This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey, side hustlers. Welcome to the podcast. This is episode 2,499, the penultimate episode before 2,500 days in a row. That would be tomorrow, day 2,500, 2,500 consecutive days since we started the podcast. We haven't missed a day. I'm so thankful for our amazing community.
I'll say a little bit more about that tomorrow. For now, of course, here's an episode. Here's a question. Let me see if we can be helpful to somebody out there. You probably heard me say from time to time that a mailing list is one of the most valuable assets for any business or side hustle. I feel like it's so important in the days of social media, the age of social media where
there's all these streaming platforms and such. Those are cool, but with any kind of social media, you're always dependent on that platform. That platform can change its algorithm, as we all know. That platform can go out of business, which happens. That platform can change everything, but with email marketing, of course, people are on your list. There are some issues there too,
but the issues are fewer than they are with other platforms. What happens when the tool you use for email marketing, perhaps MailChimp, in this case, and this is just the example of our listener, turns around and says, "Hey, we don't want your business." This happens from time to time. It actually happened to a caller from Australia. She's going to tell us more about it. I'm going to give her some good news and bad news, but just so you know, it's actually mostly good.
Like there is something she can do and anybody else out there who has this situation. We're titling this, "Help! MailChimp rejected my newsletter. Struggling with an email service provider that kicked you to the curb." Well, guess what? There are alternatives. Let's talk
about it after this quick message from our sponsor. Greetings from Sydney, one of your favourite cities. I've been a long-time listener of your podcast and appreciate your unfiltered advice. I recently began a newsletter that discusses some more controversial sociopolitical topics. I don't think anything is too controversial, but I do have some strong opinions. Anyway, MailChimp flagged my content and suggested I look for another
platform. I'm keen to continue, but don't want to hit this roadblock again. Which alternatives should I consider? All right. Well, as I said, some bad news, some good news here for our listener who is in a tricky spot with this particular email provider. And I won't focus on them too much,
even though we mentioned the name of it, because this can happen with all sorts of companies. There are guidelines. Sometimes it's arbitrary. You don't want to beg them to take you as a customer. But before you move on, you might try one appeal just in case it was something automated or something that was flagged that shouldn't have been flagged, perhaps. So you might want to just
try writing in and explaining why you think your business is okay. But then, of course, if it doesn't work, it's okay because, as I said, good news. There are plenty of other options. ConvertKit is what I've been using for most of my email stuff, not all of it. I have a couple other companies I work with too. But for years, I've been using ConvertKit as a paying customer.
They're not a sponsor. And it's particularly strong for those who want to optimize for sales and automated sequences. If you're really good at building some funnels and such, ConvertKit is great for that. Substack, of course, another provider, good for monetization through subscriber fees. And I don't know a whole lot about this particular newsletter that we're talking about here today. But Substack does work for social, political issues. They take a range of views and
so on. You can also consider Send in Blue or GetResponse, constant contact. I'm not sure if they're still around. There are alternatives. That's the point. There are a lot of companies out there.
Just make sure you review their terms of service before making a switch. And maybe also take the opportunity to clean up your list, maybe revisit the whole email marketing strategy. So I think it could be a little bit of a pain, but I don't think it's going to be more than an hour or two of pain, at least a few days of going back and forth, moving the migration and all that. Also, a lot of these companies will help you migrate, which is great. They will help you do the thing where you take them from one source and you take them from one platform and move them to another. So they're going to help you with that. There are alternatives. If you get kicked out of
one, don't worry too much. And don't give up on your email marketing because that's important. All right, listeners, you're important too. You're the most important. I appreciate you so much for almost 2,500 days in a row. If you've got a question or comment, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Of course, I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back every single day, seven days a week. You can always listen wherever you get your podcasts. It's completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From The Onward Project.
