I thought I was starting a YouTube channel. It turns out I'd accidentally signed up for an unpaid degree in editing, thumbnails, lighting, microphones and shouting four-letter obscenities at technology.
Twenty-eight things, thirty-two pages. The tools, the mistakes, the wasted money, the small wins, and the twelve hours I spent researching studio lights for a studio I do not have. The light arrived. It's still in the box under my desk, watching me make poor decisions. In my head this is still the Dial-Up guide, so if you remember the noise, it's for you.
Why take advice from someone who hasn't done it yet?
Somebody left this on one of my videos recently, and it explains the whole thing better than I could:
"It's so much more informative to follow someone before they have had success than afterwards. Those who don't gain success generally don't post about it, so only the successful ones reveal their stories — and you don't notice all the ones who fail."
That's what this is. Not a success story written backwards. An account from someone still in the middle of it, who doesn't yet know how it ends.
If you want the weekly version.
Every Sunday I publish what I tried, what worked, what failed, what I spent and what I made. Every number, including the ones that don't flatter me. It's free, and one click unsubscribes.
No guru. No Lamborghini. Just a man in his fifties finding out whether this works.
— Mark