Behind the scenes: April - June 2023
Q2 2023: April, May, June
The second quarter of the year felt fast. Personally, it was a lot of fun - my husband and I took a trip to the Canadian Rockies in April, my daughter and I went to NYC to see some Broadway shows, and we worked with a trainer for Beyla (our now 1-year-old Chocolate lab). Plus spring in Austin before it gets too hot is always lovely. I also did some work in there! Here’s how that went…
Income Streams
This quarter had three income streams: 1:1 work, course and product sales, and affiliate income.
1:1 Work
Again, most of my income this quarter came from 1:1 work. I had >30 Squarespace Help Calls, 4 Designer for a Days® along with 2 booked for next quarter, and two custom builds. One of the custom builds was for a local design and build company, Keen Development Group. Kristin wanted a clean, modern website to showcase her work AND something that she could easily update herself. Squarespace was a clear choice.
Skin Glow Collective: A Facial Studio worked with me for a day to level up their website, in partnership with Emanio Creative. This was a crazy busy day, but I’m so proud of how the site turned out.
Course & Template Sales
The Client Process Checklist for Squarespace Designers that I launched in Februrary for $17 sold 96 more! I’ve gotten great feedback on it and I’m actually expanding on the Offboarding Process to give a workshop at Squarespace Circle Day 2023. What I’ve not done is create a marketing funnel to share my other products. A clear miss on my end, and something that I’ll be shoring up soon.
I also sold 9 Squarespace templates, had 5 new enrollees in my Make Money with your Blog course, and 5 new students in DIY Your Brand.
Affiliate Income
My affiliate income has still grown because of the Circle Referral payments. My two other largest consistent streams are from plugin shops I love, Ghost Plugins and Will Myers. I was incredibly disappointed in Canva for discontinuing their affiliate program for mere mortals like me, but I still love their product.
This Quarter’s Income Percentages
A little more “passive” income than last quarter and I’m grateful to Past Christy for setting up those blog posts, templates, and courses!
Expenses
This quarter my expenses were less than 8% of my income. This is where I like to keep it, below 10%. Most of the expenses were software. A couple that I’d heartily recommend are:
Content Creation
Blog
4 new posts this quarter… Preparing your Business for a Recession got so much feedback! Definitely one of the most engaged with posts in a while.
Instagram @christypricewebdesign
Email Newsletter
In Q2 I started prepping for a move from MailerLite to ConvertKit. Want to join my list? You can sign up here.
Collaborations
I hosted Ask Us Anything sessions with Will Myers, Kerstin Martin, and Kristine Neil.
I also hosted a webinar on how to Improve your SEO on Squarespace and another on how to Make your Website Multilingual with Weglot.
Squarespace invited me to be a guest on Circle Live alongside Squarespace’s own Jeremy Schwartz. We talk about making money and “passive” income. Watch the replay here.
And Will Myers and I launched Somewhat Useful, a podcast for digital entrepreneurs.
Tools & Tech
Here are the tools and tech I relied on this month:
- Wave for accounting and one-off invoicing
- Zapier for adding transactions to Wave automatically and delivering my templates
- Teachable for hosting courses and templates for sale
- Squarespace for my site and client builds
The Numbers
Website Visitors: I hopped around from analytics providers this quarter, moving from Fathom to Plausible. I don’t have the numbers, but things have seemed fairly steady.
Email List Subscribers: 2,183 (down because I cleaned my list and removed cold subscribers)
Instagram Followers: 1,701
YouTube Subscribers: 1,232
The Wrap-Up
I thought I’d start ending these posts with a Rose, Thorn, and Bud reflection.
Rose = A highlight, success, small win, or something positive that happened.
Thorn = A challenge you experienced or something you can use more support with.
Bud = New ideas that have blossomed or something you are looking forward to knowing more about or experiencing.
My Rose: (professional) I was so excited to be a guest on Circle Live. And if I can have two things, launching the podcast with Will has been amazing.
My Thorn: (professional) It became clear I need to change email marketing platforms. This is a big undertaking with all the segments and automations I have. :(
My Bud: (professional) I am so excited about Squarespace Circle Day in August. I went last year and it’s so lovely to meet people I’ve only known online in real life!
