Monthly Round-Up: December'24 Earnings Report
In 2024 I’ve built a 5-figure business from scratch, working in my spare time.
It’s that time of the month: time to look at the numbers for December’24 and the whole year of 2024.
As usual, this is what I have:
Content: strategies I implemented and their outcome
Distribution: platforms I used and how they performed and why
Monetization: how much I earned in total and a breakdown by platform
Outlook: what I plan to start, stop, change or continue in the future, and why
Let’s begin!
Content & Distribution
It’s the month when I got my first truly viral note with 10 200 likes and 164 new subscribers.
My Notes research, which I started in November did bring some results, and I’m still working on it.
On the content part:
I finally finished the “Substack Kick-Starter - how to gain your first 1000 subscribers” guide I promised to all subscribers back in September.
I decided to offer it as a free 10-day email course to all new subscribers, and not as a pdf guide (as I initially stated) for one main reason:
Educate new subscribers on the content I have to offer. Substack doesn’t have automation or sequences, which I find a huge disadvantage, so I found a workaround.
I did that automatically via Kit - I import automatically my Substack subscribers to Kit and built a sequence on Kit with the 10 emails.
It’s my first email course and it worked really well, got a tons of interest and I got a lot of positive feedback.
I focused a lot on Notes testing different formats, topics and content. I did get one Note going viral I saw how the platform changes and how the types of Notes that take off also change.
Bottom line: write Notes. A lot. Test different things. Don’t aim to go viral, just have a solid content strategy and stick to it long enough. You’ll get subscribers - free and paid (proof).
I started the Spotlight Sessions with winners from the Notes30 and Writing Challenges.
I know a lot of creators are inviting other popular creators who are already successful but I think people also want to know about the ordinary people who are just starting. Not just another success story. Real people with real struggles, real challenges, and real growth insights.
Monetization
December was a bit slower than the previous months in revenues, but still solid.
Overall, 2024 was simply amazing for me.
I’ve built a 5-figure business from scratch, working in my spare time.
It was my first year writing online and I never thought I'd achieve this so fast!
What I learned from testing different strategies: the price doesn’t matter. What matters is how well people know you and your offer and how much value they find in it.
So, it’s all about the content you deliver and how you present your price offer. Notice I said “present” and not “sell”. It’s all about the value you deliver.
If you do that long enough, results will come.
What about my earnings?
Here’s the split by channel: