📒 Why would anyone show their $0 weeks?

A few weeks ago I finally looked properly at my own numbers. If you were here when I wrote about it, you'll know this. If not, here's the short version, because it's the reason for everything that follows.

By the end of this you'll:

I took a sample of 153 of my subscribers. 151 of them were business addresses. Mostly that was company security software opening my emails, not people.

Eleven months of a seventy percent open rate. And $141.99 earned, all of it from sponsored ads that pay a few cents a click. I'm not counting that as a start. I can't tell how many of those clicks were people either.

I'd rather know than carry on being pleased.

An open isn't a person. That one sentence is where all of this started.

For the next twelve weeks, through the end of December, I'm going to try to get somebody to pay me for something I already know how to do. And I'm going to show you how it goes, every week, including the weeks when nothing happens.

Starting next Saturday, each Saturday issue opens with the same few lines:

The full entry for each week goes up on my site too. The first one, Week 0, is already there.

A pitch, the way I'm counting it, is one email to someone who runs a newsletter, podcast or community for people over 50 who are reinventing their working lives. I'll be asking whether I can tell this story to their audience: a guest piece, an interview, or a swap. I'm not asking them to buy anything. These pitches go to them, not to you.

One a week. Twelve by the end of December.

Sending the pitch is mine to control. Whether anyone says yes isn't.

This is a report, not an offer. If you're curious, just reply.

Most online income stories only show up when there's a win. That's how people end up thinking everyone else is succeeding.

So if a week says $0 and nothing came back, that's what you'll see. I've built the page so that a nothing week looks like a nothing week, instead of quietly going missing.

I want it to read as an honest week, not a failed one. If nothing came back, I still sent the pitch. I still showed up. That part is mine. The answer isn't.

And if I'm going to start again from close to the beginning, I'd rather do it where people can see the numbers. At 78 I don't have time to waste pretending.

Here's the part I most want you to hear. You don't have to buy anything to start.

The usual way in is to pay for a course and hope. I'm starting with something I already know how to do, and asking someone directly. You know how to do something too.

So here's a small version for you, this week. Nobody sees it but you.

If you keep the two lines, you'll have something most people never have: a plain record of what you actually did, not what you meant to do. After a few weeks, you'll be able to see a pattern that no single week shows you.

If you don't, nothing changes. You can just watch mine for a while. That's fine too.

If you'd like to keep your own ledger alongside mine, hit reply and send me one word: "in." Nobody's checking up on you. I'd just like to know who's keeping one too.

See You at the Bank 💰
Bob

A plain-talk piece from my site on finding fifty dollars on a fixed income and earning fifty more online.

One last thing. If you're not sure what your one small thing should be, help is coming. I'm finishing a free tool called “What Fits Me”. It asks a few plain questions and suggests a couple of paths that could fit you. It's free, with nothing to buy. I'll share when it's ready – soon.