What's with this daily newsletter thing? I got three of them now and they mostly contain duplicate info. Even if every newsletter would contain completely new information, I wouldn't want to receive them on a daily basis.
What's the reasoning behind this and what do the rest of you think about this?
First off, thanks for actually noticing. Honestly we have a couple reasons but the biggest thing is that we have been bad and are on a path to recovery.. we want to get a regular newsletter out and start building it up with useful information. We haven't pushed or promoted this change to see how things go but here's our biggest reasons:
1. While we need income to sustain the site, renting out our mailing list out makes us feel cheap and dirty.. It's like stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family. You do it because you feel like you have to, not because you necessarily want to. if we fill all the slots with our own list we can just embed partner advertising in our mailing list and the reader gets up to date content along with the embedded ad. That way we can support the site while still supporting our members.. it's a win-win.
2. We need to send more frequently than once a week because of the number of articles we are posting, but for right now we need to tweak what goes into the mailing list a bit more to add in more "fresh" stuff. Today, for example, we posted three new articles.. which would be half of the new article slots. I want authors to get as much feedback and exposure for their articles as I can get them.
3. The open rate is typically about 3% (meaning 3 out of 100 people even click to view the email), so most people will fail to read even a weekly email anyway
From what I can see from doing it three days so far I would agree there is duplication.. if I might change your thread a bit, I would ask a different question:
What would you want to see in a newsletter from us?
I haven't received any newsletters (thankfully - I don't read newsletters). If the site is hurting for revenue, why haven't you put an ad here, which I suggested last month?
Newsletters are opt-in, right?
Yes, newsletters are opt-in. Unfortunately a banner ad there wouldn't really pay all that much anymore unless we can sell them directly.. plus there is a box ad already on that page. Doubling up is usually frowned upon.
What I would really like to address though is that if there are problems with the newsletter, what we can do to improve on the daily format. Like I said, it's new for us but we want to make something awesome rather than throw it away right out of the gate if it isn't good enough yet.
I also agree that a daily newsletter is too much. I think weekly would work better. And it doesn't need to contain absolutely everything that was posted that week, but stuff like, for instance, the top 5 rated articles this week, the top 3 "hot" forum threads, and so on, kind of like it's doing right now. So I think the format as it is now is a good starting point to iterate on, but daily is too often. Many people will quickly get tired of receiving this information daily especially if they visit the site often, and will eventually opt out 
Actually, this is a good point, the newsletter is targeted more at less active users that don't visit GDNet as much, right? So I think their feedback would be important too.
Okay, so the question I need to solve is *why* a daily newsletter is too much I guess. If it's not enough changing content then that can be fixed. With mobile devices I find them an easy way to browse what's new without actually having to revisit the site unless I see something interesting. But there definitely is a huge precedent for dailies already from thousands of other sites.
We *need* to reach out to those who aren't daily visitors, but that doesn't mean we can't improve on the daily format altogether.
Here is a newsletter rendering btw:
I visit Gamedev on almost a daily basis, but sometimes I'll miss a few days and that's why I'd like a short recap of the important things I've missed. The daily newsletter clutters my inbox.
I don't think the people who visit this website regularly are waiting for daily newsletters, because there's not much added value. For non-regular visitors, I think it's best if you get their attention by hitting them with your good stuff, not the day to day things(no offence to anyone
).
I know from first hand experience that increasing the newsletter rate can really hurt your open and click-through rate, so keep an eye on that.
I think starting next week I may alter the rate.. perhaps not daily.. but also not weekly either. Maybe on Tuesday / Thursdays so the content can pile up a little more.
