Also did you just stumble on the guy's request? Or were you looking.
I have a "day job". I run another company with a dozen employees. I love creating things, too. I'm like a construction foreman that loves what he does so much that he builds birdhouses on the weekends. Most of the work was done in the morning, over the weekend or at night while watching MasterChef on Hulu with my wife.
I've been following Patrick Rhone for years. He was begging for a letter.ly replacement for a while. Each time he asked, I always thought it was fascinating that no one was taking him up on it.
I built HappyLetter for the fun and sport of it. I saw it as an opportunity to practice some things I need to do more often and better, like writing, sharing, teaching, being transparent, accepting constraints, accepting perfection isn't always necessary, etc. I'm as proud of the HappyLetter blog as I am the product. There are many hard-learned lessons buried in those posts.
I've built many things like HappyLetter that never saw the light of day. Blogging about it forced me to ship.
Even if you don't feel comfortable sharing everything in public, I'd keep a private journal and write through any issues that are stopping you from moving forward.
There are people out there who love the bloggers/writers they follow and will support them. A newsletter is a great way to trade exclusive access for money.
The kind of newsletters that publishers will use HappyLetter for aren't the marketingy kind you're used to. These publishers probably won't have a different product to sell where a newsletter is part of a lead scoring or funnel process. To them, the newsletter is the product.
That's awesome. I hope it gets traction. I guess we'll see as you move forward ;)
