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 this month:

Thoughts:

Beehiiv recently added some brand new features, including being able to add products to your site. As part of their winter release they ran a 20% discount deal on annual subscriptions and I decided it was too good to miss out on (which is why my costs for this month are much higher than usual).

Since starting this experiment, Beehiiv has added so many great features and I think it is getting better and better. It’s an all-in-one platform for website, blog and email, with the ability to sell paid memberships and digital products, set up automations and make money through ads. I’ll definitely be sticking with it (hence why I just committed for a year) as I do think it’s excellent value (and the free plan is still very generous too).

If you are interested in exploring Beehiiv as a platform, I have an affiliate link for you to use which gets you a free 30 day trial plus 20% discount for three months (if you do decide you need the paid version). I will also make a few pennies if you sign up which is always appreciated.

I’ve added a handful of subscribers this month which is always good. What’s great to see is that they are now coming from referrals and search results (including Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity). This traffic is organic - I’m not doing any paid ads - so that means my content is doing it’s job. I’m hoping this will continue into the new year when I’ll be upping my content game.

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 this month:

Thoughts:

The open rates have gone back up again. I mentioned last month that I thought the dip might be due to me changing the email address from the standard ghost.io email to a custom [email protected] email. I don’t know if that was the cause, but the open rate has gone back up so that’s all that matters.

As with my Beehiiv content, I’m starting to generate more organic traffic with 13% of my website visitors coming via Google and 2% from AI platforms.

Going forward in to the new year, this publication will probably see the least change as I am really happy with the content and the routine I have going (Monday email, Wednesday blog). All the content is categorised so it’s easy for users to navigate and I have a good format for my weekly emails.

I’m also making a few pennies resharing this content on Medium. It’s nowhere near enough to pay the mortgage, but it’s a little extra towards the Christmas beer fund.

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 so far:

Thoughts:

As I’ve said for the last couple of months, I’m going to be scrapping this publication in the new year so other than the bare minimum of writing the content and emails, I haven’t been doing anything to gain new subs.

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have launched a fourth publication, but it did serve a purpose. It allowed me to use most of the features on Substack, so I have plenty of insight I can share with anyone who does want to start using the platform. The set-up guide I created is one of my most popular posts on here which shows there is a lot of interest in Substack (although it wouldn’t be my first choice) so I’m glad I have built familiarity with the platform.

I might continue writing on Substack next year, but I think it will be more sporadic and on a variety of topics. I have no intention of trying to grow or monetise it after this year.

This publication is purely a passion project. I add blogs when I have something to share, publish a top five at the end of each month, and share a monthly round-up which also includes details of my free New Brew Events.

Results so far:

Thoughts:

I decided to add this publication back into my final two monthly results updates after taking it out back in July. Since it is a passion project and not a money-maker, it was never my priority in terms of growth so I rarely had any exciting updates. That hasn’t changed, but as there are only two months left, I thought I’d bring it back into the mix so you get a complete view of my experiment.

Ironically, this publication has probably had the most interesting journey. Originally, I had the blog posts on the main WordPress site, and used my Substack to link to the posts. In February, I moved all the content over to Substack and redirected the site.

But by September, I was fed up of Substack so I decided to move the entire contents over to Beehiiv where it has been living ever since.

So while this publication hasn’t done much in terms of growth, it has allowed me to learn a lot about setting up publications, and moving platforms.

If you look purely at the figures, you could say the experiment hasn’t been particularly successful since both subscriber numbers and profit come in under four figures.

But if I’m honest, I never started this experiment as a money-maker (obviously I would have been happy if it had worked out that way). This experiment was more about professional development and improving my services.

This time last year, my emails were a mess. I was trying to promote two businesses and my hobby blog using one email list. I knew it wasn’t really working, but I didn’t have a plan to solve the problem. Then I came across three platforms all claiming to do a similar thing. It was a no-brainer.

Doing the experiment would allow me to split out my content and build three distinct audiences as well as giving me the opportunity to learn more about email marketing and the platforms available. I could then pass this knowledge on to my clients.

In terms of what I wanted to get from the experiment, I’d say it has been a big success. Not only have I learned loads, but I’ve built great foundations for both parts of my business and my passion project. I’ve been able to experiment, tweak and refine until I have three publications that I am super happy with - this one, The Freelance Fairytale and New Brew Thursday.

And although I won’t be continuing my WWL publication, it has served a purpose (and made me money) so I wouldn’t class that as a failure either.

All in all, I’m heading into next year feeling good about my marketing.

AI is having a huge impact on social media, SEO, and content marketing in general. So while having an email list has always been valuable, it is perhaps going to be even more valuable than ever going forward (more on that in my upcoming book).

I’m confident that the work I’ve put in this year is going to pay off next year and beyond.

If you haven’t got a strategy for next year, I’m hosting a free event on Tuesday 30th December, focused on creating sustainable and realistic marketing strategies for 2026. I’d love you to join me - it’s free and will give you a break from watching cheesy Christmas films and gorging on selection boxes. Here’s the link to register.

Thank you for following my progress so far. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to email me letting me know whether you find this content useful and what else you’d like to see.

And if you’d like some help with your marketing strategy, you can book 90 minutes with me for only £150.

That’s it for this week and the month. I’ll be back next week with more updates. Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts - I reply personally to every response.

Get access to monthly lunch and learns, co-working sessions, personalised email support and more with my monthly membership for only £20 per month or £200 per year.