Casting a Content Creation Vision & Setting Publishing & Distribution Goals For 2025 & Beyond
I've built up my freelancing business to earn my full salary freelance income by only working part-time.
My problem is that to earn more than that target income, I must work more billable hours for my clients. But, if I work more hours, that means I'm no longer working part-time and I'm not using all that extra time I built up over the years to blog, podcast, write books, and create on YouTube.
So, my primary goal is to get this content-creating side of my business to earn a viable income. As it generates more revenue, it fuels the time I work on creating, which lets me create more and then earn more.
All of my success and the lessons I learn will further improve my content marketing work with my clients as I've always seen my content creation business as a laboratory for my freelancing clients (and vice versa).
In this post, I'm fleshing out what solving this problem will look like (roughly speaking) for me in the years ahead.
I'm Bringing Goals Back, Baby!
While I've kept up my annual reflection point since I started seriously blogging in 2014, I paused my annual starting point post where I set out my goals.
This was because my primary goal in 2022, 2023, and 2024 was to finish my third book; From the Garden to the Cross.
I'm setting out my next set of goals now that I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for that project, being almost 90% finished with the book.
To get to this milestone, I need to flesh out seven remaining sections that need attention. Once this is done, I'll order my first print preview copy to behind the final leg of the publishing process; editing.
The project was more massive than I was expecting but I'm grateful for all the work done on it so far and how close to the finish line I've gotten.
Now that I can see beyond this project, I want to map out the next set of goals on the horizon.
Two Roles
My primary vocational focus has been maintaining my freelancing work which has continued and of which I'm deeply grateful. I'm now 10 years in, and I've kept the fire burning working with clients to grow their influence and income.
More broadly speaking, I think of my vocational pathway as having two jobs.
The first is my freelancing work which I'm great at doing and earns a good income. Plus, I've got awesome clients. As I've been doing for years now, I'll continue sustaining this part of my business which is done on a part-time basis. I've steadily increased my rates and gotten better and better clients. And I keep working on how to more effectively create the desired outcomes my clients want and need.
The second job is my intellectual property business, which involves the type of work I have a deep passion to create and build, but, so far, has only earned small amounts of money.
This includes blogging, podcasting, YouTube, book writing, and course creation.
My aim now is to monetize this side business (hobby) into a financially viable business venture. By accomplishing this objective, it diversifies my income and builds a revenue source that is not directly dependent on my time. It also allows for more of a compounding effect.
And, for my freelance clients, it gives me a playground to experiment with strategies and approaches that I can apply to their content marketing projects.
Entering Serious Mode
For this second business, I've been building bricks, not knowing exactly what wall I was planning to build and where. But that brick building is now paying off as I pivot to leveraging these bricks (habits, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and social media sharing).
In 2024, I moved the needle more than I had so far by earning over $2k. That was a jump up from several hundred dollars the years before. My goal now is to earn $100k in a year from that business. That will require earning $274 per day. In 2024, I earn around $5 per day so I'm 2% of the way to accomplishing the goal.
I'll be grateful for this income diversity as it provides a major income source not directly tied to my time, which gives me much more leverage to explore the projects I'm most passionate about while personally bolstering our financial foundations. Simply put, this extra income decreases my risk and increases my opportunities to grow.
Pathways Forward
Like I do with my clients, I'll be employing my five-step process for accomplishing my goal starting with low-hanging fruit (low-effort / high-impact tasks and projects). What are the things I can do that require the least amount of effort but have the biggest upside? That question will primarily drive the prioritization of my activities.
Three Layers of a Content Creator Business
My opportunity now entails a fusion and integration of all the different facets of internet marketing and content creation I've done since 2005. There are three pillars of a content-based business.
1. Content Creation
Creating content either by creating stuff myself or by amplifying the creation of others (interviewing experts and authors). This is the actual writing of articles, books and conducting podcast interviews and course creation. Out of the three pillars, this is something I've been doing in quantity and quality since 2014. While I may slow down my creation pacing I'll keep it going.
2. Content Publishing
Once the content is created, that content needs to be published somewhere. Most of my content is published here on this website but content is also published on Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube. I'm planning on mining the archives of my podcast episodes for additional shorts (reels) and long clips. This will include content I've produced and content produced by others in which I've participated. By posting regularly on YouTube, I'm aiming to grow the channel and get monetized (more on that below).
