Hey there,

Welcome to my favorite time of the year — recap and planning for next year. It’s been two years of Ideas to Power Your Future — can you believe it? I feel like I should be sending issue #20 or so but here we are, at issue #104.

Since we’re talking about a one-person business centered around a newsletter, there couldn’t be a better fit for this week’s partner.

Chenell Basilio is THE newsletter authority and the person whose analyses taught me more about this space than anything else.

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​Growth in Reverse​

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Each newsletter issue is a deep dive filled with golden nuggets and proven growth tactics. I was hooked from the first issue I read, more than a year ago. If you’re serious about building an online business, you need to subscribe to Growth in Reverse.

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I choose to tell this story precisely because it is distinctly average, not a statistical outlier. I don’t have huge numbers.

What I do have, though, is consistent growth year over year. I’ve been in business long enough to know that this is more sustainable in the long run than astronomical growth.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: I have another business, an agency I’ve been running for 10 years now, which is my main source of income.

This is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, I don’t have to squeeze every drop of revenue out of what I do here. On the other hand, this business could be much more profitable if I solely focused on it.

OK, let’s get this started.

I’ll tell you all about:

  • Audience growth
  • Revenue growth
  • My biggest wins
  • My biggest f*ck-ups

And you can reply and ask me anything, just in case I omitted something here.

BTW, this is ​my 1-year recap​, in case you want to compare numbers.

The analysis below covers November 2023 – November 2024, so a full year.

230% audience growth for my newsletter — how I did it

A quick look at current (as of yesterday evening) numbers:

Ths

This chart paints a better picture of my audience growth:

Note: this number could be much higher but I recently deleted over 600 subscribers due to inactivity. Plus, I set up an auto-cleaning sequence that removes inactive subscribers after 30 days.

So the growth will slow down but my engagement rate will increase.

The organic channels that work well for me right now

Last year, I told you that ​LinkedIn​ was my biggest source of subscribers. Since the algorithm changed, that’s no longer the case. Instead, we have:

1. The Kit Creator Network

​The Kit Creator Network​ is by far my biggest growth driver.

Don’t be fooled by the 540 people who recommend me. There are only 40-something steady recommendations, the rest are “Smart recommendations”, a feature that automatically displays relevant newsletters in your recommendation widget.

It’s a nice feature, although it comes with its own problems — a lot of spammy email addresses and bots.

Out of these 2,700+ subscribers, I estimate about half of them are still around. The rest have either unsubscribed or I have deleted them due to inactivity.

Still, it’s so easy to use this that it’s become my main reason for staying on ​Kit​ — not that the rest of the features aren’t great too.

2. Cross-promos and partnerships

It’s hard to quantify but I estimate at least 500 subscribers have come from cross-promos and partnerships.

While the number isn’t extremely high, the relevance is. Most subscribers that found me this way are highly-engaged and responsive. This is ​social proof​ at its finest — I was recommended by someone they trusted, so a bit of that trust brushed off on me.

3. Social media (especially LinkedIn)

Even with unfriendly algorithms, social media still works. These days, I get ±10 subscribers a week from social media, fewer if the algorithm truly hates me, more if it throws me a bone.

​LinkedIn​ is where I spend most of my time and I am active on ​X​ and ​Threads​ too.

Threads has been a very nice surprise. Even though I barely have a presence there (fewer than 150 followers), every reply I leave gets a massive reach compared to the size of my account.

Plus, it’s like Twitter in the good old days: people are incisive and edgy, but not as jerk-y as on X.

4. Medium

A recent addition to my stack, Medium has an excellent ROI, money-wise and audience-wise. I wrote a lot on​ how I use Medium here​, so I won’t rehash it all.

The only trouble with the platform is the inconsistency: if one of my stories gets “boosted” (handpicked by the editorial team of a publication for enhanced distribution), I can expect 20-40 new subscribers from it.

If not, I can expect…crickets.

5. Podcasts, live events, communities, collabs, and others

These are incredibly hard to quantify, especially podcasts that go live month(s) after the recording. Still, whenever I do more podcasts, live events, or various collabs, my audience grows.

