The Easy Way to Start a Curated Newsletter

Almost weekly, I’ll get someone replying to one of The Hungry newsletters, admitting that they would love to start their email newsletter but don’t think they’d have enough to write about each week as I do.

First, I tell them that they do not have to publish weekly if they don’t believe they have the inspiration that often. Posting every other week or even once a month is excellent (although I wouldn’t go further than that). Do what makes the most sense to you and your work.

Second, I would tell them that when I first started The Hungry, I cheated.

Initially, I didn’t write much content but used curated links as the basis for the newsletter. I took this idea from Austin Kleon, Tim Ferriss, and Jason Kottke.

Curation Costs Nothing But Time

Curated newsletters are great because they add value in multiple ways.

• You’re spreading news and awareness to other stories and individuals who, if they see it, will appreciate the push.

• Serving a niche creates a level of solidarity, and you could become the resource for that.

• It’s an excellent way for people to share and recommend you to their peers.

• As you grow, you will have many opportunities for collaborations, sponsorships, and affiliate partnerships.

The Easiest Way To Find Content

The most challenging part of publishing a curated newsletter is the time it takes to track down links. The more niche you are, the more difficult this gets because you have fewer resources to pull from, but there are two hacks I use that can help you.

Curate from the Curated

I used to spend several hours each week tracking down links, but not anymore because I found other newsletters adjacent to The Hungry that often share notable content most Hungry readers don’t see. One of my go-to newsletters for this is TLDR.

Instead of clogging up my email inbox, I use filters in Gmail to collect the emails into a folder until I’m ready to sift through them for good stories.

Google Knows Everyone

One of the best things Google ever created is Alerts, which allow users to be notified anytime Google’s search engine indexes a specific word or phrase. I’ve used this service for years to get notified of any mentions of me or my company.

Unfortunately, I don’t have one for The Hungry because it’s too generic of a phrase and would generate an ungodly amount of links, but I do have one for TheHungry.art, which hasn’t brought back a lot of results, but as I grow, that should change.

For the newsletter, I have alerts for phrases like creative entrepreneur, art business, design business, creative business, Etsy seller, Shopify, Print-on-Demand, and others.

Setting an alert is as simple as logging in with your Googe account and typing in your query. Once you hit enter, you’re ready to start getting notifications, and you’ll likely begin to get them within 24 to 48 hours. If the email notifications start coming a bit too fast and furious, you can adjust the alert settings by clicking the pencil (✏️) icon on the right side of the alert.

The settings will look something like this:

The two settings I usually adjust are the frequency and the sources, but you can get hyper-detailed with them to ensure you’re niching down enough for your interests.

Curation Still Requires Creation

One thing I see a lot of curated newsletters get wrong (in my opinion) is copying the original headlines and then just pasting a link on top. There is nothing remarkable or creative about that, and it lacks any sense of style or personality.

Instead, write a one to three-sentence blurb about the link. Be funny, clever, thought-provoking, or relate it to your life experience. If you've read The Hungry, then you’ve seen my approach. All three newsletters I mentioned above have a similar approach, each with its personality and depth.

Finally, curating is a learned skill. Don’t be afraid to reach outside your content parameters at first to get the hang of the process. Like you, your readers are not one-dimensional, and if there is a link that doesn’t directly apply to your niche but you feel like sharing it anyway, there’s a chance your readers will appreciate it, too.