Hey Reader,
​
Do you do a monthly review?

I try to. And I mostly don't do it.

Instead, I should intend to do it. But that's something for another day.

I do make some kind of review about Coffee & Pens, my podcast/blog about writing books.

Here's an analysis of what worked, what didn't and what I want to change in the future. And it has a lot of numbers, because unlike 99% of the people, I love stats.

If you're not interested in this analysis, please skip today. We'll talk about creating something tomorrow.

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Five months ago, I started creating @coffeepens​

Time for a monthly review.

Some of the numbers first.

Totals views/follows/subscribers/listens

Website: 1937 (+410)

Twitter: 248 (+93)

Instagram: 34 (+34)

Email list: 51 (+5)

Podcast: 47 (+37)

I'm happy with the progress on Twitter since most tweets are automated or outbound links.

34 followers on Instagram isn't bad either because I've done little distribution. And I didn't engage with any of the 20 desperate people who offered me their promotion services.

The biggest surprise, however, is the podcast.

I didn't have high expectations, since everyone says that it's hard to break into podcasts. So 47 isn't bad, especially since I have to do a better job at promoting it.

Speaking of promotion, sign up for my newsletter? 😅

Now let's look at some individual performances.

The most-read article is still the one about Nicolas Cole.

But we now have a shared second place between Arvid Kahl and Helena Roth.

It delights me that the interviews are evergreen. Even the first interview got 6 new readers.

What's really surprising is that thanks to 1 comment on Twitter, Arvid's article got about 50 readers, making it the most-read article this month.

Closely behind are David Kadavy, Rob Fitzpatrick and Ramli John with a similar amount of readers.

So where do these readers come from?

The majority comes from Twitter.

Last month:

Twitter: 160

Search engines: 22

Facebook: 19

Goodreads: 7

Linkedin: 5

The biggest disappointment is the close to zero CTR from my mailing list.

I've tried switching it to Saturdays so people would have more time to read but NADA.

Perhaps I should share the entire interview in the email instead of a teaser?

There are a few things to think about going forward:

» Should I create YouTube content?

» Should I write some blog posts about what I've learned to boost search engine traffic?

Then not losing money is something else I struggle with.

Costs aren't high, fortunately. Website maintenance, Zoom pro, and a few irregular costs.

Let's say it's about $40 per month.

Many authors are kind enough to send me a free ebook.

But it sucks to read those versions in Kindle so I end up buying some anyway (and that's another $30 per month).

And I can't easily export notes from imported books, so that's time-consuming.

The solution?

Selling something. I've tried putting everything in magazine style so people could read the interviews via Kindle or Apple Books.

It's been very underwhelming with just shy of $100 of sales for over 100 hours invested.

So I need to find another way.

But it's not a big focus, for now.

I'm learning and I feel super prepared to write a book myself soon.

For example, I want to write something about "How to write and self-publish your first non-fiction book".

But first, I need to write my own first book.

Anyway, this month I'm doing plenty of interviews so that next month, I can focus on content creation only.

That'll include probably some blog posts.

And bringing everything up to date on Instagram.

And if I have time, some Youtube clips.

If you want to know anything else, ask away.

Cheers,

Kjell "Building Coffee & Pens" Vandevyvere