Hello to 1,238 newsletter creators!

This is Fatherpreneur, the newsletter about newsletters that's written by a dad with a mustache who's been writing newsletters for 10 years.

Today's issue will take 2 minutes to read. Clock starts now.

We all know that a successful newsletter creator relies on 3 main metrics.

1. Total subscriber count

2. Open rates

3. Clickthrough rates

As a newsletter creator, choose another newsletter (more if you have the bandwidth!) that you’ll open, read, and link click. Give the joyous gift of healthy newsletter metrics to your favorite creator. Pay it forward because it’s the right thing to do.

Sending Time Doesn’t Matter

At least not as much as you might think.

My newsletter last week was sent at 1:14pm ET (not scheduled in advance. I just smashed the send button when I was done writing).

The total open rate was 53.9% and the CTR was nearly 5%.

What's the takeaway?

1. If your audience wants to receive your content, they will engage when you publish.

2. People check their emails a lot more than we think they do.

Create great content, write a subject line + preview text that entices readers to open, then annihilate the “send” button.

Then of course check your newsletter stats 43,231 times per day.

I work at beehiiv and think beehiiv is the best place in the world to create your newsletter.

Now that that’s out of the way…

What in the world happened at Twitter?

On April 7, 2023 we rolled over in our beds in the morning and picked up our iPhones to check Twitter, like we do every morning.

To our surprise, it appeared Twitter had blocked all ability to like, RT, or reply to any tweet containing the word “Substack” as well as links to Substack accounts.

Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k on Twitter), who has over 2.1M followers, tried to test the theory and confirmed zero engagement on a Substack tweet, except the ability to QT.

Today, a quick google search confirms that Twitter is suppressing mentions of SS.

So what does this mean for the creator ecosystem?

I personally read and engage with creators on many different platforms. While beehiiv is my favorite platform for newsletters, I recognize that creators build meaningful content verticals on many different platforms.

At least for this reason, I think the feud between Twitter and Substack is damaging to the larger creator ecosystem. Aside from the fact that it’s objectively confusing for Twitter to flaunt idyllic free speech and then act oppositely to that philosophy, suppressing the creator economy by preventing platform cross-pollination for creators is ultimately a stumbling block for the entire creator economy, not just for users of Substack.

This statement from the SS founders is something I philosophically agree with.

At beehiiv, we are constantly building tools that give newsletter creators more autonomy and more control.

Newsletter creators should own their lists directly.

Newsletter creators should have autonomy to create, distribute, and grow as they see fit.

Moving on…

I’m so stuck in the deepest trenches where tech meets Twitter that I sometimes have to remind myself that life is short.

Last night was a great reminder of that.

I took my son out for dinner, just the two of us. Every time I blink he gets a little bigger and grows a little faster. Remember not to let the stresses of life cut you too deeply. Life is short. Let’s do everything we can do enjoy the little time we have here.