Putting out Content daily - let's see what happens

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for December:

This month I made 12.210€ in revenue. It’s my first five figure month, although some of the invoices aren’t paid yet.

It’s funny because in mid December one of my clients called me and said that he still needs to spend some money in 2020 or otherwise his company would have to pay too much taxes. So I sent him an invoice over 5.000€ and have to fulfill the job over the next months.

If it weren’t for that December would still have been a pretty good job. Because I’m on vacation from December 26th to January 9th and new jobs coming in quicker than I can handle them.

I really need to figure out how to outsource some parts of my work and fulfillment.

While I’m on vacation I don’t put out content on Linkedin as much. I really want to get some distance to it and then start again with some new creativity.

I hope you all had a happy new year and wish you all the best.

See you next month with the next update.

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Update for January:

Hi everyone,

In this first month of 2021 I made 7.848€ in revenue. I think that’s a pretty good start considering that I actually started working on January 10th because of my vacation.

A big payment came from an invoice that I already sent out in December, so that might distort the end result a bit. But overall I’m really happy with how the new year started.

Also I started to outsource a first tiny project to a freelancer so I am getting used to not doing all the work myself and also to be able to onboard more clients. The project isn’t completed yet so I can talk about this in next month’s update.

It’s a lot of work incoming right now and it kind of feels like juggling with too many balls. That is why this update came so late.

That’s basically it for now.
Will keep you updated as always.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for February:

Hi everyone,

February was again a solid month with 6.263€ in revenue. Some invoices from the previous month will be going out this week.

On Linkedin things are kinda getting slower since I came back from my vacation in January. My posts lately don’t get as many views as they used to, but are still performing decently.

I also met with a startup, who came to me through Linkedin, last week and they really need my service. This would be a pretty good deal since they’d need help on an ongoing basis and I’m trying to get more clients on a monthly recurring basis.

Currently I have about 3.200€ on MRR and several one time projects, although I’m trying to convince the one time projects that they’ll need more help in the future. Which is true since I’m doing mainly SEO.

I thought it might also be a good idea to start posting on other places again as well as producing more content for my own website. Especially the latter suffered in the last couple months. Because of all the work I’m doing for my clients I didn’t take as much time for my own website.

But I consistently get traffic to my website (around 500 visits per month) from the articles I published last year - it’s starting to gain traction after all. Unfortunately it’s not really relevant traffic for business since the articles have more of an informational search intent.

Nevertheless it’s good to see things moving in the right direction.

For the next couple weeks I want to try some outbound marketing. I think it’s a good idea to not be dependent on only one marketing channel (which is currently Linkedin for me). Although I’m not really an outbound type of person I’d like to give it a shot and see the results of an strategic outbound campaign.

That’s it for this month's update!

 

[Andy Black]

Update for February:

Hi everyone,

February was again a solid month with 6.263€ in revenue. Some invoices from the previous month will be going out this week.

On Linkedin things are kinda getting slower since I came back from my vacation in January. My posts lately don’t get as many views as they used to, but are still performing decently.

I also met with a startup, who came to me through Linkedin, last week and they really need my service. This would be a pretty good deal since they’d need help on an ongoing basis and I’m trying to get more clients on a monthly recurring basis.

Currently I have about 3.200€ on MRR and several one time projects, although I’m trying to convince the one time projects that they’ll need more help in the future. Which is true since I’m doing mainly SEO.

I thought it might also be a good idea to start posting on other places again as well as producing more content for my own website. Especially the latter suffered in the last couple months. Because of all the work I’m doing for my clients I didn’t take as much time for my own website.

But I consistently get traffic to my website (around 500 visits per month) from the articles I published last year - it’s starting to gain traction after all. Unfortunately it’s not really relevant traffic for business since the articles have more of an informational search intent.

Nevertheless it’s good to see things moving in the right direction.

For the next couple weeks I want to try some outbound marketing. I think it’s a good idea to not be dependent on only one marketing channel (which is currently Linkedin for me). Although I’m not really an outbound type of person I’d like to give it a shot and see the results of an strategic outbound campaign.

That’s it for this month's update!

I’m posting daily on Twitter. Have you considered Twitter?

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

I’m posting daily on Twitter. Have you considered Twitter?

