![\"2015](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2015-Year-In-Review.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt’s a new year! You know what that means? It means you’ll accidentally write “2015” on everything you sign for the next two weeks…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But seriously, this is the perfect time to start fresh, and the best way to do that is by looking back on the previous year to figure out what worked – and what didn’t.<\/p>\n
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I hope your 2015 was full of joy, learning, creativity, progress and fun.\u00a0Me? I had a great year!\u00a0Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n
\u279d I left my day\u00a0job to spend more time working on The Modest Man.<\/p>\n
\u279d I got to speak at StyleCon, an awesome conference for style enthusiasts and entrepreneurs (see a short clip of my talk right here<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u279d My free Dress Taller ebook<\/a>\u00a0surpassed\u00a025,000 downloads.<\/p>\n \u279d I got to write an article<\/a> for one of my favorite websites, The Art of Manliness.<\/p>\n \u279d I released the new and improved\u00a0Modest Man Style Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u279d Since running an online business is location independent,\u00a0I got to travel a lot. My favorite trips\u00a0were to Zion Park, Palm Springs, Montreal and The Bahamas.<\/p>\n \u279d During the\u00a0month of November, TMM received over 100,000 visits for the first time (in a 30 day period).<\/p>\n \u279d I created and sold a limited edition button up shirt.<\/p>\n \u279d Traffic to TMM more than doubled,\u00a0increasing by 118% in 2015.<\/p>\n \u279d TMM revenue increased by 381% year over year (from 2014 to 2015).<\/p>\n Pretty sweet, right? Let’s look at some specifics…<\/p>\n At the end of Q1 2015, I wrote a post about how I make money blogging<\/a>, then\u00a0followed up with quarterly income reports<\/a> for Q2 and Q3.<\/p>\n Rather than reporting on Q4, here’s an overview of the whole year:<\/p>\n Don’t you just\u00a0love the shape of this chart? Here’s a breakdown by category:<\/p>\n TOTAL = $36,566<\/strong><\/p>\n Keep in mind, this is pre-tax\u00a0income. After taxes and expenses, this isn’t enough money to live on. Compared to last year, though, it’s a lot.<\/p>\n I started The Modest Man in April of 2012, and I was never sure that it would grow into a “full time” revenue source.<\/p>\n This year, especially the past few months, convinced me that it’s possible.<\/p>\n #1:\u00a0100 Short Men Everyone Can Look Up To<\/a><\/p>\n #2: How to Hem Your Own Dress Pants<\/a><\/p>\n #3: The Fifth Watches Review<\/a><\/p>\n It’s interesting that these posts are so different. The first one has nothing to do with style – it’s purely inspirational.<\/p>\n The second is a DIY tutorial (thanks to Zack Pyle for his expertise!), and the third is a sponsored review post.<\/p>\n Very cool to see\u00a0such variety among the most popular content.<\/p>\n Here’s what went really well in 2015:<\/p>\n Founded by Antonio Centeno and Aaron Marino, Menfluential identifies, screens and negotiates with potential sponsors. This saves me lots of time and weeds out\u00a0sponsors that aren’t a good fit for TMM.<\/p>\n AdThrive handles unsold banner ad inventory, and they’ve tripled my\u00a0RPM<\/a>.<\/p>\n Digital Products<\/strong> – Two big wins here: first, I hosted a three week live training class for a small group of TMM readers, which was both fun and rewarding.<\/p>\n Second, I upgraded the Short Man Style ebook to The Modest Man Style Guide<\/a>. It’s a better product, and it’s selling more than its predecessor.<\/p>\n Peer Group<\/strong> – Through phone calls, emails, conferences and private Facebook groups, I’ve\u00a0kept\u00a0in touch with several close peers and mentors, including Antonio Centeno<\/a>, Aaron Marino<\/a>, Raphael Schneider<\/a>, Barron Cuadro<\/a>, Andy Snavely<\/a>, Tanner Guzy<\/a>, Kyle Ingham<\/a>,\u00a0Kyle Boureston<\/a>\u00a0and Justin Jeffers<\/a>.<\/p>\n These are hard working, smart men, and they’re extremely generous with their knowledge and time.<\/p>\n Video\u00a0<\/strong>–\u00a0The Modest Man YouTube channel<\/a> has a measly 10 videos, and the production quality isn’t great. I really wanted to focus on video in 2015, but I simply didn’t make it a priority.<\/p>\n The thing is, videos are hard to produce. I’m good at creating articles – writing, editing photos, etc. – but video production is still foreign.<\/p>\n Delegating <\/strong>– Perhaps like you, I’m buried in emails (sorry if it takes a while for me to respond to you). I’d love to hire some part time help – especially for inbox management and other admin stuff – but I have a hard time letting go of these tasks.<\/p>\n Consistency<\/strong> – I’d like to publish one post at the same time each week. This requires creating and sticking with an editorial calendar. Definitely a goal for 2016!<\/p>\n Site Redesign<\/strong> – TMM isn’t just a blog. It’s a comprehensive style resource for shorter men, and there’s a lot of content here now.\u00a0So the standard blog format – a list of posts sorted by date – doesn’t really make sense anymore.<\/p>\n Plus, I have an awesome logo and brand that’s not reflected on the site (which still uses the same pre-built WordPress template I bought in 2012).<\/p>\n Bottom line, the site really needs a redesign. I even had a new design created a while back, but I didn’t set aside time and money to have it developed\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n Does making your goals public actually help you accomplish them? It’s unclear<\/a>, but\u00a0here’s what I’d like to do\u00a0in 2016:<\/p>\n Moving<\/strong>\u00a0– I’m heading west! Southwest, to be specific. I’m leaving\u00a0my hometown of Washington, DC for Tucson, AZ.<\/p>\n This means dressing for a totally new climate (hot and dry) and culture (less conservative, more casual).\u00a0It also means I’ll have a new office\/studio, which will help with the next goal…<\/p>\n Videos<\/strong> – I’m making video a priority this year. Starting in March, you can expect to see new videos being published on the blog and YouTube channel regularly.<\/p>\n Double Revenue<\/strong> – My revenue goal for 2016 is a consistent $10k per month. That’s enough to live on AND invest more cash back into the business for things like…<\/p>\n Website Redesign<\/strong> – I’m not sure when, but it’s going to happen this year!<\/p>\n As always, thank YOU for your support. Your readership, emails, comments and encouragement keep me going, financially and emotionally.<\/p>\n Here’s to an amazing new year!<\/p>\n What are you goals for 2016? Leave a comment below!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s a new year! You know what that means? It means you’ll accidentally write “2015” on everything you sign for the next two weeks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":562903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11920,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310\/revisions\/11920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Travels\"](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Travels.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"TMM](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/TMM-Aziz-2-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>2015 Income Report<\/h3>\n
![\"TMM](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/TMM-2015-Revenue-by-Quarter.png\")
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Most Popular Content<\/h3>\n
![\"100](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/100-Famous-Short-Men-233x300.png\")
<\/a>Of the\u00a048 new articles published in 2015, these were the top three most popular:<\/p>\nWhat Went Well<\/h3>\n
![\"2015](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2015-Quarterly-Ad-Revenue-300x186.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Advertising<\/strong>\u00a0– I signed on with two companies who have helped increase ad revenue tremendously over the past few months: Menfluential<\/a> and AdThrive<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat Didn’t Go Well<\/h3>\n
![\"TMM](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/mm_website-redlines-fonts-243x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Goals for 2016<\/h3>\n
![\"Saguaro](\"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Saguaro-sunset-300x199.jpg\")
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