So, like many of you out there, I’ve sent out the last newsletter to my old mailing list with a link to subscribe to the new newsletter list.

The result? Look at the screenshot below, my subscriber number went from 236 to 18 as of May 28th.

Now, fortunately, my business doesn’t totally rely on the newsletter, but I enjoyed keeping people up to date. But if I were a band or a singer-songwriter, or any other business whose revenue directly depended on the newsletter, this would be totally devastating.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the new rules and regulations are totally what we needed and they do make things better for the individual.

However, when I saw that most of the other newsletters sent out messages to the tune of “if you don’t do anything, we’ll consider you gave us your consent to use your data” I felt I had taken the route that led to me having an enormous disadvantage over these other businesses.

And this sort of feels like, again, the big guys follow the old tech mantra: “do first and ask permission later”. I don’t subscribe to this point of view, and because of that, I’m always struggling just a little bit more.