I've posted on Twitter when I started out with practically every plattform last year. And to be honest I really like Twitter, but it never took off like Linkedin so that's why I focused more on the latter.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for March:

Hi everybody,

March was another solid month for me with 5.128€ in revenue.
Besides my monthly clients I had some more people coming up to me (mainly through Linkedin) that have a high probability on becoming recurring customers.

Linkedin is still going strong. But I also decided to promote some of my articles via Facebook & Google ads just to get some additonal visitors to my website. For that I've created customized informational content for a specific niche. With the clear call-to-action inside the article there is a higher probability of people converting to customers.

I haven't set up a proper email list yet, but I think that's the next logical step to capture leads and build a stronger relationship with my audience.

Work is actually pretty good right now but somehow I'm kinda in an emotional downphase. Can't even explain why, but it feels more difficult than usual to do my daily tasks.
I'm pretty sure that is due to all the other things going on right now and entering lockdown number 4 here in Austria. I hope the end is coming sooner than later because it's really starting to get on my nerves.

Maybe you have a cool tip how you stay motivated or driven the days when work isn't as fun as usual.

Until then my next update will come next month (hopefully in a better mood).

 

[BizyDad]

I'm kinda in an emotional downphase. Can't even explain why

When I get like this, and there's no inciting incident to cause it, I look at my habits. What have I eaten (or not eaten) that may be the cause? Am I getting the right mix of vitamins & minerals? Have I gotten enough sun? Do I need to exercise a little more? Have I been getting less sleep than I need?

Try journaling your daily food intake. That's how I was able to link certain foods (like pizza, which is one of my favorites) to a lower emotional state the next day. Now I'm much more conscious of the choice I make and if I do get down emotionally, I often have a clearer picture of why (cause I just can't quit pizza. Sometimes we're on a break, but I always go back...) It's also how I leanred that avocado, turkey, and green tea are emotion boosters for me. You can combine it with a sleep journal to figure out the "right" amount of sleep for you.

As for the tip, it's easier to keep the downs in perspective and power through when you know its temporary because of one of those issue above and easily addressed. Honestly, a long walk often resets my mood, especially if its around trees, but it could be just on a treadmill..

Hope that helps.

 

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[ATipster]

Maybe you have a cool tip how you stay motivated or driven the days when work isn't as fun as usual.

You don't necessarily have to be motivated or driven all the time. The times you described are especially the ones when discipline has to kick in, along with remembering the reasons why you do that which you do.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

When I get like this, and there's no inciting incident to cause it, I look at my habits. What have I eaten (or not eaten) that may be the cause? Am I getting the right mix of vitamins & minerals? Have I gotten enough sun? Do I need to exercise a little more? Have I been getting less sleep than I need?

Try journaling your daily food intake. That's how I was able to link certain foods (like pizza, which is one of my favorites) to a lower emotional state the next day. Now I'm much more conscious of the choice I make and if I do get down emotionally, I often have a clearer picture of why (cause I just can't quit pizza. Sometimes we're on a break, but I always go back...) It's also how I leanred that avocado, turkey, and green tea are emotion boosters for me. You can combine it with a sleep journal to figure out the "right" amount of sleep for you.

As for the tip, it's easier to keep the downs in perspective and power through when you know its temporary because of one of those issue above and easily addressed. Honestly, a long walk often resets my mood, especially if its around trees, but it could be just on a treadmill..

Hope that helps.

It's funny you mention that because I started reading Atomic Habits again this week and thought about the same thing. You're probably right my habits aren't what they used to be. Will start to change it for the better again.
Thanks for your input.

 

[Deleted68316]

Thanks for sharing.

I love the story and your positivity.

Keep improving.

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Update for April:

Hi everybody,

April is over and I made 6.084€ in revenue.

I’ve onboarded a new client for a first time project, but there is a high probability that they will need my services on an ongoing basis. And since they are a cool brand with a good network I will do my best so they recommend me and get even more clients like them.

To push recommendations forward I’ve put together a nice whitepaper which describes my services and the benefits of it. It’s currently getting designed. When it’s finished I’ll send it with my satisfied clients so they can share it with other befriended companies.

By now I’ve made almost as much revenue this year as I made the whole last year. So I guess that’s a good sign that I’m heading in the right direction. And most of it coming from posting daily and engaging with people online.

