Dispatch from Europe
🌷 Greetings from Amsterdam!
Good morning from the first city I ever loved—Amsterdam!
This land of canals and bikes has always been close to my heart because it showed me the first example of what a city could be—walkable, friendly, quiet yet lively, and well-served by public transportation.
I must have visited Amsterdam four or five times during my days as a student, not only because it was an easy train trip but because the city felt safe and accessible.
While I am sure that many things have changed here over the years, Amsterdam still feels the same as it did back then. As I walked through the alleys on a cool but sunny morning, I noticed that the loudest sound was the eerie hum of a Tesla pulling out of a parking space near a row of houseboats.
Right now, I am sitting in a cafe watching the foot and bike traffic increase as I let the waiter charge my phone near the register. (Am I the only person incapable of charging my phone on the airplane?)
What’s nice is that I’m not being rushed out, despite the fact I’ve only had one coffee. It’s great to be able to chill and feel like a human instead of a customer.
It’s also a great feeling not having to sell all the time. I became a “digital marketer” because that’s the title that was attached to all the skills I learned from being a freelance writer and website owner. That said, allow me to market myself and this newsletter for a moment…
Hi, there! In case you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, my name is Melanie and this newsletter is called (for the time being) “Italy in Your Inbox.” I began my career writing and editing guidebooks for Frommer’s, Michelin, and DK before starting my own travel blogs and newsletters.
Before I began writing articles in service to search engines (i.e., an audience “searching for Italy”), I wrote whatever I felt like writing on my blog—my niche interests, my experiences, etc. Why would I write about anything else?
Money, apparently. It didn’t take me long to learn how to monetize my hobby through ads and affiliate links. Soon, like so many other writers turned website owners, I began paying more attention to the tech and marketing of my blog rather than the content. It was a vicious cycle that led me to create a lot of thin content to see what would resonate with the Google SERPs and not with my readers. I didn’t even know any of my readers, since I had to turn off comments long ago to reduce spam.
** Sigh **
It’s hard to have two full-time jobs—writer and marketer—and not even have a part-time income. I was laid off nearly three months ago, an event that set in motion so many other events that still take up my time. In other words, I haven’t had a “funemployment” experience. But I wanted to start writing again because…that’s what I do.
So that’s why a recent article about Substack newsletters in the New York Times left me crestfallen.
“How Much Are We Paying for Newsletters? $50, $100 … How About $3,000 a Year.” reminded readers that their Substack subscriptions may be out of control. The author speaks to several Substack authors, including Sari Botton, the writer behind Oldster and a person I’ve been following for their wit and insight for years.
“Ms. Botton settled in to make some hard decisions to cull her list. The easiest unsubscribes: writers who charged her despite not publishing on a regular basis.”
I get it—that’s probably how I would approach my expenses, too. But the Times’ article also seemed like a bullying tactic directed towards freelance writers and reporters trying to eke out a living or earn a little extra outside of traditional platforms.
How do you define “consistent” when you work in a profession that has always been in a state of flux? I’ve been writing about Italy since 1999 and started Italofile in 2006. If anything, my dedication to writing about travel has been the only consistent thing I’ve ever done.
I wrote my first post on Substack in March 2021. But my archives, available to paying subscribers, go back to 2010. Heck, my digital footprint dates back beyond 1998 when I bought my first domain name. Unfortunately, there are a few junky corners in my self-styled digital travel universe, as I’ve tried to be an solopreneur and a tech whiz like everyone else. But I have tried really hard over the years to create a helpful website while sharing my world.
Why not me? Why shouldn’t I, aka Miss Adventures, be able to make a living doing what I love? Some people would say, “because work is work—it isn’t supposed to be fun.” Yet we have the adage, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
In the Times’ article, Ms. Botton also said, “I want to help people who are writers, who are going through what we’re all going through: the decimation of our entire field.”
I want to do that, too. I plan to cancel some of my dumber subscriptions (like LinkedIn Premium), to use the money to support independent artists. I want to support my friends by subscribing to their newsletter or by buying their new record. I/we should have been doing this all along.
Well, if you’ve read this far, I could really use your support as I try to be more consistent. 🙏
This next week, I’ll be traveling around the Netherlands and Germany, two countries I knew very well before I ever went to Italy. So, I am looking forward to exploring them at an age when I can finally put their history into context.
I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks for reading!
See you soon,
Melanie