EDIT AUGUST 13, 2012: The site will be updated again soon. Don’t worry!
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Well, 2012 is half over, and I figured it was a good time for reflection and assessing where I am in terms of my business. (And I’d love to hear how you’re doing, too!)
I’m really happy about the first half of the year in some ways and really not so happy in others.
The good
Surprisingly, the first half of my 2012 was characterized by two things that I had no real knowledge of when the year started out. Those two things are
- Kindle publishing and
- Free Kindle books
At the start of the year, I had written and published precisely zero Kindle ebooks. I have now written and published 8 and consider myself something of an expert on the subject.
As for free Kindle books, fkb.me is my site where I link to the best free Kindle books every day. I started the site in February just to see if it would work (by “work” I mean “make money”), and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. It has become a focus of mine over the last month or so.
fkb.me has also been the object of my first paid advertising campaigns. I’ve tried out Reddit ads, Facebook ads, GoodReads ads, and ads on a couple different individual blogs. I won’t say yet what has worked well and not so well, but it’s been really fascinating (and profitable) to try out paid advertising. Plus it saves me a TON of time.
Another highlight of 2012 so far has been getting a Chrome extension made. It was actually just finished last week (I paid someone on Elance to make it). It makes creating Amazon Associates (affiliate) links a LOT faster and easier if you have multiple tracking IDs. It’s something I might sell in the future, but in the mean time it’s making my life a whole lot easier.
The bad
The bad highlight of 2012 thus far has been my inability to get Infographic Academy back up and running. I just haven’t had any desire to work on it, which is stupid. It would only take a few days of concentrated effort. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I’ve also been neglecting The Backlight somewhat. Updates have been sporadic and I’ve been late when it comes to responding to comments, if I’ve responded at all.
The plan
Here are my goals and plans for the second half of 2012:
- Bring Infographic Academy back to life.
- Create two other digital/video courses. One will be about creating great ebook covers, the other will be about formatting Kindle books.
- Create 30 more Kindle books. I know that number seems ridiculous, but don’t worry. I have a plan :)
- Give more love and attention to The Backlight once I have Infographic Academy up and running. By this I mean adding more content to the blog and also marketing the blog more.
To ensure that I do get that darn Infographic Academy course back up, I’m going to impose a blogging restriction on myself. I will not blog again on The Backlight until Infographic Academy is live. This will push me because I don’t want the blog here to lay fallow for too long. Hopefully I’ll be back here within a couple weeks or by the end of July at the very latest.
I’ll see you then :)
- How was YOUR first half of 2012? What did you get done? What did you want to get done but didn’t?
- What are you going to accomplish in the second half of 2012?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
congrats on all the good stuff tristan!
hope we get to hear more about your adv efforts and results too
meanwhile, best wishes, and we’ll see what new and interesting stuff you’ll have the second half of the year ;-) take care
Hi Tristan
I love this kind of transparency, I think it always helps to bare your soul like this.
One thing I’ve noticed in my niche (big biz IT sector) is that a lot of our readers are becoming jaded with the formulaic White Paper lead gen route that vendors keep peddling. Don’t even get me started on some of their attempts at blogging and social engagement.
So it strikes me that there is a golden opportunity for IT vendors like this to increase the perceived value of their content, I think Kindle books fit this category nicely.
Have you ever considered creating a course that shows corporate content marketers how to create Kindle/Apple ibook publications?
A “cradle-to-grave” ecourse for the corporate sector perhaps?
Just a thought, best of luck with the rest of the year, absolutely love this site.
hey nice plans hope you get success in achieving all your plans for second half .Me too thinking now to make a chart for my future
I appreciate you saying where you’ve fallen short so far. It just makes you more human imo.
Congrats on the 2 major accomplishments and best of luck on your plans for the rest of the year.
One thing that I’ve always wanted to do but just can’t seem to get going is writing a book. I can’t wait to see how you plan on writing 30 ebooks!
It’s a very great idea of going back from the moment you started your online business and try to evaluate what you have done for the past year. You have a great plans listed there. I hope you’re gonna have a great success in the future.
Wish you all the luck. Actually, I always change my strategies from time to time. Some may work for the other but for some its nothing, so I should always watch my direction.
Sweet Tristan!
My wife is a member of Infographics Academy so she’ll be glad to learn you’re getting the site back up.
Love your approach to online biz even if you don’t post often here. I know you’re working hard on the other sites/projects – I’m kinda the same these days.
As for my first half of the year my biggest three accomplishments are:
1. I became a smart-lazy blogger (that’s what I think at least). I write less and some of the writing is outsourced – and there’s a win-win both for me and for the guest blogger as well (who gets free outdoor gear in exchange).
2. I started a new blog on green energy and I’ve been doing offline work gigs in Germany (very lucrative). I enjoyed offline work for the time spent outdoors (not in front of the computer which is kinda hard to enjoy after a few years…)
3. I bought a bunch of web domains that seem like good assets to speculate with. :-) No comment.
Giai đoan Closed Beta bat dau vao luc 10h10’ ngay 24/7 và keo dai trong 5 ngay den het ngay 28/7. Nhan dip nay, MC game vo lam 3 tung ra 3 su kien ingame hap dan sau.
Hello Tristan!
It’s good to hear that your business perform well in the first quarter and wish you the best that it will perform more better in the remaining quarter. I hope my business will recover from Google algo updates and improve in the next quarter.
Hi Tristan, thanks for sharing your plans. 30 kindle books in only half a year sounds very impressive… So good luck with it.
Chris
Ooo, 30 kindle books are a lot in a half a year. Good luck!
I think it’s great to take stock of how things are going periodically. I have a lot of this in my head, but I think writing it down and being more intentional about it in that way is a great way to gain more clarity. Now I’m thinking I need to do the same.