Top 5 Things to Know About Best of The Austinot, or BOTA for Short

Everyone and their mother’s dog has an email newsletter these days. So it shouldn’t be so surprising that we do too. It’s called Best of The Austinot and it’s pretty new.

Then again, The Austinot is pretty brand-spankin’ new itself.

Not gonna lie. I really want you to sign up for Best of The Austinot. But I have some good reasons.

Here are the top 5 things you should know about BOTA (ooh, I just made that up and I like it!):

@theAustinot @SaintsofValory I usually only win free hot pockets from the local homeless man, so this is a big step up. <pats self> hooray!

— Kelsey Love (@PagingDrLove1) July 12, 2012

We give stuff away. In our two issues of BOTA so far, we’ve given away three pairs of tickets to Fire Fest, and one pair of tickets to see Saints of Valory play at Stubb’s. (No, we won’t always give away music tickets, but cut us some slack. This is Austin, folks.)
We love it when you hit “reply.” One of the things that’s really important to us at The Austinot is you, our reader. We like to prove it by replying to your comments, replying to your tweets, and generally being as accessible as we can. For example, we have a contact form on our blog. Sometimes, people send in blank forms. I don’t know why – maybe they’re robot spammers or they’re pulling my leg. But I always reply to blank contact forms, just in case. The same is true for Best of The Austinot. We love it when you reply to share your thoughts or questions, or point us in the direction of the millionth coolest thing that Austin has to offer. And you’ll always hear back from a real person.
We help you plan ahead. Because Austin is just that awesome, we Austinites face some unique and troublesome issues. First, we can’t pick what to go to. There’s just too much choose from at all times, even on Tuesday nights. Then there’s that other problem. The heart-crunching moment when your friend casually mentions that your favorite band came through town two nights ago, but of course you knew that already. Yes, it’s happened to all of us. With Best of The Austinot, we do our best to round up upcoming events and steer you in the right direction. It’s like having your very own personal assistant.
Example of our don’t-miss article section

We do your reading for you. Don’t tell me you’re that kid in college who always has the assigned reading done before class. If you are, I’ll have you write BOTA for me. Why? Because the other thing we use Best of The Austinot for is to collect our best articles and send them your way. We get that you can’t visit our blog every day. But we think you’d really like to know about hidden cafes and unique farmer’s markets. Instead of blasting you for your time management, we’ll just help you out by including our don’t-miss posts in Best of The Austinot.
Your free subscriptions really help us out. Many of you may not know that The Austinot is a two-person show. Eric and I love the city and writing about it, but it does take a lot of work! Subscribing to Best of The Austinot is free, and your support helps us gain sponsorships that will ultimately keep our doors open. You won’t receive BOTA issues from us more than every other week, and we’ll never share your email addresses with anyone.