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Step 1 · Choose a mail provider and get the compliance straight
A domestic sending service or one abroad; double opt-in is the floor
The first decision for a newsletter is the sending channel, because sending to a domestic audience and sending abroad follow different rules entirely.
Provider comparison:
- Cloud SES-style services: the default if you send domestically. Real-name verification plus a verified sending domain; inbox placement is stable
- Mailchimp / Substack: a better experience abroad, but delivery can be unreliable for recipients in some regions — fine if your audience is English-speaking
- Self-hosted (Postfix plus a mail API): full control, heavy maintenance. Don't start here
Compliance red lines:
- Double opt-in is mandatory: after someone submits an address, send a confirmation email, and only a click on that confirmation counts as a subscription. Anything else is spam
- Every email needs an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing must take effect in one click
- Configure SPF and DKIM for the sending domain, or you go straight to the spam folder
Don't buy lists and blast them. Best case you land in spam; worst case your domain is blacklisted and never recovers.
Checklist
- One provider chosen and an account created
- You understand the double opt-in flow
- You know SPF and DKIM need configuring
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Step 2 · Landing page + subscribe form
A page where someone can leave an address, with an embedded or hand-written form
Subscriptions need an entrance — a landing page where people can leave an email address.
Page structure (the simpler the better):
- One headline saying what they get. Not "subscribe to my newsletter" but "one email a week: practical notes on X"
- One subhead
- One email input plus a subscribe button
- A privacy promise: "no spam, unsubscribe any time"
How to wire the form:
- Embed the provider's form — least work, copy a snippet
- Or write your own HTML form posting to the provider's API or webhook
- After submitting, send people to a "check your inbox" page
The landing page itself is static: host it as a subdirectory of your blog (
/subscribe) or on its own domain.Checklist
- The landing page opens and the form accepts input
- Submitting produces a confirmation email
- Confirming completes the subscription
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Step 3 · Automate the content (RSS-to-email)
Your blog's RSS becomes email, sent on a schedule
Once you have subscribers you can't send every issue by hand. Let the content flow automatically.
The least-work pattern is RSS-to-email: your blog has a feed (
/index.xml), so use the provider's "RSS campaign" feature — set it to read the latest posts every Monday, lay them out as an email and send. You write the blog; the email sends itself.For more control, use an automation platform, or a small script that calls the mail API on a schedule and assembles the latest content into your template.
Cadence: pick a fixed rhythm — weekly or fortnightly — and don't send three mails in a day. Readers want a reliable, valuable letter, not an inbox bombardment.
Once automation works, you wake up and the email has already gone out. That's the whole appeal of a newsletter.
Checklist
- A scheduled send is configured
- A test subscriber receives the automated email
- The email contains the latest posts
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Step 4 · Deliverability: stay out of the spam folder
SPF / DKIM / DMARC + domain warm-up + content traps
Sent is not the same as delivered. Deliverability is the lifeblood of a newsletter.
The three you must configure:
- SPF: a TXT record declaring which servers may send on your behalf
- DKIM: the provider gives you a key pair; the public key goes into DNS and outgoing mail gets signed
- DMARC: another TXT record telling receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF or DKIM
Warm up the sending domain: don't blast thousands of mails on day one. Start at a few dozen a day for the first two weeks and ramp up, so mailbox providers learn who you are.
Content traps: not all images, not a wall of links, and no trigger words like "free" or "earn". Plain text with a couple of links is the safest shape.
Moving deliverability from 60% to 95% multiplies the value of your list several times over.
Checklist
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are configured
- The sending domain has been warmed up
- A test email lands in the inbox, not in spam
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Step 5 · Growth + monetisation + long-term operation
Funnel traffic in, honour unsubscribes, monetise the list
Last step: grow the list and make it earn.
Growth hooks:
- Put a subscribe entry on every page of your blog, image host or aggregator, and route existing traffic into the list
- Offer a subscribe incentive — a one-page cheat sheet, say — to lift conversion
- Tease "exclusive by email" content on social to pull people across
Monetisation:
- Occasionally recommend cloud servers or AI tools through affiliate links (the reader profile overlaps heavily)
- Promote your own products or paid content
- Take sponsorships that fit your tone. Don't force them
Compliance to close: unsubscribing works in one click and stops mail immediately; prune invalid addresses regularly to protect deliverability.
A newsletter is an owned audience — when a platform's algorithm changes, your subscribers are still yours. That's the most valuable thing about it.
Checklist
- Subscribe entries are embedded across several pages
- There is a clear unsubscribe flow
- At least one monetisation path is planned