🛠 Titanium Times – Issue #21 (Week of September 15-19, 2025)

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✅ Publishers can auto-subscribe to other publications from the Directory

This is now live. Enter the email you want to use for publisher reading, then click the small envelope on any listing to subscribe. The envelope turns purple so you know it worked, and you’ll get that publication’s welcome email right away.

Use this to review how other local publishers do subject lines, layouts, and sponsor blocks—and as an easy way to swap ideas with each other. Curious how to set it up fast and what to look for in those emails?

 “You’re simply gonna come over here and click on this little envelope… you will be subscribed to your peers’ newsletters.”

“On the publication itself… you see the envelope icon on the top… when you click that, it turns purple and that means you have subscribed to it.”

“If I want to subscribe… I click here. It turns purple and now I’m subscribed… I’m going to get a welcome email.”

✅ Peer sign-ups are tracked separately from resident subscribers

This week the team separated “publisher-to-publisher” sign-ups from your main audience. When you subscribe to other publications from the Directory, those are counted as peers, not mixed with residents.

That keeps growth and engagement honest, so a burst of publisher testing doesn’t look like a local surge. It also makes sponsor talks cleaner because you can show true resident readership on its own.

“We’re gonna track these subscribers separately… They’re gonna be peer subscribers… and we are going to track your opens and clicks separately because they are peer opens and clicks.”

“There will be a radio button that says peers… that person will not be a part of regular subscribers… we’re going to separate your… contacts… from your peers.”

✅ Co-registration: Referral Widget now links your publications (one per publication)

This makes the co-reg flow practical for on-site signups. In Referral Widgets, create a separate widget for each publication, then assign it under Subscriber Settings. When someone joins from your articles, archives, or registration page, the widget can open and offer your other publications with one click.

For Lead Ads, you can send people to a thank-you URL today; the team is building a “magic URL” step so that page can open the widget with their email pre-filled, then redirect after submit.

Want the quick setup for today’s on-site flow? See these examples.

“You can either send ’em to a URL or you can send ’em to a referral widget… I’m going to choose the [pub] widget and save my settings.”
“From the lead ad we can send ’em to our URL… and we can for sure send ’em to the referral widget… when they submit the referral widget, we can redirect ’em wherever we want to.”

“We’re going to send them to a magic URL… grab the email… pull it back into the thank-you page… [so] that widget opens up…”

✅ /business page tags new sign-ups as business owners automatically

You can point local owners to a simple “/business” page for your publication. When they join there, Letterman adds them to your newsletter and tags them as business owners in one move.

That makes sponsor outreach and B2B follow-ups much easier later because the segment is clean from day one. If you want to dress the page up, you can add a short video, a testimonial, and a note about how sponsorships work—then keep improving the page over time.

“I can take my westvalleyshoutouts.com/business… anybody that comes through this page… we not only put ’em in the newsletter, but we tag ’em as a business owner.”

“It’s a full-blown page builder… we can keep adding to this.”

✅ A single “Today’s Sponsor” page you can update (coming soon)

Chad’s planning a simple page inside Letterman where you keep one stable URL for “Today’s Sponsor” and just swap the content when the sponsor changes.

You wouldn’t take payment on that page, you’d link out to the merchant (affiliate or partner) and get paid on their end.

Quick example: if you’re promoting Firstleaf (wine club), your sponsor block in the newsletter points to this one page; the page shows a short blurb and a friendly “Try Firstleaf” button that goes through your affiliate link.

When the sponsor changes next week, you update the same page instead of creating a new one.

Want more real-world sponsor-block examples (coffee, salon, local gym) you can copy? See these examples.

“How incredible would these pages be inside of Letterman… not MintBird… we’re not going to collect the money… we’re going to send them somewhere else… then they’re going to pay us.”

“So now all your banners… all of your articles, your thank-you page… can go to this page.”

“Today’s sponsor… have a rating down below, the pros, the cons… so it looks like we actually took the time to research it.”

✅ New calendar in GC is being tested; GC sets your hours and updates Google

Heads up: the GC calendar is already in a tester’s hands (Courtney got it earlier; the Tech Call was a check-in). The flow is simple: set your availability inside GC, and GC updates/blocks your Google Calendar from those hours.

