Tag Archives: Newsletter

Everything I Learned From Launching A Side Hustle During Furlough

by Qin Xie

Published on AllBright on 8th December 2021

Freshly brewed coffee in hand, I slouch into the sofa facing the window, taking a moment to let the steam jostle awake my senses. Outside, wisps of clouds drift across cornflower blue skies – a rare sight for a winter’s day, and on a weekend no less.

Fistfuls of these dreamy Saturday mornings have come and gone in recent months while I’ve been cooped up inside, missed not because of Covid restrictions but rather, because of my side hustle: a reader-funded newsletter.

Money Talk is a smart personal finance newsletter that’s designed to help the reader save money and grow wealth. It’s a project I started eight months ago while in the uniquely vulnerable position of being a newly-appointed travel editor covering a maternity leave who’s just been asked to go on furlough because, well, no one can go on holiday when borders are closed everywhere.

Read more at AllBright

Money Talk is a runner up at the 2021 HeadlineMoney Awards

by Qin Xie

Money Talk is a runner up in the Blog of the Year category at the 2021 HeadlineMoney Awards.

The little project that I launched while on furlough was less than a year old when it was shortlisted for the prestigious awards earlier this year.

It didn’t win this year, but I was still over the moon to be shortlisted.

Many congratulations to the winner and everyone else on the shortlist.

How to promote a paywalled newsletter for free

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on Medium/Better Marketing on 24th June 2020:

At the end of May, I launched a reader-funded newsletter on personal finance called Money Talk.

This is the first time I’ve written about personal finance in over a decade as a journalist and the first time I’ve been involved in an editorial newsletter, that is, a newsletter that’s designed to be the product rather than to promote one.

Since then, I’ve been busy “marketing” my new product. Mainly to the internet, but also to people I know who might find it useful. It’s a steep learning curve because I didn’t have any existing and relevant networks I could reach out to.

Read more at Medium/Better Marketing

I’ve launched a new project

by Qin Xie | 1 Comment

A short announcement: I’ve launched a new subscription-based newsletter on personal finance.

Money Talk is very different from anything I’ve written about before – I’ve explained my reasoning behind this pivot for the launch post so I won’t labour over them here.

But if you’re curious, you can also read about what was going on behind the scenes before and after I pushed the launch button last week.

You can subscribe to it here:

Meanwhile, I have a lot of learning and writing to do.