That’s it for this month's update.

See you next month.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for May:

Hey everyone,

In May I made 8.539 EUR in revenue so it was another pretty good month for me.
I also added a very good new client which is now going into a monthly retainer for the next 12 months. With around 1.200 EUR every month this is a good addition to my cash flow - besides it’s a very cool brand to have as a client as well.

Right now I’m the biggest bottleneck to grow the business since all success hinges on me doing all the work myself. So to level up my game I finally decided to get help from a consultant.

I did my research and talked to different people and found one that helps freelancers like me getting from one-man-show to an actual agency. Since this guy has already worked with several people I also happened to work with, I'm pretty sure he can help me get the next steps right and build an infrastructure for scalability.

This week I’ll have a meeting with another company that could eventually become a high value client for a monthly retainer. Of course I can give better insights in next month's update.

Until then see you next month.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update für June & July:

Hi Everybody,

I know I missed the previous month's update, but I will add the numbers here.

In June I made 7.436 EUR and in July I made 10.403 EUR in revenue so both months were pretty good. It will still be close to hitting the targeted 100k mark for 2021 unless the next few months will be as good as July.

The coach/consultant I’m working with (mentioned in my last post) is definitely helping me achieve this goal. He’s helping me setting up the necessary systems for acquiring and onboarding new bigger clients and delivering good work on a consistent basis.

Linkedin is a big part of this strategy and the fact I’ve already built a good network and awareness is extremely helpful right now.

Reading @MJ DeMarco new book this month I realized that what I’m selling would count as a “second-order specialized unit” since I’m selling my copywriting and SEO services per project and value delivered and not per hour.

To build a first-order specialized unit out of my services I would need to evolve into an agency and hire new people to fulfill the services to clients. Which is probably harder than creating a product and delivering it through different channels.

So I’m not sure which way I should go.
Would love to get some different opinions on that!

Other than that there’s nothing else to add.

See you next month (hopefully).

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Update für August:

Hi everyone,

In August I made 4.430 EUR in revenue, which is way below the numbers of previous months. Because it was vacation time some payments came in later.

In addition I was on vacation for a couple days myself and forced myself to not do work and enjoy the free time - I traveled to Milan, Italy (nice city).

Now at the end of August and the beginning of September I can clearly notice that vacation time is over since several inquiries rolled in during the past week alone.

I’ll be honest. Since business was running so smooth this year to date it feels harder to keep pushing myself. Surely I’m not the first person experiencing this, but I don’t know how other people stay hyped when things start to feel comfortable.

Have you had issues like this before?

If so please let me know how you solved it for yourself or how other people get over this.

My strategy on Linkedin changed a bit as well. I try to improve my messaging and speak about all the pain points of my target audience which I’ve learned about in all my calls during the last three months.

Also I’m using the Linkedin Sales Navigator (Linkedin’s premium sales tool) to find better leads and build a relationship with them and network my way to more business opportunities.

To be honest it’s kinda hard to write these updates because I’m not sure what kind of updates you want and what areas of my journey you are interested in. Some feedback about what insights I should add to my next monthly updates would be helpful.

Until then I will see you next month.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for September:

Hi everyone,

In September I made 6.499 EUR (7.519 Dollar). In addition, a few bills have not yet been paid, so a little more will come in here.

I’ve also onboarded some new clients which will increase my MRR, so the rest of the year will also be pretty strong. Now with all this more work coming in it’s hard for me to handle everything alone, so I decided that it would be best to hire my first part-time employee helping me with fulfillment.

Since this is a pretty big step for me and my business I don’t want to rush it. I’d rather take this process slow and interview and test a lot of people to find a good fit for this open role.

It’s important to me that I can get some operational stuff off my plate so I can focus more on the marketing and sales side of the business. These are also the things that are the most fun to me and I noticed that I feel somehow drained when I only help my clients with all their marketing activities, but don’t take time for my own.

Actually I’m so busy right now that I almost forgot to update this thread, that's why this post comes only now, when it is almost mid-October.

I’ll keep you updated.

 

[Andy Black]

Update for September:

Hi everyone,

In September I made 6.499 EUR (7.519 Dollar). In addition, a few bills have not yet been paid, so a little more will come in here.

