January 2014 Monthly Report


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:

graph

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:

dailysub

 

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.

Alpine_Villa_Winter

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.





34 Responses to “January 2014 Monthly Report”


  1. Jordan

    Awesome report Billy. Incredible that you got 100+ subscribers in 1 day. Great numbers.

    Also love how the house in Colorado sounds. I’m doing something similar right now with 6 people in Thailand. It’s proving to be one of the most value adding months for me.

    It’s great to work hard and play hard with likeminded people!

    Would love to see move monthly reports from you.

    Cheers,
    Jordan

    Reply
    • Billy

      Definitely sounds like a great environment to be in Jordan.

      I plan to post these reports every month for the time being. What part of them do you enjoy most?

      Reply
  2. Antonio

    Great posts, would you be willing to do some more posts on the service / consulting biz you have invested in and how you track all the revenues / expenses in your business (any specific tools, etc)? Would be awesome. Thanks and look forward to future posts.

    Best,
    Antonio

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks for the comment Antonio. I definitely plan on posting more about the company— anything else specifically you’d like to stay updated on with them?

      Reply
      • Antonio

        I am in the service / design business also, anything you can share without giving away your entire business of course gotta respect your position. Always like to hear how you get clients thats usually a hot topic. Thanks again man!


    • Billy

      Antonio, the new post I just made may help some on this.

      Reply
  3. Alex Ivanovs

    I’m extremely jealous of that subscriber count.

    Reply
  4. Ilias

    Hey Billy,

    Great stuff, as always. Loved the private conference gigs, it sounds an incredible way of bonding with fellow entrepreneurs.

    I would like to see how some small tweaks in the business lead to larger growth down the road (e.g. improving margins etc.)

    Keep it up!

    Reply
  5. Don Modekali

    Hey Bill,

    Good post. I’m still new here, second month I think. Just wondering, do you promote your content elsewhere? You traffic numbers are impressive.

    Cheers

    Don

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Don.

      I’ve done some content promotion in the past(mainly interviews/guest posts) but didn’t do much promotion this month. A lot of the growth comes from people sharing the content. I spend most of my ‘ForeverJobless time’ on the content, as opposed to how most bloggers do by spending most of their time trying to promote content.

      I plan to increase the promotion/marketing of my posts soon though and test the results. I’ll be documenting them here on the blog.

      Reply
  6. Victor

    Hi Billy. Just read your new post, it motivated me, ty. About goals: funny how it is much easier to pursue poker goals, as I like to play it, than it is to study guitar, as it’s very boring in the beginning.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Glad to hear Victor! Curious, which parts did you find motivating? Would love to know what type of things to make sure I include in the future.

      Reply
      • Victor

        I guess it all comes down to the life style you seem to have. No 9 to 5, traveling whenever fit, finding actually new things to do. It’s similar to the life I look to have, so having a glimpse of it makes me remember I gotta get things going.


  7. Julija

    Billy, your posts are amazing. I subscribed to your list in January and really have to thank you because I’ve learned a lot. I’m always curious how other people stay productive, positive, and focused when things aren’t going so well. Your goal workbook really helps me out.

    Reply
  8. Joshua

    Billy,

    I’m a big fan and really appreciate your posts. I could really use some information on email marketing…..more specifically how to get my customers to open emails. I have over 500 subscribers and only about 30% open. I think this would be a great podcast. It’s frustrating when customers sign up for my mailing list and then don’t open the information they requested.

    Thanks,

    Josh

    Reply
  9. Scott Britton

    Love that you’re doing this man. Looking forward to keeping up with these as you grow!

    Reply
  10. Kang

    Billy,

    You’re really the best example out there that good content beats EVERYTHING else in building an audience.

    Thanks for the inspiration, and I look forward to meeting you in real life before you decide to stop going to conferences 🙂

    Reply
  11. Bill

    Great post Billy, glad to see you’re updating again.

    I too firmly believe content is king. May I ask how you go about writing exceptional pieces of content? How long does it usually take you and how do you determine what to write so your readers become fervent followers? I usually outsource my articles as my FT job keeps me busy. When I do write a piece, it takes me 1-2 hours to get an article done including research, writing, proofreading.

    Thanks for your guidance,

    Bill

    Reply
    • Billy

      A lot of my posts take 20-30 hours.

      I try to write on subjects I don’t think are covered well, in ways that the subject hasn’t been covered before.

      Reply
  12. John Peele

    Billy,

    I have really enjoyed following along with your updates and reading through your articles. The transparency is VERY refreshing.

    Being in the web and design business myself, your information and goals for your new design firm are very intriguing to me. I have very similar “mid 5 figure” monthly income goals and would love to hear more about your plan to get there with a two man crew, at least I am assuming it is a two man crew 😉

    I know it is totally doable, I think I just have some mental roadblocks on how to get there.

    Thanks and I look forward to more from you!

    Reply
    • Billy

      Two man crew right now, yes. My newest post covers some of what we’re doing. I’ll probably keep updating as we grow.

      Reply
  13. Mitko

    Hey Billy, the thing I like most in your site is the above the fold part where CTA is ‘Subscribe for my updates’.

    What’s the easiest way for me to have the free goal workbook, since I’m already a subscriber?

    Reply
    • Billy

      Hey Mitko, all subscribers were emailed the PDF shortly after. Did you not receive it? If not, let me know.

      Reply
  14. Peter

    Billy,
    I little off topic, but important!
    You mention how you fell behind a little from the desired pace of reaching your goals and I’m sure this is a problem for many people (definitely for me). The goals post was incredible, but could you maybe make one when you address common hurdles and setbacks that could impede us in following out plan? And any advice you could share on how to deals with such setbacks and get back on track.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks for the feedback Peter! I emailed a PDF to subscribers to combat some of this, and will probably include some tips in the podcast I’m launching as well.

      Reply
  15. Michael M

    Andy, I have been following your posts for some time now and had a scenario I wanted to run past you. I am considering acquiring a group of dropship sites in a very interesting niche that has been in operations online since 1999 averaging 6 figures net with approx 8k visitors monthly. Issue is the owner has created alot of bad publicity over the last 3-5 years by not treating people right and has basically flailed and ran the operations into the ground. He will allow me to take over and run operations as well as pocket all cashflow until we consummate the deal 3-6 months from which is appealing my main concern is whether you have seen anyone turn a site around where there is a tremendous amount of bad reports in dealing with the company and owner is floating around.
    Keep it real!

    Reply
    • Billy

      Hey Michael, I’m Billy 🙂

      Sure, there are plenty of businesses that have turned around bad publicity.

      Reply
      • Michael M

        Funny. I guess my split personality was kicking in.. not sure where I got Andy from..
        Thanks for the response. Im still in due diligence phase of the opportunity. It does not seem that a few negative reviews would kill the opportunity, I just want to be cautious im not taking on somebody elses anchor..


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