One of the top questions I get asked on social media is deceptively simple: "How do you keep up with everything happening in your industry?"

It’s a big question: especially in AI where the pace is unrelenting! I envy y’all in slower industries.

People assume I spend hours each day trawling through websites, newsletters, and Twitter feeds. They imagine me meticulously bookmarking articles and taking detailed notes.

Ha! I’m far too lazy and disorganised!

The truth? I barely spend 15 minutes a day on content consumption.

"Systems," I tell them. "I don't keep up with everything—my systems do."

Setting up these systems initially takes a couple of hours, especially if you're new to the tools involved. But they'll save you hundreds if not thousands of hours moving forward. More importantly, they ensure you never miss valuable content that could benefit your audience.

Let's get started:

The Complete Atomic Newsletter System

Before diving into the details, let's map out the entire system we're building over this five-part series:

1. Content Capture (Part 2 - Today) We'll set up automated feeds that collect potential content from key industry sources and store them in a central database.

2. Content Filtering (Part 3) We'll implement AI processing to analyse incoming content, create summaries, and help identify the most valuable pieces.

3. Selection & Formatting (Part 4) We'll establish an efficient workflow for reviewing pre-filtered content, adding your unique perspective, and formatting the newsletter.

4. Publication & Growth (Part 5) We'll set up the final steps of getting your newsletter into beehiiv and strategies for building your subscriber base.

Importantly: this entire system is designed with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach. The goal is to get a working system up and running quickly that you can refine over time as you gather real-world feedback and results. Not perfect: done.

Today, we're focusing on that crucial first step: capturing high-quality content efficiently. Then we’ll start to layer on components from there.

Deciding Your Newsletter Type

Before setting up any tools or systems, you need to decide what type of atomic newsletter you'll be creating. This decision is critical because it determines everything from the sources you'll monitor to the way you'll structure your commentary.

Hopefully your research yesterday has given you some ideas already. If not here are some potential starting points.

There are three main types of atomic newsletters that work particularly well in B2B contexts:

1. The Industry Radar

Focus: Breaking news and developments in your industry Value proposition: Keeping busy professionals informed of important changes Example: "Daily Cyber Alert" - A quick take on the most significant cybersecurity news each day along with a link to the full article you’ve curated.

Content example:

"Australia's new cybersecurity regulations take effect today. While the compliance burden is real, the biggest opportunity lies in the standardised reporting framework—it finally gives mid-market firms a clear benchmark for their security posture."

2. The Resource Curator

Focus: Valuable tools, reports, guides, and content Value proposition: Finding the signal in the noise; showcasing only the most valuable resources Example: "FinTech Finds" - One exceptional resource for financial technology professionals each day

Content example:

"NIST just updated their incident response framework for the first time in three years. The changes to the 'Recovery' phase are particularly noteworthy for financial services firms. Download it here [link]."

3. The Tactical Advisor

Focus: Practical tips and actionable advice Value proposition: Quick wins and immediate application Example: "Marketing Minute" - One implementable marketing tactic you can apply today

Content example:

"Take 5 minutes today to check which third-party apps have access to your company's Google Workspace. Go to Admin Console > Security > API Controls. You'll likely find abandoned integrations that should be revoked immediately."

For most B2B creators, one of these three frameworks will be the sweet spot. While you can occasionally mix approaches, having a clear primary focus makes your newsletter more distinctive and helps you build a reputation in that specific niche.

Also

Matching Content Sources to Your Newsletter Type

Once you've decided on your basic newsletter type, it's time to select the right sources to monitor. Different newsletter types require different source priorities:

For Industry Radar Newsletters:

• Trade publications and news sites specific to your industry

• Regulatory body announcements

• Company newsrooms (especially industry leaders)

• Industry analysts and research firms

• Twitter accounts that break the news first

For Resource Curator Newsletters:

• Industry blogs with in-depth analysis

• Research and white-paper repositories

• Tool and service directories

• Academic and professional journals

• Conference presentations and slide decks

• Tool/software websites like ProductHunt

For Tactical Advisor Newsletters:

• Expert blogs and thought leaders

• How-to content and tutorial sites

• Youtube Videos from reputable creators

• Forums and community discussions

• Product documentation and updates

• Case studies and success stories

This alignment between your newsletter type and content sources is crucial. If you're running a Tactical Advisor newsletter but only monitoring news sites, you'll constantly struggle to find the right kind of content. Align the content to the output!

