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Staying on top of the most recent developments in your craft takes time, especially when you have to scan websites daily for articles and news worthy of your attention. Quality newsletters do the job for you. Just check your email inbox every couple of days to find a condensed and readily accessible selection of tidbits from a given website. We have selected here newsletters that deserve your attention.
A quality newsletter is not overloaded with articles, but rather features valuable insight and information, in addition to what the given website has featured during the week. Readability, relevance and lightness are the most important qualities of a newsletter. The following examples not only make for an enjoyable read, but feature developments, insights and scoops worth following.
Art, Culture, Business, Design
Brain Pickings
Brain Pickings is a discovery engine for interestingness, “culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity quenchers and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are.� This is how the founder of the website, Maria Popova, describes her project. The newsletter comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. It comes in a nice layout with diverse content in numerous genres of music, video and books, ranging from documentary to children’s books to philosophy. Enjoy the artwork, too!
TED
TED stands for technology, entertainment, design and has been spreading ideas since 1984. It believes in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. Be a part of it and receive some inspiring ideas every week via email. Five interesting talks are featured each week that will not disappoint, and you can join the conversation on the topics. You might also want to follow TED’s RSS feed.
Daily Good Morning
These guys try to make every day you have a blast. Daily Good Morning puts quality motivational advice in your inbox every day of the week. Good news just give everyone something to be happy about, puts a smile on your face or gives you new hope. If you think you could use some of that every morning and are willing to invest a couple of minutes of your time then this should become part of your “Daily Good Morning” routine.
Newfangled
A very inspirational newsletter on the various topics of Web design, development, business, culture and design. The newsletter is sent out monthly, every month with a focus on one specific area of design.
Springwise
Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investment and cooperation. It promises to inspire you instantly by getting the world’s most promising new business ideas and young ventures right in front of you. Choose between the daily newsletter, which features three exciting business ideas, or the weekly one, which rounds up the best of the week’s finds. If you need business inspiration, this is the place to find it.
Usability, UX Design
Userfocus
The Userfocus usability newsletter archive dates back to 2007, making its authors true professionals in the information mailing game. While the early editions featured individual articles, content is continually being added. The feature article section started out with basic titles such as “The A to Z of Usability,� well researched and suitable for newbies to the trade. The newsletter introduces the audience to interesting usability-related articles that got the consultant’s attention over the past month, covering persuasive design, examples and intriguing psychological research and insights.
Typography
H&FJ Typography
If you are constantly on the lookout for interesting new fonts and typographic novelties, then you might have heard of Hoefler & Frere-Jones. These guys are a big deal, and you can subscribe to their mailing list to stay posted on their latest news and suggestions. The classy styles and weights that are featured do catch the eye, and the layout of the newsletter itself is worth a glance.
FontShop
Now, here’s a newsletter to look forward to! FontShop knows what’s going on in the world of type design and is keen to let you in on it. Each newsletter showcases new fonts from foundries around the world and introduces handy little tools to advance Web font use and compatibility. Additionally, each week it highlights events and conferences all about typography that you should not miss. The newsletter is sent out every second week, so don’t worry about getting flooded with news. The archive dates back to 2004, which is definitely a sign of constant engagement and motivation!
Web Development, Coding, Programming
Hackernewsletter
Kale Davis is doing a great job on this one. The weekly HackerNewsletter brings you the best articles on startups, technology, programming and a lot more. All topics are cutting edge straight from the Hacker News site. Even if you pay them a visit daily, you will probably stillmiss out on some stuff you might really have needed.
JavaScript Weekly
Everyone should have some JavaScript in their lives. And that is exactly what JavaScript Weekly is about: a free weekly email roundup of JavaScript news and articles. The topics vary and include job postings, notices and messages from the team. Regular columns are “Headlines,� “Articles� and “Code and Libraries.� The “Special� section rounds up articles about that week’s focus topic. Each featured article is well summarized with basic facts, and none of the abstracts exceeds five to six sentences. The clear structure makes it easy to identify interesting articles.
wpMail.me
A concise, free weekly roundup of WordPress news and articles. Cristian Antohe groups articles clearly: “News & Articles� sums up new developments and releases; “Themes,� as you might expect, introduces new themes and hosts the occasional contest; “Plugins� is all about life support; while “Tutorials� provides helpful hints on speeding up your workflow. How does that sound for a weekly dose of WordPress?