I’ve also onboarded some new clients which will increase my MRR, so the rest of the year will also be pretty strong. Now with all this more work coming in it’s hard for me to handle everything alone, so I decided that it would be best to hire my first part-time employee helping me with fulfillment.

Since this is a pretty big step for me and my business I don’t want to rush it. I’d rather take this process slow and interview and test a lot of people to find a good fit for this open role.

It’s important to me that I can get some operational stuff off my plate so I can focus more on the marketing and sales side of the business. These are also the things that are the most fun to me and I noticed that I feel somehow drained when I only help my clients with all their marketing activities, but don’t take time for my own.

Actually I’m so busy right now that I almost forgot to update this thread, that's why this post comes only now, when it is almost mid-October.

I’ll keep you updated.

Great news and update. Upgraded to notable. Keep it up!

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Great news and update. Upgraded to notable. Keep it up!

Thank you so much! Really appreciate you following along.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for October:

Hey everyone,

So in October I made 12.566 EUR (14.562 USD). Was a pretty good month due to one new client who wanted to pay me in advance for the next few months. I really like having more cashflow.

As for my first part-time employee I published my job description on Linkedin (nowhere else) and applications just keep coming in. Tomorrow I will have my 10th job interview, but I already have some very good candidates.

My job description is suuuuper long and pre-qualifies people because they have to apply via email and add a specific text in the subject line to prove that they actually read the whole thing. I also got 4 applications with a video in which the applicants introduce themselves - the description says that people who send a video already have a bonus point.

To have more time for the job interviews I outsourced some of my operational work to a freelancer on Fiverr. Mostly article writing for my clients. And to be blunt I was more than disappointed with the work this guy delivered.

The briefing was really in-depth and had very clear instructions but he just ignored it all. It wasn’t even a super cheap freelancer so I was really mad and gave him clear (but respectful) feedback - he was actually thankful for my honest feedback.

So a few days later he delivered the order and it was kinda better but still not really where I wanted it to be. I mean I knew that I would still have to work over it a bit, but that was just too much. Now there wasn’t enough time for another revision so I did the last part myself and am now correcting the work.

That whole story showed me again why I prefer hiring someone doing this kind of work in-house (although they will be working from their home office). I think it's just better to have somebody accountable for the outcome and who is improving their work with my feedback over time, so there is less and less for me to correct.

For me personally this is about taking the step from being a freelancer to a small and eventually not so small agency. I never intended to work alone for the rest of my life. I just needed to take the time and build the foundation so that I could safely start to hire cool and motivated people.

Anyway now I need to choose the right person from all the applications so they can start in December and I can plan my marketing activities to get in more and better clients.

I’ll keep you updated.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for November:

Hey everybody,

In November I made 7.162 EUR (8.109 USD), another solid month.

I secured some very lucrative deals that I now have to deliver on, but nothing super special really.

I also found my first employee and she started with December 1st, but since it’s been only a couple days I think there is more to say with the next updates.

Actually there is not much to say for this update.

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Hey everyone,
I just noticed that I haven’t made an update for the last three months, sorry about that.

Of course a lot has happened during those three months. First of all my first employee started working in December and she did a really good job. Unfortunately she will leave at the end of March to pursue her own self-employment, although in a very different business, so she won’t be a competitor or anything.
Now I have to find another employee because the last months made me realize how important it is to not do everything yourself as well as have someone to talk about your work (other than friends & family).

During the first few weeks I actually felt kinda useless because a lot of things that I used to do now were taken off my plate and I even started to fill my new time with unproductive things. Not very smart!
But then I came to my senses and thought, “Hey, now I have more time for the really important and valuable things for the company.” So my clear goal for this year is to develop marketing and sales to build a predictable pipeline of qualified leads to stop being overly dependent on LinkedIn and word of mouth.

My first step for that is a very thorough white paper I’ve created that explains the pains of my ideal customers and how my services help them solve their problems. The white paper is currently being professionally designed. When it’s done it will be offered for download in exchange for an email-address (nothing new here). But I will promote the white paper heavily and send it to ideal leads directly to get their attention.
I can also take some topics from the white paper to put in my own blog posts and strengthen the inbound channel. And I can turn every blog article into several social media posts, which gets the content machine going.

