SoloCreator #126: My Stack

Also, free tools, "free" YouTube, more free stuff, succeed on Medium 2024, and the biggest empires

Apr 23, 2024

Brought to you by the only Medium course that will help you make serious money* on Medium.

four assorted-color sticky notes — Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash

Hi friends,

another week gone by. The past week was vacation mode for me. I had my daughter home alone with me while my wife and the rest of the kids were on vacation in Spain.

So, I haven’t done much work 😆 which is a good thing from time to time.

A fitting quote:

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott

Love this one!

#1 Main Story:

My Full-Time Solo Creator Tool Stack For 2024

I am a tool addict.

I sign up for way too many platforms under the sun. It’s an obsession I can’t seem to shake.

Thankfully, as a full-time independent creator, crafting written works, digital offerings, videos, animations, and visuals, I actually require a vast array of these tools.

So being a tool junkie isn’t too detrimental.

In fact, one of my greatest joys is analyzing and sharing remarkable solo creator tools with my audience.

Allow me to walk you through my quintessential solo creator toolbox for 2024. (You should definitely be using some of these tools).

Read the full story

#2 Essay:

The Price of “Free” YouTube

Over the years, YouTube has heavily ramped up its efforts to drive users towards its Premium subscription service.

And it’s annoying, to say the least.

The platform is bombarding viewers and creators alike with an increasing number of ads, making the ad-free Premium experiences more enticing than ever before.

This aggressive push for Premium memberships has become a source of frustration for me and many others.

But it’s just that. It’s much more concerning…

Read the full story

#3 Free content

You still get my comprehensive movie tracker template “Moviebuff” which sells for $10 on Gumroad at no cost right now.

Just visit the page below (click the button), sign up with your email (for free, of course), and you’ll get the link to Moviebuff via email shortly after.

And stay with me, because this is just the beginning. The free stuff is going to keep coming your way in the future!

Get Moviebuff for free

#4 Fun facts

10 Of the biggest empires in history:

Akkadian Empire (2334 BCE–2154 BCE) - covered present-day Iraq, Syria, and parts of Iran, Turkey, and the Levant.
Achaemenid Empire (550 BCE–330 BCE) - covered present-day Iran, parts of Central Asia, Egypt, Turkey, and the Levant.
Macedonian Empire (334 BCE–323 BCE) - covered present-day Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and parts of Central Asia and India.
Mauryan Empire (321 BCE–185 BCE) - covered present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Afghanistan.
Roman Empire (27 BCE–476 CE) - covered present-day Italy, Spain, France, England, parts of Germany and the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Han Empire (206 BCE–220 CE) - covered present-day China, Vietnam, Korea, and parts of Central Asia.
Mongol Empire (1206–1368 CE) - covered parts of present-day China, Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 CE) - covered present-day Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and North Africa.
British Empire (1583–1997 CE) - covered parts of present-day North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Russian Empire (1721–1917 CE) - covered present-day Russia, parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North America

#5 For my Medium friends

Medium has changed.

A lot.

In recent past, they introduced boost which has some upsides but also many downsides, they completely changed the way writers get paid, from a rather simple reading time basis to a complex mix of many metrics, and now, they are in the middle of banning AI content from the platform.

And this changes a lot.

It’s not easy to earn good money on Medium anymore. It’s never been really easy, but now it’s super hard.

Luckily, there is some help. And the best course I know to still benefit from and earn serious money on Medium in 2024 is the Medium Writing Academy* by Sinem Günel.

I’ll be honest with you: It’s not cheap! Not at all. But this course is the best and most surefire way to really get results! So, if you’re in the market for a paid course on Medium success, this is the only one I’d consider.

Check the details below ↓

Medium Writing Academy*