artist newsletters - what do you use?
after discussing the dismal state of social media with other artist friends for the nth time, i’m finally seriously considering making a newsletter - even if it’s just so that folks can sign up to be notified when i’m doing a shop update! i highly doubt i’d send anything out with any regularity but i’d love to be able to reach people when i do have something to share (& not have to rely on an algorithm, ugh)
are there free (or very cheap) newsletter services anyone would recommend for this? i worked a job years ago where i was responsible for a newsletter & we used MailChimp, but that’s all the experience i have. mostly looking to hear from other artists but anyone who uses a service they like is welcome to chime in, thanks!
thank you everyone for the recommendations! thought i’d make a little write-up for folks who are interested based on what i found when i dug into these.
newsletter services with “free” plans tend to charge monthly after a certain number of subscribers / certain number of emails sent, with the exception of Substack (which is unlimited & only takes money from you if you’re taking money from subscribers). of course there are usually more features for paying accounts, but here’s the lowdown as of right now for some of what’s free:
ConvertKit - 10K contacts, unlimited emails
Beehiiv - 2.5K contacts, unlimited emails
MailChimp - 500 contacts, 1000 emails/month, daily limit of 500
Buttondown - 100 contacts, ?? email limits (multiple people recommended this one so it must be good, if small - or folks are paying for it, it has lots of features)
all that said, my searching turned up the fact that there’s a Wordpress newsletter plugin that’s free that i can run through my website (which does not appear to have any limits!), so i’m gonna go with that!