melboure-webdesign-land: Just Creative’s 2018 Year in Review

Hey guys, here’a a quick review of 2018, with an inside look at Just Creative and my personal life, showing stats, revenue and other interesting tid-bits.

Did I mention we had a baby?

Just Creative Site Stats

Over the year, Just Creative received close to 2.5 million page views which is quite staggering, but it is still a fraction of what it used to be back in the blogging hay-days of 2012. It’s getting quite difficult to out rank the big publishers nowadays.

50k unique users a week
85% of traffic comes through Google
Top 5 countries are USA, India, UK, Canada, Philippines
64% use Chrome, 20% Safari, 6% Safari
45% use Windows, 36% use Mac/iOS
55% Male, 45% Female
42% are 25-34 years old, 32% are 18-24%, 16% are 35-44
29% are on mobile devices

Top Affiliate Revenue

Amazon Sales

I recommend a large range of great products & services on Just Creative, most at a discounted rate, and I get a small commission for making the referral, at no additional cost to you.

Below are some of my top partners and revenue from over the year.

Amazon – $16,620 (shown above)
Udemy – $8565
Adobe – $2343
Skillshare – $2180
Envato – $2080
BlueHost – $780

I don’t share these figures to gloat, but to emphasize how important it is to diversify your income streams. Affiliate marketing is just one way to help get through the feast/famine cycle, that this design industry is so well known for.

Other Revenue Sources

Dedicated Newsletter Promo – $800 – $1800 each
Google Adsense – $280 / month
BuySellAds – $130 / month
and of course my design services

Client Work

I’ve enjoyed working purely for myself for the past 4 years as a Company of One and although I won’t become a millionaire this way (is that even the goal!?) the freedom and work/life balance is what makes it worth it.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a variety of clients this year, including some big brands such as Westpac (Australia’s big bank), Nandos and Puerto Rico Tourism.

Main Business Costs

Running an online business is certainly cheaper than a brick & mortar, but it still has its expenses, most notably below.

Email Newsletter – $2640 ($220/month) with Aweber (it’s expensive to run a newsletter!)
Web Hosting – $1680 / year ($140/month) for a VPS with MediaTemple
Rent, Utilities & Travel (the big expenses)
Writers, Editors, Accountants – $2500 / year
Facebook Post Boosts – $500 / year
Licenses & Memberships (GravityForms, Envira, Themes, Dribbble, etc) – $300
Buffer (Social Sharing) – $200 / year
Cloudflare (CDN) – $240 / year
OptinMonster (lead generation) – $200 / year
Dropbox, Apple & Google Drive Storage – $150 / year
Spotify (Music) – $120 / year
Skype (Calls) – $100 / year
Business Registrations – $80 / year
NordVPN – $40 / year

Music

Music is a huge part of our lives, and according to Spotify, I listened to 1250 hours of music this year!

My top artists were Kygo, Guetta, Avicci, Galantis and Drake, although I hardly ever listen to one artist by choice, they just come up often in playlists.

‘Circle of Life’ was the most played song, as that’s the song we’ve been playing to baby Hugo, on repeat.

JUST a New Baby Boy!

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen all my baby spam. But for those who don’t, my wife and I had our first baby, Hugo John Cass, on November 9th, 2019. We’re stoked, of course – now we have one more to take on our Globetrotting adventures!

We’ve nested in Sydney, Australia for now, but are currently planning our first big adventure, in New Zealand next year!

Baby Hugo

Travel

On the topic of travel, 2018 was another big year for travel for my wife and I, taking our country tally up to 86 or so.

We toured extensively through Australia, visiting nearly every state and wrote many guides on our favourite destinations, linked below.

Then my father told us at very short notice, that he was getting remarried in Italy, so we maxed out our visas and spent 3 months in Europe, visiting Italy, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Cyprus and Malta. And we wrote guides on some of these places too.

2019 will see less travel for us, as we get a handle on being parents here in Sydney, but there’s New Zealand and possibly back to NYC.

World Hands

Australia

Cyprus

The Perfect Beach Escape in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

Nerja, Spain

Malta

USA

Other:

What’s in store for 2019?

I’m currently working from home in Sydney and I don’t see this changing anytime soon, especially now that we have a baby boy. We’re enjoying some “down time” vs the digital nomad lifestyle which we did for 3 years. We’re comfortable, but the travel bug is still itching.