sent 100 emails
It took me a whopping 21 days to send 100 emails. That's 66 unprompted emails and 34 replies in total. I sent 53 messages to Bear Blog users and 47 to others. The most messages I sent in a single day was 24. The most messages I sent to any given person was 6.
Thanks to people like you for sending me not only 49 replies, but also 7 unprompted emails. I also found 2 posts that referenced either my challenge or my emails:
- Mason's re: send 100 emails
- skryblans' an imperfect analysis
If you made a similar post during my hiatus this month, please let me know and I'll add it above.
Thoughts
It's awesome reading multiple people expressing interest in how this challenge felt, how it came along, and what it taught me. This section is dedicated to them. Anything else that you wish I would cover could be a single email inquiry away from me sharing it with you all.
I've almost certainly sent at least 100 emails through this pseudonym prior to this month. It does feel a bit different accomplishing the same feat in a matter of weeks compared to however many months. While there's the deliberate tracking angle, I sense that the explicit focus and condensed time frame involved sharpens thinking around and between email exchanges.
Learning that people have been following along with my writing journey for however long is awesome. Creatives really do have plenty of lurkers that lay in wait, ready to be reached out to whenever. While it would be nice if they made their appreciation known, sometimes creatives have to create the connections they wish existed.
Speaking of, discovering more enjoyers of my commonplace reply posts has been wonderful. Whether they found them prior or as a result of me thanking them for their inspiration, their appreciation makes me think I'm doing something right.
I also enjoyed seeing people talk about how they could run with or repurpose my experiment. Having seen so many other blog challenges land well with others, it's nice experiencing a bit of that contagion for an idea of mine. In fact, I can afford to brainstorm, try, and publicize more of these quantitative challenges for other aims of mine.
I've found so many cool online artifacts in my quest to find websites, blogs, and posts to email people about. They have been refreshing counterpoints to much of the discourse-based negativity that I've seen around these parts and elsewhere. While there's a time and place for discussing non-wants, seeking out or stumbling upon what you love and appreciate can really liven up your meatspace, cyberspace, or both.
I experienced a few hiccups with articulating myself well. In some cases, I just let the conversations sit. In other cases, simple corrections seemed to smooth over any issues.
If I were to run this experiment again, I'd probably link my blog or my challenge post within every email I send. I'd also probably not impose the forcing function of postponing posts either. People surely missed my posts even more given my prior month-long hiatus. And the more posts I put out, the more touchpoints there are for people to get in touch with me.
There were too many instances in which I drafted email messages for people that didn't share an email address nor contact form. Learn from my mistakes and check whether someone has either mode of communication exposed before starting to write. Although, you can repurpose said writing into guestbook entries, reply posts, or deliverables through other media that your intended target can hopefully find.
Easy ways to make this challenge more difficult include counting only one email per person, emailing only those you haven't emailed before, or setting higher accountability stakes than just postponing posting.
Email exchanges don't seem suited for extended conversations. It feels like there's a somewhat natural upper bound around 5-6 messages. That's if exchanges can reach that depth in the first place through compelling hooks and phrasings. Then again, perhaps signposting that I want long exchanges in the first place begets them better than saying nothing on the matter.
That said, even emails without replies or extended conversations can be considered wins. Informational seeds within them could germinate now or later for either or both parties.
I did appreciate simple thanks and expressions of gratitude without any hooks for me to latch onto. It did feel better when I found something substantial to say in response to beefier messages. I can only hope that this completing this exercise has bolstered my ability to deliver messages conducive to supporting conversations over inducing their end.
While I'm sure that there's more that I could write here, this is probably enough for you to chew on in the meantime. If not, drop me a line with what you want to hear from me.
Senders and recipients
Thanks to these people for taking part in my tiny experiment whether as senders, recipients, or both. If they have a blog, feel free to peruse it, say hi to them, and/or tell them I sent you over.
- -b
- 4S
- Aravind
- auntyjer
- Brennan
- Chloe
- chupacabra
- Cuifen
- Daniel
- Dave
- Disconnect
- Dominik
- Dylan
- Eetu
- ege
- Elizabeth
- fendogg
- Fran
- Gordon
- Hakkerman
- Hi, thanks for coming by. Lets have some coffee
- Hyde
- JD
- Jim
- Joel
- Joseph
- Kali
- Karen
- Kev
- Khem
- Khoa
- Luigi
- Manton
- Marius
- Mason
- Matt (DogDogFish)
- Matt (Matt's Blog)
- Matt (Mattology)
- Matt (Welcome to the Mattiverse)
- Michael
- Mike
- Minsuk
- monolog
- Navan
- Nicola
- Olly
- Pam
- Paul
- Prasatt
- Robin
- Rohan
- Salad
- Seth (Hello, I'm Seth Werkheiser)
- Seth (hey!howdy)
- Simon
- skryblans
- Skyler
- Space Panda
- Tally
- TC
- This Is My Last
- Thom
- Turbie
- Visa
- Will
- Xanthe
- xIre
- Zach
- zoe
In conclusion
Sending out 100 emails and doing the work surrounding it was a ton of fun. If you want to hear more about it whether via email or my blog, please send over an email or make a reply post that I can discover.