1. Personal Update - A New Podcast? (And Other News)

I plan to start a new podcast (as you may have seen). There will also be some other significant changes. Here's my personal update.

My New Podcast

Let's start off with my plan for a podcast. I love talking with family and friends about technology and projects I am working on. I feel that talking conveys information in a different (and sometimes better) way than compared to reading a blog. I also like a brain dump where I just let all my tech thoughts out. To share my love of talking, I have decided to start a new podcast.

"Tech with Nick" is the planned title (though it is up for modification). It will be a solo podcast where I share my thoughts, opinions, and whatever is on my mind. I hope you care about my thoughts and come to listen.

Don't get too excited though, I still have to figure out what software I will use and just get comfortable monologuing. I also have many other tasks (as detailed in this update) that I need to focus on before starting my podcast. Anyways, I'd like to hear your opinion about it.

Weekly Tech Newsletter

Don't skip this part (especially if you are not subscribed to the newsletter). While my blog has seemed to be dormant for the past 1-2 months, my weekly newsletter hasn't missed a single week yet! While most of the newsletters are paid, some of you may have seen my free edition of the newsletter (that's actually part of what I am here to talk about).

The Freebie Mistake

A couple of weeks ago, I realized I made a mistake. While my newsletters are meant only for paying subscribers, it turned out that a lot of them have been sent unrestricted through email to paid and free members. It was correctly restricted on my website, but oversight of my blogging software allowed free members to see restricted newsletters through email. This has now been fixed and you must pay to see future newsletters (unless they are the free edition). You can think of this as a free early member preview 😀.

The Newsletter is Time Consuming

Though the weekly newsletter hasn't missed a week, it has cost me the time I spend on my blog and other tech projects. I can spend up to an hour a day collecting articles and spending some of Friday and all of Saturday writing the newsletter. I can't keep doing this forever, so I have been spending my free time working on custom tools to help speed up the process. Even with these tools, I am still spending significant time on my newsletter.

I am going to start being pickier about what articles make it into the newsletter and which ones don't. This will hopefully help save me time and make the newsletter easier to read in one setting.

I Need Your Help

These newsletters are not worth it for me to continue writing (but I still will), so I need your help. What is stopping you from sending $5 my way so you can get an informative newsletter and stay up to date in the tech world? Is it too expensive? Do you just not know about it? Is it not worth it? Do you need a sample? And if you are already paying for it, what do you like and dislike? Just taking a few minutes to comment or send me an email would help a lot.

Website Redesign

Coming the next few weeks, I am planning a big redesign of my website. I plan to do a reorganization of my blog URLs. My root domain (njf.dev) is quite empty as of now and I plan to move my blog and future podcast to it. It will also act as a portfolio of things I am working on. I plan to keep Color of the Day if you are worried about that.

Blog Update

I am sorry that there has been a lack of new blogs this month. As I improve my newsletter workflow and work on my other tasks, I hope to get blogs out more frequently. I currently have 1 blog almost complete and ideas for 2 others

And That's It!

That's all the news I have for this personal update. Make sure to leave a comment or send an email to give me your thoughts and opinions (I truly care). Have a great day!