Cloud Native Engineer: 2023 Wrap up

End of year wrap up. Thank you to all my readers on Substack, Medium, and social media. Unfolding plans for next year.

Looking at a new horizon. Image created by Author via DALL-E

Introduction

This article is not technical. 

It's an opportunity to express my gratitude to all my readers for their continuous support. 

I'll share the challenges I faced in the past six months since I started writing. 

Lastly, I'll provide an update on the direction I plan to take in the upcoming year.

End of year wrap up

In this section, I will provide some end-of-year stats and accomplishments. I am sharing those numbers not to boast, given they are not very high, but to give a sense of how hard it is to make it as a writer, especially if you have no prior writing experience like me.

At the same time, I'm very proud of what I have achieved. I want to use this opportunity to celebrate those achievements, even if they are modest.

I started from scratch. I had yet to gain experience with social media marketing. I never had an extensive fan base. I've never used paid ads to gain followers. I never had any prior technical writing experience. Additionally, English is my second language.

A couple of personal challenges accompanied the last six months. I became a first-time father. I had to pack and move to a new house. I took a month off writing for some unforeseen personal reasons that I won't discuss here.

However, I have to be honest. In all this madness, I had the opportunity to take some time off from work. My employer, Elastic, has given me a generous four months of paternity leave. I cannot thank them enough. It made such a significant difference. Given what I said before, and more I am not sharing here, I am unsure how I would have made it without this break.

I am not seeking your pity. When life gets in the way, you need to be even more grateful for what you achieve.

Newsletter and social media statistics

These are the statistics I wanted to share with you. If you are not interested, feel free to skip this section.

I don't want you to think that I am bragging. I want to demonstrate that those "overnight successes" that people often talk about are less common than expected.

Substack:

• Reached almost 200 subscribers

• My most viewed article is about Automation, which is not the main topic of this newsletter

  • 10k views

  • 29 new subscribers

  • 69% open rate

• Average article stats

  • 200 views

  • 3 new subscribers/article

  • 41% open rate

Subscribers to the Cloud Native Engineer newsletter

LinkedIn:

• Reached almost 2000 followers

• Crossed 5k impressions/week in the last few weeks

X (Twitter):

• Reached 113 followers

• Crossed 5k total post impressions

• I attribute the low engagement numbers to the fact that I followed some sketchy accounts in the past and still receive lots of spam. X might think that I am a spammer, too, by now. This is why I recently launched another account for Cloud Native Engineer.

Writing on Medium

I started writing long-form articles on Medium before launching my newsletter. Last week, I crossed 200 followers on Medium. I have been earning, on average, a modest $10/month for the past six months.

It's not much, but it's better than nothing and better than what I earn on Substack. I have only received a one-time payment of $50 from one generous yearly paid subscriber on Substack. 

My newsletter is free until I reach a certain number of subscribers. I don't have a number in mind yet, but it is still too early. However, I do accept voluntary contributions if anyone feels generous. 😊

I know what you might be thinking: that I am a loser.

But the truth is, my situation is more common than you might think, especially in a tiny niche like mine.

Don't believe those stories of getting rich overnight through writing on Medium. It takes time.

Here are some statistics to back that up:

• Less than 1% of Medium writers make $5,000 to $30,000 per month.

• Around 94% of writers earn under $100/month.

• Around 6% of writers made some money, which only means more than $0.

I read about these numbers in an article on Medium's official stats.

Other accomplishments

In the last three months, I have become a professional mentor on Mentorcruise. During this time, I ran a few successful mentorships and a few single sessions. If you are interested, you can check out my personal profile on Mentorcruise.

Additionally, last week, I started doing affiliate marketing via Designgurus.io. I earned my first commission by recommending a beginner System design course. It's not much, but it's a new source of income.

From the start, I have also been interested in understanding SEO (or Search Engine Optimizations) to enhance my search engine visibility. Unfortunately, all the good tools have a hefty price since they are aimed at business owners. There are still some free tools with limited capabilities, though.

Lately, I have been exploring automation tools for social media marketing. However, the subscription prices are too high as well. Many technical writers like me are interested in a more affordable solution but can't find much.

Additionally, I have launched a few social media accounts in the past week:

• Cloud Native Engineer page on LinkedIn

• Cloud Native Engineer account on X

• Cloud Native Engineer account on Pinterest

What to expect from 2024

I have been using my Christmas break to experiment with writing daily on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.

I received some positive feedback, including likes, comments, and private messages from my readers, and even gained new followers for my newsletter. Additionally, I have been commenting on newsletters from influential authors in my niche. 

Moving forward, I plan to continue this trend. Engaging with others' work is an effective way to gain exposure and gather feedback on topics that interest my readers.

During this time, I learned that there are a lot of beginner-level resources available for software engineering, but only some authors delve into more advanced topics that can benefit senior engineers. I intend to change this trend.

I'm planning to write for both beginners and senior engineers as well. I discussed this topic in a recent article under a section called Beyond the basics.

My goals for next year

My goals for the upcoming year are as follows: 

• Topics: I would like to focus on System Design and Cloud Computing and provide real-life experience and insider knowledge about working with Elasticsearch. I also aim to present real-life experiences from a senior engineer in the observability field. Lastly, I plan to provide honest feedback from a software engineer who transitioned into a technical writer. This is hopefully one of those articles.

• Frequency of writing: In the previous year, I had hoped to write long-form articles every week, but that proved to be a real challenge. Therefore, I plan to mix up the long-form articles with shorter ones that I can write more often.

• Social media marketing: I realised that writing in a vacuum is not helpful, so I plan to spend more time marketing my writing on social media platforms to reach more people and help them improve their skills.

I don't like having New Year's resolutions because they never work.

You create a grand plan in January and abandon it by March.

This year, I have a different approach.

Instead of setting resolutions, I want to establish systems to help me achieve my goals.

Although setting goals is essential, they must be supported by a system that enables you to accomplish them. Otherwise, you won't be able to stick to them through willpower alone.

To achieve your goals, you need to develop habits. I've been reading the book Atomic Habits and plan to use what I've learned to reach my goals."

Conclusion

The statistics I mentioned earlier may not seem like much, but a lot was happening in both my personal and professional life during that time.

If you compare your achievements to those of top writers, keep in mind that some of them do this full-time without any other job commitments. Additionally, some of them have entire teams working behind the scenes to support them, which is rarely disclosed. They tend to portray themselves as solopreneurs.

For me, writing is a side hustle. I do it mainly for the fun of teaching others but with the hope that one day, this might become another source of income. However, I wouldn't call any of them "passive income" as they require significant investment.

Please contact me if you want to learn more about the tools I use or my overall experience.