Yoast
This newsletter contains all of the WordPress-related posts and useful tips and resources curated by Joost de Valk. You can choose whether to receive it daily or weekly. Check out some of the subscribers’ reviews and comments about the newsletter; it really earns some praise. Yoast keeps you in the loop on cool new WordPress plug-ins, provides loads of tips and tricks on speed, layout and SEO, and suggests ways to promote conversation on your blog.
DjangoWeek.ly
Django Weekly keeps anyone interested in the loop on the Python−based Django Framework. News and articles are on bug fixes, testing in Django, introducing Django (say, for media companies), etc. The code section serves small apps and frameworks. The author, Jon Atkinson, welcomes any constructive criticism and encourage anyone interested to share feedback, news and great code found on the Web.
developerWorks
The guys over at IBM over-engineer just about everything. Once you’ve signed up for their newsletter, you are asked to choose your topics of interest from a number of categories, such as AIX and UNIX, cloud computing, Java technology, Linux, XML and WebSphere. If you choose to receive all updates, be prepared to get a list of at least 30 articles. The layout is well organized and structured, with numerous links to resources and further reading. You’ll find study reports, tutorials, trial downloads, news, free eBooks and more. Is your interest aroused yet?
Ruby Weekly
Don’t be disappointed if Ruby is your thing. JavaScript Weekly has a sister newsletter for Ruby! It features headlines, articles, tutorials, screencasts, libraries, code and job postings. Like JavaScript Weekly, Ruby Weekly wins readers over with its clear, brief summaries. You won’t waste a minute (or miss an article) going through the weekly list of topics. Many subscribers attest to how Ruby Weekly saves them hours of research every month. Don’t scour through dozens of blogs and podcasts to stay up to date; just subscribe to Ruby Weekly.
Devops Weekly
Get your weekly slice of devops news delivered straight to your mailbox. This relatively young newsletter features tools and events that any developer might want to check out. Gareth Rushgrove keeps Devops alive and fresh with content. As devops-related topics around the Web flourish, the newsletter’s coverage keeps growing by the week. If this sounds appealing to you, go pay Devops Weekly a visit and sign up!
Web Design
Webdev
A true classic, the Webdev newsletter has been around since 2002, presenting weekly updates from Web Design Reference. The categories include accessibility, CSS, color, evaluation and testing, events, miscellaneous, navigation, PHP and more. Feature articles are constantly contributed by professionals and cover a variety of formats: opinion, tutorials, technical advice, compatibility testing. The newsletter’s format is simple and efficient. There are no images, only introductory sentences to the most recent articles and discussions, followed by links to the hosting website. The format is intimate and fosters a personal connection with the reader. Editor Laura Carlson’s commitment to the newsletter is widely appreciated.
MailChimp
These guys know what they’re talking about. If you are not using MailChimp yet to slap your newsletters together, definitely check it out. It helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate them with services that you already use and track your results. And guess what? MailChimp has its own newsletter! To stay on top of the newest developments and hear interesting discussion and learn about resources from the MailChimp community, take out a subscription now.
Think Vitamin
Think Vitamin hit the Web in 2006 with the aim of being a valuable resource for Web professionals. You name it: Think Vitamin has covered it. Authors from around the globe have contributed to the newsletter. Just give the archive a quick browse to see how vital this asset could be to your intake of inspiration. And check out Think Vitamin Radio, the bi-weekly radio show that covers hot topics on the Web.
.net mag
.net magazine provides a rather short weekly email newsletter with tips to interesting recent articles on Web design as well as a weekly review of articles published in the magazine (online). An unobtrusive and helpful newsletter that doesn’t require too much time to read or scan and still provides pointers to great tips and resources.
Web Design Weekly
Web Design Weekly has just begun its life in the newsletter business. It launched on July 1st of this year, and Jake Bresnehan is doing a good job on selecting headlines and articles! The content will vary over time and include Photoshop tips, podcast links, CSS3 and jQuery tips, but mainly front-end Web development. Its aim is to keep everyone posted on recent developments in this fast-paced industry. Be one of the first to support the newsletter and skim its tools, jobs and regular inspiration section. It’ll do you good!
