Today I started my very first own newsletter.

It’s called Zugpost (“train mail”) and it’s all about train travel in Europe. As you might have guessed, it’s in German. If that’s okay with you, you’re very welcome to subscribe here.

Zugpost is supposed to be a mixed bag of news, reports and travel tips. There is a new night train in Sweden? Interrail has a special offer you better not miss? You name it. My plan is to send the newsletter once a month. If there’s something super urgent, there might be a special issue.

Oh, and it’s for free. I won’t even bother you with ads or sell your private data. Promised.

Newsletter, Really?

I can’t remember exactly how and why the idea popped up in my head, but the whole thing started with a tweet. Without thinking it through, I asked my followers on Twitter whether they would be interested in a classic email newsletter.

Let me be honest with you. Newsletters – to me that always sounded a bit like 1990s, screeching modems and such. And who’s not annoyed to get such a thing just because they ordered something somewhere? So my expectations weren’t terribly high.

The response, however, was overwhelming. Dozens of people told me they would love to read from me regularly. That made me think. Should I throw my reluctance overboard?

Of course I should, I’m here to serve.

So I set up a newsletter service embedded in my blog. While I was sorting out the technical stuff and researching topics for the first issue, sign-ups started pouring in. In the end, it was almost 500 people who found the first-ever Zugpost in their mailboxes.

Not bad for the start, eh? I also got some nice feedback. Let’s see where this will take us. I’m curious and full of ideas.

Yes, maybe newsletters still are a thing.