043: Ryan Sneddon - Lessons On Writing Local Newsletters

The Nathan Barry Show

Ryan Sneddon is a self-described CEO and emperor of local news. Ryan is building a hyperlocal newsletter empire one city at a time, starting with Annapolis, MD.

Ryan’s newsletter, Naptown Scoop, is an email to the residents of Annapolis containing all pertinent news and events. It's an awesome community of residents and business owners coming together to be good neighbors.

Ryan has worked as an editor at The Daily Thread, as a business solutions consultant at Softdocs, and as an engineer for Grand Banks Yachts. Ryan has also worked as a project engineer at The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.

Ryan studied mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina, and also worked as a cinematographer and photographer. Ryan has done volunteer work building relationships with high school students while leading a team of other volunteers at Young Life.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Ryan stays motivated when work gets overwhelming
• Ryan’s philosophy and tips for interacting with your audience
• A great way to assess your growth and progress as a writer
• Ryan’s proven strategies for maximizing your social media engagement

Links & Resources

• From Boise
• AppSumo
• Viral Loops on AppSumo
• Jason Calacanis
• Annapolis Rotaract Club

Ryan Sneddon’s Links

• Ryan’s Twitter: @sneddymobbin
• Naptown Scoop

Episode Transcript

Ryan: [00:00:00]
First advice would just be to “get started.” Second advice would be, “don’t quit,” every day. Third advice (this is not specific to a local newsletter. I would say this to any newsletter, any brand, anyone ever) just be responsive.

The great thing about an email newsletter is that people can answer it: I can reply to an email cause it’s just a regular email. Answer every single one of those, because that’s how you build up a loyalty.

Nathan: [00:00:30]
In this episode I talk to Ryan Sneddon who runs Naptown Scoop, which is a local newsletter for the Annapolis region. I like it because I started a local newsletter called Boise, to just about a thousand subscribers. And, you know, Ryan and I were chatting back and forth on Twitter, just saying like, what ideas are we learning from each other?

He was giving me some advice and I was like, you know, I why don’t you just come on the podcast and share the story, share what you’re doing.

It’s pretty fun how it’s coming together. He’s working super, super hard on it, and we dive into all the details. So with that, I’ll get out of the way.

Ryan, thanks for joining me.

Ryan: [00:01:09]
My pleasure.

Nathan: [00:01:10]
So give us the 30-second pitch. What’s the newsletter, and then from there, we’ll dive into, “Why start a local newsletter?”

Ryan: [00:01:18]
My newsletter is called an Naptown scoop and the 30-second pitch; I could really do it in 10 seconds. It’s just everything you need to know about the town delivered straight to your inbox three times a week. And I would do it more if it were a bigger city, do it less if it were a smaller city, but that’s just kind of the perfect number of times that gets you all the information, but it’s not too much.

Nathan: [00:01:40]
Yeah, that sounds good. So what was the inspiration to start it?

Ryan: [00:01:43]
There’s another company. I mean, there’s a couple of companies now that are out there doing this, but I lived in Columbia, South Carolina after college. I went to college there and stayed a little bit extra. And there was a company there that did it and I really liked it. And then I moved away back here to home, and I didn’t have that.

And I was like, well, that was cool. I can’t be the only one that liked that. So I was like, I’ll just build it here. And, I wasn’t the only one that liked it. We were talking before we started recording. There’s not really a good original ideas in my head. So the fact that I wanted it was a good sign, because if I wanted it other people probably do, too.

Nathan: [00:02:17]
Yeah, that makes sense. I am fascinated by local newsletters. I started one on my own called From Boise.

Ryan: [00:02:27]
I get it; you got to see what everyone else is doing and your same space.

Nathan: [00:02:31]
Got to get some ideas. I saw Andrew Wilkinson do it in Victoria, British Columbia, which is one of my favorite cities to visit. And so I saw him do that and I was like, oh, well I love Boise as much as he loves Victoria, and wanted to do some local projects. So, so, it’s been fun, but maybe before we dive into the growth and all of that, what are some of the favorite moments from running it where you’re like, “Oh, this is actually pretty sweet?”

Ryan: [00:02:59]
There’s a lot. One just happened last week. I think it was, it’s been like a really long, last two weeks; has been a really super full and, I don’t use the “B” word. I don’t say “busy.” I’m not allowed to, but it’s been like a really full on hundred miles an hour, 20 hours a day, kind of lasts two weeks now.

Like sometimes—no joke—sometimes more than that. But last Thursday night I was delivering cookies to people who bought shirts, because I made some shirts to sell for the brand. And I said I was going to deliver cookies to the first or 10 out of the first hundred orders, which was like super ambitious of me.

I didn’t even think about the fact that like, I would have to sell a hundred shirts for that to happen. and I only sold 10 shirts. So I delivered the 10 cookies to the first 10 people instead of 10 out of the first hundred. But I’m delivering cookies to this one, and I just emailed everybody and said, if you’re not home, can I leave it in the mailbox?

And they were like, yeah, our mailbox is a giant stone pillar at the front of the driveway. And I was like, giant stone pillar? Like, this is probably a pretty nice house. And so I put in the GPS and I’m like, oh yeah, this is a waterfront looking pretty good. I roll up to the house and it’s gorgeous.

It’s probably like this three to $4 million house. I can look at it and kind of think I know who the architect is, because she’s pretty famous around the area. And as I’m putting these cookies in the giant mailbox, they roll up and they like the car honks, and they roll down the window. It was an Uber, they rolled out of the back windows and they’re like, “You must be Ryan!”

And I was like, “Yeah!” And they were like, “Do you have time to come in for a drink?” And I’m like, “Yeah, why not?” it’s 9:45 at night. No, it wasn’t, it wasn’t a Thursday. I think it was a Wednesday because if it was Thursday, I would have had to go home and write the email for Friday. But since it was Wednesday, I didn’t have to get one out to the next day.

So I was like, “Yeah, I have time for a drink!” And I ended up sitting on their back porch for two hours, drinking wine, just talking about their life, my life, the business, the guy, it was just the ...