My first post in 2020 is a look back at 2019 and what we have planned to do in 2020.
2019
freshvanroot.com
In 2019 we published 74 posts. Overall we have 200 published posts (excluding this one).
Intensified blogging paid off. Traffic is up up up compared to previous years.
2019 was also the first year we made some money by signing up for the affiliate marketing program from Elementor and GeneratePress. It’s not big numbers but enough to pay our hosting.
We also started experimenting with selling services to a worldwide audience. The WordPress Kick Start Package was the first try and we sold it a few times. Again, not big money, but promising signals.
We launched our own newsletter. We have sent newsletters in the past, but only a few times a year and focusing on our agency business mainly. This changed and the first few editions are out.
For Fresh van Root, social media is mostly about allowing our clients and blog readers to subscribe to updates. 90% of what we post on our social media channels is related to our blog, in between we post a few casual updates about events, meetings and other stuff concerning our agency life.
rolfvanroot
I spent more time on Twitter, it is still my favorite social network. I built zero new followers, I think for that my presence would need to be much more outgoing, a higher frequency of posts, and more focused twittering (which I think would make it boring). But I am happy with the little network I have there and the discussions I can have.
My English writing is slowly getting better. I reached out to native speakers a few times and asked for feedback to confirm that.
My blogging workflow is running smoother. From idea generation to hitting publish, I need less time to get a post live.
2020
freshvanroot.com
Blog: Publish at least 75 posts in 2020, send 26 newsletters, traffic growth.
Continue the experiments with selling digital products on freshvanroot.com
Design refresh: freshvanroot.com will undergo a web design refresh. I hired some designers already and the goal is to rework the site structure and the consistency of the design.
We won’t change the toolset we work with, except we might move away from ProtonMail due to a lack of innovative features in its webmail client.
Basically, continue most of the stuff we started in 2019.
rolfvanroot
Reduce time spent on LinkedIn. Use Instagram only to post, not to scroll.
I would like to learn Webflow, just need 100 hours to do so.
Relaunch my personal (link) blog.
What are your plans for the new year?