I Started A Newsletter

Everyone says you need a mailing list. I’m not sure if that’s true. But I was banned from Medium a year ago, and YouTube has been shadow-banning my account for political content I posted nearly a decade ago.

If I’d had a list, I could’ve stayed in touch with my readers from Medium. Since I didn’t, I had to start over from scratch — not a great experience. But that’s exactly how the social media overlords designed it.

This time, I want to be at least somewhat prepared. A mailing list seems like a good tool to have.

I don’t expect it to grow overnight. Like I said, I’m starting from almost zero, trying to build my author project. But the goal is to eventually have a tight-knit inner circle — people who support each other online by sharing links, insights, and checking out each other’s projects.

This isn’t meant to be a spammy or scammy thing. I hate spammers and scammers as much as any sane person. For now, I only share links when I’m offering free books or discounted new releases on Amazon. As the list grows, I’ll keep adding more value to the newsletter.

If that sounds interesting, you can sign up here:

Join the Newsletter

I’ve Updated My About Page

Trying to become an author is now my main online project. I’ve updated my About page to reflect that more accurately. Over the past few days, I also spent some time figuring out how Twitter works. I think posting a weekly progress report there could be an engaging format for readers.

But Twitter moves fast—very fast. Posts get buried quickly. Either they catch attention within ten minutes, or they disappear into the void. There is a Highlights feature, but I doubt many people would scroll through all my weekly reports there. That’s why I’ve decided to link those tweets here on my website on the about page —for easy access and a clear overview of my progress as an author.

I also made some changes to the link structure. Linking to my tutorial channel didn’t really make sense anymore. I’m still doing daily tutorials, but that project runs independently on YouTube without any cross-promotion—so I’ve removed it from the About section.

More adjustments will follow as I continue testing and evaluating what works best on each platform.

For now, my focus is mainly on writing updates on Twitter, producing at least one video essay per week, and publishing my short stories here and on Substack for free. Next up is finding out how Amazon’s in-build promotion methods work. I have an idea about using them to find readers, but I don’t know if it’s going to work.

All these plans might change and evolve, but I hope to have a solid system and publishing schedule set up across all platforms I care about by the end of the year.

I’ll keep you updated here on the blog.

I’m Figuring Things Out – No More Transcripts Here

When I started posting video transcripts from my essay channel here, I thought it would be a helpful addition. But I recently discovered that YouTube now automatically generates transcripts for every video. I have no idea when they introduced this feature—it’s probably been available for quite some time without me noticing. Since the transcript is already provided by default on YouTube, reposting it here doesn’t add any extra value.

So, I’ve decided to stop posting transcripts on this site.

When I launched this blog, my goal was to create a real-time diary of a hobbyist writer trying to build something. That includes learning, making mistakes, and adjusting course along the way. Naturally, that means my approach will change from time to time.

For instance, I originally planned to write weekly posts about storytelling lessons from movies, shows, books, and more. But right now, I’m leaning toward doing that content in video form instead. It helps me reach more people. Just this Monday, I published a video about a storytelling lesson from the movie The Menu, and it reached more viewers on Rumble in two hours than my written post did within an entire week.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas on how to promote my writing and build an audience. Some of them might turn out to be nonsense. That’s part of the process. This blog is a real-time diary, and in real time, there will be plenty of mistakes and course corrections.

The first of those: I’m shifting my focus toward video production and away from regular blogging. But don’t worry—I’ll still keep you posted here about what’s working, what’s not, and what I learn along the way. Yet, video production is my main focus; blogging is only a minor priority, for now.

My Video Essay Channel Is Live

I’ve always wanted to try this. But for the longest time, I hesitated, procrastinated—and eventually forgot.

A simple rule for life is: if you really want something done, you have to start as soon as possible. And you have to start where you are. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, but most things grow best when you just begin and allow yourself to make mistakes.

Mistakes will be part of my project—maybe even a big part. But with each video I make, I hope to learn and improve.

My goals for this channel:

  • Improve my English
  • Learn more about video editing
  • Build an audience (and hopefully find some readers for my books)
  • Have fun talking about my favorite stories

The plan is to release a new video every week, diving into the movies, shows, books, and comics I love. Hopefully, I bring some fresh perspectives to the video essay space—ideas that haven’t already been talked to death.

I’ll try to share my progress openly on this blog, showing what worked and what didn’t. If you’d like to check it out, you can find my channel here:

So far, Rumble has actually brought my video to more viewers than YouTube. I’ve seen this before with my tutorial channel—I suspect YouTube has sandboxed my account. Years ago, I talked about German politics on another channel with the same account, back before that sort of content could get you flagged or (shadow-)banned.

It’s out of my hands now. YouTube does shady stuff that I can’t fix. And I’ve long given up trying to fix it. But the good news is: it led me to explore alternative platforms like Rumble. Maybe there’s an audience out there that I wouldn’t find on YouTube anyway. We’ll see.

Whatever the outcome, I’ll be uploading a new video every Tuesday—until either YouTube dies… or I do. Whichever comes first.