Behind the scenes: January 2022
January 🗓🎉
And, just like that, I was back in the office at full speed after a great holiday break. This month seemed compressed as I had a lot of work waiting for me after taking some vacation, but it was nice to start a fresh calendar and dive back in.
One change… I’ve renamed the “Simple Site” Web Design service to “Template Build Out.” I was getting lots of requests from people who skipped over the template part and thought I could build a custom site at a much lower price point than I offer. Just a reminder to myself that service titles need to be clear and that people often just skim, rather than read, your website. I’m beta testing this service out in February, so we’ll see if it’s a keeper.
Income Streams
This month had three income streams: 1:1 work, course and template sales, and affiliate income. It was a short month for 1:1 work, as I was out of office through January 10.
1:1 Work
I launched StudioThree49.com for a digital marketing expert. And I had 9 one-hour Squarespace help sessions and 1 Designer for a Day® in January.
Course & Template Sales
I sold 1 Squarespace template sale and had 4 enrollments in the Make Money with your Blog course this month. With zero marketing. I know marketing is my weak spot because I don’t want to create anxiety or pressure people into buying my courses or templates. I want them to purchase if it helps them solve a problem or makes their life easier. And I need to get better at creating content around that.
Affiliate Income
I count affiliate income when I receive the payout, so depending on the affiliate terms some payouts I get immediately, some are a month or two later, and some are almost 4 months later (looking at you, Squarespace). My affiliate income was about $1500 for January.
Instead of listing out all the affiliates each month like last year, I thought I’d just pick one or two to highlight each month. This month I want to mention two creators who grant you access to their private Facebook groups when you make a purchase from them. (And yes, I may have bought a low ticket item from each of them just to get access to their group, and then gone on to purchase more later.) I’ve learned SO MUCH in those groups. If you join, please say hi in there! 👋
Lizzy is an Online Business Strategist, but basically she create courses and trainings that help online business owners with online businessy things.
I've purchased at least 6 of her courses. One that I found incredibly valuable was Profitable Live Trainings: the course that helps you add a magically low-stakes, low-effort, endlessly-repurposable offer to your business - without creating an ultra-complicated funnel or going through a soul-sucking launch.
But if you just want access to her Facebook group, you can sign up for a freebie like her Free Mini-Course: Supercharge Your Email Open Rates! and then purchase the low-cost tripwire offer for $29 on Tripwire Training (totally worth it).
This Month’s Income Percentages
Ideally, I’d like to see 1:1 work decrease while overall income stays the same. I want to figure out how I can market my course and templates in a gentle, humane way and grow that percentage.
Expenses
This month I spent money on:
- An S-corp tax filing ($600)
- An annual starter plan with Crowdcast, where I've been doing free virtual office hours and plan to continue this year ($234)
- An Instagram posts template set that I shouldn't have bought ($50)
- An annual plan at Missinglettr ($90). I love this app for repurposing my blog posts across social media.
- A new standing desk! ($300). Totally worth it.
- A copywriting system for websites that came highly recommended. ($300). I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.
- A session with a course specialist to work on my course sales page ($300). Great, but I haven't had time to revamp the sales page yet. Excited to see how this pays off.
- And a new course from Lizzy Goddard (who I mentioned above) called Make a Flash for it ($29 introductory price). Haven't had a chance to dive into this yet either!
Clearly I need to work through all the courses and such I’ve purchased before I buy any more. So, I will NOT buy any courses or systems or anything like that in February. Writing it here so I’ll be accountable.
Content Creation
Blog
I’m thankful for the time off and the client work in January, but that meant less blogging. The pdf download post got a lot of good feedback though, so that was nice to hear!
Instagram @christypricewebdesign
Still just posting when I feel like it, about once a week for posts and a few times a week for stories. It’s nice.
Email Newsletter
My monthly email went out to subscribers in early January. You can read it here. It has some good tips on getting your website ready for 2022.
Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
I use MissingLettr to schedule my blog posts to automatically share on each of these platforms on a set schedule.
Tools & Tech
Here are the tools and tech I relied on this month:
- Canva for blog thumbnails, website mockups, and Instagram posts
- MailerLite for my monthly email newsletter
- Wave for accounting and one-off invoicing
- Zapier for adding transactions to Wave automatically
- Teachable for hosting courses and templates for sale
- Zoom for client calls and screenshares
- Loom for recording quick screenshares for clients & course videos
- Squarespace for my site and client builds
- SquarespaceWebsites Tools Extension PRO for porting over blogs from Squarespace 7.0 sites to new 7.1 sites
- SQSP Themes plugin bundle for related posts and blog sidebar for client sites
- Heather Tovey's Squarespace Block ID Finder Chrome extension to easily target blocks with CSS code
- HoneyBook for proposals, invocing, and all the CRM for my full website design service
The Numbers (compared to December)
Website Visitors: ~11,000 (holding steady). We’re in the midst of a new Google Analytics algorithm update, so we’ll see how that shakes out.
Email List Subscribers: 1,659 (+51). Most new subscribers sign up for my lead magnet.
Instagram Followers: 1,268 (+77). I was featured by Freelancing Females in a story, so I’m guessing I picked up some new subscribers from that.
YouTube Subscribers: 647 (+74). I haven’t posted here since last May. No idea why I’m gaining subscribers there, but I’ve gotten some really nice comments lately, so I’m considering adding some new videos as I have time.
The Wrap-Up
It was great easing into the year and starting back in the office on Jan 11, giving myself some breathing room. That said, I hit the ground running with client work and it was solid through the month. While I’m incredibly grateful for amazing, kind clients, I hope next month will allow for some space to get through all those courses I’ve purchased AND spend some time on my own business. I’ll keep you posted!
