In this post we're going to take a look at how 2019 was for me (mostly professionally) and we're also going to set some goals for 2020! ?
I really love numbers, so I'm also going to show you how 2019 was in numbers. I'm also going to share some of the earnings that I made blogging, creating content, and freelancing.
Hopefully this will inspire you to start working on the things that you love (as I am doing now ?).
Note: the first part of the article is my 2019 story. So if you are only interested in the numbers and earnings part, jump down to the end of the article. ?
2019 In Review
General Overview - The story
I started blogging again in February 2019 after taking a break for 1.5 years. At the same time I was working as a Remote ReactJS developer for a company and spent my evenings and mornings writing articles.
I always liked the idea of sharing the things that I'm building so I decided to start blogging again, determined to make it work this time. ?
I also started being active on Twitter. I had around 300 followers back in February 2019.
I quickly found out that the Twitter community is amazing, so it was a joy to share the little things that I was doing with the community - and the feedback was great!
Soon after that (somewhere around April or May) I noticed that people really enjoyed the things that I was doing (and saying ?). So I decided that, starting with January 2020, I was going to go full-time as a blogger.
But...considering that I'm not the most patient guy in the world ?, in June I told my wife that I wanted to quit my job sooner. Like 6 months sooner. ?
At first she wasn't 100% on-board (I can't blame her as I was the only one providing for the family - she was still in school). But after doing some calculations we saw that I could give it a try because we had enough money saved to live off for the next 6 months. So she agreed (and I can't thank her enough, not only for accepting, but for supporting me throughout this journey ?).
Become a full-time blogger + the "semi-depression"
So I did it. 5th July was my last day as an employee.
My journey as a full-time blogger & content creator began! ?
Note that I also had some deals with publications which involved me writing tech articles for them - so at least I had the prospect of making a little bit of money. ?
I ended up only writing one or two paid articles (shame, shame!) and I soon got into a "semi-depression" (at least that's what I call it).
It mostly came from the fact that after 1-2 months of being a full-time blogger, I didn't achieved my expectations of writing X articles, making Y amount of money, etc... all the things that I'd been planning.
By this time I was making around $150 a month from Ads and Patreon - which obviously wasn't the amount I was expecting. And it was all my fault.
I had the opportunity to write paid articles, but for some reason I couldn't do it. I believe it was because of the pressure I put on myself for writing PERFECT articles because they were paid.
We took a 2 week break and visited the Black Sea. It did wonders for my mental health. I stopped putting so much pressure on myself and I started enjoying the process.
After we came home I took on the $200 in 4 days Challenge and I proved to myself that I was able to make money if I had to. This boosted my morale and my productivity increased!
Soon after that I started the #100Days100Projects Challenge - creating one project every day for 100 days in a row.
This challenged ended up getting me one of the biggest deals ever which covered us in terms of the income for the rest of 2019.
Started a YouTube channel
Fast-forward to November. After struggling a lot and thinking that my accent was bad (more or less in my mind), I decided to start a YouTube channel.
It exploded quickly thanks to my wonderful followers on Twitter, reaching 1,000 subscribers in less than a month! ?
Finally made some cash ?
I've read many books and watched probably thousands of hours of YouTube videos and courses on how to monetize your passions (blog, YouTube channel, etc). So I finally ended up actually doing something in that regard. ?
I did 3 things to earn some extra money:
- Added ads on my blog
- Created a Patreon page to be able to accept donations
- Became an affiliate and started promoting web development courses
Below you can see how much I made.
The Numbers - 2019
My blog
- wrote 53 articles on my blog
- had 124k visitors for a total of 309k page views
- got 1200 email subscribers (although I haven't promoted it very much. In 2020 I have to do a better job)
Here are my Google Analytics stats:
YouTube
- created 11 videos and made 2 live streams
- got 1,779 subscribers
- 13.1k views
- 414 watch hours
Subscribe here if you want to follow my YouTube journey. I'm planning a lot of interesting things for 2020 and you don't want to miss it! ?
Other achievements
- got roughly 400k page views on my articles on Medium, freeCodeCamp and Dev.to combined
- got 11k followers on Twitter - the best community ever! ?
- wrote 8.5k+ tweets - had to put in some work to get people to notice me ?
- created the app-ideas repository which got 8k stars on GitHub
- created and finished the #100Days100Projects Challenge
- won the Top 7 award on dev.to - twice
- Top 100 Contributor for FreeCodeCamp in 2019
- Top 500 Contributor for Dev.to in 2019
- Top 12 most hearted pen on CodePen in 2019
- had 25 1-on-1 meetings
- gifted 11 Udemy Courses as Giveaways (more of these coming in 2020!)
Earnings:
- $491.15 from donations on Patreon (pre-tax, since May/June)
- $359.11 from Ads (since May)
- and $1,046.97 as an affiliate promoting web development courses (since November)
Plans and goals for 2020
My main focus in 2020 will be my YouTube channel.
This is why I started the year with another challenge: #31Days31Videos where I'm planning to post one video every day at 4PM (UTC+2) for the entire month of January. Hopefully this will help me acheive my goals (see below).
YouTube channel goals:
- upload 150 videos
- have at least 30 live streams
- 100,000 Subscribers by the end of the year ? - this is probably the biggest goal that I've ever set!
- 4k watch hours by the end of March - this is needed in order to get monetized on YouTube (it would be great to get some extra money, right?)
- 1M views for the entire year
Blog goals:
- write 100 articles
- get to 100k monthly views by the end of 2020
- or a total of 1M views
- get to make $200 / month from ads by the end of 2020
- 10k email subscribers
Social Media goals:
Money / earning goals:
- $2k / month average from January to June (or $12k)
- $4k / month average from July to December (or $24k)
- $36k in total
Other goals:
- create 3 digital products
- create an online course
- write an ebook
- build a SAAS (or something with MRR / monthly recurring revenue)
- mentor 4 people directly
- read 26 books
Conclusion
I hope you found this article useful and that it inspires you to start going after your own goals! Make sure you write your goals down (either on a piece of paper or in a word document as I have it). It's important!
Come back later if you want to see my progress.
I wish you an amazing 2020! ?
This article was originally posted on my blog