🛠 Titanium Times – Issue #16 (Week of August 11 - 15, 2025)

Plain steps, steady wins, local first.

This was a big week. The team’s moving fast, fixing things, and shipping steady improvements. It shows—especially in Letterman. Hats off to the devs for the pace and care!

Inside, you’ll find simple moves you can use today: ways to get found faster in search, keep your list clean while respecting reader choice, learn more from each page with quick tests, and set up a steady growth loop without extra strain. Short steps. Real gains. Keep reading for the how.

🔥 This week's theme: Make it easy to find, easy to trust

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✅ Run your site on your root domain (use your main domain and www)

Keep your publication at one clear home, like yournews.com (and www.yournews.com). That’s easy to remember, easy to share, and it keeps most links pointing to the same place.

Search often finds and trusts that main address sooner than a subdomain.

If you run a local newsletter, include the city in the article slug when it fits the topic. It helps readers see the local angle right in the URL, and it lines up with what people search for. Keep slugs short and readable. Small habits add up. 👉 Read the full guide

“I do not recommend subdomains with what we’re doing… you need to use a root domain when it comes to Letterman.”

“You get the registration page, the newsletter page, the latest news and the archive directory, right?”

✅ No-index: hide pages that shouldn’t be in Google

Some pages help your readers but don’t need to show up in search. Think short promos, simple thank-you pages, test drafts, or pages you’ll retire next week.

Turn on No index for those. You still use the page, but you don’t ask Google to list it. That keeps your archive clean and gives more attention to the articles you want found.

If the page is evergreen and useful to the public, let it index. If it’s temporary or thin, no-index it.  👉 See four simple no-index use cases

“It’s the no index check box… I don’t think we did no index on the newsletter. I think we only did it on the article.”

✅ Sitemap + schema are in place

Your site now gives search a clean map and better page details behind the scenes. Pair that with the preset URLs—/current, /latest, /archives, /articles, /register, /signup so people and search can move around with less guesswork.

This is a quiet upgrade that pays off over time. Keep writing short sections with clear headings as that rolls out across the stack.

“We have the site map, we have the schema… this is pretty exciting for us.”

✅ Fix: “Latest News” now shows all your recent articles

There was a cap where only four items showed up on the Latest News page. That’s fixed. Readers can scroll all your recent posts from one place. This hub page also helps search follow more of your work.

“With latest news I only see four maximum… it should load the rest.”

✅ Pro Tip: Welcome Email - drop in your logo in seconds

Make the first email feel like your brand. Did you know you can easily add your logo to the Welcome email? Click into the message, drag and drop your logo in, size it, and center it. 

“Put your cursor there… drag in the logo… scale it down… center it… boom.”

Chad Demonstrates Adding a Logo to Welcome Email

✅ Unsubscribes handled in our system (and in Welcome Emails)

Unsubscribe links are now processed by GC. Readers can leave a list and it stops here.

This reduces confusion and keeps your sender reputation clean. The link also works in the Welcome Email, so you honor choices from day one.

“We added the unsubscribe to the welcome email… when somebody clicks that it unsubscribes in our system.”

✅ Subscriber cleanup + privacy fix

If someone signs up a second time, GC keeps the first record and removes the extra. Lists stay tidy and your counts make sense.

Also, personal details that could be seen in page source are no longer exposed. Safer by default.

“We had duplicates… the duplicates have been removed… the first lead that comes in is what we keep.”

“Personal details in the source code… we took care of that as well.”

✅ SMTP.com CSS issue is resolved

Some sends lost styling when going through SMTP.com. That’s been worked through and fixed. Your newsletter should keep its look when you mail.

“…it was stripping the CSS… we made adjustments on our end and it was fixed… so no issues with SMTP anymore.”

✅ Pro tip: Tag clicks to find your next local spin-off

Watch what people click in your city newsletter. If “Food” links get the most action, start a food-only edition for the same city.

Use the click tag from those links to seed the new list, then cross-recommend both newsletters. That’s faster growth without guessing.

“We should put a tag in this button… call that tag ‘food’… every single time we do a sponsored post, we’re building up that tag… So guess what happens when we go create a newsletter called Summerland Food Reviews… now you’ve already got people that are interested in the food.”

✅ Small DNS fix: point www to your main domain

Double check your DNS records. If www sends people somewhere different than your main domain, readers and search can get mixed results.

Point www to your main domain so everyone lands in one place. Simple move, steady result.

“Log into your Cloudflare… find your domain… go to your DNS records…”

🟡 Coming soon: clearer headings (H1/H2/H3) and co-reg swapping

Headings will make scanning easier and help search understand each page.

Expanded Co-reg features will let publishers of mutliple newsletters to recommend their other properties. 

“We’re seeing H1, H2, H3… this is the final piece to getting you guys ranked.”

“We’re going to set up the ability to do your own co-reg… on the pages.”

✅ Real A/B tests: tie bumps to the page

This unlocks clean, one-change testing. Clone the page, change a single lever (border, image vs. video, headline, placement), and let traffic pick the winner.

Because the bump is tied to the page, you don’t have to mess with products to run a simple test. You learn faster and keep funnels stable.

👉 Read the walkthrough

“They tied the bump offers to the product… this week we fixed that… now you can tie the bump offers to the page… and test out the bump offers.”

Chad Demos Assigning Bump Offers

✅ Save rows, build faster

If a section works (hero, proof, FAQ), save it as a row and reuse it.

Your look stays tight and your build time drops. This is the fastest way to ship more pages without losing quality.

“…if you like this section you could just go ahead and save this as a row and then… pull the row into any page…”

🟡 Coming Soon: Templates with matching order forms and FAQs

A library of professional templates is landing. Order forms will match the page, and FAQs are built in. Less fiddling. More shipping.

