For the month of January—dubbed Juicy January—I had set out to experiment and learn more about marketing and monetization:

• growth hacking, and how to set up acquisition channels
• content marketing, to provide value and get the product in front of potential customers
• conversion funnels, to convert interested shoppers into paying customers
• monetization strategies, or how to get people to open up their wallets

Checking off stuff that I’d done:

✅ Scoured various platforms for prospects who are in the service business —Indie Hackers, Starter Story, Fiverr, 99Designs, Upwork, Carousell, Makerlog, Craigslist, Productized Startups Facebook group. Give value back to the communities, shared backlinks. Collected over 20 possible prospects.

✅ Created profiles on freelancer sites (Upwork, 99Designs, Fiverr) and ad platforms (like Makerads.xyz) not so much to get gigs but to backlink to Sweet Jam Sites.

✅ Cold site as a proposal: Created demo JAMstack sites using a potential customer’s existing website, and cold-emailing them a link to the demo site to get interest. I did this for about 5 customers. Conducted lots of cold marketing experiments, including one that said “This is a cold email”.

✅ In the process of closing my very first project from a cold demo site. It’s just USD199 but hey, small wins!

✅ Hit 100 items on Keto List! A milestone for sure.

✅ Added advertising for Keto List Singapore and reached out to possible sponsor. Going to meet him next week.

✅ Observed that I need to create my own community for Keto List instead of depending on other people’s platforms, and started a Telegram group. Also joined tangential communities like for diabetes, health.

✅ Got traffic uptick due to seasonal/festive themes on Keto List, especially this month for the Chinese New Year theme. A great content marketing idea that I will replicate throughout the year. 

✅ Planned out money habit systems on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Started a book journal to track my money habits more tangibly.

✅ Tracked monthly household expenditure, and discussed with wife where we can spend less, save more.

✅ Read these books: 

• Dollars And Sense
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
• The Millionaire Next Door
• Head Strong

Some learning points

You can’t monetize an audience you don’t have.

The funnel matters. Awareness > Consideration > Decision > Retention. I can’t monetize (Decision, Retention) when I got no traffic (Awareness). “Duh!”, but trust a marketing noob to make this stupid mistake. Lesson well learned, for sure. I got to start from the beginning all over again, and get more content out, optimize my site’s SEO, and experiment in Google and Facebook ads. Marketing is a long game, and I need more patience that I initially expected.

Marketing alone cannot cover up a poor product

I remembered saying that for January, I wanted to do more marketing and monetization, less development. More selling, less making. But after trying to so hard to sell my products, I realised that perhaps the value propositions on my products actually aren’t all that strong. Of course, I need to continue iterating on making the value propositions stronger.  But I shouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket too—perhaps I need to continue making new products, until something with a really strong value proposition really sticks. I also always went for the under-served, ultra-niche approach when it comes to making products. But I’m ready to try a different tack now—selling to a over-crowded mainstream market. Above all, make products that are painkillers, not just vitamins.

Making vs selling: 2 distinct skillsets

I realised I enjoy the act of creating more than the act of storytelling. Some people are born marketers, great at selling a story about their product. I’m not. Again, this is an inner narrative that’s blocking my progress, and something that I have to continue to work on. I remembered how irksome I felt sending out that very first cold email on 1 Jan. After sending out many and getting the cold shoulder, I feel much more thick skinned now lol.  

More haste, less speed

Again, old lessons. I’d put too much stress on myself this month to monetize. Ended up falling sick big time (AGAIN). My body is my harshest teacher. And knocked me out for 1 week and I’m still reeling from it. It’s so pointless. The more hasty and impatient I get, the less fun I have, the less productive I get, and the less impact I achieve. I have to be impatient with actions but patient with results. And not forgetting that fun is the ultimate creator, and the universe works fast when I’m having fun. I definitely need to be more intentional with stress management and play, outside of work.