My qualifying and onboarding process for new clients is already pretty good. I usually start with a foot-in-the-door-offer that is a small win for both sides and builds the basis for monthly services in the future.
I've also decided to focus much more on my SEO Copywriting services only and won't take on any more customers that need one time projects or need any services outside this focused offering (like technical SEO audits). This makes it much easier to find the ideal customers who can benefit from this specialized offering. It also makes it easier in the long run to delegate my sales process to other people, so I don't have to do all the selling myself anymore.

There is actually a lot going on right now, and sometimes it feels like putting out multiple fires at once. But it is fun and we'll see how things are going to turn out in the end.

I will do my best to not forget the new update next month.

 

[Chris McCarron]

So this is my first thread on this forum, but I guess it's a good way to monitor my progress as a freelancer and at the same time give you some insights on what's going on.

Okay, first things first...

In September 2018 I started on the side as a freelance copywriter. With all the tipps from this forum I setup an Upwork account and got my first client by sending him the article he was looking for, for free. He was impressed and gave my more work for the next two months. This was a content writing gig however, so not too much money. But hey, you gotta start somewhere.

I setup another account on fiverr which was more about copywriting than content writing. When people pay you money for what you create out of nothing it is sweet. But to me the real ice cream is the 5-star reviews they left because it’s proof that they were actually happy with my work.

In November I designed my own website. Amazing what you can learn with the help of YouTube tutorials. Because it was so easy to setup a new website and I remembered Fox’s thread about webdesign, I thought that this is another chance to earn money while helping people in need.

Thankfully I have some old economy self-employed people in my family. First target was my stepdad who has 6 employees and little to no work in December. I offered to update his website because it was pretty bad at that time and drive some traffic via Google Ads to it. 3 weeks later he asked me to stop the campaign because he got more phone calls than he could handle. It’s hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction I had.

After that until now there was just another customer for a website and every now and then a small copywriting gig.

Make no mistake, I still struggle to find new customers and most of the money I still earn with washing dishes on the weekend.

Now I think weekly updates are the way to go for this thread and of course every time something cool happens I’ll post it here.

If there are any questions feel free to ask

Three things you can do:

1) LinkedIn is packed with people who need a good copywriter (please feel free to send me some of your work to review)
2) UpWork
3) Meet people including existing companies that offer copywriting services, but need to outsource

 

[Andy Black]

Hey everyone,
I just noticed that I haven’t made an update for the last three months, sorry about that.

Of course a lot has happened during those three months. First of all my first employee started working in December and she did a really good job. Unfortunately she will leave at the end of March to pursue her own self-employment, although in a very different business, so she won’t be a competitor or anything.
Now I have to find another employee because the last months made me realize how important it is to not do everything yourself as well as have someone to talk about your work (other than friends & family).

During the first few weeks I actually felt kinda useless because a lot of things that I used to do now were taken off my plate and I even started to fill my new time with unproductive things. Not very smart!
But then I came to my senses and thought, “Hey, now I have more time for the really important and valuable things for the company.” So my clear goal for this year is to develop marketing and sales to build a predictable pipeline of qualified leads to stop being overly dependent on LinkedIn and word of mouth.

My first step for that is a very thorough white paper I’ve created that explains the pains of my ideal customers and how my services help them solve their problems. The white paper is currently being professionally designed. When it’s done it will be offered for download in exchange for an email-address (nothing new here). But I will promote the white paper heavily and send it to ideal leads directly to get their attention.
I can also take some topics from the white paper to put in my own blog posts and strengthen the inbound channel. And I can turn every blog article into several social media posts, which gets the content machine going.

My qualifying and onboarding process for new clients is already pretty good. I usually start with a foot-in-the-door-offer that is a small win for both sides and builds the basis for monthly services in the future.
I've also decided to focus much more on my SEO Copywriting services only and won't take on any more customers that need one time projects or need any services outside this focused offering (like technical SEO audits). This makes it much easier to find the ideal customers who can benefit from this specialized offering. It also makes it easier in the long run to delegate my sales process to other people, so I don't have to do all the selling myself anymore.

There is actually a lot going on right now, and sometimes it feels like putting out multiple fires at once. But it is fun and we'll see how things are going to turn out in the end.

I will do my best to not forget the new update next month.

