Your master menu is your plan to keep your readers well fed with great content. It’s also a great strategy for keeping writer’s block at bay without using an editorial calendar (which you might find overly constrictive). It’s the approach used in cafeterias far and wide, and it’s just as valuable an approach for your newsletter.

Working through this redesign has given my confidence a huge shot in the arm. I’ve realized that some of those voices of self-doubt that like to keep me awake at night are nothing more than a habit. By doing your newsletter your way, on your terms, you’ll find your publishing (and business-helming) confidence increasing too.

Ultimately, it’s not about listening to (or reading) what the experts have to say about what does and doesn’t work. What’s going to get you the results you crave is getting in there, experimenting, making a huge mess, and sorting it all out later. Let YOU shine through your newsletter, set your newsletter apart from all the rest, and go about the business of what makes you great at what you do.

The wonderful thing about WordPress, or any CMS, is that you can easily change the entire site’s layout by simply changing the master template files. Compare that to a static HTML site, where any layout changes would need to be applied to each page individually and you can see how using a CMS saves a lot of time in the long run.

How can a happy reader be a bad reader? Because happy readers are content. They like the status quo. They’re happy.

This can be problematic in several ways for newsletter publishers. The first is that getting those emails from happy readers can be very enticing. You may not want to stray outside of your comfort zone for fear of not getting those emails.

But, just because a handful of your readers vocally *like* your newsletter, that doesn’t mean that you’re providing what’s *best* for your readers. Plus, when your readers are “happy,” they’re not motivated to buy, they’re not looking for a new solution to a problem, and, basically, they don’t need you beyond your regular newsletter issue.

There are many marketing experts who argue that since sending an email newsletter is practically free (per subscriber), you might as well collect as many names as possible.

They argue against asking for anything on your subscribe form beyond an email address. And it’s true that the way to convert the most website visitors to subscribers is to ask for as little as possible.

But, does this approach really serve your audience?