A weird thing about subject lines

Today marks day 96 of my 100-day email project. I figured it was time for a bit of reflection on this journey, but honestly, I haven’t quite wrapped my head around how I feel about it all just yet.

What I do know is this: good things have happened since I started sending these daily emails. When I began, on March 20th, I was miserable and completely unfocused. Living in a place I hated.

Now? I’ve moved back to California, I’m working on cool projects with incredibly talented people, and living in a beautiful place close to the beach.

Can I be certain that writing these daily emails made all of this happen? No. I can’t. But what I can say for sure is that posting on social media for 100 days in a row would not have had the same effect. I’ve been there, done that. It didn’t work. The discipline required for these emails, the thought put into each one, has been significant. It’s about making my writing clearer and ensuring I say what I meant to say.

In the next few days, or maybe after I hit 100, I’ll send a more complete reflection on this whole process. But for now, here’s a weird observation: I’ve been using Substack more like a standard email list rather than what it’s typically used for — essay-type writing. I’ve noticed something interesting with my open rates. Initially, I was obsessed with the stats, checking open rates daily. Around day 60, I stopped caring so much, but recently I looked back and noticed a trend.

Emails with subject lines where every word is capitalized (making them look more like article titles) have significantly lower open rates compared to those with more casual, conversational subject lines. It’s been pretty consistent. Even towards the end of this 100-day run, when I’d expect to have lower open-rates overall, some emails get higher open rates, and they tend to be the ones with less formal subject lines.

Does this matter? Maybe, maybe not. When people see a subject line that looks like an article, they might be less inclined to open it. But perhaps those who do open it are more interested in the content. It’s something to think about.

I’ll share more insights and reflections as I wrap up this project. Thanks for sticking with me through this journey.

Talk to you tomorrow.