I put this on LinkedIn but thought I’d republish it here;

I hit my target for the amount of newsletters I planned to send this year early so thought I’d do a bit of a review – especially as I’m not sending any in December.

In 2024;

45 newsletters published/sent

Subscribers went from 2082 → 2234 (net) target was an increase of 200+

Average open rate was 67%

Average click rate was 15%

Most clicked job the Director, Chief Product and Experience Officer at the

Pokémon Company International

Most clicked job that wasn’t a bit of a joke addition was

Director, Digital Delivery Public Digital

Most clicked weeknote – Week 29 (when I resigned from TPX)

Most clicked link – I’m looking for a man in AI, trust fund, 6 foot, blue eyes from Rachel Coldicutt

Costs:

£380(pa) for Ghost hosting

£148(pa) for domain name (this is ridiculous I know – but I really wanted a .jobs domain)

£120(pa) for Plausible Analytics

Income:

£425.11 via sponsorship and ‘tips’ after Stripe fees

There were more product roles and fewer content design roles this year than any previous year (though of course that is subject to selection bias but I do think it reflects the market).

There were also a lot of more senior ‘digital’ roles in a wider range of public service institutions.

I ignored a great deal of AI jobs but some leaked through and there are more and more of them every month.

If anybody wants more detail I might do a deeper dive over the festive break – I’m also thinking of doing one of my irregular surveys of subscribers to end the year – I won’t be sending any of the emails in December though.

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There was an internal update about the ‘Digital Centre of Government’ work that Emily Middleton et al have been working on. I came away feeling really pretty positive about the direction that seems to be emerging though of course the devil is in the detail. I did regret saying this on Bluesky though as I got a lot of people asking for more information. For the record it is not my story to tell, I am a lowly contingent worker with zero involvement with the ‘Digital Centre’ work – just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get some insight into how things are evolving. Hopefully more of this work will be open soon – it deserves to be.

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Bluesky continues to grow at an alarming rate! I have around a thousand more followers than this time last week – though most seem to be from the US and have zero idea why they are following me other than my presence in a Starter Pack. I love that it is growing and that it is getting attention from the media but some of the discourse around it (and on it) just feels weird and a little uncomfortable. I’m all about the ‘social’ in ‘social media’ – I’m not there to polish my debating skills. I just want a way to keep in touch with my vaguely work related network, chat some nonsense about comics and Christmas movies, swear about sport and generally have somewhere to vent. Apparently this is ‘wrong’ though.

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Work has been frustrating again this week due primarily to [redacted]. Morale is low and patience is thin though the team continue to perform minor miracles. Early signs of burnout are visible on every call at the moment – Christmas can’t come soon enough.

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I have to say above all though I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I’ve been feeling rough pretty much since I got back from New York and my current mix of meds are doing a real number on me again to the point where mornings and evenings I’m basically housebound post pills for a couple of hours for a mix of side effecty reasons. I’m crossing fingers and toes that I at least get to lower the dosages of this cocktail of chemicals pretty soon.

A positive side effect of this is I’ve still not had an alcoholic beverage since New York – rolling towards 30 days now.

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Hopefully see some of you at Product for the People on Thursday – until then take care out there folks.