There’s a lot to love about newsletters; they’re a wonderful, rewarding, rich way to build relationships, connect with readers, and make sales. And I’ve been spending more time than usual thinking up all my favorite things to love .

Here’s my list of the top five things I most love about newsletters. I’d love to hear your own list, too!

1. Newsletters let you be yourself. When you’re marketing your business, there can be a lot of pressure to be one way or another. And, even if you’re not completely comfortable breaking free from that mold in other forms of marketing, you can in a newsletter. Because a newsletter is just an email (or letter) from you to one reader–so, being yourself is actually the only “right” way to be.

2. Newsletters reward persistence. Depending on your personality, you might not think this is such a wonderful quality, but I happen to love it. See, I tend towards the stubborn, so a newsletter’s a great fit for me–I am determined to keep publishing forever and ever . Admittedly, some weeks, the only thing that *keeps* me publishing is that stubbornness.

3. Curiosity connects. Back in January, I mentioned that I’d taken up knitting and heard from a handful of avid knitters on my list. I love that I can share a new hobby (even if I’m still doing it very badly) and hear back from people, in this case, from all over the world who generously share their experiences with me.

4. Readers make great educators. Just from publishing this newsletter, I’ve learned things I never would have known, met people from all around the world, and gotten glimpses into new technologies, terminologies, cultures, hobbies, and so much more that I probably wouldn’t have stumbled upon alone. My readers (that’s you ) are so generous with their time and knowledge, and they’re nearly always very, very kind when pointing out where I’m uninformed .

5. It’s a great forum for experimentation. Coming up in the next few weeks, you’ll see more about this–but, suffice to say that newsletters are a great place to try out new products, explore changes to your writing voice, and strike a new course. Sure, trying something new isn’t not-scary in a newsletter, but it’s do-able in a way larger experiments might not be.

Of course, that’s not nearly everything I love about newsletters, and this newsletter in particular, but it’s my top five. I’d love to hear what you most love about publishing–feel free to respond!