2018 has been a great year.
I’ve written about New Year’s resolutions, setting goals and letting go each December over the last couple of years. But this month I wanted to share what big things I’ve worked on that helped me move forward.
As you know, it all started with personal development for me and developing the right mental habits (which took years).
After that, I set out on the ‘make money online’ journey through freelance writing, which was also the first step to monetizing my passion.
I share the phases I went through in this post.
That’s also when I started Let’s Reach Success but as a hobby and without any idea of where it could take me if I stay consistent.
5 years later, I’m a blogger doing what I love and working on new things every new year. Let me share some of them together with my goals for 2019.
1. I moved my business to the country I relocated to.
If you know my story, you also know that once I became location independent thats to my online business, I moved to the Netherlands. Things worked well and that’s where I’m settling down.
In the beginning of 2018, I also registered my business here as a company. That’s a big thing and means I’ll have a huge tax bill as compared to my home country.
But it was the right thing to do and it encouraged me to take the financial and administrative aspects of my business seriously. Now that my income has grown too, some of the benefits I was entitled to as a starter aren’t valid anymore.
2. Switching to a better hosting provider.
There are a ton of reasons why I switched from Bluehost to WPX Hosting, but it’s one of the best blogging decisions I’ve taken.
Your web host plays a big role in how fast your site loads, whether or not it’s down, how secure it is, and what customer support you get.
Well, WPX Hosting is something I’m sticking with. In fact, since I went with them in February 2018, they officially became the fastest WordPress host with world-class support.
I talk more about the features they offer here.
3. Transitioned from freelance work to full-time blogging.
Almost no one wants to be a freelancer forever. Even though you’re still working for yourself and are flexible enough to set your own working hours and choose your clients, you’re still dependent on them.
There’s also a lot of insecurity involved as you need to negotiate your prices, look for new clients, etc.
A better way to earn your money is blogging. It’s also more rewarding as you’re writing for your own audience and that allows you to do your best work.
This year I managed to transition from freelance work to blogging. That means most of my income is now coming from passive income streams or blogging projects, such as sponsorships, ads, affiliate marketing, and selling products.
4. Launched 3 free courses.
In the second part of 2018 I finally realized why online courses are much better than eBooks and other products and took action.
I launched 3 free ones and already had more than 400 students enroll in just 1 of them. That’s How to Make Your First Money Online Freelancing.
The second most popular one seems to be The Passive Income Boss, with 265 students.
They are free because I want to provide value. I mention these courses often on Let’s Reach Success and link to them from related posts. People seem to love that type of content as it’s interactive.
It’s also fun to create them and easier to promote them than eBooks.
I use Teachable to do all that.
5. Had my highest monthly income ever.
The actual amount of money earned each month shouldn’t be such a big deal as we’re talking about the big picture here (annual income means more than 1-3 low months throughout the year).
Also, as I’m not looking for new freelance clients, I’m saying ‘no’ to potentially earning more. That’s because I care more about how I earn money online and want to make the best use of my time (which is blogging).
Still, however, there are certain milestones in the life of a blogger that mean a lot. For me, that was $5K.
I earned over $5,400 in August without working too much. That was a result of all the actions taken the previous months, of course, as hard work in the right direction always pays off.
I immediately wrote a long article sharing the exact things I did in 6 months prior to August to double my income.
And here’s my annual blog income report for 2018.
6. My first paid course.
Because blogging has done so much for me and is the best career path for anyone looking to free themselves from the 9 to 5, I decided to use all my knowledge and experience from the past 5 years to help other aspiring bloggers.
That led to coming up with the idea of Financial Freedom Through Blogging – my first paid online course that will be the ultimate resource to starting and growing a 5-figure blog, monetizing it, turning it into a business, and using that to be financially free.
The first students have already enrolled although the course is not completed. However, it’s launched and new modules are being released every other week.
I’ve never been so happy with a product of mine and can’t wait for more people to learn about Financial Freedom Through Blogging, as I believe it covers all they need to know to earn from blogging even if they have no experience.
I even created a whole new website so I can include relevant how-to videos and show students exactly what to do about each aspect of starting a blog and growing it.
What’s Next?
Here’s what’s next for me and Let’s Reach Success:
Completing Financial Freedom Through Blogging.
Each module of the course is huge, with many lectures, tutorials
Updating old content.
When you have a site with thousands of articles, you need to be auditing old content every year. That means some old posts (which are too short, not optimized at all, and get no traffic) should be removed.
Others might need a big update and more content. Some good ones will require minor edits too.
I’ve been doing that in 2018 too but it’s a lot of work. I do expect a boost in traffic and SEO once that’s done as old articles can rank for better keywords. In addition, Google spiders will crawl them again after their update and reconsider their position in the SERPs.
Read also: 2022 Annual Income Report: The Ups and Downs in my Business
Another product.
I have ideas for more online courses and am excited to give them a try. I already know the topics are promising as they are in demand and profitable, and I do have a lot to share on each from experience.
How are things looking for your blog? If you haven’t started one yet, are you planning to in 2019?
