I wrote articles every day for 1 year — these are my final results

One year ago this week, I undertook a project with an audacious goal.

That goal was to publish content every single day, put my earnings into passive income investments, and make enough money to leave commuter life for good within 365 days.

I calculated that I needed to average $250 per day to make it happen.

I called this little adventure Publish Every Day, and it was kind of a hit with my readers.

People followed along through all the ups and downs of taking a content business to the next level and would often tell me they were inspired by my consistency and results.

So, here we sit on day 355/365, deadline looming large.

So, will I get there?

Finding and organizing ideas, outlining, writing articles … it can be a grind — especially if you do it every day for a year. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

Wins and losses

Well, spoiler alert, I’m not going to get there.

I need $250 per day, and my average for the year is going to come in around $70 per day (more in the charts below).

With only 10 days left, it’s effectively impossible to reach my goal.

And yet I couldn’t be happier.

I’m happy because I put in a solid foundation, made $25,000 in the process, and, most importantly, I continue to get a bit better every day thanks to my consistent effort and output.

And I’m pretty sure I know what I need to do to win in the long run.

Here’s how I plan to make the final push to entrepreneurial freedom.

With 10 days to go, I should just touch $25,000 as the first year of my Publish Every Day project comes to a close.

The secret weapon

It only took me the first 100 days to realize that content wouldn’t be enough.

I knew I needed products.

It simply isn’t enough for 99% of creators to rely solely on ad and/or subscription revenue from platforms like this one or YouTube.

While I’ve gotten close to my goal during particularly big months, it isn’t consistent enough and doesn’t pay enough to live on (at least not for a father of two sons who play competitive sports).

Ultimately, it’s my fault I didn’t reach my goal.

I knew I needed products and I failed to build any.

What products should I have added?

• Books and audiobooks: the good news is, as I near 500 articles here, I have enough content for several books. I just need to get off my a**, edit them, and package them up.

• Merchandise: I did a couple small experiments with Amazon KDP and considered taking a crack at Etsy, but it was nothing I would call a sustained effort.

• A course: I hate, hate, hate this, but it’s kind of unavoidable at this point. I consider my earnings writing here to be world-class, and people keep asking me for help. Am I excited about making a course? No, not in any way. But if I’m going to reach my goal, this probably has to be a part of it.

There are two other areas for improvement.

The work I put in during the first 2/3 of the year paid off in the final stretch, with my average earnings close to $150 per day over the final two months.

Area for improvement 1: Writing

At some point you get diminishing returns when you publish too much.

My sweet spot is 3–4 articles per week.

Could I double that output and double my pay?

Maybe, but I think I would need to do it on a second account.

At some point you’re just burying your own work.

I’ve decided I’m going to go full steam and build a couple niche AdSense sites.

More on that soon.

Area for improvement 2: YouTube

This stupid platform haunts me so much.

The only time I really get down and depressed about my content business is when I think about how I’ve failed to take off here.

I mean, that’s probably too harsh — I did get monetized in 11 months and people love some of my money-making content, but my current niche (writing online) is too small to ever provide a living and the experiments I’ve done outside that niche have all failed.

There are plusses — my video work promotes my written work and vice-versa — but I really want to go to the next level and I’m struggling with how to tackle that.

In reality, I probably need 3 channels in all to separate out my niches and not alienate the audiences for each.

This also speaks to the need for products.

If I have something to sell, I can justify putting in the work monetizing more channels because theoretically I’ll be making money through sales while I do it.

What’s next for Publish Every Day?

Overall, this has been a fun journey.

Would I have liked to achieve my goal of replacing my work income within a year with my content business?

For sure.

Am I going to quit because I won’t get there?

Not a chance.

The Publish Every Day project will continue indefinitely.

What this year has taught me is that, if you put in consistent, focused work every day and are committed to making 1% improvements every time you sit down to do it, you will be rewarded handsomely.

I can’t quite quit my job yet, but I do have $25,000 more than I did a year ago.

Yes, I may still have a boss, but now I make more money than said boss and control my own destiny to a far greater extent than I did when I started this whole thing.

If a recession hit or I lost my job tomorrow, I’d already have a solid base of pay and multiple irons in fires.

And that delivers something far more valuable than money: confidence.

At the start of Year 1 of the Publish Every Day Project, I felt underwhelmed about my professional future.

Now it looks brighter than ever and I’m excited to see what I can accomplish in Year 2.

When you get older (I’m 43 now), you realize time actually moves really, really fast.

A year isn’t a long time.

So if you’re on the fence about trying something new, something inspiring, I’m here to say: DO IT.

Do at least one small thing every day for a year and keep track of your progress.

I think you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish too.

Publish Every Day project update: Day 355

I’m currently running a project aimed at generating enough money to leave commuter life within a year by publishing every single day on different platforms and investing my earnings into passive income vehicles.

How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 355: $88.93 (writing) + $1.95 (YouTube) = $90.88 total.

What I’ve published recently:

• This post about 1 key brain food you must have to stay sharp according to 1 Harvard expert

• One about the top 5 retirement regrets you should avoid according to 70 and 80-year-olds

• An article about America’s most dangerous suburb

• These three YouTube videos:

Did you enjoy following along with the Publish Every Day project?

Are you interested in future updates as we enter Year 2?

Let me know in the comments!

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