Hey everyone,
I've been a lurker in this forum for the last few years. This is my first post and I want to share my business journey as well as spark a discussion.
I'd like to remain anonymous for now, so just call me Red. I'm 31 years old this year.
Long story short, I've been in the infoproduct business since 2019, selling a PDF ebook on Web Development topic.
It's the first time I experienced an income from the Internet, and since then I've been trying to up my game.
When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, I got a job with full WFH policy, so I start a blog on the side (on programming topics as well)
Every single day, I wrote an article on my blog, and that blog end up getting lots of views. That's when I decided to join an Ad network like Google Adsense to add some side incomes. I also learned about SEO and started writing on topics that get lots of traffic. All is good.
By 2021 I got laid off because the startup I worked for has no more money. Investors are uncertain about the future, so the company closed.
I ended up continuing to write an article every single day, even on weekends because I believe my blog can reach 1 million views per month.
Fast forward to November 2022, I got my best month with around $4K income from ads, with around 600k views. Little did I know that the future would turn 180 after that.
Because of Google update in December 2022, my traffic started to go down. When sequential Google updates in 2023 came earlier this year, my traffic really went downhill. Now I have only around $800 of ads income, and the future doesn't look so good with spam sites created using AI and all.
Looking back, I see many wrong decisions in my part:
1. I should have used my blog as a traffic source and try to sell courses
2. I should not relied solely on ad networks to bring income
3. I should double down on content creation from articles to videos.
4. I stopped selling ebooks because I got lazy. I should've made more books, and turn those books into courses.
In short, I lack control as MJ said in his books, so now I'm going for a fresh start.
Instead of relying on ads for income, I will make genuinely useful courses for people who want to learn programming, web development, and tech.
A few days ago, I have my first course published, and I already have 10 students. As we're going to 2024, here's my plan:
- I'm going to create 4 more courses.
- I would promote my courses using videos, posted on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Still in the process.
- Also, I would still write articles, posted on tech oriented websites like hashnode, hackernoon, and dev.to
I would probably post here on weekends only, as I want to commit myself to the plan. Content creation takes a lot of work!
I also want to start a discussion with all of you: given the AI boom and ChatGPT releasing the GPT store, would this affect course creators in any way? Would it cause a negative effect on our work?
My thoughts on the topic: I think even with the AI boom, people still consume courses. Instead of using AI to learn things, I see people buying courses on AI instead. The data point that makes me confident people would still buy courses is Udemy. The company released its third quarter 2023 report, and it has revenue increase YOY:
Maybe there will be significant changes in the future, but what do you think?
That will be all from me. Thanks for reading!
I've been a lurker in this forum for the last few years. This is my first post and I want to share my business journey as well as spark a discussion.
I'd like to remain anonymous for now, so just call me Red. I'm 31 years old this year.
Long story short, I've been in the infoproduct business since 2019, selling a PDF ebook on Web Development topic.
It's the first time I experienced an income from the Internet, and since then I've been trying to up my game.
When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, I got a job with full WFH policy, so I start a blog on the side (on programming topics as well)
Every single day, I wrote an article on my blog, and that blog end up getting lots of views. That's when I decided to join an Ad network like Google Adsense to add some side incomes. I also learned about SEO and started writing on topics that get lots of traffic. All is good.
By 2021 I got laid off because the startup I worked for has no more money. Investors are uncertain about the future, so the company closed.
I ended up continuing to write an article every single day, even on weekends because I believe my blog can reach 1 million views per month.
Fast forward to November 2022, I got my best month with around $4K income from ads, with around 600k views. Little did I know that the future would turn 180 after that.
Because of Google update in December 2022, my traffic started to go down. When sequential Google updates in 2023 came earlier this year, my traffic really went downhill. Now I have only around $800 of ads income, and the future doesn't look so good with spam sites created using AI and all.
Looking back, I see many wrong decisions in my part:
1. I should have used my blog as a traffic source and try to sell courses
2. I should not relied solely on ad networks to bring income
3. I should double down on content creation from articles to videos.
4. I stopped selling ebooks because I got lazy. I should've made more books, and turn those books into courses.
In short, I lack control as MJ said in his books, so now I'm going for a fresh start.
Instead of relying on ads for income, I will make genuinely useful courses for people who want to learn programming, web development, and tech.
A few days ago, I have my first course published, and I already have 10 students. As we're going to 2024, here's my plan:
- I'm going to create 4 more courses.
- I would promote my courses using videos, posted on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Still in the process.
- Also, I would still write articles, posted on tech oriented websites like hashnode, hackernoon, and dev.to
I would probably post here on weekends only, as I want to commit myself to the plan. Content creation takes a lot of work!
I also want to start a discussion with all of you: given the AI boom and ChatGPT releasing the GPT store, would this affect course creators in any way? Would it cause a negative effect on our work?
My thoughts on the topic: I think even with the AI boom, people still consume courses. Instead of using AI to learn things, I see people buying courses on AI instead. The data point that makes me confident people would still buy courses is Udemy. The company released its third quarter 2023 report, and it has revenue increase YOY:
Maybe there will be significant changes in the future, but what do you think?
That will be all from me. Thanks for reading!
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