Happy holidays and happy new year! As this will be my last post of the year, I thought now would be a good time to look back and see what progress I’ve made as a writer and ebook developer, and figure out my goals for next year.
This year I kept a spreadsheet keeping a monthly track of some of my metrics, such as social media followers and how much money I’ve earned. I’m happy to say the numbers have steadily increased, though they were modest increases. But they should help me figure out how to do better next year.
That said, here are some of the stats from January and December of this year:
January:
| Total Books Published: | Twitter Followers: | Facebook Likes: | LinkedIn Connections: | Google Plus Circles: | YouTube Subscribers: |
| 2 | 414 | 172 | 384 | 47 | 7 |
December:
| Total Books Published: | Twitter Followers: | Facebook Likes: | LinkedIn Connections: | Google Plus Circles: | YouTube Subscribers: |
| 3 (with 2 in the editing stage) | 600 | 203 | 500+ | 87 | 13 |
MailChimp also sent me my email campaign stats:
| Total Sends: | Total Campaigns: | Total Opens: | Total Unique Opens: | Total Clicks: | Total Who Clicked: | Average Open Rate: | Average Click Rate: |
| 7,875 | 107 | 4,042 | 2,503 | 669 | 347 | 31.8% (industry average is 17.3%) | 4.4% (industry average is 3.6%) |
So thank you, everyone who has been reading my posts and emails. I truly appreciate it, and I plan to keep writing content that I hope you find useful. According to MailChimp, the email I sent with the highest open rate and highest click rate was “A Thank You Gift—Free How to Create Your First Ebook,” which I sent back in August to all my email subscribers to celebrate the new and improved cover of How to Create Your First Ebook.
Next year, I will be giving away more free content to my email subscribers, so if you’re interested, please sign up here.
And now for probably the most important metric, the amount I earned this year from freelancing as an ebook developer, writing articles and books, and teaching online courses on how to make ebooks: $5,894.76.
This doesn’t include costs and I did not make my goal for the year, probably partly because I took on a new fulltime job and partly because I spent a large chunk of this year planning my wedding, but next year my goal is to do better. 2015 will be a content year for me, and I already have a lot in the works.
Goals For Next Year:
- Finish my How to Ebook series, which will include
- Fixed format (draft written and ready for beta readers!)
- iBooks Author
- Advanced techniques (audio, video, etc.)
- A blog drip with lots of freebies
- Lots of content for I Know Dino, especially before Jurassic World comes out on June 12, including
- A regular podcast (we’re working on the first three now!)
- Short stories
- 2 out of at least 3 books in a new dinosaur series I’m working on (book 1 is in the editing stage!)
- A dinosaur trivia book (already researched, just needs to be written!)
- Dinosaur picture books (such as Brontosaurus Does Not Exist, which is in the process of being illustrated!)
- A dinosaur cookbook (recipes being discussed!)
So yes, lots to do in the new year, and I can’t wait! How did you do this year? And what are your goals? Please share in the comments!
