December Round-Up: Results So Far

The results so far, my thoughts on each platform, and focus for the month ahead.

Lisa Slater
December 26, 2025

In partnership with

Platform: Beehiiv

Publication: My Content Marketing Experiment

This is a weekly email (the one you are reading right now) that goes out every Friday. I share my thoughts, findings and learnings each week, with a results update at the end of each month.

Results for the year:

Subscribers: 72
Average open rate: 50%
Costs & fees: £582.74
Earnings: £14.38
Profit: -£568.36

Looking purely at the figures, you’d think this publication yielded the worst results, but the figures don’t tell the full story. Most of the subscribers I got to my Substack publication came via this email, so essentially, those earnings should be attributed to this publication.

I certainly won’t be ditching Beehiiv any time soon, as I think it’s an excellent platform, and it will be an important part of my 2026 content strategy.

Platform: Ghost

Publication: The Freelance Fairytale Newsletter (TFF)

This is a monthly newsletter that goes out every Monday. It replaced my old daily emails and my LinkedIn newsletter. I send a weekly email which includes my general observations and a ten-minute task. I also write a longer weekly web-only post.

Results for the year:

Subscribers: 39
Average open rate: 53%
Costs & fees: £223.04
Earnings: £1100
Profit: £876.96

Thoughts:

I’m surprised by the low subscriber numbers, as I have been extremely consistent with the content for this publication, and I have been getting a decent number of visitors to the site. I might have to gate some of the content to improve conversion rates, as these are far lower than I’d like.

I have updated my services pages, so I’m pretty happy with the site, and I think the quality of content is of a high standard. My focus for 2026 will be growing this community.

Platform: Substack

Publication: Write With Lisa (WWL)

This publication is all about writing, whether it’s for business, money or pleasure. I add one blog post per month (free to view) and write one free email that goes to all subscribers. I also create a monthly audio post and email for paid subs only.

Results for the year:

Subscribers: 23
Average open rate: 42%
Costs & fees: £70.48
Earnings: £461.07
Profit: £390.59

Thoughts:

As I’ve said for the last couple of months, I’m going to be scrapping this publication in the new year because I really don’t like Substack any more. And, although it looks profitable, all the paying subs actually came from my other publications when I launched, and no new ones came from Substack itself, so I don’t think Substack should get all the credit.

Summary (for the year)

As well as the figures above, I have also made money by republishing content from TFF on Medium. The cost for a Medium membership was £39.67, and I’ve earned £75.60, meaning £35.93 profit. I also received £12.37 in donations through Buy Me A Coffee. I’ve added all these figures to the ones above to get the totals for the whole experiment.

Totals across all publications:

Costs & fees: £915.93
Earnings: £1663.92
Profit: £747.99

It’s safe to say the experiment hasn’t made me an overnight millionaire, but I did make money from it, so it wasn’t a bust.

And, quite honestly, I think the financial rewards will start to come in the next twelve months now that I have the foundations in place and a clear strategy. This year was all about learning, testing, and refining. Next year will be about putting everything I learned to good use.

What’s next?

This will be the last time I share all my figures publicly, but I will still be providing updates on growth in my weekly emails whenever I have something interesting to report.

My next priority is getting the book finished, and I’ll be sending you a free copy as soon as it’s live (as long as you’re still subscribed to these weekly emails).

I want to thank you again for taking the time to follow my experiment and read my emails. Your support really means a lot, and I hope you continue to stay with me going forward.

If you have enjoyed my content and would like to show your appreciation, you can buy me a beer here. And if you missed last week’s email, here is my in-depth article where I answer some of the questions I had when I started my experiment.

My 2025 Content Marketing Experiment

My findings and feelings after 12 months of using Beehiiv, Substack & Ghost

makeyourcopycount.beehiiv.com/p/my-2025-content-marketing-experiment

Don’t forget, I’m hosting a free session on Tuesday 30th, all about manageable marketing plans, so if you are bored of festive films, please do come and join me. You can register for free here.

That’s all for now. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and comments on my experiment - just hit reply and let me know.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year, and I’ll be back in your inbox in 2026.

Lisa

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December Round-Up: Results So Far

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