You’ve got the basic prompts to construct your newsletter. But you may still be unsure of how exactly to proceed, especially with format.

I’d recommend this as a starting format:

• One original article

• 3 x top news stories

• 5 x curated interesting links

With the one original article you use the creation prompt to produce an expert piece - something that shows you know what you are talking about. This helps build your brand and position as an expert.

Follow this up with three rewritten articles using the curation rewrite articles. These should be big news stories this week (or yesterday if you do a daily newsletter!). The idea here is to surface the most important developments in your niche. Provide a quick summary and then the original link.

Finally finish up with 5 quick curated links. Just links to content that you’ve found interesting this week. These aren’t news but instead cool tools, creators, art, memes or other “softer” content. The purpose of these is to round out your newsletter with something fun. This makes you more three dimensional as an expert. This is also where you can show personality if that aligns with your brand.

Use this basic structure if you are unclear where to start.

And then add a poll at the bottom of each issue asking people what they like the best.

Beehiiv has a poll function. Create polls in Audience > Polls and then insert them into your newsletter by typing /poll.

Simply ask direct questions like “Which part of the newsletter do you find most valuable? a) The original article b) News stories c) Interesting links”

Then over a few weeks collect results. This can guide how you develop your newsletter to be as valuable as possible- just follow your readers’ feedback and do more of that they like.