One Year In 🥳

Hello makers,

Serial Maker is now one year old! Woohoo! When I started this weekly newsletter, I committed myself to get to year one. Now we're here, and I'm looking back at what it took to get to this point, and the lessons learned along the way.

This week we look at what it's like to write a weekly newsletter.

Getting into a routine

It took about two months before writing felt like routine, rather than something new to learn. After two months, preparing the weekly newsletter was just an expected task to do, like taking out the weekly recycling or going to the gym. Having the newsletter on a Friday is nice, because I start thinking about what to write on Monday, and usually by Thursday I have a good idea of what the newsletter will be.
 

Forever a procrastinator

Along those lines, I've reconfirmed my serial tendency to be a procrastinator. As I write this, it's Friday morning. I've long ago come to terms with the fact that if I don't have a deadline, that thing will likely never get done. And if I do have a deadline, I'll most likely wait until the absolute last minute to meet it.
 

Replies are the best

My absolute favorite thing about this newsletter is hearing from people who read it. It's fun to read replies to some of the things I write about, and I've had some interesting back and forth conversations on past issues. Keep those replies coming!
 

Generating ideas

When I started writing Serial Maker, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to come up with a topic each week. But so far, I haven't even come close to running out of ideas. I have a backlog of things I'd like to cover, and somehow, each week I've been able to come up with something.
 

Growing subscribers

Not surprisingly, tweeting about each week's newsletter to my small number of Twitter followers generates zero new subscribers. This was expected, but it is still interesting to see. People aren't going to subscribe to something based on a tweet, and at this point, anyone who actually reads my tweets already knows about the newsletter. However, after writing a blog post, I typically see an immediate bump in subscribers. This might just be the ideal scenario anyway. If someone likes what you're writing, they'd be more likely to want to read more. 
 

Thank you

I can't thank you enough for reading and engaging with Serial Maker. I hope you're getting something useful out of my wide, random, range of topics. Knowing that there's an audience for my thoughts keeps me motivated, so thank you for reading and supporting this effort!
 

Going forward

Fortunately, I still enjoy writing this newsletter. At times, it can feel like a chore, especially when I have a million other things that need to get done. But most weeks I genuinely look forward to writing something. So until the day comes where I feel like it's not fun to write each week, I'll be writing Serial Maker 😀. I'm also planning on repurposing some of the evergreen content into blog posts, and I can't wait to revisit some of these past emails.

Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌

Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Check out the past editions if you missed them, and don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord! 
 

Until next week,
Craig 👋