Shipping updates, a shift in newsletter analytics, and a design deadline worth checking today.
Running a creative business means keeping an eye on the details that can affect your customers, your income, and your next opportunity. Today’s updates cover all three—with a few practical steps to help you get back to making things.
Printify: Check your orders—and your shipping margins
If you have orders headed to parts of the Gulf, Southeast, or Western United States, take a look at their tracking today.
Printify’s October 14 notice warns of possible USPS processing, transportation, and delivery delays in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.
There’s also a pricing update: Printify’s $0.40 surcharge is now active on every order with a US destination address, across all shipping methods. It runs through January 17, 2027. Printify’s official fulfillment updates
Your next move: Review tracking for orders going to the affected states. If delivery estimates change, give customers a clear update. Then check whether your current prices leave room for the surcharge, especially on products with narrow margins.
Substack: Your engagement numbers may shift without losing readers
A change in your newsletter dashboard doesn’t always mean a change in your audience.
For emails sent after October 14, 2026, Substack no longer records email opens from subscribers currently in France or Italy. Those subscribers are excluded from open-rate calculations rather than counted as non-openers.
Your recorded open counts may decrease, and your open rate may shift. Filters, segments, and subscriber ratings that rely on email opens may also make these readers appear less active than they are. Previously recorded opens remain intact. Substack’s explanation of open tracking
Your next move: Pause before removing “inactive” subscribers or targeting a campaign solely by opens. Look at other available signals, such as clicks, replies, and paid subscriptions, to give those decisions more context.
A reader can still be showing up for your work even when the dashboard can’t capture it.
Threadless: The Analog challenge closes tomorrow
If you’ve been sitting on an idea for Threadless’s Analog design challenge, it’s time to finish it.
The submission window opened September 18 and closes October 16, 2026, at 23:59:59. First prize includes $1,250 cash and a $250 gift code.
An Artist Shop is required to enter; Threadless says one will be created automatically during submission if you don’t already have one. The closing-time listing doesn’t clearly specify a timezone, so submit early. Read the brief and submission details
Your next move: Open the brief, check your design against the requirements, and leave yourself enough time to complete the submission. If your idea is nearly ready, today is a good day to get it out the door.