Why I Chose beehiiv for The Next Chapter.
I didn’t need another email marketing platform. I wanted a place to build an audience I actually own.
The Next Chapter is a weekly note about what I’m building and learning across business, technology, investing, and life between Seattle and Tucson. beehiiv is where I publish it and keep that relationship with readers.
A publication, not another CRM.
The question wasn’t “Which platform has the most features?” It was “Where should an ongoing relationship with readers live?”
For The Madrona Group, HighLevel does a different job: contacts, lead routing, automation and follow-up inside an operating business. The Next Chapter needed a home for an editorial publication—an email people choose to receive because they want to hear what I’m working through.
I’m using both, without asking either one to become the other.
What I’m building with it.
One useful note a week. Not a daily funnel, a recycled sales email or a promise that I’ve figured everything out.
Building in public
Business, technology, the systems I use, what I’m testing, and what I would do differently.
Seattle + Tucson
Two places that shape my work, relationships, real-estate experience and view of what comes next.
What earns its place
Products and services I actually use, with context and clear disclosure when a recommendation has a commercial relationship.
The setup was a sequence, not a switch.
I chose a place for the publication, then worked outward until the experience was consistent from the site to the inbox.
- Create The Next Chapter publication.
- Apply the Jason Fox brand and email design.
- Connect newsletter.jasonfox.me.
- Configure the sending domain and authentication.
- Set up branded links and check SSL.
- Place subscribe forms on JasonFox.me.
- Write the welcome email and explain the promise.
- Publish, then learn from the real reader experience.
It wasn’t just “turn it on.”
The writing is the visible part. The DNS and email details are what make the experience actually work.
Connecting the web domain, adding the right DNS records, authenticating the sending domain, and waiting for branded-link SSL all required care. Then the forms needed to be tested from the site, not merely saved in a dashboard.
My rule: “Connected” isn’t the finish line. I want to use the page, receive the email, click the links and see the welcome message arrive as intended.
If you want a plug-and-play tool with no domain or email setup, this part may feel tedious. It’s also the work that gives the publication a proper home.
The important questions are still ahead.
I chose the platform before I had an audience to move into it. It’s early, and I don’t want to confuse a clean setup with a proven publication. I’ll update this page as I find out what holds up.
- Can I publish consistently?
- Will readers stick around?
- Will JasonFox.me turn search traffic into subscribers?
- Will the newsletter become an asset instead of another weekly obligation?
Useful for an audience. Not every email job.
beehiiv makes sense when…
You want to publish consistently, grow a readership around your point of view and keep an archive that belongs to the publication. You care about a recognizable sending identity and a clear reader experience.
I would look elsewhere when…
Your main job is lead routing, sales pipelines, transactional follow-up or brokerage automation. That is why I still use HighLevel for the operational side of The Madrona Group.
Neither tool makes the other unnecessary. The question is whether you’re running a publication, a business follow-up system, or both.
Audience is one part of the system.
The newsletter connects the ideas on JasonFox.me to an ongoing conversation. The website holds the deeper work. The tools support that relationship; they aren’t the reason it exists.