2022 Year in Review of my Squarespace Web Design Business
In late 2021, I started writing Behind the Scenes posts each month. I kept those going through August of this year, but decided to move to an annual wrap-up post. So, here we are.
All during 2021 I had a post-it note on my monitor that said “Work less and make the same or more money.” And that year I did. In 2022, I decided to experiment with taking more time off (some intentional, some not). In every month of this year, I had at least a week “mostly” off from business - aside from the occasional email check-in. I knew I needed more downtime to avoid burnout, and to take care of family, even if that meant less income than the year before.
In this post, we’ll take a close look at Revenue Streams, Content Creation, Community, and the MVP tools and apps I used in my business in 2022.
Then I’ll share a wrap-up, my plans for 2023, and why I’m not choosing a word of the year.
💰 Revenue Streams
In 2022, I had 3 main revenue streams:
1:1 Work (Custom Web Design, Designer for a Day®, and Squarespace Help)
Affiliate Income
Course & Template Sales (Make Money with your Blog course, Building a Successful Web Design Business workshop, and the Squarespace Template shop)
And here’s how those made up my total revenue:
I’m happy with this shift. In 2020, 1:1 work made up 91% of my revenue, followed by 6.4% affiliate income, and 2.6% course/webinar sales. In 2021, 1:1 work made up 73.2% of my revenue, followed by 18.1% affiliate income, and 8.7% course/template sales. This year, my 1:1 work decreased to 67.9% and course/template sales increased to 13.9%.
Now let’s dive into each of those buckets and see how the year shook out.
⬇️ 1:1 Work
I made about 17% less on 1:1 (and overall revenue) in 2022 than in 2021. This was due to taking time off and working less overall, so I was okay with that. I needed more down-time this year for a lot of reasons.
Custom Web Design: 10 websites
These are great projects because I get to build the site from the ground up, based on the client’s branding, images, and copy.Designer for a Day®: 8 sessions
These are exhausting, but I love them so much! My clients for these sessions have an existing Squarespace website and we work together for the day to level up the design and function. It’s fun to see the BIG WINS you can get in just a few hours of dedicated, focused work. I’m counting just the stand-alone DfaD’s - not ones we paired together to create a custom site.Squarespace Help: 80 sessions
Some of these were past custom or DfaD clients and others were people who found me on Google. These are one-hour Zoom screen-shares where we talk strategy or jump in and work together to make changes on the client’s website. They are some of the most educational work I do and I really enjoy them.
I’m so grateful to everyone who trusted me with their websites this year. It’s been wonderful to learn about their hopes and dreams and be a small part of their story.
⬇️ Affiliate Income
This was down just a hair from 2021 as well - I saw a bit overall less traffic to my website and I think that’s what made the (small) difference. However, I still made well over $1500/month so I was pleased. If you want to learn more, I teach the exact methods I use in my course Make Money with your Blog. I walk you through my own content creation formula that drives affiliate income and more than half of my 1:1 clients. You’ll learn how to choose topics to blog about, how to write those posts, and how to monetize them without being sleazy.
⬆️ Course & Squarespace Template Sales
This was a wonderful area of growth, bringing in about 25% more revenue in 2022 than in 2021.
Courses
Make Money with your Blog launched in April 2021 and I’m revamping it now with more content, more examples, and new best practices. I loved creating this course and I’ve gotten such encouraging feedback that I’m thinking about what other courses I could offer.
In 2021, I made my Squarespace Image Optimization mini-course completely free. It’s a quick text-based course and I decided to stop charging for it. So, no direct revenue here, but some people who take the course do sign up for my newsletter and make other purchases.
✨ I also recorded a live workshop on Building a Successful Web Design Business. The questions and feedback from this session were amazing and I have some ideas on how to offer some new trainings and downloads in 2023.
Squarespace Templates
Going into 2022, I was selling three premium Squarespace templates for DIYers and this year I launched one more.
My plan for 2022 was to work on marketing these. BUT Squarespace rolled out an entirely new editor so my first order of business is updating my templates and the resources to take advantage of those new features. That’s happening soon.
Overall, I’ve been really happy with the templates. And clients have been as well - you can see some testimonials for my most popular template at the bottom of the SWAY page.
✅ What I Enjoyed Working on the Most
Empowerment and education. This year again, I found I really loved working with the templates and courses/workshops. I have plans for more of this sort of thing in 2023. So stay tuned for more resources for both web designers and DIYers. And if you’re not on my mailing list, now’s a great time to join.
✨ Are you getting started on your web design business journey? ✨
Check out the Build a Successful Web Design Workshop to learn how I grew my business to 6 figures in 3 years.
✍️ Content Creation
In 2022 I created a LOT of content across my blog, YouTube, Instagram. Plus I hosted free Ask Us Anything sessions with two amazing colleagues. I enjoyed all of these so much! And if you attended an AMA, left a comment on YouTube, or interacted with my Instagram posts - THANK YOU! I appreciate your support. I’m the first to admit my content isn’t high production value - it’s totally DIY - but my hope is that what I talk about is valuable and the viewers & readers aren’t looking for a slick presentation, just good info.
