I’ve updated the look of my email newsletters! My newsletters up until now were hacked together using a combination of PHP, RSS feeds, and a lot of shoehorning. They didn’t look bad all things considered, but some of the automation wasn’t working well enough for me.
If you’re receiving this via email you’re already subscribed. If you’re not, you can sign up for the “digest” version that sends out an email every time I upload a new video, or the “weekly” version that comes out on Sunday mornings.
So this weekend I embarked on a project using my new favorite self hosted app, N8N. I can now take the process from a bunch of RSS feeds and turn it into a really nice looking newsletter with minimal intervention. I had ChatGPT design me a template based on my logo – I think it did a great job!
The output goes right into my self-hosted email blaster Sendy (compensated affiliate link). All I need to do from here on out is click on the send button in Sendy to get my emails out. It could actually send it automatically but I like to take a look for safety purposes. Sendy is great because it outputs email via Amazon SES saving me hundreds of dollars a year.
I did a video a few years ago about how self-hosted content process. It was largely unchanged up until now so I’ll probably do an update soon. N8N is a super cool platform once you figure it out.
Let me know what you think of the new newsletter!