Three years ago, I put together and started selling my first ever digital ‘product’. It was a triology of documents, guiding people on how to build a following on the Medium platform, as I did then, and have continued to do.
At the time, I believe three people downloaded it, and this number has since grown to around five. It wasn’t what you might have called a breakout product launch.
However I later started building a real product, PARAZETTEL for Obsidian, based around what I was actively teaching about (personal note-taking) rather than simply what I’d just figured out in the prior two months.
And when I first took this to market, in September 2023, it was purchased more in that one weekend than any other one-time purchase digital product I’ve made, before or since.
At the start of this week, though, I closed the doors to new purchases of PARAZETTEL, for good. The product had its most successful weekend since the very first launch, though. So why am I doing this?
Let me explain…
Past its sell-by date…
PARAZETTEL for Obsidian is something that I’ve been continually updating since the start of my career teaching people PKM in Obsidian, back in the middle of 2023.
I wrote the original course those three years ago, and even though I’ve added lots of new content over the years, including the most recent V5 AI update and the new Bases addition last autumn, the original core vault is beginning to age.
Since, I’ve become 10 times better at teaching, presenting on-camera, video editing and building products, and so long as I continue to apply these skills to the old vault, I’m taking away the opportunity to create new, and perhaps better, resources…
It’s distracting…
Within the PARAZETTEL ecosystem, marketing and selling the Obsidian template is complacent, comfortable option.
And now that I’m back from Asia, expenses and environment consistent, now is the right time to take a chance with building some things that are new and exciting…
It starts with a couple of separate projects
ProseLab, my new business, which I’ve been working on in the last three months or so with a friend I made out in Vietnam.
The Minimal Note-Taking book, which is going to be coming in the next two months or so. It’s about everything that I’ve learned going from beginner to expert in the field of productive personal note-taking…
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A Guide to Simplicity in a Distracted World...
The book’s not about the systems, like PARAZETTEL, PARA Method or anything else, rather the fundamentals underneath of how to make sure you’re not over- or under-cooking things in terms of simplicity vs complexity.
It’s there to show you how to make sure you stay on top of maintaining your personal notes so that you’re working effectively.
As well as these two, there’s a shift in the landscape of PKM that I’m detecting right now and preparing myself and the business for…
A new era of note-taking
Recently, I’ve been building personal plugins for Obsidian, which have turned my workspace into something much more personal, almost like I’m developing a custom note-taking app for myself and my projects.
I’d love to channel more energy into teaching this, and I’m inspired by a certain quote…
“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime”
Now although the PARAZETTEL for Obsidian vault is good at doing both, giving someone a template to work from (to eat for a day), and providing the course (to eat for a lifetime), I thought I’d push more into helping people build personal systems designed specifically for their own tasks.
For me, the custom implementations are for things like visual design for content creation, scheduling said content and keeping track of all members and clients just through Obsidian.
I’d love to teach you to BYOP (build your own plugin) for Obsidian, and although I’m not selling anything to do with this right now, and won’t be until the book is finished, you can drop into my email list to be notified if I share more information…
Sign up to learn how to build Obsidian plugins, no code required · PARAZETTEL • Learn note-taking & PKM through articles, templates and more
Simple and painless steps to a personal and customised workspace
So anyway, I’ve got lots coming in the future, and although PARAZETTEL for Obsidian continues to serve me and its users well, it didn’t make sense for me to continue putting effort towards marketing and selling it.
But we’re only just getting started. This is far from being the end of PARAZETTEL as an idea and teaching movement!