Nice update. There seems to be a few progress threads of people building teams and/or focusing their offer. @The-J’s latest updates in his progress thread might interest you.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Wow congrats, nice to see a decent progression upward, really forms a nice foundation for better things to come.

 

[Guyfieri5]

So this is my first thread on this forum, but I guess it's a good way to monitor my progress as a freelancer and at the same time give you some insights on what's going on.

Okay, first things first...

In September 2018 I started on the side as a freelance copywriter. With all the tipps from this forum I setup an Upwork account and got my first client by sending him the article he was looking for, for free. He was impressed and gave my more work for the next two months. This was a content writing gig however, so not too much money. But hey, you gotta start somewhere.

I setup another account on fiverr which was more about copywriting than content writing. When people pay you money for what you create out of nothing it is sweet. But to me the real ice cream is the 5-star reviews they left because it’s proof that they were actually happy with my work.

In November I designed my own website. Amazing what you can learn with the help of YouTube tutorials. Because it was so easy to setup a new website and I remembered Fox’s thread about webdesign, I thought that this is another chance to earn money while helping people in need.

Thankfully I have some old economy self-employed people in my family. First target was my stepdad who has 6 employees and little to no work in December. I offered to update his website because it was pretty bad at that time and drive some traffic via Google Ads to it. 3 weeks later he asked me to stop the campaign because he got more phone calls than he could handle. It’s hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction I had.

After that until now there was just another customer for a website and every now and then a small copywriting gig.

Make no mistake, I still struggle to find new customers and most of the money I still earn with washing dishes on the weekend.

Now I think weekly updates are the way to go for this thread and of course every time something cool happens I’ll post it here.

If there are any questions feel free to ask

That’s awesome, I did copywriting years back with some success, and funnily enough, I’m picking it back up again to supplement my income and get some practice for my own business. It’s a hustle in the beginning until you get solid clients. Keep up the good work and hit the job boards hard and you’ll get to a good place. In the beginning my focus was finding quality clients, be careful to not sell yourself to the lowest bidder. It’s very easy in the beginning to do that as you get experience and ratings but you end up commoditizing yourself.

Good luck!

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Nice update. There seems to be a few progress threads of people building teams and/or focusing their offer. @The-J’s latest updates in his progress thread might interest you.

Thanks, I'll definitely take a look at his thread. I was motivated to focus more on a very specific service offering after reading Built to Sell at the beginning of this year – when I was on vacation in Ireland, but forgot to tell you @Andy Black , maybe we could've met for a coffee or so.

 

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[Pat D. Rick]

Wow congrats, nice to see a decent progression upward, really forms a nice foundation for better things to come.

Thank you so much. Updating my progress here helps me to reflect on my own decisions and stay on track.
In addition, the insights may be interesting for those reading along.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for March & April:

Hey everyone,

Time somehow passes quicker than I realize, so this is the update for the last two months. A lot has happened during these last two months.

The new employee who started on April 1st is really fast, which of course is a big bonus for copywriting. The first two weeks she was done faster than expected with all the tasks I had planned for her. That being said, she still needs to improve her skills, which is no surprise since she had not a lot of previous experience as a copywriter before - but I’m there to change that.

The white paper I produced is now available to download in return for peoples contact data. Typical inbound lead magnet with Hubspot CRM running in the background. It’s mainly promoted via Linkedin Ads. It’s my first campaign with Linkedin Ads, but so far it brought 36 leads for a total cost of 869,22 EUR (916,48 USD) - so 24,16 EUR (25,47 USD) Cost per lead.

I have no idea if these numbers so far are good or bad. But since there is no return on investment so far aka no sales from these leads, I still need to gather more data and optimize.

Thing is it’s completely new to me to gain leads this way and then having to approach them. Until now, people have approached me after they saw my content on Linkedin. But the problem with the latter is, of course, that it's not predictable.

My plan now is to go through the leads one by one, look at their company information and performance SEO-wise, look at their competition, and then approach them with ready-to-use optimizations and try to get them into a first call where I develop their interest.

If you have a better idea or experience of what might be a better way, please let me know.

Work for our customers is also gaining traction month by month…


Step by step, all of our customers' traffic pictures look like this. Putting in the work and seeing the development of results like this to me is the biggest reward.

Also, I hired a new guy who will start in May and help me produce more video content. He works a couple hours per week so it’s not a big cost, but we can still try a lot.

