Hello!

Welcome to the monthly update for the Insights, Innovation, and Economics blog. This is where I’ll discuss the current progress of running a blog plus some goals and initiatives for next month, ending with a sneak peek at the next blog post.

Blogging is about Inspiration

Inspiration, in this case in the form of an aspirational mentor/role model, is very impactful and motivating when writing/managing a blog.

Let me tell you about my inspirations for this blog.

#1 Not Boring

Not Boring by Packy McCormick was the true inspiration for wanting to start my blog. Through his blog (which I read every week and would encourage you to do the same), he can educate people on whatever he thinks is the next big thing.

That’s sort of what I’ve started to do here. I think Not Boring is a great role model for my blog: A) Building your product similarly to another product is much easier than going through and building an entirely new product from scratch (even though that’s still basically what I’ve done here); B) Seeing the dedication to producing quality weekly content is extremely inspiring; C) Not being afraid to be yourself in all of the content you produce (hopefully you’ve gotten a flavor of my personality through all of these blogs so far).

Yes, I have stated and will continue to state that I have no idea actually how to blog, but I have read a few in my day, enough to see the basics of what a blog is and what’s hopefully working for others out there. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same way I’m doing it (although hopefully Insights, Innovation, and Economics is also “not boring” haha).

So, I likely wouldn’t be here without the work of Packy over at Not Boring.

#2 Secular Buddhism

Noah Rasheta’s work at the Secular Buddhism Podcast has been second to none. Producing weekly podcasts on complex philosophy and religion for years is an amazing feat.

What I especially like about what he’s done is his ability to show concepts in a new light to an audience that probably hasn’t seen them before. I’ve tried to employ a similar model here, slowly exploring the different levels of key topics that I’m interested in (nuclear, economics, VC, etc.). These topics are generally pretty complex and technical and require quite a bit of time in the field to understand, so addressing them simply is a challenge.

Granted, am I as good as Noah at doing this? Nope. But, there’s progress being made every day.

_____

All in all, I’m very grateful for the inspiration I’ve received from people trying to do what I’m now doing (but doing it much better). It drives me to always be one step better every time I work on this blog, something that I hope you’re able to see and appreciate.

I’m a big quote person, so here’s a good one to wrap up this section (and continue our Kardashian+friends theme):

“There's a lot of people that have great ideas and dreams and whatnot, but unless you're willing to work really, really hard, and work for what you want, it's never going to happen.”

-Kris Jenner

What’s Happened This Month

Progression.

After figuring out the mechanics of this blogging journey these last couple of months, I’ve been able to take significant steps forward in my idea generation and my writing process. Through this, I’ve started diving deep into newer topics (some of which are even brand new to me). It’s been fun to learn more about these subjects and how they work.

Why do you care? You don’t really need to care in all honesty, however, this process of new subjects does expand my view and understanding of my core favorite segments (nuclear, VC, econ, etc.). In addition, these subjects will also help break up the flow for you guys so you aren’t always reading the same topic every week. That would get boring, and as I clarified above, I’m trying to be “not boring”.

While we’re here, I’m going to take another second to dive into why I think being “not boring” is important. Firstly, readers are more likely to be engaged. But, more importantly, it makes my life easier as I can choose to write about many topics. So, if I’m not interested in writing about a certain topic on a certain day, I have the option to write about something else that I’m equally as passionate about. But, enough of the monologue.

Besides this, what else has happened this month with the blog? Not much, I’ll be honest. After the initial setting up of all of the different platforms, it’s mostly been figuring out what strategies work for each platform.

For instance, on Twitter, I’ve accumulated enough data now to understand when my audience is most likely to be online and interacting with the content on our page.

Stats This Month

The Twitter page had a little bit of a slower month. I’m continuing to reach an audience that’s interested in my content, which is great, but the interactions haven’t been as much as I hoped. I’m hoping that this new marketing strategy this month will boost numbers, so we’ll just have to see what happens.

183 people visited the blog this month! That’s crazy! Thank you for being a part of this blog journey. I’m glad the blog has continued to impact people and I hope that my content continues to provide a great environment for learning and growth for myself and others.

For the subscriber that joined us this month, thank you!

3 Month Stats

It’s been 3 months with the blog! That’s crazy. I don’t know if you know how crazy that is but feel free to take my word for it. To be honest, I wasn’t totally sure I would get this far. But I did and I’m only going to go further.

So, in honor of our 3 months together (and for every quarterly update going forward), here is a timeline of some stats:

As you can see we’ve slowly been gaining subscribers over time, but losing views. How does that work? I’m not totally sure, but it is what it is. No worries, as I’ll just keep doing my thing and hope that at least one of you is getting some enjoyment every week which is more than enough satisfaction for me.

