Behind the scenes: October 2021
October 🍁 🎃
This month was back in the normal swing of client work and it was nice to have the structure and collaboration of those types of projects. That means my 1:1 income was UP, which was good because course and template sales were way down this month.
I haven’t been actively marketing my products. This is where I struggle… I don’t like to be sales-y or send tons of emails about a product, but that is how you make money. I do believe my templates and my course are valuable, I just don’t want to be hustling or pushy about them. And because my business is just me, I have a limited amount of time to devote to marketing, and I don’t know where to best spend that time. Instagram reels (ugh, I hope not) or Pinterest engagement or social media ads? I have no idea.
But if you do know someone who’d like to buy a nice Squarespace template or take a course on how to Make Money with your Blog, you can sign up to be an affiliate and send them my way.
Income Streams
This month had three income streams: 1:1 work, a course sale (one!), and affiliate income.
1:1 Work
I launched clairetomasi.com for the lovely Claire Tomasi, an author and cartoonist whose first graphic novel is coming soon!
I also wrapped up branding for The Ivory and started on their website launching the first week in November.
And I had about 10 one-hour Squarespace help sessions and 1 Designer for a Day® in October.
Course & Tempalte Sales
One. LOL. Other than an email about my template launch and a couple of Instagram posts, I did zero marketing for my products, so I’m not surprised that I had only one sale. That sale was for my Make Money with your Blog Course and it came from an email in my welcome sequence.
After talking with other Squarespace Template creators, it sounds like October was a slow month overall for many of them as well, so that helps me to not feel so alone. I did have some reserve payouts here from Teachable (they hang onto some of the sales in case there are returns), but only the one new sale.
Affiliate Income
My affiliate income this month was $1,824, down a bit from earlier this year because my website traffic is down (likely due to less blogging on my part earlier this year paired with shifts in the Google algorithm). This month I had payouts from:
- The Ghost Company - Squarespace templates and plugins
- Kate Scott - Squarespace templates and Scale with Templates course
- Memberspace - add a Members Only area to Squarespace
- Squarestylist - Squarespace mega menu plugin
- SQSP Themes - Squarespace blog sidebar, related post plugins, business bundle
- HoneyBook - CRM / business management tools
- Peachs - affiliate software for Squarespace eCommerce
- Termageddon - website legal policies
- The Creative Law Shop - website legal policies (Use code CHRISTY10 for 10% off your purchase.)
- Canva - easily create website graphics and social media posts
- Weglot - multilingual website solution
- Squarespace - website builder
Expenses
This month I spent money on:
- Preordered Damn Copy's 4 Template Pack Launch Bundle for copy templates for: freebie opt-in, 5 sales email sequence, tripwire sales page, and sales page ($100)
- Flodesk for one more month, still trying this out for email marketing before their beta pricing goes away, and to see how it compares to MailerLite ($19)
- Sarah Masci's Day Rate Quick Start ($37)
Learning
I'm still working my way through Squarestylist’s Standout Squarespace, and it's so full of valuable information that I'm having to take it slow. This is an incredibly comprehensive course on everything from client management to custom code, and the price reflects that. I’m learning a LOT about Rache's coding methods and they are a great way to save time developing sites.
I also ordered Sarah Masci's Day Rate Quick Start because even though I've been offering Designer for a Day® for a few years, I'd heard such great things about this. Haven't had a chance to dive in yet. ($37)
Content Creation
Blog
A few DIY clients have asked about ways I speed up my workflow, so I created a post on Chrome Extensions Every Squarespace Designer Needs. I also kept going with the Behind the Scenes posts: Behind the scenes: September 2021. And Squarespace had a bumper crop of new features in October, so I wrote about them here.
Instagram @christypricewebdesign
I’m sticking with the roughly once-a-week post schedule on Instagram and still enjoying the freedom it provides. I even had time to create two carousel posts corresponding to the Chrome Extensions and New Features blog posts!
And now that we all have the Instagram link sticker in stories, I’ll be recreating some of my highlights with direct links.
Email Newsletter
My monthly email went out to subscribers in early October. I stuck with Flodesk for another month, but am leaning toward going back to MailerLite because even though it is more clunky, it is less expensive ($126/year rather than $228/year) and has more features like A/B testing and one-click list cleaning. It’s just not as pretty
Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn
I use MissingLettr to schedule my blog posts to automatically share on each of these platforms on a set schedule.
Features
I was featured in Kerstin Martin's 50 Top Tips For Starting Your Online Business (#5 & 6) and there are some great tips from other entrepreneurs here - definitely check it out!
And I was also quoted in Greg Faxon's 4 Deadly Website Mistakes, According To Designers in his post The 35 Best Coaching Websites Of 2021, Organized By Niche. Some great advice there from other web designers too!
Tools & Tech
Here are the tools and tech I relied on this month:
- Will Myers' split layout plugin for some nice style on The Ivory website
- Loom for recording quick screenshares for clients & course videos
- Squarespace for my site and client builds
- Canva for blog thumbnails, website mockups, and Instagram posts
- SquarespaceWebsites Tools Extension PRO for creating gallery blocks for Claire's website
- SQSP Themes plugin bundle for related posts for a client site
- 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
- Flodesk 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
The Numbers (compared to September)
Website Visitors: ~11,000 (holding steady). This is lower than I’d like, so I’m ramping up my blog posting.
Email List Subscribers: 1,575 (+56). Most new subscribers sign up for my lead magnet.
Instagram Followers: 1,156 (+41). Still gaining about the same number of followers each month, but with a LOT less posting.
YouTube Subscribers: 551 (+18). I had planned to post a video a week in 2021, but stopped in May because it did not bring me joy. A few subscribers trickling in here.
The Wrap-Up
It was really nice to be back to the 1:1 client work this month! Even if my template shop ends up taking off (although that’s not looking likely with the current numbers!), I don’t think I’d be able to completely give up working with clients directly on their websites. I would miss those human connections. After October, I typically slow down quite a bit and take off a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks off spread across Christmas and New Years. I’m debating whether I’ll add a full website design to my December calendar or just use that time to work on templates for the Squarespace Template shop. I’ll keep you posted!
