Start from scratch and add things yourself

Not every platform has an automatic migration path yet, and sometimes you just want a clean start. Either way, you can build up a publication by hand: start from scratch, then import your subscribers and add your posts yourself.

When to use this

• Your old platform isn't on the guides by platform list yet (Ghost, Kit, Kajabi, Kessel, and Tumblr aren't wired up for automatic migration today).
• Your platform's guide only brings across public posts or only subscribers, and you have the other kind to add too.
• You'd rather start clean and bring things over selectively.

Add your subscribers

1. Go to Studio > Audience > Subscribers on your publication. (Audience is a folder: Subscribers is its first page, and Segments the second.)
2. Choose Import subscribers. (From anywhere in Studio, Create > Import subscribers opens the same window.)
3. Paste emails directly (comma-separated, up to 1,000 at a time) or upload a CSV file (up to 100,000 rows).
4. Tell us where these subscribers came from in Where are these subscribers from? - this is also where you confirm they actually opted in. The list holds about fifty platforms, in alphabetical order, then Other newsletter platform and Other. It is the same list as in the migration form and the partners program. It is a label for your records: your file is read by its own columns (see below), whatever you pick.
5. In Label everyone in this import (optional) you can pick a label to put on everyone in the import, a pasted list or a file. If the label you want doesn't exist yet, New label in the same menu makes it right there.
6. Submit. You'll be notified once the import finishes; you can check back any time with the previous imports button, next to Import subscribers.

Only import subscribers who knowingly consented and opted into your newsletter - false claims here violate Peakub's Terms of Service and can lead to immediate termination of service.

What your file should look like

Under the file field, the window explains the file. A CSV file is a table saved as text: one subscriber per row, the first row naming the columns.

• email is the only required column. Without any email column, nothing is imported and the window tells you to name the column holding the addresses "email".
• name is optional (first and last name columns work too), and tags (or labels) too, see below.
• The usual column names of other tools are recognised: Email Address, E-mail, First Name, Last Name and so on. Other columns are left aside.
• Rows without a valid address are skipped, and an address that appears twice is imported once.
• Before anything is imported, each address is checked. One that is malformed, that belongs to a throwaway-mail service, or whose domain has no mail server is left out and counted as skipped in the import's summary, because it would only bounce on your first send and hurt your sending reputation. Addresses such as info@ or contact@ are kept. The same check applies when you migrate from another platform.

An export from Mailchimp, from Substack (its email list file) or from beehiiv is recognised by its columns, whatever platform you picked, and read as it is. In those files, and in any file with a status, an unsubscribe date or an "active" column, the people who left are kept in your list but are never sent to. If the platform you picked doesn't match what the file looks like, Peakub reads the file for what it is, and the difference is only recorded on the import.

Label subscribers from the file

If your CSV has a column named tags (or labels), each value becomes a label on that row's subscriber. Put several in one cell by separating them with commas, semicolons or vertical bars, for example VIP; podcast, up to 20 per row. A label that doesn't exist in your publication yet is created for you.

What happens after the import

Imported subscribers start as Invited: they're in your list but haven't been active yet. You can find them with the Imported, not yet active template in Segments.

When you send a newsletter, Peakub emails invited subscribers gradually, to protect your publication's sending reputation: on the first day you send to them, up to 200 get the piece, then up to 400 the next day, then 800, and so on, doubling each day, until each has had one email. The ones left over don't get that piece, and the next piece tries again. Subscribers who are already active are never held back.

Add your posts

There's no bulk import for posts outside a full platform migration - add each one from the editor:

1. Go to Studio on your publication.
2. At the bottom of the left menu, open Create and choose Article.
3. Paste or write your post's content, then publish it the way you would any other post on Peakub.

After you're done

See the Migration hub for transferring your custom domain and what to do next.