I've been trapped in my office for the past week.

 

And when I say “office” – I mean like, cupboard size. She's cute and functional and I love her, but she's tiny.

 

But we're stuck in homebuilding purgatory (and have been for monthsss now), and if I take one step out of my cutesy pink office, I'll find myself smack dab in the middle of construction hell.

 

There are boards obstructing the windows, huge pieces of construction equipment, and so much debris on the floor that every step is like trying to navigate through a minefield.

 

I posted this on IG stories yesterday:

But the good thing is, if I close the door to my office, I can just… pretend all of that doesn't exist.

 

I can convince myself things are perfectly normal and fine.

 

For a while, at least.

 

Because as content as I am to be chilling in my cute little workspace, I'm unfortunately always reminded of the fact that I only have access to a super small area of the available space in our home.

 

I'm essentially locked out of the rest of it.

 

Being stuck in one room while knowing there's a whole house I can't access? That's exactly how I feel when I find a creator I love but can't read their past newsletters.

You've heard it a bajillion times I'm sure:

 

 

Yada, yada, yada.

 

I'm not disagreeing with any of that.

 

But you know what really drives me sorta crazy about email?

 

When someone teases a super juicy email they're gonna send out to their list, and I run to subscribe, because, DUH – only to be totally disappointed when I realize I missed it. It was already sent out.

 

Or when I remember some really awesome insight I got from a past email, but it's no longer in my inbox – I must have deleted it, and now I can never find it again.

 

 

This is why I believe that 90% of creative business owners who have a regular newsletter should ALSO have a newsletter archive.

 

There's nothing I love more than discovering a new creator whose content I resonate – and then finding out I have an entire juicy backlog of content I can binge from them.

 

(This is exactly how I started following Sara at BTL Copy, and now I faithfully read every email she sends out. I talk more about this in a guest blog I wrote for her site – you can stalk it here if you want!)

 

A newsletter archive lets new subscribers read more from you right away without having to wait for your next scheduled newsletter to drop. Having one can also capture those curious lurkers who are interested in one specific email you mentioned, or people who are already inbox-fatigued and want to sample your content before they commit to subscribing.

 

Now, I can already hear some of the objections:

 

→ “But I’ve been emailing forever and have hundreds of emails!!” — Okay, then. Just start by archiving your most recent newsletter and keeping it up from there. (or just hire me to take care of archiving your entire backlog, if you want)

 

→ “But people aren’t gonna subscribe if I make my emails public” — Maybe sometimes, but definitely not always. The people who really want to hear from you will still subscribe for the convenience of getting your emails delivered straight to their inbox. And the people who WON’T, do you really think they’d have ever been an engaged subscriber (and pay you $$$)? Probably not.

 

→ “But I already have a blog, so…” — I will forever be screaming from the mountaintops that good blog content and good newsletter content are completely different. They each appeal to people in different stages of their buyer journey and have their own place in your marketing funnel. Having a blog doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a newsletter archive, and vice versa.

 

The first step of setting up a newsletter archive is figuring out where you want to host it. A lot of business owners use Substack. You can also put it directly on your website.

 

The goal is to get that newsletter content you've been sitting on OUT of the inbox graveyard so it can start working for your business again.

 

 

Or just reply to this email if you want to chat about what an archive could look like for your newsletter. I promise I don't bite (and I love talking about this stuff).

 

Orrr reply to this email if you have any questions or just want to chat about this – my inbox is always open to chat!

 

 

And in case you forgot who I am: Hey, I'm Charlee Rey! I offer content repurposing services for online business owners who want their ideas to have a longer shelf life.

 

I also write on Substack for ADHD & scatterbrained creatives — stories + takeaways on creativity, content, and online business through the lens of neurodivergence. If that sounds like your vibe, you can subscribe here :)