52 - Hindsight is 2020
My first post for this newsletter was August 1st, 2019, and I'm pretty surprised that we've got here - (just over) 52 weeks later, and a whole heap of crap has happened since! Thank you so much for your continued patronage - I'm super thankful for all the support you've given me . Every email you send or any time you mention a post in person (or virtually) - it means the world to me!
Some quick stats
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I've written ~68k words for this newsletter across 52 posts, for an average of about 1300 words per post. That's like an entire Year 10 English essay, every week!
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As of August 3rd, 2020, I have 70 subscribers - 22 of whom are 'stale' subscribers (i.e. haven't read the last 3 posts). It's fine - a whole heap of them go to spam so I understand :D
Subscriber growth over time:
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This bump was due to the first Instagram post I posted about the newsletter, I think about 2 or 3 weeks after I first posted!
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I have no idea what happened in April of this year - was I just on a busy project and didn't really promote the newsletter? Or maybe I've hit saturation point with my friends ^^
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This one is wholly credited to my work friends, who were able to bring it up in a team meeting while I wasn't there and get nearly the whole team signed up. THANKS FRIENDS.
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A breakdown of my subscribers by groups - over half from Deloitte, and a quarter from high school.
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Best post in terms of:
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Opened by the most people: 51 - A peek behind the curtain and 46 - Change my mind (41 subscribers opened) - not surprising that these are more recent, as I have more subscribers now!
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Total number of opens: 37 - Why I don't eat seaweed (197 times) - fascinating! A much more personal story accompanied by cute Vince pictures? Not sure why people kept going back to it and opening it so many times, but it was a hella strong showing...
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Open rate: 06 - Efficiency and content (88%) - most likely because this was the second time (?) I'd posted on Instagram, and was when I had a lot smaller base of people. Also it was a controversial topic about speeding up videos when I watch them so let's open that can of worms again, shall we?
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Survey findings
Thank you to those who have provided insights into what they liked and didn't like! Some top findings:
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Personal stories, educational content and random ideas were the most interesting category of posts - I wasn't surprised by the personal stories part (especially that those with pictures did really well), but I was really surprised by the random ideas posts - I really enjoy writing them though so that's good to know that others enjoy it too - I might do these types of things more often!
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Boardgame posts (and games in general) were the ones people found uninteresting - thank you for indulging me this year! I promise in the next year to only post something regarding boardgames if I find the right angle for it. Max 1 post :D
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Most of you read on mobile - so I'm going to keep trying to optimise for mobile. This will include better UX, which a few people mentioned! I found there were a few quick quality-of-life changes I could make in the editor, which I'll try to look at implementing.
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On a numeric scale, Real Life Recommendations (4.6) and Adventures on the Internet Super-Highway (4.0) had pretty high scores, which I'll use as a baseline for now. I'm going to experiment with some new sections and see what sticks - look out for them!
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Regarding a premium tier, most people wanted to have the ability to vote and suggest on future posts. I'll look into what that might look like, and how I might implement it. I don't want it to be too onerous; something easy you guys can vote on and suggest new things for.
I'm going to keep the survey open - it was fascinating reading your answers so keep them coming!
My own thoughts
I'm happy. There aren't a lot of projects in my life that I can keep at for such a long time, and that shows me that my life-long ambitions of being a writer are just fighting their way out. I do want to make a more concerted effort to get better at writing though - using more eloquent phrasing, better vocabulary and thinking more about the messaging of these posts.
I thought about splitting up personal posts for the newsletter, and then educational/explainer type content on a separate blog - but I don't think I'll have enough time to organise this all yet.
I've got a few new sections that I want to put down below, and I'm going to experiment with them slowly so that this doesn't bloat up - please be patient while the format changes and experiments occur over the next few weeks/months!
I'm still unsure what the end-state of this looks like. I used to fantasize that somehow I'd start writing about incredibly interesting and valuable things, get picked up by a bigger blog somewhere, and rise to stardom within a year! Alas, it hasn't happened yet, and truthfully I'm happy about that. I like knowing that people I like know more about me - that's enough for me ^^
Hope you're all staying safe, keeping healthy, and finding fun things to do during this iso-period in our lives - what a time to be alive!
Chat soon :)
✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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The best exercise is the one you do regularly - Make sure you're keeping up with whatever exercise you're doing - doing something is better than nothing! Something that I've been trying to remind myself as the days go on :)
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Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Headphones - these have been absolute lifesavers for me on my walks - I listen to podcasts, music and videos at home or on walks, and they are super comfortable, super great at noise cancelling and easy to use. I know there are probably better, cheaper headphones, but these are mine and I love them.
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Motes of Indecision - this is a writing blog I started based solely on exercises for writing fiction. I think I might start this up again (or something like it) and link them through this newsletter as required
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Junc - I haven't shared this with anyone after I archived it - but it's a snapshot of history, when I was writing a personal blog in like...Year 10 or 11 onwards? Half the posts are 'I should really post more' HAHA it's hilarious to read through after so long. Definitely has echoes of what I write about these days as well...!
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How to Market Yourself (without being a celebrity) - written from the perspective of a dev, but still has lots of nice tidbits for careers! Choice quote:
I know exactly what parts of me spark interest and conversation. Therefore I can sustain interest and conversation longer, and people know when to call on me. You should keep a list too - know your strengths and unfair advantages.