I did a few monthly reports back in 2013, and since I’m actively blogging again, I decided to revive them.
I’ll be including things such as traffic stats, subscriber growth, random updates from the month, and possibly even regular financial updates with some of the companies I’m involved in.
Blogging Update:
I made one post for the month of January:
https://foreverjobless.com/my-new-startup-is-losing-35550month/
Here’s a screenshot of the traffic for the month:
Subscriber count:
(I’ve decided to not include feedburner numbers, so there’s another ~300-500 feedburner subs not included)
December 31st: 2,892
January 31st: 3,818
January subscriber growth: +926 subscribers
Although I didn’t post much in January, I had good subscriber growth. Quality over quantity. Good content can be your best marketing. Here’s what happened when I released the post:
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January was supposed to be the month where I got way ahead on projects for the year. I ended up being out of town for several conferences/networking opportunities, as well as a wedding, so didn’t get the head start I’d hoped for.
I try not to work much when I go to conferences/events so I can focus on networking/making new relationships.
Where was I?
I went to Vegas for a conference on blogging/podcasting. I like going to events as it’s a great opportunity for networking. However, I’ve been to a lot of them in the last year or so and am starting to question how many more to go to. I’m debating starting to speak a bit, and may only attend events I speak at from now on. I’ll be speaking at SXSW in March. We’ll see how I enjoy it.
Another thing I went to in January was a ski/networking trip out in Colorado, that was put together by Andy Drish. It was basically 15-16 entrepreneurs staying in a huge mansion together and talking business and just hanging out. We had a basketball court, gym, hot tub, conference room, etc in our place, so a lot of the time was just spent hanging around the house and getting to know each other. This was a blast and much higher value/more impactful than the conferences I’ve attended, which is another reason I think I’ll scale back conferences.
I’ve mentioned on here in the past putting together private conferences/events, and my experience in Colorado seals the deal. I’ll definitely be doing something similar in the near future.
As I mentioned in this post: https://foreverjobless.com/my-new-startup-is-losing-35550month/ I became a partner in a design firm recently. After getting the ‘okay’ from them, I’ll be posting their monthly revenue on my monthly updates for ForeverJobless. I thought people would find this interesting as you’ll see the ups and downs as I attempt to help them grow their new company. They’re struggling with a few things, but if they can sort them out, they could scale up relatively fast. Here’s how they did in January:
Revenue earned: $4,850
(calculated based on work completed. ex: if 50% of a $2k job is completed, we’ll count $1k in earned revenue for the monthly report)
Outside of this, they also helped with ForeverJobless. As you may have noticed ForeverJobless has a new design. They also do the images, infographics, and PDFs you’ve seen in recent posts.
They’re an extremely talented company that could do big things if they work hard and stay away from the entrepreneurial traps like https://foreverjobless.com/entrepreneurial-diworsification/
Even with only one business, a lot of times businesses fall into this trap of trying to do many different projects within one business. If they stay focused, they’ll do well.
Despite the slow start, they’re starting to get some traction and implement some things we’ve been working on. I think they could be doing mid five figures per month by mid year. Although that probably sounds ludicrous to many people reading, a lot of businesses just need a few tweaks to have an enormous impact on the business. It’s just that most entrepreneurs don’t understand where those tweaks are. Correctly implemented tweaks in the right areas, and the money faucet turns on.
How have you been doing on your New Year’s goals? Have you been following this guide: https://foreverjobless.com/the-definitive-guide-to-accomplishing-your-goals/ If you’re not 1/12th of the way towards your priority goal for the year, now’s the time to catch up before you fall too far behind.
One of the biggest things that’s helped me increase productivity this year has been muting my phone anytime I’m working. The constant texts/calls throughout the day distract you a lot more than you realize. Try muting your phone and making sure you don’t check it while working. If you can’t help yourself, put it in a different room or turn it off completely. Guaranteed productivity booster. Any text/call you receive will still be there later, and you don’t lose the additional ‘I’m distracted and thinking about other things’ time that you waste when you try to do it all during ‘focused work’ time.
Trust me. Same goes for skype notifications, email notifications, and anything else that beeps/buzzes and pulls your attention away from doing work.
I’ve mentioned doing a podcast before on the blog. I’ve decided to launch it sometime in the next few months. If there’s any specific things you’d like to hear, or unique show ideas you think would be cool, leave a comment below. What are the type of things that would help you most, and add the most value to you?
I may launch a Q&A where subscribers can ask me questions (I’ll email subscribers if/when I do this, so make sure you’re subscribed).
One thing I wanted to mention was that I was having some email issues in January and I didn’t receive a lot of emails that were sent to me. The problem is fixed, so if you emailed and I didn’t respond, please resend.
What else would you like to see in the monthly update reports? Leave a comment below and let me know.