👩🏼💻 christyprice.com Blog
I give big credit to my blog for ranking my site on Google, as well as positioning me as an expert in my field, allowing me to charge what I do for my services. I’m also able to highlight products I feel would be helpful to my audience which brings in affiliate income. (And, yes, you can find out lots more about HOW I do that in my Make Money with your Blog course.)
In 2022, I shared 31 blog posts. My most-visited posts published this year were:
According to Fathom analytics, I had 140K site users in 2022, just 18k less than 2021, with 216K sessions. Mostly from organic search which stems in large part from creating useful content and getting backlinks to my site.
🎥 YouTube Videos
In 2022, I posted 16 YouTube videos, with 7 in the last two months of the year. My most popular is a walkthrough on how to move a blog from one Squarespace website to another.
And my channel grew from 599 to 991 subscribers this year. I’m getting close to the 1,000 subscriber mark which means I could start monetizing my videos once I get enough watch hours in the past year. And that means I’ll need to do more posts that get watched.
In 2021, I created 116 posts @christypricewebdesign and that number was WAY down for 2022. I am posting what I enjoy and Instagram has become more of a place of connection than a place of business for me. I went from 1214 followers to 1509 over the course of the year. This reel (with content valuable for other web designers) got the most comments and saves:
❇️ Free Webinars
In 2022, I hosted 5 free webinars. You can still register and view the recordings:
Ask Us Anything sessions in March, August (Kerstin did this one alone, as we had a family emergency), and December with Kerstin Martin
Ask Us Anything sessions in May and October with Will Myers.
We host these on Crowdcast, which I really like, but the price is going up A LOT. I really enjoy offering these at no cost, so I need to figure out how that can make sense for everyone.
📧 Email List
I sent out 12 monthly email newsletters in 2022 about what’s new with Squarespace and what’s new with me. (You can join my mailing list here.)
I ended 2022 with 2033 subscribers, up 468 from last year.
🙋♀️ Community
One challenging part of being a Company of One / solopreneur is that it can be isolating. I’m especially grateful for the connections I’ve made with other Squarespace designers. Here are two communities that have helped feed my soul this year:
LWS Design Collective Facebook Group, hosted by Sarah Moon
This group is one of the main reasons I’m still on Facebook. Supportive, smart designers who not only weigh in on challenges but also keep me laughing.Squarespace Circle
Once you have 3 sites in your Squarespace account, you can apply to be part of Squarespace Circle with access to their official forum. This year I was able to travel to NYC in August for the first ever Squarespace Circle Day! I highly recommend planning on attending in 2023 - it will be amazing.
✨ MVP courses, code, and apps of 2022
I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of my favorite courses, plugins, and apps of the year. I’ve narrowed it down to just the top 3 in each category which was really challenging - especially in the code and apps sections!
Favorite Courses of 2022
Here were the three most helpful courses I took this year:
(1) 7 Steps to Getting More Leads - from Lex Roman of Super Easy Digital, this is an audio course + workbook and a steal at $49
(2) Email Marketing Membership - Liz Wilcox's templates, trainings, and office hours to level up your email marketing game AND it's only $9/month
(3) Profitable Live Trainings - from Lizzy Goddard, I used this method to launch my Building a Successful Web Design Business workshop and it made it so easy
Favorite Code solutions in 2022
(1) SquarespaceWebsites Tools Extension PRO. This is a true MVP of my web design business. Port over entire blogs from one site to another and more. I dive into why I love this plugin in my post on Chrome Extensions Every Squarespace Designer Needs
(2) Ghost Plugins. An entire library of free Squarespace plugins plus some amazing paid super plugins. Use code CP15 for 15% off any of their paid plugins or templates.
(3) Will Myers' Mega Menu. I used this on several projects this year… it’s a great way to make your Squarespace site look less “Squarespace-y” and more user friendly when there's a complex navigation or a lot of dropdowns
Favorite Apps in 2022
(1) Squarespace. Of course. It’s been the foundation of my business since 2018.
(2) Fathom Analytics. A great alternative to Google Analytics because it is focused on protecting visitors' privacy and does not collect any personally identifiable information.
(3) ContentSnare. Transforms the way you collect content from your clients.
🗓 The Wrap-Up
In 2022, I focused on more life and less work. I was able to take off at least a week each month of the year and only saw a 17% dip in income. A tradeoff I’m happy making. My 1:1 work came from a mix of referrals and Google (thanks to my blog).
In 2023, I want to explore some lower-priced options for trainings and resources for both designers and DIYers. I may need to scale back a bit more on 1:1 work to have enough time to make this happen… we’ll see.
In 2022, my word of the year was “ease” and, without going into too much detail, it was untenable. The year was marked by loss after loss for our family and there was simply no ease at all. I’m glad to see the end of 2022 and looking forward to a 2023 of renewal. But I’m not making a whole word thing out of it.
I’m so grateful to have this career that I love and, if you are reading this, I’m grateful you are here too!
If you’d like to follow along on my journey, you can join my mailing list here. And if you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! I wish you a wonderful 2023. 🎉
✨ Are you getting started on your web design business journey? Check out the Build a Successful Web Design Workshop! ✨
