Blog update 2/8/2019
(Writing this for a /r/juststart Reddit post, so the wording may be a bit different)
Hey all,
It's been about 5 months since my last update. I will try to update more regularly here, but it may or may not be monthly.
Past updates:
My first post (https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/9e2ct9/case_study_update_1_one_year_in/).
General info
I run a website in the tech space, and also have an Instagram, YouTube, and just started a Twitch channel. The general goals are to establish a trusted brand in my niche space, and generate income through affiliate links and eventually digital products (ebooks, courses).
Traffic
I recently got rid of Google Analytics and am just using my web host's AWStats for analytics. I'd heard it's much less accurate than GA, but when I compared my numbers the AWStats Unique Visitor count was very similar to the GA Sessions. Regardless, I'm more interested in trajectory than the numbers per se, and I'm happy to have zero cookies on my site. So it's good enough for me :)
All that said, my Unique Visitors numbers for the past few months are:
15,564 -- Aug 2018
19,003 -- Sept 2018
22,442 -- Oct 2018
23,317 -- Nov 2018
23,455 -- Dec 2018
31,776 -- Jan 2019
60% of my traffic comes from Google, and my top performing page makes up 43% of my pageviews. Definitely need to optimize that page for monetization in the future.
Blog Content
I wrote 9 new posts in those 5 months, bringing me to a grand total of 18 posts.
I tend to write long-form posts-- most are around 2000-3000 words.
Instagram
Instagram is definitely where I spend most of my time. I try to post 4-5 times per week, and various stories generally every day. I also do some story series or IG Lives occasionally to answer common questions I get or discuss a topic.
I hit my goal of breaking 10k in early November, and I've been steadily getting between 600-800 new followers per week. I haven't noticed much change in the increase rate, so if this stays the same I'll be just under 50k by the end of 2019.
One cool perk of IG has been brand collaborations. I've had a few freebies, usually small things like stickers and stuff. But in the past couple months I've been approached by an office equipment startup that is sending me an office setup package (desk + chair) for free in exchange for writing a series of posts and doing a giveaway of one of their desks over the next couple months. If that goes well I will try to get them to do some paid sponsored posts afterwards.
In addition, a YouTuber with 60k subscribers who is just starting out on Instagram reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in doing sponsored posts to promote a new online course. I was pretty excited because I've watched a lot of his videos and I've mentioned him a few times to my followers as a good resource for specific questions.
Video (YouTube/Twitch)
Started creating some content on YouTube here and there. I had one video I uploaded like a year ago but it was a ghost town other than that. But as my day job workload has decreased recently (I work from home), and I've gotten a bit faster at writing blog posts and maintaining Instagram, I have some additional time and it seems like a good time to try to create consistent content on there.
So far I've uploaded 3 real videos and 1 IG video repost to YouTube. The goal is to do 1 video per week, or at least 3 videos per month. My initial plan is to make video versions of my blog posts-- recording from scratch, and using the blog posts as scripts, basically.
Monetization
The money game is growing slowly, but the numbers are increasing!
In early September I created a couple of "Best" articles with affiliate links and featured them on my homepage and in my sidebar. So it's been nice to see a bit of income starting to trickle in.
In October I made $87 from an affiliate program (non-Amazon).
My Amazon earnings have been:
$0.05 -- Sep 2018
$2.63 -- Oct 2018
$9.03 -- Nov 2018
$10.78 -- Dec 2018
$11.04 -- Jan 2019
Goal Tracking
Goals from last time:
Other Notes
Long-term, my money-making goal has been to create digital products to promote, like ebooks and online courses. I haven't created anything yet. Part of me is super impatient to make money, but I also recognize that I need to get good at content creation first. The plan right now is to practice making videos on YouTube, then once I'm more comfortable and get better at it, to create a complete video course and sell that. I'd also like to write an ebook.
Over all that, though, I'm realizing my real goal is to establish myself as an authority in my industry. I actually really enjoy answering emails and messages and helping people trying to figure out a problem. So in a way, while I want to make money so this can be my full-time thing, I also am trying to build some kind of community to help people in my niche audience.
Anyway, I know this is a bit different than most people's approaches of just affiliate marketing websites, so let me know if this is helpful to keep posting here.
Hey all,
It's been about 5 months since my last update. I will try to update more regularly here, but it may or may not be monthly.
Past updates:
My first post (https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/9e2ct9/case_study_update_1_one_year_in/).