3. Content Distribution & Promotion
Once content is created and published, distribution becomes the next stage of the process. If I publish a blog here on the site or a podcast episode, distribution is the way to get it in front of more people. I've been experimenting in 2024 with podcast episode distribution through True TV Plus and CityWatch. This type of distribution and promotion was something I did when I had my political news website in 2006. There was a network of blogs that would carry content I'd create, extending my reach. Social media is another way to distribute and promote created content including different formats of the same content for different channels and mediums.
Growing Income That Transcends the Noise by Brand Building
The internet world is getting noisier and harder to navigate as it gets more saturated, AI-integrated, and democratized. Much like someone climbing Mount Everest needs a Sherpa, so to do people need that for navigating life in our technological age. Trustworthy brands that demonstrate sincerity will be critical in this next era of society. But understanding the specifics is also key to success.
To give you one specific example, let me talk about choosing a software system for your business. I hate these generic comparison articles and sites that have popped up where they list all the software systems and the pros and cons of each. At the end of the article, they simply leave it up to the reader to know which one to pick.
No.
Give me someone with a conviction about a system who will go to bat for it as the best system to use. Tell me why this or that system is the one I need to be using. And then demonstrate to me why that is the case. I want someone with a strong point of view and if I want options, give me several of these strong competing perspectives.
For example, there are several tools I've used that have helped me succeed as a freelancer. I can now tell others about those tools. Who better to tell you the invoice tool to use as a freelancer than a freelancer who has sent out and gotten paid on over a thousand invoices? I've had numerous clients hire me to participate in the sales process as they've sought out different software systems and agencies to work with. I know the questions to ask to figure out if the company knows what they're doing, have a solution that fits my client's needs, and whether they can deliver on the promise they're making.
This will tie in directly with my affiliate marketing efforts (more on that below).
Fundamental Ways to Earn Money
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Providing a service to a client or an intermediary
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Selling a product
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Selling someone else's product or service
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Creating content and a platform to generate income through that consumption (advertisements, sponsors, & subscriptions)
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Creating content for other platforms that have income streams
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Lending and investing money
"What Is That In Your Hand?"
That's a famous line from Exodus where God asks Moses what he's holding; his staff. So, what are the things I have to work with and what are things I can add to my hand?
Here are some ideas.
3 More Books & A Comic
I've published two books; my book about how to succeed as a freelancer and how business owners can overcome their limitations to grow their business.
I'm almost 90% finished with my third book about Jesus' passion and how it applies to our lives. I'm around 50% finished with my fourth book, about how to navigate our complex society and improve it for all to flourish. Finishing these two books will be an additional goal of mine.
I'd also like to publish a fictional book, one I've started by writing several sections already. With the explosion of AI-generated imagery, this will be an interesting project to explore a multi-media approach as I write and share it in pieces as I write it.
An adjacent project to these is creating a comic book based on a story I once tried to make into an animated movie. I've also got a short story metaphor that could be turned into a book.
Courses
I've created and sold several courses revolving around my book Path of the Freelancer. Ultimately, I'd like to create several more freelancing courses to help others flourish in this vocation with one based on each of the eight freelancing achievements. I've also got my SEO course, and others in the idea bin for small business owners.
One of the things that was nice about Skillshare is that it gave me an easy way to create courses and make an income. Through their program, I earned $100.94. Unfortunately, they changed things and my course did not get enough activity so they deactivated my courses. Once I get things back up and running again, I'll take another stab at this approach.
Better positioning these courses to sell and promoting them will be one of my projects this year.
Goal: YouTube Channel Monetization
To further expand my efforts, I'll be more intentionally developing my YouTube channel and video content.
I want to join the partner program which allows for Youtube Ad revenue sharing. To join the program requires 1k subscribers & 4k watch hours. I've got 68 subscribers so I'm 7% of the way towards accomplishing this part of the goal. If you're not yet subscribing, click here to start. The second requirement is getting 4K watch hours by users. I've currently got 952 hours, but since they have to be in the last 365 days, I've only got 229 eligible watch hours. So, that puts me around 6% towards accomplishing this part of my goal. This will be a huge life, but I'm going to make it happen.
One unique point of leverage that I have, which many Youtubers do not, is different platforms to help drive YouTube watch activity. I've got numerous blog posts on this site which get a significant amount of traffic and if I put some videos on them, I can channel that blog traffic into Youtube views. I suspect that's a big reason, in addition to the podcast, why I've been able to generate as many watch hours as I have so far.
