The best things in life don’t scale. I wrote this past week about how the same is true in marketing. I’ve come up with a list of examples since writing that post, but I’d love to hear yours. Feel free to respond and I&| CJ Chilvers
I get questions from marketers all the time about what to do as more and more of their work is eaten by AI. They see their clients happy with AI content, even if conversion rates and sales go way down. Why? The amount of cost-cutting involved is so massive, the| CJ Chilvers
According to long-time content strategist (and 2025’s YouTube viral breakout) Pat Flynn, SEO is dead. According to newsletter guru Matt McGarry, ad-based newsletters are dead. So, what’s alive? If you’re an AI company, it’s the lowly blog. According to NP Digital, blog posts are the #1| CJ Chilvers
I went on the Day One podcast to talk about my daily journaling habit. I've been journaling every day since 2010, and in Day One since...day one of the app, I think. Every Single Day: C.J. Chilvers on Journaling as Reflection and MeditationC.J. Chilvers has journaled every| CJ Chilvers
Is this true for you? I keep getting emails from newsletters asking me if I’m still around. Maybe it’s because I use Apple products, which emphasize privacy, and mask a lot of opens and clicks that newsletters (still?!) use to determine engagement, as if we were living in| CJ Chilvers
We don’t deserve dogs. So, I got a new puppy. I figure the lack of sleep and constant cleanups will eventually get me close enough to deserving this dog. This past week I wrote about how the rest of the newsletter world is waking up to the fact that| CJ Chilvers
Matt McGarry just posted about what he’s calling Newsletters 3.0. “If you’re running a ‘newsletter business’ the way most people do, you’re doomed to fail.” His post could be mistaken for a summary of the topics in my book| CJ Chilvers
There’s been a flood of great “create for the fun of it” content in recent weeks, that I desperately wanted to link to — but I feared I’d be repeating my message a little too much. Then, I saw a video pop up on YouTube that said the same| CJ Chilvers
Since the last post, I spent a week in Mexico (above). I learned two things: All I ever need from a “break” is time away from urgency. We rarely get that, even on a vacation. When I did get a real break, I thought about how I could| CJ Chilvers
I got this question from a reader recently: “Have you written about how a blog and a newsletter could interact together? Two problems: 1. We’ve monetized each newsletter. Can I monetize the blog? 2. Can I train my audience to visit a ... blog (?) ... every day?” I moved my blog| CJ Chilvers
According to research by Neil Patel, 59.2% of traffic to blogs is driven by SEO. It’s the biggest single driver of traffic by far. He also reports that your SEO decreases over time, if you’ve published a lot of posts that no longer get the traffic they| CJ Chilvers
The Criterion Collection just put out their 4K edition of No Country for Old Men, which includes a new interview with the Coen brothers. The Coen brothers made two of my favorite films of all time: The Big Lebowski (a film about life trying — and failing — to change an oblivious| CJ Chilvers
The new year is almost upon us, which means we’re about to enter advice season. Yay! My only advice for surviving advice season is to add the following caveats to everything you’re told: * If it’s about AI, add: “…for now.” or “…yet.” * If it’s about productivity,| CJ Chilvers
Cold can be beautiful. But this week we’re talking about warming things up. I wrote about the encouraging trend of newsletters getting more personal.I admit, I thought this would start happening a few years ago, but let’s just be glad it’s happening at| CJ Chilvers
A lot of my advice, especially to small businesses, involves getting more personal in their email newsletters. It remains a struggle to convince some businesses to include real names (not just the brand name), be a little less perfectionist in their designs, and write like a real human. The more| CJ Chilvers
It's about money, of course. Google may have a problem with us. A few weeks ago, Google had a big leak. While details are still lacking, it seems like there’s a bias against personal sites when it comes to search results. From Mike King: “Google may be torching small| CJ Chilvers
I went to The Newsletter Conference last week in New York City. Some have posted notes from the event and Dan Oshinsky has even posted the text of his keynote. The first thing I learned was that Dan has been crowned “The Oprah of Newsletters.” I endorse. As one of| CJ Chilvers