One email a week - something from which I hope you'll get real value. We talk about things we can build, and how to defend them. That can apply to cybersecurity, physical buildings, digital products, and .... just about anything. It gives me a lot of latitude in what I can write about, but the two concepts are important for progress - as individuals, and as society.
Today's topic is: your newsletter!
This is my 26th newsletter .... like many good "shows" it's time for a recap episode!
So I've been writing this newsletter now for six months! That's amazing to me. When I started, I wasn't sure I'd do it every week, and while they due date seems to be Fridays now instead of Wednesdays (I will try to get back to that) I've done it now weekly 26 times. That's half a year! It was originally an AI's suggestion that I do this, and I didn't think it would work to be honest, but I've found it to be worthwhile. If nothing else, it forces me to sit and write once a week, about that things I find interesting!
I'm using beehiiv to do this, but I write it first in Evernote. That way I have two copies (I'm nothing if not obsessed with resilience - or building and defending 😉) and I can write in Evernote and then copy & paste into beehiiv. So what have we talked about so far? (Past newsletters can be found here: https://newsletter.builddefend.fyi/)
Week 1 | Mining Bitcoin in 2011 | Week 14 | Email & Email Resilience |
Week 2 | Building & Defending Yourself | Week 15 | Backups |
Week 3 | Passive Income | Week 16 | Permission Surfaces |
Week 4 | Your New Way of Working (AI) | Week 17 | Hermes AI Agents |
Week 5 | Your Reputation | Week 18 | Workflows |
Week 6 | Marketing What You Build | Week 19 | Piracy, er, Privacy |
Week 7 | Your WIFE | Week 20 | Your First AI Employee |
Week 8 | Just About Anything (AI) | Week 21 | Subscription Audits |
Week 9 | Your SELF | Week 22 | RSS Feeds |
Week 10 | Building an AI Agent (OpenClaw) | Week 23 | Building Your Own VPN |
Week 11 | Building Software Using Claude | Week 24 | x402 & Getting Paid for Your Data |
Week 12 | Making Your AI Local | Week 25 | Being Difficult to Pressure |
Week 13 | Building Software (Again) | Week 26 | Your Newsletter |
So what does it take to build a newsletter?
Well, these days, very little. The trick is to want to do it (so you need to find a topic that will interest you), and to get other people to want to read it. That latter part is MUCH more difficult to do because you're competing with so many other things for other peoples' attention. For this newsletter so far, it seems that AI is the most popular topic, which makes sense. I started playing with it early on, and I was able to impart (what is hopefully) wisdom as to how others could start their journeys. My desire for the newsletter though is to also impart knowledge on how people can be resilient in their every day lives, and while AI will play a part in that,. it's obviously a much bigger topic.
Once you start building a newsletter, some things start to occur (or at least they did for me).
First, you have to think about a topic every week. While it doesn't have to be the case (if you select a niche the topics are slightly easier) it's something that you think about in the back of your mind over time because you (presumably) are writing not just for yourself but hopefully for others.
Second, you start to think about existing subscribers, and how to get more. As I'm on twenty-five subscribers so far (only one unsubscribe!), I think about how I can provide good value to the people who are already reading but also provide enough value that others will want to read as well.
Third, you think about how you can get the word out. What's the best way to do that? I get a lot of traffic directly, which means word of mouth, but the rest of it has come from LinkedIn. It's a decent platform for doing newsletter announcements, but obviously it also has its downsides. I've not gotten a lot of traffic from X that I can see, but I will also occasionally post there, too.
Fourth, you think about monetisation. I don't do this for money, but it is something that could be possible in the future. Beehiiv actually provides me with potential ads to put in the newsletter, but I've specifically chosen not to do that at the moment. I might do it in the future, but right now my focus is on providing useful information to as many people as possible.
💰 STACK: Topics
Some topics I'm hoping to cover in future newsletters: I hope to cover more of your WIFE in future newsletters - more practical information on how to take care of Water, Internet, Food, and Energy.
I will be talking more about how to create with Claude Code, and possibly look at the difference between it and Codex from OpenAI. I'll show you how to set that up in your terminal so that you can work from anywhere, and how to set up your terminal so that it's not just some mysterious thing in your utilities folder.. I'll also cover how you can replace some of the services that you use with things you can make yourself.
I'll probably talk more aboutexamining hardware choices that people can make with respect to keeping their AI local.
I'll hopefully cover 3D Printing as well, and what you can do with a good printer at home.
Feel free to suggest topics as well! [email protected].
🔗 LINKS
Beehiiv
www.beehiiv.com
Build & Defend Archive
newsletter.builddefend.fyi
Evernote
www.evernote.com
OpenClaw
www.openclaw.com
Hermes Agents
hermes-agent.nousresearch.com
Claude
www.claude.ai
Resilience
resilience.anl.gov
💬 ONE THING
If you want to start a newsletter (or any project for that matter) simply start! I know that's rather tautological, but it really is kinda simple. Nike picked "Just do it!" for their slogan for a reason. If you need help with something, ask!
Thanks for reading this newsletter! Feel free to respond any time.
Thomas
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