Imagine this: You open your inbox, and there sit a dozen new articles that you’d be thrilled to share to social media. Simple as that!
This is all possible thanks to the rise of high-quality, curated newsletters, a format that’s flourished over the past few years. Expert curators across a wide spectrum of topics are finding and sharing the best content they discover—perfect for you to read, Buffer, and share with your social media audience.
We’re big fans of newsletters here at Buffer. They’ve been a key part to finding content suggestions, as well as part of our idea workflow (and they’re pretty great just for fun, too!). I’m happy to share some of my favorite newsletters here in this post, and I’d love to hear yours as well! I’m always interested in new ones to check out.
For even more great content to share …
Newsletters are one of the many places we find inspiration for adding fresh articles to Buffer’s content suggestions. We’re happy to share our other sources with you as well. For more info, check out these blog posts.
Always Have an Amazing Link to Share:
17 Unique Places to Find Great Content
How to Start Your Own Expertly-Curated Newsletter
One of my favorite parts of curated newsletters is that anyone can start one!
What sets these newsletters apart from the rest is that all the content is hand-picked from a variety of sources by a real human person. There are some really great algorithm-based newsletters, too, as well as digest roundups from high-frequency blogs. (We’ve got one of those for the Buffer blog, if you might be interested!)
We’ve mentioned some of the algorithm-based newsletters and blog digests in the posts linked above. The newsletters you see below are all a one-man or one-woman show! And here’s a quick overview on how you might start one yourself.
Step One: Curate content
At a super high level, curating content requires reading lots of stories and locating the best, most relevant ones. In most cases, this means reading tons—both a high volume of stories and from a wide selection of sources. It means being vigilant about the content you choose so that it fits the focus of your newsletter or audience.
And the great part: It gets easier as you go. You’ll learn where to look for inspiration, and you’ll have many go-to sources for new and fresh stories that you can pull from in a pinch.
Step Two: Organize it with a helpful tool
As curated newsletters have risen, so too have the tools built specifically to help—tools like Goodbits and Curated. You can also save the links you find with a tool like Point, or you can toss them all into a spreadsheet as well.
Step Three: Grow a newsletter list and hit send
Email services like TinyLetter give you a chance to both send your newsletter and host a home page for new signups. You can share signup links and archive links directly on social media this way.
Also, if you’re working through a larger website, you can use an email service like MailChimp or Aweber to manager your list and send your newsletters. Many website services like Rainmaker and Sumo Me have built-in list-building features as well.
20 of the Best Newsletters
1. NextDraft
The 10 most fascinating items of the day, selected by Dave Pell after browsing 75 news sites each morning. Sent every weekday.
2. NY Times: What We’re Reading
Recommended stories from around the web, hand-picked by New York Times reporters and editors. Sent twice a week.
3. MediaREDEF
A curated mix of media, technology, and popular culture articles and videos, curated by Jason Hirschhorn of Media Redefined. Sent every weekday.
4. Brain Food – Farnam Street Weekly
A weekly digest from Farnam Street’s Shane Parrish, sharing his latest articles, the books he’s reading, and a large list of interesting reads around the Internet. Topics typically include philosophy, psychology, and human behavior. Sent every Sunday.
5. The Ed’s Up
A once-a-week collection from science writer Ed Yong, featuring his latest writing and the best stuff he’s read online.
6. Ann Friedman Weekly
A set of featured stories and assorted links, coupled with a fun GIF and product recommendations, all curated by journalist Ann Friedman. Sent every Friday.
7. Further
A newsletter full of articles on how to live a better life. Sections include health, wealth, and wisdom, and the stories are picked by Copyblogger’s Brian Clark. Sent every Monday.
8. The Skimm
A daily email filled with links on top stories, interesting reads, and current events. Curated by a pair of former news producers.
9. SaaS Weekly
The week’s two or three best stories about business, product, marketing, sales, and growth, plus a helpful tip on startup marketing. Curated by startup founder/advisor Hiten Shah (he’s been so helpful in advising the team here at Buffer, too!). Sent once each week.
10. Austin Kleon newsletter
The most interesting links that author Austin Kleon finds every week, along with new art and writing.
11. 5 Intriguing Things
Links to five intriguing articles science, engineering, the Internet, wearables, and a whole lot more, hand-picked by journalist Alexis Madrigal. Sent every weekday.
12. Smashing Magazine
The best articles and resources for designers and developers, chosen by the staff of Smashing Magazine. Sent three times per month.
13. EWebDesign
A collection of news, articles, tutorials, and tips all about web design and development, picked out by the team at EWebDesign. Sent weekly.
14. This.
A new content app where users share one (and only one) favorite story each day. Founder Andrew Golis of The Atlantic curates all the links being shared into a daily newsletter with the best five stories from the day.
15. Casual Spectator
A sports newsletter for casual sports fans looking to keep up on the latest and greatest news and stories. Sent twice each week.
16. Charged
A look at what’s going on in tech—the best reads and the latest on new and cool startups. Curated by Owen Williams, editor of The Next Web. Sent every weekend.
17. Mattermark
A newsletter for entrepreneurs, investors, and those interested in startups. Stories are hand-picked by the Mattermark team and sent daily.
18. Remotive
A weekly email for remote workers, filled with stories and inspiration about productivity, distributed teams, and remote work. Built and sent by Buffer’s Rodolphe Dutel.
19. UX Design Weekly
A list of the best user experience design links of the week, compiled by Kenny Chen. Sent every Friday.
20. The Daily Water Cooler
A curated collection of links on current events, business, sports, politics, culture, and the latest viral content. Compiled by Phil Nguyen. Sent every weekday.
Bonus tip: Roll all your subscriptions into a single email
If you’re interested in subscribing to a handful of these—or if you’re just into cleaning up your inbox a bit—you can roll your subscriptions into a single email using Unroll.me. The free service lets you condense your newsletters into one daily digest, and you can unsubscribe from email, too.
Which newsletters are your favorites?
I hope I’ve hit on a few of your favorites in the list here, as well as given you some good ideas on possible new ones to grab!
This post originally appeared on Buffer
The post The Rise of the Curated Newsletter: 20 of the Best Newsletters Full of Good Links to Share appeared first on iBlog magazine.