2023, Year of The Grind
2023, Year of The Grind
As 2023 approaches, it’s time to look forward and set my goals for 2023.
One year ago, in December 2021, I collected my real NFT. The iconic Deadfellaz has been my Twitter profile picture ever since.
It might sound cliché, but this mouseclick was so simple yet so impactful: it introduced me to the power of community, it taught me more about money management, and it helped me discover blockchain technology.
I was obsessed with IT and technology when I was younger but somehow ended up in a marketing role. At this time, I forgot about the joy of developing for 15 hours straight, but luckily, the web3 technology rekindled this and turned the little spark back into a roaring fire.
As the end of the year nears, it’s time to reflect back and think back about the goal I set for 2022; to do epic stuff while still leaving my own mark. Safe to say I crushed this: I painted a 4x4 meter graffiti mural of my Deadfellaz, gathered 900+ subscribers with my newsletter, partied with various new friends in NYC, LA, and Miami, and so much more.
As 2023 approaches, it’s time to look forward and set my goal for 2023. Ambitious as I am, I’ve decided to set a very clear target for 2023: hit a single month of $10,000 in net profit from my side projects. This while still working my 9 to 5 job.
Let’s start with how I got here
Long before I entered the web3 space, I fell in love with content marketing and storytelling, which led me to experiment with various platforms and tools. I launched a few blogs, managed a few big Instagram accounts, and even launched a photography webshop that made $60.000 in revenue over a single year.
I parked (or buried) these projects as soon as I learned about web3. What can I say? I was intrigued, addicted, and wanted to spend my free time discovering this niche!
Since then, I’ve been focused on building my own sustainable and scalable web3 ecosystem - let me picture it.
Basically, I’ve been building four separate standalone products that each offer their own value to the web3 community. Over the next year, I’ll be working towards integrating these together - I’ll publish more about how I’m doing this over the coming months.
The most important part right now is that I will run them as “Open Startups,” which means that I will be sharing my progress, struggles, and income reports on a monthly basis via this newsletter. I will be as transparent as possible without doxxing myself.
It should still provide a lot of information, giving you more insights into what I did, how I did it, why I did it, and how much I’m earning from it.
What exactly are “Open Startups”?
That’s the perfect question to ask ChatGPT, right?
Well, according to them, an open startup is a startup that is transparent and open in its operations, decision-making, and communication with stakeholders. This includes being open about financial information, strategy, and even the internal workings of the company.
The reason why I love this approach is that openness is its core value. Something which aligns with the transparency given by web3 and the blockchain. The perfect combination - right?
So … What’s the point? Who are these reports for?
I could list several clichés, but in reality, my motivations are slightly more selfish:
My main goal is to keep myself accountable. Gamblers constantly shift their goals and targets to their advantage to make it easier for themselves. By announcing my goal publicly, I have no way back.
Setting an example. Everyone in this space claims they are building, but in reality, the results of this work are only visible months later. By showing how much work there is actually happening behind the scenes, I hope to show people that it’s not “simple” or “just luck.”
Inspire and teach. Guide people who are building something and inspire people with an idea.
Personal Branding: show the people in Web3 what I’m capable of.
Keep track of my expenses and profits. I would have no clue if you asked me how much I spent on all my 2022 shenanigans. By creating monthly income reports, I not only keep track of it but also explain and argue it.
TL;DR – I’m writing monthly income reports from now on, explaining what I made from my side projects.
What projects will I be working on?
I will start 2023 with four projects focused on the web3 scene that currently have no revenue streams. My approach for them will be centered around evergreen content, SEO traffic, automated tasks, and possibly some freelancer support. This while I still work the 9 to 5 job that I love.
AlphaSchedule, my newsletter which I started in February 2022. I recently had to migrate it to Substack, but not before I gathered 911 subscribers, with an average open rate of 52%.
Web3destinations, a travel blog about upcoming web3 conferences which I started this December. It currently contains 2 extensive guides: CES Las Vegas (taking place next week) and SXSW.
0xCareers, a job platform that I’ve been building together with a few friends since May 2022 and plan to launch in 2023 finally.
Satellite events schedule, a simple excel schedule that I curated during NFT NYC, NFT London, and Art Basel Miami.
Next to these four projects, I will continue developing a few of my older projects that I ‘parked’ in 2022.
General content production. Over the past few years, I’ve been active as a photographer and executed some (marketing) consultancy jobs.
A Travel blog. A blog that won’t be named in this edition, as I don’t want to doxx myself yet. Over the past month, it had 3646 sessions and 4288 pageviews. It’s connected to 3 massive Instagram pages (47K, 15K, and 9K followers) that haven’t posted since December 2021.
A Gaming blog. A blog that won’t be named in this edition, as I don’t want to doxx myself yet. Over the past year, it lost a ton of its SEO traffic (screenshot below) and is now at 496 sessions and 542 pageviews per month. Reviving this one will be tough!
Oh, and obviously I’m launching 2023 - Year of The Grind, this new newsletter, which will contain my income statements and progress reports.
Did anyone say ADHD?
I’ll be honest: having multiple revenue streams is actually a double-edged sword; I have diversification in case one of the projects is NGMI, but the flip side is that my attention will always be divided.
How much money did I make in 2022?
I can keep this pretty short, as the answer is: almost none. Making a bank wasn’t my goal in 2022, so I made little to no effort.
Below are some revenue numbers of the travel and gaming blog I started back in 2021 but didn't update in 2022. In the end, $1645 is still quite lovely, as they don’t have massive traffic, and it’s 100% passive revenue. Let’s see what I can do for 2023, shall we?
Next to this, I had various assignments for my photography, but I never kept track of my expenses, making it hard to make a P&L statement. Something that will change from now on.
To you, the reader
I hope these thoughts weren’t too boring to read, as these were a lot of words of me talking about myself and my 2023 goals.
Anyway - Cheers to an extraordinary New Year 🥂 - I’m incredibly excited to dive into 2023 with each of you. I cannot express how much I appreciate your continued support as I tackle 2023 head-on.
If you found this post interesting or want to follow my chaotic attempts at building a successful business in this volatile space, you can find me on Twitter.