5 tips for starting a simple website and newsletter
This is not a post I envisioned writing, but I’ve learned so many tidbits in the last week or two about getting a simple website and newsletter started and felt inspired to share my top 5 tips!
I am not a web designer, but I’m pretty comfortable with basic templates, so I was looking for a website hosting service with an established design that I could customize and make my own.
Without further ado, here are my tips:
5 Ask around to find a website platform that fits your aesthetic and technical requirements.
The first thing I did was ask some of my quilter and graphic designer friends what they used to build their websites. Nearly all of them use Squarespace, so that was my first port of call, and while it’s not the cheapest option, it has really beautiful templates and is extremely easy to use. I would recommend asking around in your circles to see what people use and love, and look at some examples to see if it might fit what you’re hoping to create.
4 Think through how you will release your content
I started off thinking I wanted and needed to have lots of posts already loaded on my site before I made it live. But then I realized if I wanted to build a newsletter audience (not a huge one, but more than just Dan ;)), it might make sense to start small, and release posts one by one to engage with more people before sending my first newsletter. There’s no “right” answer, but starting small allowed me to get things moving sooner, and also to work out some unexpected kinks in newsletter integration with a small and easily movable number of emails :)
3 Learn what is required to link your website and newsletter before you choose which newsletter service to use
For me, it was important to start with a free newsletter service to keep costs minimal while getting started. There are lots of options, some of the ones I looked at Kit, Mailer Lite, and MailChimp. Squarespace also has the option to send email campaigns, but it requires an additional charge every month. I strongly considered Kit, they allow up to 10,000 subscribers on the free plan (!!) and I really like their interface, it felt visually like a very good match with my site. I started creating my first newsletter, went to activate the newsletter sign-up blocks on my site, but alas I learned that In order to link a Kit newsletter list to a Squarespace newsletter block, you need to generate an API key, which my Squarespace plan (the least expensive one) doesn’t permit. Squarespace has the built-in ability to connect a MailChimp list, and it is VERY simple and easy to do, so this ended up being the right option for me.
2 Identify a physical address you are comfortable sharing in every newsletter email
This was my biggest surprise in preparing to launch my website and newsletter! The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 requires every single email blast, no matter how small the list, to have a legal physical address listed in the footer. I don’t have a business address, and I didn’t want to share my home address in a public newsletter every month, so I researched quite a bit until I discovered that the newsletter distribution service Kit (at least at the time of writing, in April 2025) allows you to use their physical address if you are an active subscriber and agree to certain terms (more info here). Another thing I discovered is that you just have to be able to receive mail from the legal physical address, it does not need to be “yours” - so in my case an awesome family member is letting me use their business PO box for the address (and will forward any mail I receive there to me, which I expect to be zero).
1 Don’t give up :)
There will be lots of twists and turns and unexpected little surprises, but I stuck with it and am very glad I did. It feels great to have my website out in the world! You got this!!!