Paid channels I use to grow my newsletter

Last year, I said I would start dabbling in paid growth and I did.

1. Paid recommendations on the Kit Creator Network

Back in April, I met someone with a similar audience — except theirs was much bigger. Since it wasn’t fair to simply recommend each other (they would have gotten much fewer subscribers than me), I suggested paying to stay on their recommendations list.

Out of the 2700+ Creator Network subscribers you saw above, 1200+ came from this arrangement.

The 50% retention rate I estimate is not bad either, especially since this requires virtually no effort on my part.

2. Refind ads

I started using ​Refind​ ±10 days ago, so I don’t have much data to share yet.

Refind is a platform similar to Sparkloop: you set a CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), connect it to your ESP and they promote your newsletter on various other email lists.

It’s very low-effort, they even handle the copy for you (you can change it if you want).

The results are murky so far: a few hyper-engaged subscribers and a few spammy email addresses too but I guess that’s normal.

This is what my dashboard looks like.

A quick note here: they confirm subscribers within 7 days or so, so the screenshot above is not current. I estimate that I get ±10 subscribers a day through Refind, so probably 100-ish so far.

I’ll give it another month or so. In the meantime, I plan to do some social media ads too (LinkedIn, most likely).

I’ve been dreading this because setting up social media ads is no walk in the park and I haven’t done it in a couple of years. Fingers crossed that it’s like riding a bike. That’s all about my audience growth. In all honesty, I’m just implementing what I teach in Audience Accelerator. I built this framework for me and for any expert with a solo business and made it as easy as possible to apply.

I’ve been incredibly short on time this year (mostly due to agency work, more on that below) and I still managed to grow my audience significantly, even if you exclude the paid tactics.

So give ​Audience Accelerator​ a shot now, while it’s 30% off. You’ll be thanking yourself next year. Use code 2YEARS30 at checkout and grow your audience without spending 20 hours on social media every week.

Your takeaway: not to sound like a broken record but diversification is your best friend. This year was extremely busy for me and yet I was able to grow my audience because I didn’t rely on a single channel.

Had I done that, I would be probably still cursing the LinkedIn algorithm. However, I spread my eggs across several baskets, so if the algo gods don’t smile down on me, I can simply do something else that day.

Still reading? Cool, let’s talk money!

Total revenue: $62,000+ from products, services, and agency work

In the past year, over 150 people bought a product or a service of mine. Some of them bought a single one, others bought all of them, some multiple times (the ​strategy session​ and the ​brand partnerships​).

Thank you for that!

It’s extremely humbling to see these numbers and to know how many people put their trust in me. I promise I don’t take it lightly!

Now for the numbers:

I get revenue in four ways:

  • The products listed at the beginning of this email.
  • Services (done-for-you marketing strategy, trend analysis, market intelligence, and more.
  • Affiliate marketing and Medium (more recently).
  • Work for my content writing and copywriting agency.

Let’s dive into them:

Agency work

My social media post yesterday said my revenue growth was 180%. I had forgotten to add most of the agency work. The real number is over 240%.

Quick background: I run a content marketing and copywriting ​agency​. I rarely talk about it because I work with a lot of very loyal customers (some, for 8 years and counting). Also, in all honesty, because I’m ashamed that I haven’t updated any of my agency websites in 3-ish years 🙈.

Anyhow, people love to dig into my social media profiles and some of them discovered this about me, although I never mentioned it there. This has resulted in ±$17K this year.

I know this is unapplicable to most of you, it’s a pretty rare setup, so let’s focus on the other revenue sources.

How my one-person business makes money

In the past year, I made approximately $45,000 from three revenue streams:

A few notes:

  • I didn’t do much affiliate marketing, it’s on my agenda for next year. It was on this year’s agenda as well, but it didn’t happen.
  • I rarely talk about my high-ticket services. All of the revenue came from exactly three clients and all three of them came from referrals from some of you (you know who you are, thank you!). What I did for them: trend analyses, market intelligence reports, content marketing strategy, and in-depth competitor analyses. All are done-for-you services that usually require weeks of research and analysis. More about this in the f*uck-ups section — you’ll see why.

