So here it is – the time for taking stock again. It’s great when I can read the report from last year today and see that I’ve come a long way in that time.
At the same time, this year showed me how important it is to make changes. Because changes are the best possible impetus for development and progress. When I look back, always – when I made a change, it gave me a big boost in a positive sense.
So the lesson for me is to make changes sooner and not wait, even if the current situation is actually good and comfortable. I want to follow this in 2025 as well, and it is probably the main goal for me.
My first year of freelancing showed me how great complete freedom is, but at the same time, you have to be a little bit of a whipper-slinger.
1. Consultancy
When I left the agency a year ago, I thought that I would job seekers database only freelance as a consultant part-time and devote the rest of my time to my projects. That turned out to be a bit of a disaster for me due to a combination of circumstances. And my main project became consulting. Specifically, I currently do 60% SEO and 40% other services .
I discovered that it’s a little different when you play completely for yourself and under your own name. You have full responsibility, you can do it your way, and you’re also fully compensated for it. I started to enjoy it and started adding more. In February I only had 35 client hours and by the summer it was well over 120.
I was surprised at how much you can manage when you focus only on what’s important. And the results were great this year. I feel the biggest impact on my clients in all my time in marketing. Two clients even grew over 100% in organic search per year! And when things are going well, it’s of course the best motivation for me to enjoy my work and I tried to keep pushing forward and working hard.
In my main advantage, which is the focus on results and profitability, I also see my biggest weakness. Especially in the first half of the year, I simply did what brought results and did not focus on my development. I am changing that quite a bit.
A year ago I promised myself that I would end clients where my work would not make sense to me or would drain me of energy. It has not happened even once. Maybe it’s because I filtered out a few of them when I was offered a job. Or maybe I was just lucky.
Bottom line. I’m very happy here. I’m just curious how and where I’ll take it next year. I already have some plans
2. Travel and apartment
This year I also finally tried out what it’s like to get out of why indie game developers should be paying attention to data analytics the Czech Republic for two months. I was in Bali, Indonesia, and Thailand ( more here ). It’s fascinating how little you need to work in Asia and you can live there very well and for a long time. I thought I would return to Asia really quickly, but I stumbled and jumped into something I had been putting off for a long time.
3. Own website
This point is quite related to consulting in general. I must say that a personal website was a really good decision, which brings me credibility and active demand.
Plus, I enjoy developing and tinkering with it. I even had to stop it in the summer because I was starting to get into all the details. I also use it as a notebook and I process topics here so that I can look back on them at any time.
The website generated 10x more visits in 2024 than last thailand data year, and for my still main term “SEO consultant” or “SEO specialist”, I am now in 1-2nd place in organic search. And it generated a lot of interesting requests.
Because my personal website is doing well, I’ve also received offers to create 3-5 personal websites for someone else. I’m gratefully declining these offers for now, because I know how much work goes into making it really work. There’s an extreme difference between making a website and making a website that brings in leads.