Hey Bootstrapped.fm!
It’s Rich, maker of Failory, where I weekly publish startup-related content. I spent a long time without publishing any new monthly reports on the site, as I wasn’t having much time to work on it. However, in December I spent lots of hours boosting it and wanted to share how did that went.
That’s why yesterday I wrote and publish this 3,300-word article.
But for the ones who don’t have too much time to read it all, here is a short summary of the most interesting things.
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I launched Failory 2.0! After spending lots of months building new features on the site, I decided that it was the time of re-designing the homepage so as to show these new tools I’d built. But I turned to perfectionists and decided to re-design the entire site.
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I launched it on Product Hunt, Hacker News, Designer News, and other communities. It meant 10,376 users and +800 email subscribers! You can find more about the strategies I used in the article. But, all in all, it was a complete success!
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I kept improving Startup Cemetery, a tool in which I have analyzed why +100 companies have failed. But I have to just fucking publish it!
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I had many calls with consultants on GrowthMentor, a cool mentoring platform. They all gave me important feedback on the project and tips that I am carrying out right now. Totally recommend this platform to you all!
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I read a lot! I am happy about this - I had some free time to read over 100 articles and listen to over 170 podcasts (most of them were less than 20 minutes, I’m not that crazy!).
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I signed up to Genm, where I have hired a digital marketing apprentice to work with me on Failory’s interviews and promotion. I also joined their affiliate program and was able to make $100.
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I published two articles/interviews every week of December! This paid off as it meant a lot more traffic and getting viral on Hacker News twice. One interview got 11,854 page views in 3 days.
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I set up goals in Google Analytics! Yeah… I spent 16 months working on Failory and I didn’t have goals on GA. I was lazy to learn about Google Tag Manager. But I found a cool course and was able to set up everything correct within a few hours.
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I sold many sponsorships! Only 2 for newsletters in December, but 3 for January and “The Everything Package” for February (and probably for April!). More about this package on the next tweet, but it was the best decision I have made in Failory since I started it.
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I added “The Everything Package” to Failory’s sponsors’ page. Its a way businesses have to sponsor the complete site and newsletter. It is priced at $650 and the estimated clicks are over 800. I am testing this, but if it works, I will probably make it more expensive soon.
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Podcast, yes or no? I have been thinking about this for the entire month. That’s why I have created this short survey to know your opinion about it. Would love if you could take three minutes to answer it!
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I carried out a customer research survey on Failory 7,000 email subscribers list. It went pretty well and it gave me useful insights about my audience, what they read, where do they spend their time and what they want on Failory.
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I created a cool spreadsheet to track 2019 Failory’s metrics and goals. Main 2019 goal: Achieve $6,000 in annual revenue. This means $500/month.
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Final numbers:
- 30,024 users
- 37,947 sessions
- 67,093 page views
- +1000 new email subscribers (7,014 in total)
- $210,47 in revenue
- $167 in expenses
- $43,47 in profit
I believe $43,47 in profit sucks. For the number of users and email subscribers I have, I believe I should be making much more money.
Does anyone have any experience monetizing a site like this?
I would love to know you opinion about the monetization strategies that I should be using!
