So my T&E article is delayed for this month due to unforeseen circumstances. Namely, the product I’m planning on testing hasn’t been shipped yet and will take a few weeks to properly test (trust me, it will be worth it) and the job I wanted to shadow told me to come back in the fall (which is honestly fine because it’s outdoors and very hot).
T&E is also delayed because…well…I got laid off. I loved my job at Indy, I was doing a lot of really cool and fun things and I was making a big difference at the company. Our team was really successful, but the company wasn’t. So, marketing/content was the first to go. Marketing is always the first to go.
Vladimir Putin recently said “There is no happiness in life. There is only a mirage on the horizon.”
And he’s got a guaranteed job for life! So maybe we shouldn’t try to derive happiness from our occupations.
Anyway, this isn’t an email just to tell you some bad news or to discuss bleak Russian outlooks on life. It’s firstly an email to thank you. As one of my first 50 subscribers you’ve been part of spreading the word to so many others about the first two editions of the newsletter. Despite only having 50 subscribers for now, my stories have almost 900 views as blog posts. Which means that you are sharing them either via email, text, or social media and your friends are reading them. That is awesome! Thank you so much for supporting me.
I’m so excited about the things I’ve got in the works for this newsletter.
But getting laid off due to budget cuts for the second time in three years and losing my job for the third time (one time the whole company just went out of business) has me thinking more about the ways I can earn money on my own. Currently I freelance write for magazines and websites and can earn some good money there, but all of that money depends on the editors choosing my pitches and the publications having the budgets. It’s not really sustainable as a full-time freelancing job. I’ve got other thoughts on ways I can make bigger sums of money consistently, but one way to make some money each month is through paid newsletter subscriptions. One of the great things about Substack is how easy they make it to convert your newsletter to paid.
Let me say very quickly YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO PAY FOR THE MONTHLY TRIAL & ERROR. So don’t freak out, I’m not asking you to suddenly have to pay for this. But I am wondering is if there is a type of newsletter or a premium version of T&E I can write that would entice you or a total stranger to pay. I’m thinking something small, like $2 a month. Which will be awesome when I get my 100,000th subscriber.
But seriously, is there any type of newsletter you’d pay that princely sum for? I currently pay that amount for a couple different newsletters that provide links to freelance writing opportunities. In those cases, I feel like I’m paying so little that if it results in even one writing gig a year it’s paid for itself. However, I wouldn’t be doing something like that. I’m just curious what it is that I could do that might provide $2 a month worth of value.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could fill out this quick five question survey to help me brainstorm some ideas. I’m not asking you to pay anything and I won’t be upset by any of the answers, I’m just genuinely curious. The answers are anonymous so don’t feel bad for anything you select. This would be so helpful for me so thanks in advance. SurveyMonkey was trying to make me pay like $30 a month to include comment boxes instead of multiple choice, so please feel free to select Other and give me your thoughts that way. Or reply to this email with any ideas if you don’t care for them to be anonymous.
Leo Tolstoy’s short story “God Sees the Truth but Waits” is about a man falsely imprisoned for 26 years in Siberia…wait sorry. No more depressing Russian philosophy.
Go fill out the survey please!