SitePoint
SitePoint offers various newsletters, each for a different craft. SitePoint Tribune is weekly and informs you about building, managing and marketing websites. SitePoint Tech Times is also weekly and covers all technical aspects of Web development, including the latest PHP techniques, advanced HTML, JavaScript, ASP and more. SitePoint Design View is a monthly newsletter covering subjects ranging from usability to page layout to graphic software techniques to accessibility issues to the biggest challenges confronting Web designers today.
Inspiration
New Thinking
You might need this newsletter by management consultant Gerry McGovern if you want to improve your website’s stats, especially your conversion rate. McGovern has been providing weekly task-management tips to over 16,000 subscribers since 1996. The articles are well written and focus on key advice that everyone should consider to improve productivity. Readers can extend their knowledge by following the related links or by joining the discussion about the article. “5% of your website delivers 25% of its value. Do you know which 5%?� To get a little closer to the answer, subscribe to the newsletter.
Now I Know
Do you have the feeling that you’ve stopped learning. Dan Lewis can help. Now I Know is a free daily newsletter of incredible things. You’ll learn something new every day. Ever wondered why hippos don’t get sunburned even though they spend most of their day in the water? Do you know which animal freezes itself to survive the winter? Did you hear the story about how Wonton Food, Inc. cost the US national lottery about $20 million dollars? No? Then consider subscribing to Now I Now. You might want to check the Art of Manliness newsletter as well as the ZenHabits email newsletter.
Email Inspiration*
The concept is simple: Email Inspiration sends you one email per day, every day. No big sales pitches or product launches. Just one image to inspire your designs and get your creative juices flowing. Look at the archive to decide whether signing up is worth it. There is undoubtedly some interesting art among the submissions featured in Email Inspiration*. Who would not be thankful for another undiscovered free source of inspiration?
Unmatchedstyle
Give yourself “a quick dose of inspiration� once a month. Unmatchedstyle carefully selects creative examples, shares favorites of the month in everything ranging from typefaces to websites, and hooks you up with an extensive and useful collection of links. You’ll see free icon sets, cool font-pairing apps, interviews and more. You’ll soon notice yourself awaiting the newsletter every month, and you won’t be disappointed.
eCommerce and Marketing
Mobile Commerce Daily
If you find yourself constantly designing for mobile devices and need to stay updated, this is the newsletter for you. Mobile Commerce Daily keeps you posted on the latest trends and gives you a peek at what’s behind the incredible sales increases of certain websites. The newsletter contains six to eight articles from industries around the Web. This newsletter might be the ultimate source of news and ideas on online marketing strategies and on new apps, advertising and analytics. The articles include resources such as case studies, event calendars, podcasts, videos and more, guaranteeing an engaging read.
Social-IT-e Media
Social-IT-e Newsletter educates readers on websites, Web design and Web management best practices. Social-IT-e’s core expertise is Web design and development, user experience and business information systems. Thought-provoking articles are served with engaging supplementary reading material, all well selected and balanced. The last newsletter we read discussed the importance of designing for content and not squeezing content into prefabricated solutions. Does that ring a bell? Then be prepared for a lot of similar interesting topics.
Get Data Driven
Get Data Driven is all about free Web analytics tools. If you’ve ever wondered how much more revenue you could gain with a 5% improvement in your conversion rate, then this is for you. Here you got the tools to make decisions based on actual data from your website? Don’t miss out on the latest issue.
Bonus: Smashing Magazine Email Newsletter
Every two weeks our editorial team works on short, entertaining and relevant articles for the upcoming issue. The newsletter is sent out on Tuesdays and contains unique tips and tricks for designers and Web developers, written by us exclusively for our email subscribers. Take a look at the recent Smashing Email Newsletter (60.952 readers). You can cancel your subscription at any time. The Smashing Newsletter will always be free of charge. We respect your privacy; we will never give your data to third parties, nor would we ever spam you.
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© Stephan Poppe for Smashing Magazine, 2011.