Hello, everyone!
Tell me I’m not the only one who’d frequently find herself browsing endlessly through my Instagram feed, just to quit and switch to another app, such as Tiktok or Youtube. At one point, I murmured; "I'm tired of consuming media."
During the COVID-19 lockdown, it seemed like everyone was attempting to start something online, and I was no exception. I was looking over my Medium statistics when I realized that it had been a year since I started my journey as an authorpreneur.
I earned $7.03 (after 30% tax) on Medium in the previous year. It wasn’t much. My best performing month generated $4.20. I earned cents in the other months. Haha. But it was enough to tell me that making money online is possible.
I was only actively writing for 5 months. I wish I could go back in time and change so many things, but I can't deny that I've come a long way in the previous year and am glad I started.
In today’s newsletter I will share with you:
3 rookie lessons I’ve learnt when aspiring to be an authorpreneur
3 concrete goals I hope to achieve in the coming year
Blog articles I’ve been working on this week
I had to understand that operating a blog in the twenty-first century is not the same as making a diary post. With my fingers on the keyboard, I realized I had no clue what to say, I lacked experience, and I was not an expert in any field.
I had no audience, my words had no weight, and I battled to keep my envy at bay while I read about individuals making huge dollars on Medium or garnering large followers. Even though I know it's ridiculous to compare my 5 months of effort to someone who has been doing it for 5 years.
I struggled to maintain consistency because of my shifting confidence. During the remaining seven months, I experimented with podcasting, illustration, and resin/polymer art. I was all over the place.
There, I discovered what caught my attention and which talents I thought were worthwhile to learn and devote my time to.
3 Rookie lessons I had to learn :
I. Slow progress or failure kept me demotivated because I was obsessed on the prospect of success. The truth is, we all have to start somewhere, and everything has a learning curve. Celebrate the small victories as long as we are learning something new every day.
II. Instead of focusing on making it big, concentrate on developing abilities. I had no clue that starting a blog would require me to learn how to write catchy headlines, research SEO, affiliate marketing, and build an email list. Instead of counting likes, follows, or claps, use mastering those abilities as a metric for success.
III. If you can enjoy the process rather than being fixated on the destination, 95 percent of productivity will take care of itself. Doing what makes you happy would naturally help you developing good systems and make things not feel like work.
3 concrete goals I hope to work on:
I. I intend to concentrate on a certain niche in the near future. For a student, the lifestyle genre appears to be straightforward. My best-performing posts on Medium in the previous year were science and Islamic-related topics. (However, they take longer to write and need plenty of difficult research.) Self-development and Relationships seemed to be my subsequent strongest two areas of competence, especially those containing personal stories.
II. In the coming year, I want to concentrate on gaining 1000 true fans (its a real term!) Today I have 6 of you! Do know that I am really glad that you OGs, made it here. I plan to send out a newsletter every Sunday and create three blogs every week. The articles are 800, 1200, and 2500 words long, respectively. I aim to adopt a system that I’ll share in future posts after giving it a try.
III. I plan to learn tangible skills from Brandon Gaille's podcast; The Blog Millionaire and incorporate them into my writing as I go. This week, I’ve been working on my bio and about page.
My Article You Might Be Interested In This Week
Book Recommendation of the Week:
In Ali Abdaal's YouTube video, "How Writing Online Made Me a Billionaire," he suggested us to read Austin Kleon's book Show your work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered.
It was refreshing to hear that he had the same doubts as me, when beginning to write about productivity. “What the hell am I going to talk about? Why would anyone read what I want to say?” It all sounded too familiar. He too feared being unoriginal.
Austin Klean's message was that we don't have to be experts to be successful. Rather, share your progress and opinions along the way. One shouldn’t be afraid to adopt a beginner's attitude.
Hope today’s newsletter had been beneficial to you.
See you again next week!
*Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission :)
Basrah is a Year 3 Medical Student in FK UMSU, Medan who is also an aspiring authorpreneur. Read Basrah's humble beginnings, "From Rejection to Motivation". Feel free to send Basrah a message here.
Salam, I’m trying to get access to this article of yours on medium - https://medium.com/%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B6-pulse/the-circadian-rhythm-from-an-islamic-perspective-60d419797e89 but am unable to do so without upgrading to a paid membership. Would you be so kind as to share it with me? Thanks