Your takeaway: services are almost 50% of my revenue this year, even if I did nothing to promote them. This is why I keep saying that ​the real money is in services, not products​, especially if your audience is not extremely high.

OK, this is revenue but what about profit?

Great question!

My expenses are quite low:

  • $1500 on ads
  • ±$1000 for my ​Kit​ subscription (not a set price, the subscription grows when my audience grows)
  • $1200 for ​ThriveCart​, where I host the Audience Accelerator course. I love ThriveCart because I made ONE payment and it’s mine forever, there are no recurring monthly payments. And you can use it for any type of checkout and to host any type of digital product, not just courses.
  • ±$600 for hosting (shared with my other websites), Google My Business, and other tiny services.

So my profit is 93% of my revenue. Not bad!

🏆 My biggest wins of the year

  • The last day with zero subscribers was Christmas Day 2023. I had 1-49 subscribers every other day, even when I didn’t even touch social media or promote my newsletter in any other way.
  • While not impressive, this revenue is solid and more than most creators make in their second year in business — especially part-time creators (solopreneurs? — so many terms!) like me.
  • It’s gotten much, much easier to get traction everywhere. I’m surprised at how many people have heard of me, read my newsletter or follow me on social media. Including some people I think highly of.
  • ​The brand partnerships​ worked much better than expected. I know exactly why this happened: my audience is made of wicked smart people and when they saw them sell fast they knew that buying as soon as possible will get them access to an ever larger audience than what they’re paying for. Gosh, I love working with smart, future-oriented people!

😰 My biggest f*ck-ups

1. I didn’t work ON my business as much as I should have

We have a saying in Romanian that roughly translates to “do as the priest says, not as the priest does”. I keep telling my clients and everyone who listens that they should work on growing their audience. Because audience = leverage.

This year, my audience grew and so did my revenue. And yes, this is causation too, not just correlation.

Yet, I was swamped with creating and launching the Audience Accelerator course (the irony is not lost on me) and, later on, with a lot of agency work.

Something had to give and it was working ON my business.

It’s a f*ck-up, yes. But one that I’m not beating myself too much over.

I’m happy I still managed to do something in this area and that I bet on the right thing: growing my newsletter instead of my social media following.

2. I launched Audience Accelerator right in the middle of the summer

In July, to be precise, when everyone’s on holiday.

I knew one of two things was going to happen: with business slowing down, people would have the time to learn how to grow their audience OR they couldn’t care less because they had beaches and hikes on their minds.

The latter happened.

I gambled and I lost.

I won’t lie, it stung a bit but it’s an evergreen product that made more sales after the launch than during it.

3. I don’t promote my high-ticket services

Remember how I said that all my revenue came from exactly three clients and those three clients came via referrals? Well, the people who referred them to me had to ask me if I did market intelligence/trend analysis, and more. They didn’t know — and that’s entirely on me.

Yes, I have a “Work with me” section on my website but who’s got time to dig around? I need to talk about these more.

I estimate 2024 will be the best year in business for me (revenue-wise)

This is mostly due to my agency work but it’s a good thing, nonetheless.

Still, it was an incredibly hard year for me. I worked way too much, sometimes even 12+ hours a day. It’s not the life I want, so next year will be all about optimization.

Speaking of next year:

My plans for 2025 and beyond

I have three big, hairy goals:

  • Write a book and launch it in late 2025 or early 2026. I have a rough outline for it and I’m very excited about writing even longer-form stuff.
  • Work closer with a few of you. I know there’s interest in live workshops and similar formats, so I’m putting something together and you’ll be the first to know.
  • Getting to 7-10K engaged subscribers.
  • I don’t have a fixed revenue goal for next year. Instead, I want consistent and predictable revenue. This year’s revenue has been inconsistent, so I can’t even talk about MRR.

Whew, that was a lot! Thank you for reading this far!