For each source type, make a list of 3-5 specific sources that consistently publish the kind of content that aligns with your chosen format. Quality matters more than quantity here—it's better to have three excellent, reliable sources than ten mediocre ones.

Too many sources and we’ll just flood ourselves! Start basic and low volume for now and as we get a handle on the system we can scale.

Building Your Content Database in Google Sheets

The first step in our system is to create a simple database to store all your potential newsletter content. We'll use Google Sheets for this because it's free, widely accessible, and integrates easily with automation tools.

This is deliberately a basic setup to get you started. Later, you could migrate to more sophisticated tools like Airtable or a custom database if needed, but Google Sheets is perfect for our MVP approach.

Here's how to set it up:

1. Create a new Google Sheet and name it something like "Newsletter Content Database."

2. Set up the following columns:
   • Date Added
   • Source
   • Category (News, Resource, or Tactical)
   • Title
   • URL
   • Publication Date
   • Full Content (this will contain the actual article text)
   • Status (New, To Process, Processed, Selected, Published, Rejected)
   • Notes (for your own comments)

The "Status" column is particularly important as it will be the trigger for our filtering system in Part 3 and our newsletter creation in Part 4. Initially, all new items will have a "New" status. Don’t worry too much about this for now - we’ll loop back!

1. Create a second sheet in the same Google Sheets file called "Sources." This will help you keep track of what you're monitoring. Include columns for:
   • Source Name
   • URL
   • Source Type (RSS, Twitter, Email, etc.)
   • Category (News, Resource, Tactical)
   • Active (Yes/No)

This simple database will be the central repository for all your potential newsletter content. Now let's fill it with content automatically.

Setting Up Your Automated Content Collection

With your database ready, it's time to set up automated content collection using Zapier. This will fetch new content from your selected sources and add it directly to your Google Sheet without any manual effort.

Here's how to set it up:

1. Create a free Zapier account if you don't already have one.

2. Create a new Zap and select the "RSS" app as your trigger.

3. Choose "New Item in Feed" as the trigger event and enter the RSS feed URL from one of your chosen sources. For example:
   • Industry Radar: https://www.darkreading.com/rss.xml (cybersecurity news)
   • Resource Curator: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/rss.xml (technical resources)
   • Tactical Advisor: https://www.troyhunt.com/rss/ (practical security advice)

4. Set the frequency to check for new items. Zapier's free plan will check every 15 minutes. That’s fine for most needs.

5. Add a "Google Sheets" action as the next step. Connect your Google account when prompted.

6. Configure the Google Sheets action to add a new row to your "Newsletter Content Database" spreadsheet whenever a new RSS item is detected.

7. Map the fields from the RSS feed to your spreadsheet columns. The crucial fields to capture include:
   • Title -> Title column
   • Link -> URL column
   • Publication date -> Publication Date column
   • Source name -> Source column (you'll need to enter this manually in the Zapier setup)
   • Full content -> Full Content column (this is critical - we need the actual article text)
   • Category -> Category column (enter your newsletter type)
   • Current date/time -> Date Added column
   • "New" -> Status column

For Twitter sources, use the Twitter trigger instead and be sure to capture:

• Tweet text -> Full Content column

• Tweet URL -> URL column

• User name -> Source column

• Media (if any) -> Notes column

• Hashtags -> Notes column

1. Test your Zap to make sure it's working properly, then turn it on.

Repeat this process for each of your key sources. If some don't offer RSS feeds, Zapier has triggers for Twitter, email parsers, and web monitoring that can accomplish similar results with a bit more setup. You can also create your own RSS feeds using a tool like https://rss.app/

Note: this is exactly the type of Automation you could build inside our AI Automation Accelerator.

What's Next?

By now, you should have:

1. Decided on your atomic newsletter type

2. Identified the right sources based on that type

3. Set up automated content collection with Zapier

4. Created a content database in Google Sheets

This gives you a daily menu of potential items that align with your chosen newsletter focus. That’s all for now - we’re chunking this project down as much as possible.

But as your sources grow, so will the volume of potential content—and that's where the next challenge lies. How do you efficiently sort through dozens of items each day to find the perfect one for your newsletter?

In Part 3, we'll add an AI layer to your system that will help filter the signal from the noise. We'll use AI to analyse, summarise, and rank potential content items based on your newsletter type, making your daily selection process even more efficient.

We'll also look at how to ensure your atomic newsletter maintains a consistent voice and value proposition, even when the underlying content comes from diverse sources.