It does not pull times from Gmail; GC is the source of truth. We’ll share more once testing settles, but this is the direction and it’s moving.

“Do you have an availability underneath your profile, Courtney? … I haven’t had a lot of time to look at this since we did it.” “Go to your profile. Availability… Set your availability… No, it won’t pull your Gmail calendar in. What this does is… when you set your availability, it blocks it out in Gmail.”

✅ Two-option polls are working in the demo (email to vote; live comments)

This week’s Tech Call showed the live poll screen: a big question, two choices, and a running tally. People must enter an email to vote or comment. The comment stream appears right under the poll, and you can seed a few “starter” comments to get things rolling.

Chad also said to expect a lot of subscribers when a local topic hits—so plan for spikes. He showed backend bits like firing a tag and white-label/meta setup, which points to a full platform coming together, not just a mockup.

“They’re going to see the big controversial question… how people have been voting.”

“Cast your vote to comment… They don’t get to vote… they don’t get to comment…”

“Starter comments down here just to get people going.”

“Be prepared for massive subscribers.”

“I can fire off a tag from here… we’ve set up the domains so it can be white-labeled… set up the meta…”

✅ Switch SMTP to SMTP.com (recommended)

Mailgun has been rough for many. SMTP.com has better support and is friendly to legit affiliate links. If you use SMTP.com tracking, set the “Default Tracking Domain” correctly so links redirect as expected. Sign-up link: https://chadnicely.com/smtp

“We’ve had fewer issues on SMTP.com… support is personal and it’s friendly to our use cases.”

Chad’s Vision - Two Big Ideas This Week:

🔥 Focus on revenue first (think like a real local media company)

Many of us avoid the money talk. That slows everything. Set a clear dollar goal for your publication and work backward.

Cover your daily ad spend with one simple affiliate offer. If you spend $25/day, pick an offer where one sale pays about $25. One sale = that day’s ads are covered. Now growth feels safe, because the ads can pay for themselves.

Price with confidence. You are giving local businesses a specific local audience that is hard to reach on their own. That is valuable. It’s okay to charge more than “cheap” rates.

Use your Chamber of Commerce. Ask if they’ll email all members to introduce your publication, with a member-only sponsor discount. That puts you in front of hundreds of owners in one move.

Want the nuts and bolts next: a beginner-friendly checklist for choosing a starter affiliate offer, a tiny “ads-paid-for” calculator, a chamber email script, and simple sponsor tier examples based on this week’s guidance? 

“Be focused on the money.”
“You can build a list for free if one action reimburses the day’s spend.”
“Join the chamber… get one of those broadcasts.”

🔥 Ship now, systemize after (don’t wait for perfect)

Planning helps, but publishing wins. Ship something small today; improve it tomorrow.

Treat Letterman as a content system. Write one or two short, useful articles first. Then assemble your weekly newsletter from those pieces in minutes. That rhythm keeps you consistent.

Put a button on the page so people can act.

Examples: “Try Firstleaf” (affiliate), “Book a free consult” (local service), “Become a sponsor,” or “Get the weekend guide.” No button = no way to buy or book.

Use tools that speed the first version. OfferMint (when available) to draft a starter page fast. Referral Widget (post-signup) to turn one new reader into a few more. Share Birdie (coming) to spark quick list growth with polls.

Want a step-by-step “ship-today” plan drawn from this week: two-article workflow, first-button wording you can paste, and a simple weekly cadence to reuse? 

“Letterman is a content system—create pieces, then assemble the newsletter.”

“There’s no way for the universe to pay you if there’s no button on the page.”

“Consistency beats perfect. Ship, learn, iterate.

🔮 What to Expect Next Week or Soon

That’s a wrap for this week.

On the near horizon: the magic URL handoff from Lead Ads to the Referral Widget, the Directory Top 10 so the most active publications rise to the top, and more details on ShareBirdy as development approaches production. 

Chad’s also pushing the single “Today’s Sponsor” page inside Letterman, and the MintBird launch prep is underway.

Looking a bit ahead: OfferMint pre-launch starts Oct 16 with a light version, and the main launch follows on Oct 21. We’ll share screens and simple steps as those pieces land. 

🖖 See you next week.

Real calls. Real updates. Zero guesswork.

-Brian

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