You already write about the right things

Photo by Adam McCoid on Unsplash

In this newsletter:

35at35 update

Why you should keep writing what you’re writing about

New Section (I’ll make sure this one is permanent): What’s Next.

Public Ideation on what I’m building next. Let’s see if you like these.

Let’s get started! If you haven’t already, please:

On April 21, I started the 35at35 challenge as a search for something that doesn’t exist.

Let me explain.

Growth in 2022 and 2023 plummeted for me, so I thought it was time to change things. But which one of the above topics should I focus on? I wrote anything from freelancing to writing, through programming and occasionally some JavaScript. I couldn’t decide. So I took inspiration from other Twitter writing challenges, and 35at35 was born.

I was giving regular updates through my newsletter here and here.

35at35 update

Here are the numbers for the challenge from this week. I made one change compared to last week that negatively affected the numbers. I stopped writing threads only and experimented with atomic essays - long-form texts in pictures. They didn’t go well.

Summary: the thread with the least views last week had 1.6K views. The only thread this week got 1.9K views in total, and this was my highest-viewed tweet during the weekdays.

Two problems I found with the atomic essay method:

1. they are inconvenient to read (to me)

2. you have to do two things

   1. make people click the picture

   2. make them read and like the thing

With threads or single tweets, you always focus only on the next tweet. If you get in one like or reply only on the first tweet, that’s already something.

I’ll continue the challenge to see how it ends, but I’ll cut back to two threads a week instead 5 – I realize it was too much.

The worst thing that can happen is that I get a little better at writing threads.

You already write about the right things

As much as I tried to shape what I’m writing about the next week based on last week’s data, I was drawn to subjects I’m inherently interested in. Books I was reading or things I was thinking about.

For example, I wrote very few freelancing threads because I’ve refused freelancing opportunities for the past few weeks. I’m developing a different pricing model and a product for my agency, which requires projection, new copies, and a new website.

So naturally, I didn’t think as much about freelancing, so it didn’t occur to me to write about it.

The same goes for JavaScript. My weekly hours are between 20 and 30, which usually means I work some before launch and have the entire afternoon and evening for whatever I want to do.

So no programming topics either.

These led me to my first realization:

I won’t write about stuff I’m not actively thinking about or working with. I could, but it wouldn’t be honest - if that’s a thing in social media. I could compile the 10 best features in the latest ChatGPT update thread and would have 1k likes, but I couldn’t care less about attracting an easily amused audience.

The second thing I have to admit is when I’m productive.

Even if I had all the time in the world, I’d be getting most of the stuff done in the morning, when I’m usually the most productive. These newsletters are the results of writing sprints between 7 and 8 AM. I also tried to do some writing activities in the afternoon for a few days, right after work and my launch break, but who am I kidding? I was browsing Twitter.

To me, writing is the true side hustle.

What’s Next

Agency

I’ve been freelancing with two long-term clients since 2015. Last year my solo agency crossed 6 figures in revenue. I have written 0 things about this. Is this a topic worth exploring?

Blog Like a Boss

The course launch went great. I moved the material to Gumroad because ConvertKit isn’t the right choice now. But there’s one issue I recently discovered.

I see many online discussions talking people down from starting a blog and suggesting to start instead of Medium or Substack.

While these are technically blogs, I believe in the writing community, ”blog” has a negative connotation because people by blog mean self-hosted blogs.

So I’m thinking about renaming the course to something that promotes writing essays (that’s the new name for blog posts, as I learned) and re-launching the course.

Next free product

The course launch was successful, and I got to know some new people, so I’m thinking about what product to launch next.

I have only one constraint this time: it has to be shorter and more easily consumable than a 7-day email course.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. I appreciate every minute you spend here.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. If you want to ask in private, just reply to this email.

I answer every question I get.

- Akos