Announcement
Hello Everyone!
If you are like me, your email inbox is probably full of brands either telling you about their Covid preparedness plans OR attempting to stay “connected” amidst this madness. We are undoubtedly in testing times and don’t have much to compare this pandemic to (in recent history).
Yet, the one silver lining is the time we have to ourselves that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. We have the opportunity to evaluate various aspects of our lives, from something as small as the time it takes to wash our hands to the complex relationships we have with our work and our loved ones.
What’s Changing?
Spending time self-reflecting this past week, I have come to the conclusion that I will not be able to continue writing My PKR 0.02 (re: “My Two Paisas”) in its current format.
Hence, I’ll be cutting my losses and making the following changes:
I will be writing ONE long-form post a month deep-diving into a topic that I’ve been fascinated by, making sure that it’s well-researched and well-thought out
P.C: Mauricio Ruiz. A view of the Riverside Church from the I-House NYC roof - 03/21/2018. Because you never need a reason to post an artsy grayscale photo.
Why I Decided to Make this Change?
Short answer, I didn’t feel like the current format was benefitting me as much as I expected it to. While I enjoyed the novelty of writing about everyday activities, soon it became apparent to me that the current format (churning out short blurbs on 3-4 different topics every week) doesn’t give me the chance to fully understand a topic and build a cohesive narrative around it that would also be fun to read.
New Goal: Get better at writing blog-style longer posts that force me to think about the structure of my writing (think intro, hook, conclusion) which I think is a super valuable skill to develop.
In the interest of keeping myself honest I would like to point out that I started this newsletter back in November last year with a goal of writing until the end of 2020. I also said that this newsletter was as much for me and my personal growth as it was for anyone who reads/subscribes to it.
What I Learnt?
I’d been reading newsletters for years and always thought it’d be great to write one myself; writing one finally scratched that itch which was a great feeling
Focused more than usual on what was happening around me to figure out if this was something I could write about e.g. talks that I attended at work, a startup idea someone mentioned etc.
Realized that just because something resonated with me does not mean it will resonate with everyone else too e.g. some of my favorite posts got little traction while others got more than I thought they would
Got upwards of 250 subscribers receiving my newsletter with a close to 48% open rate (for reference anything above a 40% is considered good in this space)
Happy to chat about my experience with anyone who’s interested in starting a newsletter or has questions. One last thing from my end would be to point out that all existing subscribers will be getting an email in the new format starting next month. If a monthly newsletter on a single topic isn’t your cup of tea, feel free to unsubscribe (no hard feelings!).
Stay safe,
Rohail