š Starting Points
Starting a newsletter is almost as popular now as investing in NFTās, but Iāve been delaying it for months (years?).
As an online writer, Iām not new to the act of sharing my ideas with an audience, but the lack of consistency in my publishing schedule always made me have second thoughts about finally start a weekly conversation with someone.
I also believe that there are so many newsletters out there that launching another one to the digital sphere should be a well-pondered decision.
Check out this art piece Iāve tweeted a few weeks ago on this subject:
If Iāll ever mint anything into an NFT, this will be it!
Another reason for only starting now this newsletter is that I wasnāt sure how to do it. I donāt mean technically (thatās figureoutable), but what style should I use. Should I aim to be more friendly or more formal? Using humor or going statistical frenzy? That was the kind of stuff that was on my mind.
Then something happened. I got 1 subscriber.
Looks ridiculous, right? Having 1 subscriber! But you know what? Itās actually a blessing!
Do you know that common advice for writers saying you should create a fictional reader and write with him in mind? Well, mine doesnāt have to be fictional! So thank you, Stephen Samuel, this first edition of SOAK is dedicated to you.
And what a better audience than this cool Aussie guy that lives in the Dja Dja Wurrung lands and travels on his converted Sprinter van called āVincent Vangoā?
Thank you mate, couldnāt have imagined a better start!
š§½ What Iām Soaking In
This is week 2 of David Perellās Write of Passage, Cohort 7, the course that promises to teach you how to become a prolific writer and a citizen of the internet, but that delivers much more than that.
Saying that this course has been transformative is an understatement.
Since Iāve joined this Cohort my whole vision about writing has changed. More than the technics and writing aspects that are taught during the course, the relationships that are been built amongst the participants are beyond what I could imagine - and I was coming with high expectations on that field.
Amazing people from so diverse backgrounds, sharing and helping, learning and teaching, gathering synergies that are making the world a better place by allowing us to create and show our ideas, and if that doesnāt make the world better, at least it makes it more beautiful, and for me that counts as an improvement.
š¦ Soaking Up Knowledge
This week the Youtube video from Noah Kagan fit like a glove to what Iām living right now. He talks about how we can retire in the next 12 to 24 months.
Besides the personal finance tips that he gives throughout the video, the part that most resonated with me was when he talked about the importance of choosing the right people to be around you (click here if you want to go directly to this part).
Iām feeling this with the people from Cohort 7 of Write of Passage, so this video was a nice moment of serendipity.
āļø Writing
This week I published one article about how to live through adversity. Hereās a quick snippet:
You should keep moving on despite any weaknesses and adversities because the moment you allow yourself to become a victim is the moment you hand out the control of your life and lose the ability to move forward by yourself.
Iāve also updated my website and started this newsletter, so it was a good week for me.
Speaking of the newsletter, if you havenāt yet, hit this button and make my day! š
āļø Fun Trivia
If you ever started a blog or a newsletter, you probably have seen the generic text in Latin exemplifying how your own words will be presented when published on that medium.
The text starts like this:
āLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.ā
I knew that this generic text is used to show the visual form of a document or a typeface without revealing meaningful content. But what Iāve learned was that this phrase has been used for several centuries by typographers and still is today by publishers and graphic designers.
According to Wikipedia, the Lorem ipsum wording is a corrupted version of a text from Cicero, which has been deliberately altered to make it nonsensical.
I find it interesting that a nonsensical text survived the test of time, while many literary works will have been lost over the centuries. š
š² Revenue
Thereās not a lot of people openly talking about how much money they make through their online businesses, and thereās even less doing it when theyāre starting out and making literally pocket change. But Iām going to do that, and Iāll do it for 3 reasons:
I see money as a tool and not as something sacred, so I never had problems talking about my financial life.
Writing publicly about it can push me to work harder to get better results.
It might help somebody to have an honest view of how it is to start from zero.
I believe in building in public, and thatās what Iāll be doing.
I wonāt go into every tiny detail because that might be boring, and I wonāt disclose information about clients, but Iāll show my revenues related to my online writing.
In earlier September I received USD 5.18 from Medium, referent to August reads. Iāve published 4 articles that month.
There were times when I would be embarrassed by sharing this number, but right now Iām actually proud. Iām doing something that I love and Iām getting paid to do it, the amount is just a detail and itās in my power to make it significantly higher.
š„ MVP of the Week
Itās frequent to have people making a positive impact on my life and whenever that happens I like to mention it, and this time the choice is easy.
Stephen Samuel, you represent to me the more than 300 amazing people that are taking this journey along with me in Write of Passage and you will be forever remembered as subscriber #1 of SOAK. You can count on free membership for life! š¤£
š And this is it, the first issue of SOAK is done. I believe it took me about 5 hours from start to finish, including the time to create the banner!
This has been a lot of fun, and I hope I was able to deliver some value to you. If not, bear with me, I will get better. š
If you have any comments or critiques, please share them with me, I would love to read them.
Thank you for doing this with me, I hope Iāll see you next week!
-Danny