2024 - Annual Review
How 2024 went for me and what changes in 2025
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It’s the time of the year! I can write about myself again without feeling guilty ;-).
Over the last few years, I’ve made it a habit to share how the year went for me and what next year looks like. This really seems to resonate with you, so I’ll keep doing it until you tell me to stop.
Previous annual reviews:
I had five big goals for 2024:
Hit 1,000 paid growth memo subscribers
Keep income above a certain level
Become a better speaker
Create more time and space
Keep my weight between a certain number, work out min 4x/week and pick up MMA
I’m happy to say that I met all goals except for #1.
Advisory is going really well. In early 2024, I made an effort to focus on larger, more in-depth engagements and worked with phenomenal brands: Reddit, Alltrails, About You, Toast and Hims, just to mention a few. For 2025, I’m opening my calendar again for low-touch engagements. I’ll keep ~ three large clients, but I found really good success and high demand for sparring/office hour-like engagements.
Speaking: shifting gears
This year, I managed to speak at 10 conferences:
Recommerce, London (UK)
Friends of Search, Amsterdam (NL)
NYC SEO Meetup, NYC
SaaStock, Austin
Digital Olympus, Eindhoven (NL)
SMX Advanced, Berlin (DE)
SEO Campixx, Berlin (DE)
SEOktoberfest, Kitzbuhel (AU)
Tech SEO Connect, Raleigh
SEOkomm, Salzburg (AU)
Phew, that was a lot! I don’t know how others do it, but that burned me out a little. My mistake was probably to bring a new deck and topic to every event. Anyway.
My hypothesis for taking on many speaking engagements in 2024 was to grow my subscriber base. Unfortunately, the impact wasn’t as strong as I had hoped. I had a ton of fun and met awesome people, but any speaking gig was outmatched by a good post. The SEOzempic Memo led to almost 150 new subscribers, which is about as much as a good presentation would drive.
That’s why I’m changing gears next year. In 2025, I will set a strict limit of 5 conferences, focus on non-SEO conferences, and ask for a speaking fee of $5,000 + travel cost + accommodation (with 1-2 exceptions).
The reason is simple: it takes a lot of effort! Speaking takes a ton of time that I could spend with my family and invest in client work. The ROI of speaking for free (or travel cost covered) isn’t there when you consider about 30-50h of preparation plus travel time. Not even talking about paying experts for help with research and working with a speaking coach (who has been amazing). I don’t get nor want any business from SEO conferences. It’s been fun-positive but ROI-negative for me.
Growth Memo: Going video-first and other changes
How it’s going
Growth Memo has done well this year. The free newsletter topped 16,000 subscribers, which is more than I projected (13.7-15.3k).
Top 10 most-read articles:
I also started an experimental WhatsApp group that already has ~450 members, where I share my research as I find it (check it out). I feel so grateful and proud about how well it’s growing!
I widely missed my goal for the paid newsletter, though. I had hoped for 1,000 paying subscribers and barely made it over 300. Don’t get me wrong—300 premium subscribers is basically an average American salary. However, that number needs to grow. I make 80% of my income from advising but writing and researching take up about two days of my week.
Here’s how I plan to accomplish that in three ways:
1/ New: video fist
When I started to do live streaming sessions for premium subscribers in which I shared my latest research and observations, numbers started to pick up. I also strongly believe that video is where the action is: LinkedIn added a video tab. Youtube is the #1 podcast platform. Lots of stats that I shared in my annual review show that even B2B buyers want more videos from companies. Probably most important is the fact that LLMs are getting so good at writing that video creates a much more human connection with audiences.
So, starting in January,
The premium offering consists of 2 live sessions a month
The free Memo comes with a video in the email and Youtube
I’ll experiment with short-form videos throughout the year
What I’m working towards is not just an easier way to consume the Growth Memo but also for you to participate. I don’t know what this will look like exactly, but I want to turn the experience of broadcasting into collaboration. Stay tuned.
If you’re wondering whether Kevin has gone full creator mode, the answer is no. I’m still an advisor who shares his insights and experience. But I think video is the format du jour. And it’s time to adapt.
2/ New: Publishing calendar for the free and premium version
I’m taking off two weeks in the summer and two weeks in the winter time to recharge and get a head-start on publishing. In fact, I’m already taking off for a winter break this year. The next Memo comes out on January 6th. In 2025, I’ll likely take two weeks off in August and the last two weeks of the year again.
I’ve created an overview of free Memos and (paid) Live Sessions: 2025 publishing calendar.
3/ New topics
Let’s be real: SEO is not what it used to be. Yes, tech SEO is still important for large sites, and too much mediocre content still bites sites in the rear end during Core updates—nothing new on the Western front. However, with brands getting preferential treatment in many verticals, the rise of Reddit, rogue core Updates, AI overviews and AI chatbot search, the landscape of Search has made a profound leap. Not only are new user interfaces powered by AI sprouting up left and right, but Google itself is evolving after almost 20 years of incremental changes. On top of that, YouTube gets more attention than ever before, Reddit is one of the largest sites on the web, and podcasts enter a 2nd wave of popularity.
If I want to continue covering Organic Growth, my attempt to find a term for all the non-paid marketing channels and activities, I need to expand the scope of this newsletter. So, expect more diverse topics in non-paid marketing in 2025. I know that most Growth Memo readers care deeply about SEO. I won’t abandon SEO but introduce you to new topics to help you become a better marketer.
And with that, I’m checking out for the rest of the year.
Until 2025,
Kevin
One of my 2025 goals is similar to yours "Become a better speaker".
Do you have any advice?
Thanks for sharing Kevin! I've got speaking at more events on my 2025 list too, and starting a YouTube channel focussing on e-commerce. I've accepted that neither will be amazing initially, but if I can improve one thing each time, I'll be happy with that.