This is a recap of the first quarter of 2022.
In my 2022 planning post I said:
I’m focused on building my audience, career, and relationships for Q1 of 2022. This is probably an indication they’re going to be the focus for the year.
This quarter I reached the blog traffic goal. I missed on the newsletter and Twitter goals.
For the second quarter, here’s what I’ll tackle and the order of priority:
- (High) Build processes to write and engage on Twitter and LinkedIn daily
- (Med) SEO optimization for 3-5 blog articles; write at least 1-2 SEO articles
- (Low) Define the value proposition of the newsletter; reposition opt-ins
Let’s dig into how things went. Plus, plans for next quarter.
(How did you do this quarter? Would love to read or hear about your retro!)
How “Building an audience” went
I broke down “Building an audience” into three areas:
- Twitter followers
- Blog traffic
- Newsletter subscribers
Twitter followers
Goal: Grow Twitter from 400 followers to 1000 followers. At the end of the quarter, I had 452 followers.
Publishing on Twitter daily is harder than I thought it’d be. This is one of the first things to slip each week. I’ve observed there’s little correlation between the quantity of tweets and follower growth. In other words, tweeting about your lunch doesn’t get you followers.
I’m humbled by the process. This quarter I’m doubling down on studying this game. For example, I just finished a course on quickly creating quality content for Twitter and LinkedIn by Justin Welch
For the next quarter, my goal is to reach 552 followers. I’ll do this by:
- Publishing on both Twitter and LinkedIn daily using Justin Welch’s content system
- Engaging with people on both platforms daily
- By the end of the quarter, write weekly long-form Twitter content, e.g. threads
Blog traffic
Goal: Grow blog traffic from 800 to 1,600 sessions per week. At the end of the quarter, the blog had 1,562 sessions per week. I count this as a win.
I wrote 5 new articles (goal: 3) and updated 4 (Goal: 3). 90% of the gains here are from the updated articles. This is expected. I’m not expecting returns from the new articles for at least 6 months.
I saw an SEO opportunity around the 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge my family is following. It seemed very blue ocean in my research. We’re deep into the challenge anyway so it made sense to be opportunistic here.
For the next quarter, my goal is to double the traffic from 1,600 to 3,200 sessions per week. I’ll do this by optimizing 3-5 articles and publishing 1-2 new SEO-focused articles.
Newsletter
Goal: Grow newsletter subscribers from 843 to 1,500 subscribers. At the end of the quarter, the newsletter had 980 subscribers. However, subscribers to future Dublin meetups inflated this count. (I keep everyone on a single Mailchimp list for simplicity.)
Looking back, the work I did this quarter (sending a newsletter every 2 weeks) was misaligned with the goal (increasing subscribers).
If you’re trying to increase your subscribers, there are two inputs to focus on: (1) increasing traffic and (2) improving your opt-in rate. To improve your opt-in rate, you (a) articulate the problem you solve and (b) incentivize people to subscribe.
My bottleneck here is that I haven’t articulated the problem my newsletter solves. It’s all over the place.
Next quarter, my goal is to reach 1155 subscribers. I’ll do that by (1) defining the problem I solve, (2) repositioning the newsletter opt-ins and (3) scale back newsletters sent out from 2 –> 1 per month so I can do that work.
Some short updates on other areas
Relationships. My goal was to host some kind of tech meetup in the first quarter of 2022. I did that, plus hosted two poker games. I attended Microsoft’s tech meetup. Finally, I made it back to Albany, New York for a short-notice trip when it counted.
Training. After watching Ryan Humiston’s training videos on YouTube, I switched to a bodybuilder protocol and a push/pull/legs split. This path month has been difficult to fit in BJJ. I’m frustrated with my lack of progress, and it’s such a time investment. Last week I considered quitting for now. But I’ve decided to stick with it. BJJ is a lifetime sport, and even squeezing in one class per week is better than nothing.
Sleep. Bad this quarter. A 3/10.
Travel. We did one weekend trip to Kilkenny and one to Barcelona. This quarter I’m traveling to New York, my Mom and sister are visiting Ireland, and my family will spend a week in Portugal. I’d love to squeeze in one more short Euro trip.
Notes:
- Image: Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red. Nailed so many of the parent/child, mother/daughter dynamics in a Chinese family.
