Newsletter ·SaaS ·Friendly
Get the reader to read to the end. The click is a side effect, not the point.
Write a monthly plain-text founder letter about [PRODUCT], in first person, signed by [SENDER]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes, no section dividers.
Three beats in this order: [WHAT SHIPPED], then [WHAT BROKE], then [WHAT IS NEXT].
Rules:
- 200 to 280 words total. Three or four paragraphs. Let them get shorter as the letter goes on.
- Open on the substance. No greeting about the month, no "hope you are well", no throat-clearing.
- The shipped paragraph explains why it matters to the reader, not what the feature is called.
- The broke paragraph is the one that earns the next open. Say what went wrong plainly, without apology theatre and without making it a lesson.
- The next paragraph is one sentence. Do not promise a date I did not give you.
- At most one link, written inside a sentence. This letter is read, not clicked. Do not add a postscript full of links.
- No headers, no bullet lists, no bold. This is a letter.
- Never invent a number, statistic, growth figure or customer count. If a number belongs, leave [XX] and I will fill it in.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 45 characters that names the month's actual subject rather than "[PRODUCT] monthly update". Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.
Newsletter ·Local service ·Friendly
Stay in the inbox as a useful sender, so the next offer email gets opened.
Write a plain-text monthly note from [SENDER] at [BUSINESS] to the customer list. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
Nothing is being sold in this email.
Rules:
- 150 to 220 words. Plain language, the way you would explain something to a customer standing in front of you.
- Lead with [THE USEFUL THING] and give it most of the email. Something a customer can act on without hiring anyone — the seasonal check, the common mistake, the thing people always ask.
- Cover [WHAT IS HAPPENING] in one short paragraph, at the end. Hours, a new person, a busy month. If there is nothing, leave it out rather than padding it.
- No offer, no discount, no booking push. One quiet line saying how to get in touch is enough, and it belongs last.
- Do not write a preamble about the month or the weather. Start on the useful thing.
- Never invent a number, statistic, saving or rating. Where a figure belongs and I have not supplied it, leave [XX].
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 45 characters naming the useful thing. Never the business name plus "newsletter". Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.
Newsletter ·Creator ·Friendly
Give the reader one idea they keep, whether or not they click anything.
Write a plain-text weekly roundup newsletter from [SENDER] on [THE THEME], using [THE PICKS]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes, no horizontal rules.
The reader should get something out of this even if they click nothing.
Rules:
- 250 to 350 words.
- Open with [THE ARGUMENT] — what I actually think about the theme — in two or three sentences. Do not open with "this week I have been reading". The opinion is the issue; the links are evidence for it.
- Give each pick one or two sentences saying why it is here and what it changed. Never write a description of what the piece is about. The reader can get that from the title.
- Order the picks so they build the argument, strongest last.
- Links go inline, inside the sentence, on the words that describe the thing. Do not write bare URLs and do not write "read more here".
- Close in one line. No summary, no housekeeping, no promotion of my own work.
- Never invent a number, statistic, subscriber count or claim about how something performed. Where a figure belongs and I have not supplied it, leave [XX].
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 45 characters that names the argument rather than the format. Never "Issue [XX]" and never "Weekly roundup". Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.