Logseq Mastery

I finally finished that all of the course content for Logseq Mastery Tutorials, the first part of the course

In total, it contains over 21 000 words, 7 hours of video, and nearly 40 Excalidraw diagrams. It was a mammoth task, and it took a lot of iteration to get to the final product. There will still be updates required going forward as Logseq itself comes out of beta, but the foundation for future iterations is solid.

I find it challenging to share actual revenue figures. I think there's a fine line between bragging, and encouraging others with revenue figures.

But it's a question that a lot of creators are constantly publishing in order to get attention (and it's a requirement for the product page on Indie Hackers), so I will disclose that I reached my modest revenue target of $1.5k/month. This finally enabled me to cover my monthly expenses and start putting money in savings again rather than drawing from the bank account.

I included an offer for a one-on-one consultation for the first 25 sign-ups in the campaign announcing the course release, which only translated to seven purchases.

Nonetheless, it was a major milestone, although I now felt real pressure to deliver. From that first conversation (n=1) it became clear that not all customers were beginners, and that I needed to ensure that I addressed complex workflows in the course.

It took a while to get to the target of 25 sign-ups, even though by this stage I had thousands of subscribers on YouTube.

I already had an outline for the course and had been populating the sections sporadically, but it needed a lot more work to flesh it out.

I wanted to release the course before the end of January, which required a lot more work: selecting a content host, recording videos, writing emails (which takes much more time than expected!)

By the end of the year, I had decided not to renew my contract at my then employer. I wanted to give the 'solopreneur' lifestyle a proper shot, however it might look. I would continue to work with my previous employer on a consulting basis, but I was actively exploring independent consulting.

But I also wanted to see if building a course had any runway. I published a free introductory course on YouTube to test demand. My goal was to get 25 pre-sign-ups to give me the impetus to build an official paid-for course.

By April I was using Logseq daily. I had migrated all my notes from other file formats and programs into one interface, and was finding myself to be more effective in the work environment, and in managing my personal writing.

I am generally evangelical about great software that I come across, and Logseq was no exception. (I still get mocked by old colleagues for my initial enthusiasm with Krisp.ai at the start of the pandemic 🙈)

There was a lack of YouTube tutorials on Logseq, and after reading Austin Kleon's 'Show Your Work' and watching some YouTubers share their technical knowledge more openly on other channels, I decided to start a channel to do some Logseq demos for friends. This set the bar low enough to give me the motivation to put myself out there.

The full journey started a while ago with my first foray into network note-taking with Roam Research in October of 2020. But the real turning point was discovering and starting to use Logseq.

My trial period with Roam Research was unfruitful, but I decided to give it another month. Even after that, I still felt like there was something missing. I couldn't, however, justify kicking the can down the road given the high monthly subscription of $15/month. I started looking for free or open-source alternatives.

I battled to wrap my head around Obsidian as I had already become accustomed to the outliner functionality in Roam. Thankfully there were a handful of videos covering Logseq, and I immediately clicked with the program.