Keep an eye out as more styles appear.

“These are all beautiful templates that are going to be added to MintBird…”

🟡 Coming Soon: Mobile header improvements

Small-screen layouts are getting a dedicated header component so things line up by default. In the meantime, always preview on phone. 

Small spacing fixes can move your conversion more than big redesigns.

“…when I go to mobile… it’s not looking very good… we’re going to fix this part…”

✅ Per-domain unsubscribes keep relationships you’d otherwise lose

A reader can now leave one newsletter and still get another they asked for. That keeps trust high and complaints low. It also keeps your stats honest because each list tells its own story.

This pairs well with a purchase goal: once someone buys, they leave the sequence and don’t get more “buy now” emails for that offer.

👉 See the setup steps

“We got that done where people unsubscribe per domain, not per account… when you choose your domain, here’s your unsubscribes.”

“You’re trying to put somebody in a workflow and when they click a link and they buy… goal has been met, take them outside of the workflow.”

✅ Workflows and Broadcasts are now separate (planning is easier)

Sequences live in Workflows. One-off sends live in Broadcasts.

In a contact record you can see both, which makes it simple to troubleshoot who is getting what and why.

“Your workflows are separate from your broadcast… when you open up a contact record… you’re gonna see…”

🟡 Coming soon: sends, opens, and CTR by domain

You’ll see stats for sends, opens, and click-through by domain in one place. 

“After today (Friday) you’re going to see stats… sends… opens… CTRs.”

✅  Preview: Referral contests that actually spread

Keep it simple: one clear page, one main prize, and a small milestone reward. Example: 3-day hotel stay at 25 referrals and a local restaurant gift at 10.

Real, local rewards move people. Build two or three angles for the same contest (food lovers, families, weekend explorers).

Track signups by page and referrer. Kill the weak angle. Double the strong one. Run follow-ups in GC: welcome, halfway nudge, win note, and one more share.

When someone hits the goal tag, messages stop for them. Quiet, steady growth you can run every week. 👉 Get the playbook

“Create a contest… instant rewards versus prizes… I’m going to give one point for every single person that signed somebody up…”

“I’m able to create as many of these pages as I want to… link it to a contest…”

🟡 Coming soon: Reward integrations, a simple footer widget for your newsletter, and compliance helpers so you can launch faster without missing the basics.

✅  Live Titanium Event – Mid-September 2025 - Las Vegas, NV

Plans are in motion for a live event in mid-September with niche newsletters as a headline topic. Expect demos, workflow strategies, and ShareBirdy launches.

Wondering why small lists can beat big ones? This article explains the strategy and shows real-world examples.

🔥 Clean Setup + Real Local Relationships = A Newsletter People Trust (and a real asset).

We’re building more than a list. We’re building local media people rely on. That means two things move together. First, the setup: main domain, pages that index, clean sends that respect choice. Second, the human work: real ties with owners, chefs, managers, and readers. 

When both are in place, you stop looking like a hobby and start operating like the voice of your town.

Do the simple things that make you easy to find. Then show up for your community so they want to hear from you. That’s how you earn trust, attract sponsors, and grow into something buyers value: visible, dependable, and rooted in real relationships.

“Get to know your town. Get to know the chefs. Get to know the managers. Ask if you can take a picture... Manager comes over, owner comes over. I love your food. It's incredible. I'm here all the time. My name is Chad. This is Connie. We own West Valley Shoutouts. We're the big newsletter in the Summerlin area. We would love to feature your restaurant in our newsletter. Can we do that?”

“West Valley Shoutouts has connections... The reason why we went with West Valley is 'cause we wanted to reach a bigger region... if all the restaurants in your area, every single time you had a sponsored post, it was of this caliber, what would everybody reading your newsletter, what would they think? What would they think?... You're connected. You got connections. You are the man, you are the woman. You are working with the entire community.”

“Keep it in mind that local newsletters are getting acquired for anywhere from three to $5 million... You just need to go out there and have fun. Send out a newsletter once a week. Bring in advertisers, bring in sponsors... And then one day the whole town is gonna know who you are. They're just gonna come up to you and say, look, what do we gotta get? What do we gotta do to take you over?”

Why it matters:  Clean setup makes you easy to find and easy to trust.
Real relationships unlock better stories and better sponsors.
Weekly consistency compounds into brand, revenue, and real asset value.

🔮 What to Expect Next Week or Soon

Chad’s pushing a few simple upgrades that help us show up sooner and feel better for readers. The focus is on clearer pages that rank, smarter sending that respects choice, and easy ways for good newsletters to help each other grow without ads.

“We’re seeing H1, H2, H3… this is the final piece to getting you guys ranked.”

“We’re going to set up the ability to do your own co-reg… on the pages.”

“You’re going to see stats… sends… opens… CTRs.”

On deck

-Letterman: clearer headings (H1/H2/H3), subject-line split tests, open-based mailing, co-reg swapping between friendly newsletters, a simple footer widget, and a pass on sponsored-post formatting so those blocks read cleaner.

-Global Control: domain-level dashboard stats for sends, opens, and CTR so it’s easier to pace and prune without digging through reports.

-MintBird: more professional templates, order forms that match the page by default, a tighter mobile header, and campaign stats surfaced inside funnels so you can see what’s working while you build.

We’ll keep you posted as each of these lands. The idea is steady, low-friction wins that stack: pages that are easier to read and rank, sends that feel right, and small improvements you can use the same day they ship.

🖖 See you next week.

Real calls. Real updates. Zero guesswork.

-Brian

P.S. If you haven't been on one of Chad's weekly live calls yet, you should. They're packed with value and you can't beat this: they're free!

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