What Grace's Up To: Issue #6
Earnings. Updates on Old Bets. Introducing New Bets. Next Career Move!
Hi, this is Grace. Each month, I talk about what I tried and stumbled upon as a creator. I share exciting findings and honest learning along the way.
It has been a while since my last update. I hope you find this issue helpful and, most importantly, are entertained!
At the end of the newsletter, I will announce my next career move!
Earnings
Since I left my job for my semi-retirement, I dabbed in many little things. Recently, I charted out the earnings from different sources.
It becomes obvious that the Blue and Red sources have been producing very consistent earnings. Not only that, Blue has been growing steadily. It is a great signal for me to double it down.
I used my tool RedacApp to mask some data, for privacy reasons. But if you have been reading my newsletter, it is not hard to guess them. Happy to answer if you have questions (just reply to this email). 🙂
Old Bets
Essays
I published 1 essay in March 2023. I did a lot of research, as I was watching how the SVB collapse was unfolding.
SVB was the bank for our company Roxy back then. It made it so easy for us to wire payments to our manufacturers and suppliers in China. I can imagine the stress that every founder had during this unprecedented time.
I wrote this article to answer one of my questions.
My stance on this whole Quantitative Tightening process is still firm: let Fed do its job, and everything else is noise (including what Balaji said about Dollar).
My research for the article How Bad Did It Get? last year has shaped my view on U.S. monetary policy.
I’m also writing an essay about money, mainly for my kids to read. I hope I can share it next time.
One question I often ask myself is: does AI make writing less appealing?
I use AI to assist my writing, but I still enjoy writing. AI is great at researching and fixing grammar, but I don’t like to read most of what AI writes. It misses the human spirit. I guess the missing spirit is the human’s strong opinion. 🤣
Niche Website
In Issue #5, I mentioned I had a long-shot bet. This is still moving along, a lot slower than I thought, although I knew it would be a long long shot.
You can see, the average position on SERP is hovering around #48. The clicks are even pitiful 🥹.
My guess for the poor performance could be any of the following:
It is still too early
The topic is too competitive
The quality of the content is low
No valuable backlinks
The recurring cost is zero, so I can continue to watch, optimize and learn.
Website Template
As the niche website may take a while, I have built a reusable blog template, that streamlines the process of spinning up new niche websites.
It has been a blessing to have orders to prove it is useful.
New Bets
YouTube
I created a YouTube channel at the beginning of the year 2023.
I did not tell anyone. I did not share it on social media. It was just a seed I sow. I wanted to see how this thing could find its own footing in this video marketplace.
Yesterday, it reached 100 followers, with merely 7 videos. 🎉
Another fun fact - only guys 🤷♂️ are watching my videos 🤣.
Video ideas can pop up unexpectedly. I keep a running list of them and make them when I’m motivated to share.
One thing I’ve learned from creating is that there is always an audience for any given topic. I Initially thought some topics were very niche, but I have consistently found some people were looking for them in the Wold Wide Web.
While this channel is far from monetization, but I’m curious to see how far it can go.
Next Career Move
💥 Got you! Happy April Fools Day 2023! 🤣🤣🤣
I’m pretty happy not having a job. This tweet sums up well the vibe that I have about not having a job.
Other Interesting Stuff
Since the beginning of the year, I started to code more, and try different things.
All the gray days are most likely the days when my kids don’t have school. During the most recent gap in March, we went to Paris, France to visit family.
As always, having time to watch my kids grow is a blessing. They grow so fast, and I start to forget their chubby faces. 🥹
That’s a wrap for this issue. Until next time. ✌️
(If you have any questions, just reply this email. I’m more than happy to answer.)