General info
I run a website in the tech space, and also have an Instagram, YouTube, and just started a Twitch channel. The general goals are to establish a trusted brand in my niche space, and generate income through affiliate links and eventually digital products (ebooks, courses).
Traffic
I recently got rid of Google Analytics and am just using my web host's AWStats for analytics. I'd heard it's much less accurate than GA, but when I compared my numbers the AWStats Unique Visitor count was very similar to the GA Sessions. Regardless, I'm more interested in trajectory than the numbers per se, and I'm happy to have zero cookies on my site. So it's good enough for me :)
All that said, my Unique Visitors numbers for the past few months are:
15,564 -- Aug 2018
19,003 -- Sept 2018
22,442 -- Oct 2018
23,317 -- Nov 2018
23,455 -- Dec 2018
31,776 -- Jan 2019
60% of my traffic comes from Google, and my top performing page makes up 43% of my pageviews. Definitely need to optimize that page for monetization in the future.
Blog Content
I wrote 9 new posts in those 5 months, bringing me to a grand total of 18 posts.
I tend to write long-form posts-- most are around 2000-3000 words.
Instagram is definitely where I spend most of my time. I try to post 4-5 times per week, and various stories generally every day. I also do some story series or IG Lives occasionally to answer common questions I get or discuss a topic.
I hit my goal of breaking 10k in early November, and I've been steadily getting between 600-800 new followers per week. I haven't noticed much change in the increase rate, so if this stays the same I'll be just under 50k by the end of 2019.
One cool perk of IG has been brand collaborations. I've had a few freebies, usually small things like stickers and stuff. But in the past couple months I've been approached by an office equipment startup that is sending me an office setup package (desk + chair) for free in exchange for writing a series of posts and doing a giveaway of one of their desks over the next couple months. If that goes well I will try to get them to do some paid sponsored posts afterwards.
In addition, a YouTuber with 60k subscribers who is just starting out on Instagram reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in doing sponsored posts to promote a new online course. I was pretty excited because I've watched a lot of his videos and I've mentioned him a few times to my followers as a good resource for specific questions.
Video (YouTube/Twitch)
Started creating some content on YouTube here and there. I had one video I uploaded like a year ago but it was a ghost town other than that. But as my day job workload has decreased recently (I work from home), and I've gotten a bit faster at writing blog posts and maintaining Instagram, I have some additional time and it seems like a good time to try to create consistent content on there.
So far I've uploaded 3 real videos and 1 IG video repost to YouTube. The goal is to do 1 video per week, or at least 3 videos per month. My initial plan is to make video versions of my blog posts-- recording from scratch, and using the blog posts as scripts, basically.
Monetization
The money game is growing slowly, but the numbers are increasing!
In early September I created a couple of "Best" articles with affiliate links and featured them on my homepage and in my sidebar. So it's been nice to see a bit of income starting to trickle in.
In October I made $87 from an affiliate program (non-Amazon).
My Amazon earnings have been:
$0.05 -- Sep 2018
$2.63 -- Oct 2018
$9.03 -- Nov 2018
$10.78 -- Dec 2018
$11.04 -- Jan 2019
Goal Tracking
Goals from last time:
- Write 1 how-to post (per month) -- Achieved (wrote 9 new posts in 5 months)
- Write 1 affiliate "best of" post -- Achieved (wrote 2 affiliate posts)
- Hit 10k Instagram followers by Thanksgiving -- Achieved
- Make "any kind" of money -- Achieved
- Rework homepage to promote specific posts -- Achieved
- Write 1 blog post per week, upload 1 YouTube video per week
- Maintain Instagram content creation
- Get at least one paid sponsorship deal set up
Other Notes
Long-term, my money-making goal has been to create digital products to promote, like ebooks and online courses. I haven't created anything yet. Part of me is super impatient to make money, but I also recognize that I need to get good at content creation first. The plan right now is to practice making videos on YouTube, then once I'm more comfortable and get better at it, to create a complete video course and sell that. I'd also like to write an ebook.
Over all that, though, I'm realizing my real goal is to establish myself as an authority in my industry. I actually really enjoy answering emails and messages and helping people trying to figure out a problem. So in a way, while I want to make money so this can be my full-time thing, I also am trying to build some kind of community to help people in my niche audience.
Anyway, I know this is a bit different than most people's approaches of just affiliate marketing websites, so let me know if this is helpful to keep posting here.
