Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read why I’m ending my email newsletter and what’s next.
No heart attacks please! This blog isn’t going anywhere and the website is paid for a couple more years, so that’s not what is ending.
Shortly after I started The Lifestyle Digs, I began an email newsletter for readers to subscribe to. Basically I wasn’t sending out any juicy newsletters. All the subscribers got was notification when a new blog post was published with the title, a couple of sentences, and a link to click through to read the post.
My email list is a freebie from Mailchimp. They provide a free newsletter subscription service for newsletters up to a certain number of subscribers. I don’t recall how many subscribers for the free list. 5,000? 10,000? I also had a limit of 1,000 emails per month.
Ha ha! I never even got close!
I’m not a techy person and I found Mailchimp difficult to figure out. They have campaigns and manage your subscribers and look at your data and tons of crap that had my head spinning and tossing my arms up in defeat.
Geez! All I want to do is keep it simple and send out an email to people who are interested in knowing when a new blog post is up. I have no “campaigns”. I’m not selling anything or enticing people to sign up for other products and services. Am I supposed to be looking at data and who is subscribed? Nope, ain’t happening.
I’m a set it and forget it kind of girl.
How hard can this be?
Very!
That’s why long term subscribers have seen that same format when they receive an email from the subscription service. It took me hours just to figure out that simple template and I ain’t messing with it!
The real reason I’m saying goodbye to my newsletter
Almost every time we make a decision about something, we have to consider the financial impact.
Do I really need that $5 box of cookies or that $10 chocolate bar or could that money be better served for a more useful purpose like saving up for a new set of car tires.
I’m an expert on personal finance out of necessity. I make financial decisions based on survival and I write about money matters that I hope will help single, low-income women.
Yup, frugal living. I live within my means because I don’t have any means!
On April 2, 2025 I received an email from Intuit Mailchamp that their classic automated email is ending effective June 1, 2025.
In order to continue using Mailchimp after June 1, I will have to upgrade to a paid plan.
Um, no thanks. I don’t make any money off this blog. Well barely any money. The income generated from the Google ads covers my annual web hosting plan and domain renewal. As much as I’d love it to happen, I’m not getting rich here. This blog is a creative outlet covering my personal journey which right now is a nomad and housesitter. I share my experiences so I can help other women who may be looking for assistance when figuring out their finances, creating an emergency fund, and navigating banking fees. Or even inspiration to start a new life’s journey.
The real kicker when I clicked on some of the links on the email from Mailchimp saying I will have to upgrade to a paid service is that none of the pages actually give me a dollar amount on the monthly or annual fees.
Very suspicious!
It doesn’t matter what it is in life, if a company is being sketchy on what the price tag is – move along.
What will Mailchimp charge me if I stay with them?
Like I said, Mailchimp is being very cagey about the dollar amount if I keep my email list with them.
I *think* it might be $18/month and that will allow me to send 10,000 newsletters a month.
Yes, I can just see how annoyed all my subscribers would be if I sent out a whole whack of newsletters a month. Just what we all need – thousands of emails hitting the Inbox every month.
And what would I say? Hi there. It’s me again. No new blog post up. Just saying hi.
Yup. Just how fast can I hit the unsubscribe button so I don’t get flooded with a bunch of hellos?
How will I stay in contact without email?
For now I’m not cancelling my Mailchimp account. I like to take a wait and see attitude.
Perhaps Mailchimp will change their mind and keep the free newsletters coming. Or at least tell me how much it’s going to cost. Not that I would pay for it…
In the meantime, I have removed the banners about subscribing to this blog and getting an email when a new post is up.
A lot of the older blog posts have a subscription banner at the end of the article. I’m not going back through old posts to find and delete those links. They will just die a natural death when Mailchimp closes me newsletter subscription list down.
There are some companies out there that offer free email lists for subscribers, but do I really want to set one up a newsletter for subscribers again? Mailchimp was tough enough to figure out.
I just want to keep it simple for anyone who is interested in knowing when a new blog post is published. I don’t really need a subscription newsletter because I’m not emailing news.
I’ve tried adding a plug-in with a pop up notification that says if you’d like to know when a new post is published, click to be added.
I have no idea if it works or how it works. This plug-in was added to my blog shortly after Mailchimp announced the free ride is over. I wanted to experiment and see what happens.
I’m not sure anything is happening!
I’ve seen the pop up box come up twice. It does not ask for an email address. I click on it to receive notifications and the box goes away. Sure enough I got one notification in April after I published a post to test it that showed up the following day. The next post I published – nothing.
Hmmm…
In early May I saw that pop up box again and clicked it to get notifications. I got notified when I published the Parmesan Pizza Dough Recipe. Immediately. I barely hit the publish button and the sidebar where I get notifications through Firefox alerted me to the new post.
Just popped back in real quickly to add that nothing happened when I published this post!
This appears to be something I may need to keep working on and figuring out. Ah the joys of not being techy.
Why I’m Ending My Email Newsletter and What’s Next
I realize that I’m not posting that much anymore. Do I really have enough new content that requires an email newsletter of new blog post notifications?
These days I’m more about posting videos on YouTube. I post a lot of shorts (less than 3 minutes), almost daily, and a few longer videos. If you don’t already subscribe to my YouTube channel, I hope you’ll join me there!
I am not shutting down the blog and I will keep writing new articles. I want to take this time to say thank you to all my subscribers who may suddenly wonder why they are no longer receiving notifications through Mailchimp. Even though I’m shutting down my newsletter – aka email notification of a new blog post – I hope you will stay connected for updates and continue to join me on my journey!
If you spot a little pop up box that says to get notified when there are new posts – please click it! I don’t know how it works. It’s not storing email addresses in a database, so this must be more about the browser you use and how it sends you notifications.
xoxo
Published by Cheryl @ The Lifestyle Digs on May 15, 2025.