Once I reach this goal, the income I earn from YouTube can add to my portfolio of revenue sources which will enable me to put more time into creating content.
Upgrading Path of the Freelancer, As a Platform
Over the past few months, I've been working on positioning the Path of the Freelancer website to generate more income and be a strong hub for sponsorships (in light of my end of 2024 sponsorship opportunity that came my way).
This upgrading has included a website design update, content improvements, and technical upgrades. Several of these improvements are steps I'm taking so I can update the site from Joomla 3 to Joomla 5 and the latest version of YOOtheme. With these updates, I'll have more control and tools for growing the website (like I have here).
There are also several ideas I rolled out in the old website that did not generate the results I was expecting so I'm retooling them to generate more search engine traffic and better conversions (email sign-ups and sales). I'm also experimenting with more powerful messaging. For example, I'm testing the message about earning $100k per year as a freelancer while only working part-time.
As the site and its content are updated, I'm also planning on creating more video content around the concepts in the book as a way to grow my influence and increase book and course sales. For new content, I'll make sure I'm answering common questions and sharing my success stories. For example, I've created a YouTube video titled, "How I Earned $72,246.98 In My First 9 Months Freelancing", to start.
I've got plenty more of that type of content that adds value and solves problems.
Blog, Podcasting, Sponsors & Affiliate Marketing
I'll continue to create and publish content on this blog and podcast. By creating content, it continues to grow the authority and reach of this website and the podcast. That will open up doors for content sponsors. I can also repurpose the content for YouTube.
Landing a sponsor at the end of 2024 for two blog posts and a podcast episode has motivated me to prepare and grow things for other expected opportunities.
Since I can't control these opportunities, I'm also getting serious about affiliate marketing, something I've casually done over the last several years with a little success along the way. I made the most from affiliate income in 2024 to date. I want to keep that going.
I'll lean into product promotion for software tools and products I use as a freelancer and content creator.
Content Domination
Where I have expertise, I intend to dominate topics across top channels with a targeted topic cluster approach. For example; freelancing. I want any question someone asks on Google, YouTube, or TikTok Tok about freelancing to load up Path of the Freelancer content. This will often revolve around a freelancing problem & solution. This explicit positioning will help me maximize my leverage as a successful and experienced freelancer.
Once I've dominated at a base level with my target topics, I can then recreate and improve content to be the best (most up-to-date and highest quality) version of that content From this position of domination, I can create new trend-based content to promote content from different angles relevant to current audiences.
Other Tidbits
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Hubpages is a site where you can publish written content and they share the ad revenue with the writer. I had a chunk of quality abandoned content that makes no sense publishing on this website so I've published it on Hubpages as an experiment, and I have already become a top 10% Hubpages writer. The content I posted is keyword-oriented content so it should get a good amount of search traffic once it ranks in 4 to 10 months. Even if it only ends up generating a few hundred dollars per year, that would be one among many income sources I can build from. And, it may be a way to distribute promotional content, as a way to promote my site or videos. This idea could also extend to Quora, Medium, and LinkedIn as well.
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High Yield Savings. We've been keeping our personal cash in high-yield savings accounts to earn on the lump sum as it sits there. I'm going to do the same with my freelancing business cash to earn a little more. It's not a lot of money but several income sources of hundreds of dollars can lead to thousands of dollars.
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Share Life Academy Workshops: The Share Life Academy has been another community experiment I've been running. We've done a handful of workshops over the years but in 2025 I want to ramp things up while also doing them in a way that produces content.
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Content Promotion Ads: I'm also planning to experiment with low-cost advertising to promote my content. I've been running some experiments with Amazon ads for my Freelancing book. With content I've created that has affiliate income potential, I can also explore inexpensive remarketing ads, low-bid Google ads, and low-cost Facebook ads. The idea here is learning how to earn a dollar while only spending a fraction of it.
Leverage & Compensation: Generating A Steady and Growing Income From My Content Creation Business
I aim to keep building my larger content creation ecosystem while specifically making progress on the types of things that will generate income immediately.
To date, most of my time and energy spent on blogging, podcasting, book publishing, and course creation has been done without compensation. By generating income, I can become one of my clients and fund my time working on my intellectual property business (content creation, publishing, and distributing).
In 2024, I made progress on shifting my time from volunteering to being compensated. This upcoming year, I want to set the foundation so that the more I create, the more income I generate.
Additional Resources
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