I plan to produce more content written and videos that I can publish. Also, the videos can be cut and broken into smaller pieces which then again can be published across different channels.

After thinking about it I’m more and more convinced that starting a podcast is a good idea to get people from my target market into a conversation (and this way increase interest from other potential customers).

Since I already have very good relations with current customers and thought leads, I would get the first 15 interviews pretty easily. Also, this would help again with publishing more specialized content, since long podcast interviews can be broken down and published in smaller bits as well.

But I’m just in the brainstorming and planning phase of this undertaking, so I don’t want to say too much about it now.


Other than that, there is nothing more to add for this update.

 

[Pat D. Rick]

Update for May:

Hey everyone,

May has been a solid month doing 8.563 EUR (9.179 USD) in revenue.

Our first videos have already been published. Some of them on our website, but also the first two hours of video material have been published on youtube. The youtube videos are pretty simple with just me standing in front of a flipchart, explaining things about SEO, copywriting or content marketing.

After they have been published on youtube I also embed them on my website since for most topics I have already written and published an article before. So now people who come to these articles can decide if they’d rather read or watch a video.

At first I struggled to find topics to talk about in the videos. But now that I’m reading “they ask, you answer” (can recommended) again, I have brainstormed around 60 topics that I can talk about in front of a camera and write about it on my website very easily.

The more I read and learn about online advertising - or advertising in general - the more I’m convinced that inbound marketing is the way to go.

Now that we have videos with lengths of around 15 to 20 minutes we can also cut out smaller pieces of them to publish separately on Linkedin. This way I can now put out short videos on Linkedin which to me is a bigger benefit because users can now see and hear me talk, so it’s a bit more personal.

The only problem in all of that is my videographer because he just doesn’t deliver the results on the agreed upon deadline. To me this is a total red flag cause I can’t work with people for a longer period who never stand by their words. I’m not quite sure how I’ll handle this situation, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to record the videos on my own and let some freelancer on Fiverr do the cutting.

Another good thing that happened this month was an existing client extending the cooperation for 12 months, even with additional services, after we increased their organic traffic by almost 4.000% within a year. I’ve made a case study out of this and published it prominently on our homepage to show new visitors what they can expect when working with us.


By the way… does anyone have experiences with BNI networking chapters?

I keep getting invited to them, but I’m unsure if it’s the right fit. I have previously attended only one meeting some time ago, but I have the feeling everyone there expects to get leads while not everyone has leads to share.


The last thing I want to share in this update is an eye opening conversation I had this week with an experienced sales guy. After he read one of my Linkedin posts about my first try to cold call the leads that downloaded my white paper (mentioned in the updates above), he reached out to me offering me some advice.

At first I thought he might try to sell me some sales coaching (he actually didn’t). But since he clearly had experience in this field I figured I might just have the conversation and see if he has some valuable advice for me.

I explained to him my process of getting inbound leads and that I’m actually good at qualifying leads and then closing them, but I just hate picking up the phone and calling people to set the first appointment - that might become a qualifying call afterwards.

Now I tried to do some calls myself because I thought I had to go through it myself to delegate it eventually.

But then he asked me why I didn't just hand over the first appointment to someone else if I hate it and instead focus on my strengths. After all, it would be a waste of time to correct your weaknesses if you plan on delegating these activities at some point.

Not gonna lie, this got me thinking big time. Even if it sounds pretty obvious. Sometimes all you need is a look from the outside from an experienced person to completely shift your perspective.

It makes totally sense to me, but I now have to think about how I am going to approach this topic. So far I don't have enough inbound leads giving away their number to employ a part-timer who can set appointments.

Anyway, when I have made up my mind and found a solution I'll share it in one of my next updates.

This turned out to be a very thorough update, but it helps me journaling and reflecting my progress.

Let me know if you have thoughts on any of these topics.

Other than that, there is nothing more to add for this update.

 

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[Andy Black]

Update for May:

Hey everyone,

May has been a solid month doing 8.563 EUR (9.179 USD) in revenue.

Our first videos have already been published. Some of them on our website, but also the first two hours of video material have been published on youtube. The youtube videos are pretty simple with just me standing in front of a flipchart, explaining things about SEO, copywriting or content marketing.

