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Why I started Perchology

Posted on by Clive Walker in Perch

I wrote this post a while back. The content can still be relevant but the information I've linked to may not be available.

Update July 2020: I have moved the newsletter to the Perchology.com domain and I'm no longer using Curated. Nothing wrong with Curated, I used it for over three years, but it was time for a change for me.


I have a new side project called Perchology which is an email newsletter with links and resources about Perch CMS1.

It’s the first time that I have started a side project without a website. Well, not quite, but it’s only a simple site2. And the main activity of Perchology depends on a third-party app, called Curated.

I came across Curated when I signed up for CSS Layout News, another newsletter (by Rachel Andrew). After viewing a video seminar about Curated, I had a much better idea of how it worked and signed up for a free trial. It does a fantastic job for a newsletter where the author is collecting links and sending them out every week. More about Curated in another post.

I have wanted to do 'something in the Perch community' for a while.

Anyway, I have wanted to do 'something in the Perch community' for a while. The newsletter coalesced a few ideas around that.

Here's are the main objectives for the newsletter:

  1. To learn and read more about Perch. I figured that I’m not the only person here :-)
  2. To highlight the work of Perchers3 building sites and developing new add-ons or code snippets.
  3. To promote aspects of Perch that (I think) need more exposure.
  4. To generate opportunities for me (perhaps).

Of course, for 1) I could use a bookmarking app to collect links about Perch for ‘reading later’. The trouble is that ‘reading later’ means I don’t! I’ve tried many bookmarking apps, believe me! So, the added incentive of a newsletter means that I invest more time researching and reading links. It’s working.

For 2), there is some great work being done on Perch projects but it needs more places where it can be collected together and exposed to a bigger audience.

For 3), there are aspects of Perch that I like a lot so I want to promote these.

And 4), I'm not sure if Perchology will generate opportunities for me but it would be nice if it did.

How Is Perchology So Far?

I’m enjoying it. And I have received some great feedback about the newsletter. And people have been very supportive. Many thanks!

Moving forward, I need to be a bit more active with Perchology on Twitter to get more subscribers but I’m pleased with sign-ups in the first few weeks.

And, I’ve learned new things about Perch. Hopefully, newsletter readers have as well!

Subscribe to Perchology


  1. Perchology is independent of Perch themselves but it has their support. ↩︎
  2. I should do more with the site, I know, but that may come later. ↩︎
  3. People working with Perch :-) ↩︎
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