Hey there! Welcome to my third successive Year in Review post. I create these posts to write up a summary of what's happened in the year, how my blog has performed, and what went on along the sides.
If you'd like to catch my previous reviews:
The biggest event this year has been moving between jobs at the start of the year – Bidding farewell to many colleagues I worked with for several years. My new role takes me away from automotive to the rail/civil engineering sector. Which comes with a load of new jargon and processes to learn, keeping me plenty busy!
In September I spent 3 weeks in China where I got to practice my Chinese a little. It's kinda cheating when your wife speaks the language, though!
Blogging
This year my blog took a backseat with only 8 articles written (9 including this one). I don't have a good reason for this, other than simply losing interest as I struggled to motivate myself to write.
- New Open Source Project: Shortie
- 6 9s Availability and Why Should You Care?
- How To Switch Between Node.js Versions Using nvm
- How To Integrate Cloudflare R2 Storage with Laravel
- Meta Quest 3 Review: The All-Rounder VR Headset
- Top Meta Quest 3 Games You Must Play
- How To Geolocate IP Addresses With Laravel
- Using Vue 2.x Filters in Vue 3.x
Following with an excerpt from the previous year's review:
I posted a total of 17 articles (18 if you include this one). Beating my score of 10 from 2022, albeit I started the blog halfway through that year. I'll need to work harder for 2024!
This means this has been my worst year going by quantity of articles written since the inception of my blog. Funnily enough, it's also been one of the most successful which I'll get to in the monetisation section below.
You may have noticed I've written two articles outside of the usual development content I publish. I upgraded from the HTC Vive to a Meta Quest 3 earlier in the year and I just had to write about it! More on these later, however...
Traffic
Because of the lack of content, I saw my blog's traffic stagnate throughout the year before falling in the last few months.
As I moved my analytics back to Plausible, I don't have a screenshot of my traffic from before I switched (due to Fathom closing my account). But earlier in the year it topped off around 150 users a day before coming down to 100ish. Likewise, there's been a steady decline.
The QR Generator Tutorial I wrote back in 2023 is still kicking strong, retaining the top spot in traffic. Nothing from this year has really kicked off, except for the Meta Quest 3 Review that I wrote (which took me by complete surprise!)
If you didn't know, I keep my blog's analytics public. To touch on the topic of why I'm back with Plausible after switching away to Fathom; it ended up more cost-effective for me to self-host my own analytics.
Monetisation
So again, I tried with Google Ads before I turned it off after making a few pennies 😅. It's really not worth dragging my blog through the mud for.
Amazon Affiliates
Aside from ads, I had some surprises with affiliates this year despite the fall in content I put out.
One reason? 🥁...
My Meta Quest 3 Review! An article I wrote from no other reason than an outlet for my excitement haha.
I signed up for the Amazon Affiliate program once again and made sure to link to the product in the review. Unfortunately the commission (%) is pretty poor in the tech category. So despite referring a user to a $500 VR headset, my cut ended up being $5 (1%). In all I made about $15 from that one article and it grabs a few clicks every now and again.
Lemon Squeezy
In 2023 I saw nothing from this revenue stream. In 2024 I managed to score a single referral from my Battle Ready Laravel: Review. This netted me $8.19 for the referral. (Thanks Ash for accepting the referral!)
Fathom Analytics
Last year I had earned $80 from referring people to Fathom. This year I've been paid $214 so far. A few referrals are still in their trial periods or still pending so this is likely to be higher.
Fathom increased their prices earlier in the year which also increased the comission (including past ones). So that alongside a few new referrals are the reason for the bigger jump.
In Total
Across all revenue streams for my blog, that brings the total to: $237.19
Then factoring in my annual server costs of $55.68, I'm left with $181.51.
Side Projects
RandomQR
Oh boy. This is where things get weird. RandomQR earned almost £11k in the past year. Yes, £11,000! A stupid little QR code generator that costs me nothing to run (static site on Digital Ocean) outside the domain name.
How? Google Ads. Seriously!
This is perhaps a story for another day, though...
However, the revenue has since declined sharply, dropping to about £100 a month. It was fun while it lasted! But that sure did push me over the income threshold
SaaS Projects
I run two SaaS projects, formie.io and qrmetric.com. Not much has changed since 2023 however. Both projects now use Lemon Squeezy now that is supports tax-inclusive pricing and the customer portal has seen several improvements. I've been able to cancel my VAT OSS account as a result.
There is some concern with the .io TLD though given its future is uncertain. The cost of renewal has also increased ($60 or so). I'm considering rebranding Formie and changing its domain, although time will be given for users to adjust to this.
Misc. Projects
I released two new projects this year.
One is an open source short link service called Shortie. It's built with Laravel and Inertia(/Vue.js).
HarrkThe other one I launched was on the back of wanting to try out an idea with AI. And so ExpandImage.com was created. It takes an image and uses Stable Diffusion outpainting to expand a picture.
Personal Development
Despite some success here and there, 2023 has not been a productive year. In part I've spent more time gaming (Factorio/Satisfactory specifically), which is why my blog also ended up neglected.
I have set up a home server recently using a few spare parts. I've been using this machine for messing around with self-hosted projects, including federated ones (PeerTube and Pixelfed).
This has been a lot of fun and for 2025 I'll move a few non-critical services over so that I can reduce hosting costs (in exchange for my electricity bill...)
I've also been working on my Mandarin. But I could do with something tangible to aim for so I've set myself on taking the HSK test in 2025.
Getting certified for level 1 & 2 seems a bit pointless though as it's not really helpful to anybody at that stage. But it is a target for me without dedicating several hours a day for a year straight. I could probably pass HSK 1 if I took it now by making educated guesses on what I don't know, but I wouldn't be happy with that.
2025 Goals
I'm taking a different stance for my goals next year. Usually I'm reserved and try not to set something unrealistic. However, I'm going to do the opposite and try something a little crazy this time.
I've mentioned taking the HSK 1 & 2 test, so they'll be on my list.
What I've kept quiet is I've been trying to write a novel. I thought it would be funny to write something (however bad) with limited knowledge of writing. Then to do it again after some study. Turns out I've been studying as I've been writing so I'm going to revise that challenge to finish the darn novel/novella. Not that I'll share this but eh, it's for fun and I want to get the blasted thing finished.
Then in humour, I suggested to a friend that 2025 will be the year I publish a game. So heck, why not? Let's do it!
It may sound a bit crazy. But I think this is what I need to push myself a bit. Even if I don't get around to doing everything here, I'll be chuffed if I only partially complete my list.
To summarise:
- Pass the Mandarin HSK 1 & 2 test
- Finish my novel/novella (target 50k words~)
- Get back into making content
- Publish a game!
Conclusion
If you could do me one favour and sign up to my blog, that would be great. I don't send out a newsletter right now but I won't lie and say it won't happen one day. Signing up simply helps my blog climb the ladder on Ghost's Explorer.