Twitter stats are a little more constant as followers continue to go up and impressions also continue to maintain a high level. I’m happy with where we are at here, especially as I’m pretty new to social media marketing.

Overall, it’s been a great 3 months with the blog and I’m excited for many more to come.

Progress on Last Month’s Goals

This segment is where I discuss the goals I set for this month (in last month’s monthly update) and what progress (or not) I’ve made:

1. Continue having fun writing blog posts and running the blog

Don’t worry this one happened (and hopefully will always continue to happen). It’s been a great month running the blog.

2. Make an Instagram account for the blog

Scandalous, but I decided against an Instagram account for the blog. Here’s a little bit of the rationale: As the blog’s content is mostly words, a platform based on pictures isn’t totally the best move (this doesn’t mean that it won’t be in the future). At this moment in time, I’m going to focus on the core content platforms for the blog (Substack & Twitter).

3. Continue learning more about new topics I’m interested in

This one was definitely accomplished this month. I explored a couple of new angles on existing concepts as well as some completely new areas (coming in the next couple of months). I hope you enjoy these as much as I did when you read them.

4. Drive subscribers from Twitter engagements to the blog

Let’s take a pause here. I think this goal was good, and I’m glad I had it, but it was in no way accomplished. I’m rethinking my methodology of pushing people from the Twitter page to the blog, so those changes will be in the works again this month.

5. Continue to produce high-quality blog content

I mean, you guys are the true judges of how high-quality the blog content has been this month, but I think it’s been pretty good. Before you make any large judgments, consider the fact that I’m currently trying to maintain a constant 10+ week buffer of blog articles completed in advance (just in case my life gets crazy and I don’t have time for a second). So, my writing has progressed, but you may not have seen that just yet (so give it some time).

Overall, it was a decent month for achieving blog goals (like a 6/10), but there are always things to improve:

Goals for Next Month

This month has seen a continuation of success, and I plan to continue building on this momentum. So, here are the goals for the month:

1. Continue having fun writing blog posts and running the blog

This will continue to be the first goal every month. It’s a good reminder that this blog is purely for enjoyment and education, not to make money or grow a following (become an influencer). If I can make someone’s week a little bit better by reading my blog that week, that's a successful week for me.

2. Drive subscribers from Twitter engagements to the blog

If you haven’t seen the Twitter account, you’re missing out. I post daily content on there (I’d say it’s pretty cool but I’m biased) and many people see it, but I’m having trouble driving them from Twitter to the “real” content that is the blog. So, this month I hope to drive more people to the “real” content on the blog itself so they can appreciate it along with you.

^ That’s what I wrote last month, and it didn’t work, so I’m going to spend a little more time here detailing my new strategy.

• Vary my post lengths: My traditional length has been pretty long, but shorter posts get 20%+ more engagement, so I’ll try out some shorter posts.
• Use statistics more: Most blog articles I write include some statistics, which tend to do better, so I’ll highlight those more often.
• Pin the weekly blog post every week so it gets highlighted in comparison to my other content which is more supportive.

Ultimately, social media marketing is a beast, but I think it can be managed. It will just take some trial and error.

3. Set up a Reddit account for the blog

Let me explain my rationale a little here (especially considering the Instagram comments earlier). I think Reddit (however you may feel about it as a social media platform) is a good place to post content targeted at a specific audience and hopefully drive people to the blog.

There are pretty sizable subreddits for all of the interests I have, which is great. I see this as another outlet to post content weekly and engage a different part of my audience. I guess you’ll see in next month’s update how it went.

4. Continue diving deeply into interesting topics (new and old)

As I continue to write about and explore these topics and areas I’m interested in, I always want to take it one layer deeper. A couple of reasons for this: A) It provides a unique lens on content that entices viewers and engagement; B) It keeps it interesting for me to learn and write about, providing a newer perspective on an area that I may not have considered before.

5. Continue to produce high-quality blog content

This goal has persisted since last month. I hope that throughout this process of blogging, I continue to teach you, the reader, about these areas that interest me as effectively and efficiently as possible. At the bare minimum, if anything comes from this blogging journey, I will have at least become a better writer.

A Little Thank You

Thank you for sticking around. For anyone new here: thank you too. I’m excited to see what happens this next month. This project continues to grow and develop, astounding me every month. Like always, this is purely for fun, and so far it’s been great.

As a little thank you, here’s a tease for the next post:

“The dawn of the internet dramatically worsened this problem as everyone now could voice their own opinions and “research” as facts, even if they were completely incorrect.”

Anywho, that’s all for today.

-Drew Jackson