Blog update 12/31/2018
Happy New Year! I'm in the middle of doing some freelance work for my cybersecurity client, but figured I'd take some time to reflect and write a bit on how Coder Coder is doing, since it's been a while since the last update... 3 months!
My main focus in the past few months has been Instagram. I hit 10k in early November, and have still been growing between 600-800 followers per week. I should be hitting 16k sometime on New Year's Day. When I tell friends how many followers I have, they're always incredibly shocked, and it's almost like I'm a celebrity. But to myself, I feel like there's still a long ways to grow-- I don't know if 100k is possible in the web dev niche, but I'd like to hit 40-60k.
On Instagram I really feel like I've invested a lot of time writing informative posts, doing Q&A stories, and helping people via DMs. Tomorrow I'm going to experiment with doing an IG Live, in preparation for a joint live I'll be doing with another Instagrammer (@samanthaming) sometime in January. It really feels like I'm part of a community, which is awesome-- trolls and creeps aside, there are a lot of cool people and it's cool to be able to help other devs out.
Writing-wise, while I've really gotten good at writing posts on Instagram, writing on the blog regularly is still a challenge. Originally I had this expectation that I have to write a new post at least every week. But I'm realizing that Instagram is the place where I create regular content, and I think my blog is functional for now as an SEO destination, and where people can sign up for my email list. I'm not stressing quite as much about writing blog posts all the time. Because the majority of people reach my blog via SEO, not necessarily from my emails.
Eventually of course, I want to create more regular content on the blog. But at the moment my main focus aside from Instagram is to create a free and a premium course. Hopefully in the next 6 months? My goal is to create a free course about basic responsive design in January, and then create a more in-depth premium course on building responsive websites by the summertime. So honestly I don't think not having new blog posts for a couple months will be too bad.
Money-wise, I've started generating a small amount of money. In Oct I earned almost $90 from 2 affiliate sales of a popular coding course author (Wes Bos). And I earned $9 from Amazon Affiliate links in Nov, and $10 in Dec. That's mostly from website traffic, not Instagram. Also, I've achieved one of my initial goals and have gotten some freebies from various companies in exchange for writing IG posts/stories and tagging them! I got a free domain name, a set of privacy stickers to cover the camera on your laptop/phone, and won a giveaway of a desk raiser and standing mat.
But I think from now on I'm going to be very selective, and only work with one or 2 brands that I actually love, like the desk raiser company (Varidesk). I don't want to dilute my content with too many sponsorships, and honestly I'd rather direct people to my courses.
I'm not going to post on Medium anymore, because it seems to be dying, and I haven't participated in the Facebook coding groups like I was at the very beginning. But I'm ok with that. I want to just focus on the few very important things for me-- Instagram and creating courses.
Workwise I also agreed to start working 40 hrs/wk for my main client for 3-6 months for their website reskin. I know it will be a lot more time, but I think that it'll be a good challenge to learn to manage my time and work efficiently.
So for 2019 I'm really optimistic! Things are growing, and I have some exciting plans in store for this year. My big goal this year would be to earn the same amount of money from Coder Coder as I used to earn working full-time at my old job. I think it's definitely possible, although it may be a challenge to achieve that by the end of 2019. But here's to trying!
My main focus in the past few months has been Instagram. I hit 10k in early November, and have still been growing between 600-800 followers per week. I should be hitting 16k sometime on New Year's Day. When I tell friends how many followers I have, they're always incredibly shocked, and it's almost like I'm a celebrity. But to myself, I feel like there's still a long ways to grow-- I don't know if 100k is possible in the web dev niche, but I'd like to hit 40-60k.
On Instagram I really feel like I've invested a lot of time writing informative posts, doing Q&A stories, and helping people via DMs. Tomorrow I'm going to experiment with doing an IG Live, in preparation for a joint live I'll be doing with another Instagrammer (@samanthaming) sometime in January. It really feels like I'm part of a community, which is awesome-- trolls and creeps aside, there are a lot of cool people and it's cool to be able to help other devs out.
Writing-wise, while I've really gotten good at writing posts on Instagram, writing on the blog regularly is still a challenge. Originally I had this expectation that I have to write a new post at least every week. But I'm realizing that Instagram is the place where I create regular content, and I think my blog is functional for now as an SEO destination, and where people can sign up for my email list. I'm not stressing quite as much about writing blog posts all the time. Because the majority of people reach my blog via SEO, not necessarily from my emails.
Eventually of course, I want to create more regular content on the blog. But at the moment my main focus aside from Instagram is to create a free and a premium course. Hopefully in the next 6 months? My goal is to create a free course about basic responsive design in January, and then create a more in-depth premium course on building responsive websites by the summertime. So honestly I don't think not having new blog posts for a couple months will be too bad.
Money-wise, I've started generating a small amount of money. In Oct I earned almost $90 from 2 affiliate sales of a popular coding course author (Wes Bos). And I earned $9 from Amazon Affiliate links in Nov, and $10 in Dec. That's mostly from website traffic, not Instagram. Also, I've achieved one of my initial goals and have gotten some freebies from various companies in exchange for writing IG posts/stories and tagging them! I got a free domain name, a set of privacy stickers to cover the camera on your laptop/phone, and won a giveaway of a desk raiser and standing mat.
But I think from now on I'm going to be very selective, and only work with one or 2 brands that I actually love, like the desk raiser company (Varidesk). I don't want to dilute my content with too many sponsorships, and honestly I'd rather direct people to my courses.
I'm not going to post on Medium anymore, because it seems to be dying, and I haven't participated in the Facebook coding groups like I was at the very beginning. But I'm ok with that. I want to just focus on the few very important things for me-- Instagram and creating courses.
Workwise I also agreed to start working 40 hrs/wk for my main client for 3-6 months for their website reskin. I know it will be a lot more time, but I think that it'll be a good challenge to learn to manage my time and work efficiently.
So for 2019 I'm really optimistic! Things are growing, and I have some exciting plans in store for this year. My big goal this year would be to earn the same amount of money from Coder Coder as I used to earn working full-time at my old job. I think it's definitely possible, although it may be a challenge to achieve that by the end of 2019. But here's to trying!
