as the actual sending.

The goal is 15% of my total audience as a newsletter subscribers. And god knows I’m not near that number…

Lesson 6: You'll make nearly 6 figures from this

You should have started 5 years ago. But since you didn't, start today. Because in 250 days you'll wish you'd started now.

That's it.

Six things that would've saved me months of overthinking, burnout, and writing emails I can't even remember sending.

If you're thinking about starting a daily newsletter: just start.

If you're 10 days in and wondering if it's worth it: it is.

If you're 100 days in and feeling burnt out: you're in the worst part. Keep going.

250 days later, I can't imagine not doing this.

See you tomorrow for day 251.

✌️ Tim "Should have started in 2020" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. Writing about what I learned on day 250 made me realize I still don't know what I'm doing. I just know I'm not stopping.

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