After they have been published on youtube I also embed them on my website since for most topics I have already written and published an article before. So now people who come to these articles can decide if they’d rather read or watch a video.

At first I struggled to find topics to talk about in the videos. But now that I’m reading “they ask, you answer” (can recommended) again, I have brainstormed around 60 topics that I can talk about in front of a camera and write about it on my website very easily.

The more I read and learn about online advertising - or advertising in general - the more I’m convinced that inbound marketing is the way to go.

Now that we have videos with lengths of around 15 to 20 minutes we can also cut out smaller pieces of them to publish separately on Linkedin. This way I can now put out short videos on Linkedin which to me is a bigger benefit because users can now see and hear me talk, so it’s a bit more personal.

The only problem in all of that is my videographer because he just doesn’t deliver the results on the agreed upon deadline. To me this is a total red flag cause I can’t work with people for a longer period who never stand by their words. I’m not quite sure how I’ll handle this situation, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to record the videos on my own and let some freelancer on Fiverr do the cutting.

Another good thing that happened this month was an existing client extending the cooperation for 12 months, even with additional services, after we increased their organic traffic by almost 4.000% within a year. I’ve made a case study out of this and published it prominently on our homepage to show new visitors what they can expect when working with us.


By the way… does anyone have experiences with BNI networking chapters?

I keep getting invited to them, but I’m unsure if it’s the right fit. I have previously attended only one meeting some time ago, but I have the feeling everyone there expects to get leads while not everyone has leads to share.


The last thing I want to share in this update is an eye opening conversation I had this week with an experienced sales guy. After he read one of my Linkedin posts about my first try to cold call the leads that downloaded my white paper (mentioned in the updates above), he reached out to me offering me some advice.

At first I thought he might try to sell me some sales coaching (he actually didn’t). But since he clearly had experience in this field I figured I might just have the conversation and see if he has some valuable advice for me.

I explained to him my process of getting inbound leads and that I’m actually good at qualifying leads and then closing them, but I just hate picking up the phone and calling people to set the first appointment - that might become a qualifying call afterwards.

Now I tried to do some calls myself because I thought I had to go through it myself to delegate it eventually.

But then he asked me why I didn't just hand over the first appointment to someone else if I hate it and instead focus on my strengths. After all, it would be a waste of time to correct your weaknesses if you plan on delegating these activities at some point.

Not gonna lie, this got me thinking big time. Even if it sounds pretty obvious. Sometimes all you need is a look from the outside from an experienced person to completely shift your perspective.

It makes totally sense to me, but I now have to think about how I am going to approach this topic. So far I don't have enough inbound leads giving away their number to employ a part-timer who can set appointments.

Anyway, when I have made up my mind and found a solution I'll share it in one of my next updates.

This turned out to be a very thorough update, but it helps me journaling and reflecting my progress.

Let me know if you have thoughts on any of these topics.

Other than that, there is nothing more to add for this update.

1) What’s working for you? Outbound or inbound? I do zero outbound.

2) If you’ve already got longer form content then what about also publishing 30 second videos as YouTube shorts and maybe TikToks and Instagram Reels?

3) Are you running ads? My preference would be to tell different people the same thing rather than tell different things to the same people.

4) I like Laurel Portié’s method/framework btw (not that I’m doing it… it just makes sense).

View: https://youtu.be/7__iIZ28fYQ

 

[Pat D. Rick]

1) What’s working for you? Outbound or inbound? I do zero outbound.

2) If you’ve already got longer form content then what about also publishing 30 second videos as YouTube shorts and maybe TikToks and Instagram Reels?

3) Are you running ads? My preference would be to tell different people the same thing rather than tell different things to the same people.

4) I like Laurel Portié’s method/framework btw (not that I’m doing it… it just makes sense).

View: https://youtu.be/7__iIZ28fYQ

1) So far all I did was inbound. People were approaching me because they either has been referred to me or because they followed my Linkedin posts.

2) I haven't tried YT shorts so far, but would definitely give it try. I'm very sceptical with republishing my current videos as shorter versions on TikTok or Reels though because it's not native to the plattform at all. My videos aren't really for entertainment purposes.

3) I'm currently running ads to promote the download of my white paper. Or do you suggest I should run ads just to get in front of more eyeballs?

4) Thank you, I'll look into it asap!