Dear Reader,
A couple of weeks ago, I published an article on my Screamsheet system, which generates a series of one-page daily printouts. The original idea was just to show my kids all the baseball scores and standings.
It got very good reviews on Reddit. The digital minimalism crowd didn’t like it that much, but the programmers and Phillies fans thought it was great.
A couple of people indicated they wouldn’t mind getting Screamsheets of their own. I currently have one person receiving an MLB and an NHL Screamsheet every morning. I send them manually right now, but I realized I should build a subscription pipeline and productionize this so people can easily sign up. I figured it might even become a source of income. That would be pretty neat.
So, I decided to run a one-month beta test to work out the kinks before charging a monthly fee. I put together an advertisement and posted it all over Reddit. It didn’t get downvoted into oblivion, but it certainly didn’t get upvoted either – and a couple of posts were outright blocked. I did get one comment saying, “I think this sounds like a cool idea, I don’t know why it’s being downvoted so much.”
Let’s just say the reception was extremely chilly. I ran headfirst into the internet’s immune system: you can’t just walk into a community that warmly welcomed you and immediately start selling things. Realizing it was a major faux pas, I panicked and pulled the ads down. It reminded me that what actually works in these communities is posting something genuinely useful. That was the whole point of starting my blog in the first place – to write useful things for people who have attention problems but don’t want to give up on life.
Instead of posting sales pitches, I’ll go back to posting summaries of my articles. And I will write them myself – no more letting Copilot, Gemini, or any other AI write the paraphrases. I will keep the advertising for my Screamsheet subscriptions strictly on my own blog, which is exactly where it belongs.
On Reddit and other forums, I’ll just share the key points of my articles with a link to the full piece. The summaries will contain useful material on their own, but visiting the blog for the deep dive is even better.
Consider this an invitation to beta test a daily Screamsheet subscription.
From now until Independence Day, July 4th, every blog post will include a beta sign-up link at the bottom. After that, it will convert to a flat monthly rate for 1 to 5 customizable Screamsheets tailored to your favorite teams or topics. If you, dear reader, want in, just click the link at the bottom of this email. Fill out the form with your preferences, hit submit, and I’ll get your morning Screamsheet system running ASAP.
Keep in mind this is a beta test, so expect a few hiccups. If something breaks, please forgive me—but more importantly, tell me! I want to refine this into a daily tool you’d actually want to pay for. With your feedback, we’ll iron out the bugs before the 4th of July launch.
That’s it. Get back to work.
Yours,
Peter
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