New: Join the Screen Skills Newsletter

Digital Wisdom Made Simple

Dear subscribers to The Planet newsletter,

I’m excited to announce the launch of a second Substack newsletter: Screen Skills. The content will be so different from the articles in The Planet that I chose to create a separate home for this initiative.

After four years of writing The Planet, this is the very first ‘guest post’, one that I wrote myself. The text below is my first Screen Skills newsletter; only a handful of subscribers to Screen Skills have already heard about my plans, so I share this as a rare cross-post with my larger audience.

I hope you will like the new initiative and appreciate learning more about practical skills for daily use online. If you're interested, you can sign up: it’s still free; of course, I appreciate pledges for support.

When did you last check how many hours you spent behind your screen? The average American devotes over seven hours daily to online activities - half their waking hours. If you're reading this on Substack, you're likely deeply immersed in this digital world too.

Welcome to a different kind of 'tech' newsletter—one that isn't about coding or complex systems—it's about making your digital time more effective and enjoyable.

It is written for readers and writers like you and me without fundamental technical skills who want quickly implementable practical solutions, not technical jargon. And if you are from the generation that learned to type on a typewriter or can still recognize a floppy disk, you've also landed at the right place.

I'm Alexander Verbeek, writer of The Planet newsletter on Substack; I have a following of more than 400k people across social media. For many years, I have helped people with all kinds of online challenges, but writing about it didn't fit into the concept of The Planet newsletter. Therefore, I created this second newsletter to provide everything you want to know for practical use on your desktop or mobile.

A Newsletter That Shows Its Work

Here's what makes this project unique: you're not just reading a newsletter about digital effectiveness - you're watching one being built from scratch. Think of it as a live workshop where you can peek behind the curtain. This newsletter's challenges and successes illustrate the skills we need.

Just minutes ago, I was still busy with the logo for this newsletter. It's an example of a lesson learned that I will share in a newsletter: how to get a logo for your website or newsletter. You can design it yourself on a website, use an app like Canva, or ask someone else online to make one. Exploring the options, tools, and sources online is often fun, with all kinds of possibilities you have never thought of.

The Content Mix

We're focusing on two parallel tracks:

1. Learning "Screen Skills":

• Understanding tools, for instance, for writing or AI, without the technical complexity

• Discussing social media changes that actually matter

• Following tech trends that impact daily digital life

• Learning practical productivity tricks

2. Building a Successful Newsletter:

• Regular updates on our growth metrics

• Behind-the-scenes looks at content strategy

• Real examples of what works (including using our own data)

• Honest discussions about challenges and solutions

Beyond Substack: A Broader Digital Vision

While several excellent writers focus specifically on Substack strategies or better writing, this newsletter takes a broader view. Yes, we'll share our Substack journey, but our scope extends across the entire digital landscape. We'll explore what works across the digital sphere, from emerging online trends to new productivity tools, AI assistants, and cross-platform content strategies. Think of this as your guide to the whole digital ecosystem, including finding the right resources online, with our newsletter-building journey as the practical case study that ties it all together.

Your Role

I would like to hear from you. What digital challenges do you face? What would make your screen time more productive? What aspects of newsletter building interest you most? Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or direct messages, and let's make this a collaborative journey toward better digital living.

Supporting This Project

This weekly newsletter launches today, February 22, 2025. It is still new, so there are no paid subscriptions yet. You can subscribe for free, but if you want to support this initiative, please pledge your support. It's a huge motivation to get this initiative off the ground.