Here’s What I’m Working On In 2024
I wanted to share a quick recap of the past year and what I’m looking forward to in 2024. This will be fun for me to look back on at the end of the year — and in a decade.
It’s all about me…but hopefully you enjoy it and find some value or inspiration for yourself!
Creating content
Writing and creating content was my favorite thing in 2023, and I’ll continue in 2024 (and probably the rest of my life).
There was a time when I was convinced that I needed to create all forms of content to get attention. Over the past year, I’ve gotten more comfortable just focusing on writing. I’ve (mostly) accepted the fact that I don’t need to post photos, create videos, or record podcasts.
I’ve also learned this year that I love the 1,500–2,000 word format the most. It’s what I started with and how I earned my first internet money, but I always been stuck with the idea that I needed to be a great short-form writer as well. I’d also need to write 50,000 word books. I forced myself to write short-form tweets and threads, because I’d see people building massive audiences and businesses on those platforms.
- I published 119 articles on Medium in 2023 (514 total)
- I got a total of 133,000 views
- I doubled my audience (almost exactly) from 5,337 to 10,575
In 2024, I’m going to embrace the content format that I enjoy the most and worry less about the other stuff.
That means I’ll be posting here on Medium and LinkedIn regularly.
My top 3 topics of interest are:
- Landing Pages
- Copywriting
- Freelancing
I’ve gone back and forth posting on Twitter/X and Threads. After not posting for a few days, it’s not even a thought in my mind. It’s a chore and hasn’t produced any results. I’m taking that as a signal to ignore them for the time being.
Another important realization I’ve had is leveraging my library of content. After writing 50+ articles about a single topic, I feel like I’ve said all there is to say.
I paid closer attention to other successful creators and noticed that many of their articles and social posts are nearly identical. They have a handful of core messages they repeat over and over again.
This year, I’m working on reviving some of my old content. Last month (December ’23) I published an article about adding urgency into your sales copy. That was based on an article I wrote in October 2022. Of course, no one remembered the article from 14 months ago — except for me.
It makes zero sense to not write about topics because I wrote something similar months or years ago. But, that’s how I’ve thought for a long time.
It’s still uncomfortable for me, but now I’m convinced that digging into the archives more often will help me create better, more helpful content in 2024.
ps. Copywriter’s Handbook is a publication I run. I’m looking forward to adding more writers and articles to it, and seeing it grow. The next milestone is 1,000 followers (currently at 748).
Courses
I thought about creating online courses for years before I created and launched the first one.
Finally, in July 2023, I created my first course. I knew I had to move quickly and get it out into the world because I had plenty of half-baked ideas that never came to fruition. Thinking about it for too long would produce the same (lack of) results.
I got the idea, wrote and organized the course material in one day and it was live the very next day. I knew the idea was good, but I was shocked when I saw students signing up minutes after I announced it.
That first course was a mild financial success — which was really a big success considering my lack of experience and how quickly I put it together.
I wrote about the big mistakes I made here:
Around October, I got the idea for another course.
It’s a landing page course, and a unique mix of an online course + 1–1 coaching. I love the idea, but I haven’t promoted this one much because I’m still getting clear about how I want to position it.
One of my goals for 2024 is to get clear on exactly who the course is for — something I haven’t had the time to sit down and think about enough. After that, I’ll push harder on the marketing and see where it goes.
One experiment I just started running this week is DIY course content. I gathered the info that I’d teach in the course and organized it into a Google Doc.
I’m selling this for 1/10th the course price.
I don’t have any plans to create more courses. I love creating new stuff, but there’s still plenty of potential to unlock with what I’ve created.
In 2024, my goal is to spend 10–20% of my time working on my course sales. I’ll continue refining the marketing and promote what I’ve created more than I did in 2023.
Marketing services
I’m spending the majority of my time providing services for clients.
In 2023, I started the year all-in on SEO content services.
ChatGPT and AI writing tools went crazy and caused a great deal of disruption in the SEO content industry. I spent many hours learning how to use AI tools for SEO and content creation, and saw many businesses replace writers with AI.
I’m predicting (and hoping) we’ll see a slight pendulum swing back toward human writers, but anything could happen.
Midway through 2023, I was burned out on writing articles. It was a dreadful grind of researching and writing 5–7 articles every week on topics I have no interest in.
I began making a pivot towards landing pages and away from writing articles.
I still enjoy working on SEO and will continue helping clients with keyword research, website audits, internal linking, content, and other on-page SEO.
A big frustration I experienced in 2023 was a lack of full funnel marketing. I’d get more traffic to the website, but it was meaningless numbers. The articles would rank, but the next steps of the customer journey were broken or missing altogether.
An eCommerce store asked me to create a content plan while 70% of their items were out of stock, with no indication until you tried to add the item to your cart. I could boost their traffic, but those people will have an awful experience. After many, many months, they still haven’t fixed the issue.
I don’t work with people like that.
In 2024, the services I’ll be providing will focus more on converting traffic into customers. Creating and optimizing landing pages, creating lead magnets, writing website copy, etc.
I’d much rather improve my client’s bank account than their search traffic graph.
And, if I had to pick a New Year’s resolution for 2024, it’s to have more fun and enjoy how I spend my time more than I did in 2023. Finding success is easier when you enjoy what you’re doing.
My 2023 goal was to work with more clients.
My 2024 goal is to work on more projects that I love.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m excited for the year ahead.
Let me know what you’re looking forward to this year!
