Sharing a milestone!
My team and I made $1 million selling @NotionHQ templates in a single year (Jan-Dec 2022).
Here's a look at:
- Our full income/expenses breakdown
- Traffic stats
- The apps and tools we use
- Marketing strategy
- How we'll grow in 2023
For context, we sell two premium @NotionHQ templates:
- Creator's Companion (launched Aug. 2021) - complete planning/project management system for YouTubers and content creators
- Ultimate Brain (launched April 2022) - all-in-one producitivity system w/ notes, takes, etc.
Creator's Companion also has multiple editions - a Base edition, Ultimate Tasks edition, and a bundle edition with Ultimate Brain.
Revenue breakdown:
- Ultimate Brain: $760k
- Creator's Companion/Ultimate Brain bundle: $298k
- CC Ultimate Tasks: $86k
- CC Base: $17k
One finding I can share right now:
Bundling works.
The Creator's Companion/Ultimate Brain bundle outsells the other editions by a 3:1 ratio, and results in much higher average order value.
You can see all the templates here: thomasjfrank.com/templates/
I broke down my exact strategies for audience-building, marketing the templates, and optimizing the sales pages here:
twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1523730922633191424
To show how those template sales fit into the overall business, here's a breakdown of all our income sources for 2022.
I personally like seeing expenses and profit in breakdowns like this, so I'm also including those as well with the top expense categories highlighted.
I also want to share what I find to be the most interesting chart - our gross and net income over the last 6 years.
- 2018's big jump came from signing with @WatchNebula Talent and getting a sponsor on every video
- 2019's jump came from launching my @skillshare class
Interestingly, our revenue growth from 2019-2021 was relatively small.
My sponsor rates grew steadily each year, and I released classes, but we didn't do anything that really moved the needle in those years.
(2020 has lower net revenue due camera/server investments)
P.S. - if you're a creator and want to learn how to maximize your sponsorship income, I wrote a (stupidly long) thread on it:
twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1542228333080956929
It wasn't until I finally launched my own products and started promoting them that our revenue really jumped up.
Even more interestingly, I didn't promote these products on my main channel AT ALL.
In fact, I haven't published a video on that channel in nearly a year.
This means that we effectively doubled our revenue by going all-in on a much smaller niche channel.
Proof that More Views =/= More Money.
If you can niche down and become the go-to resource for a specific audience, that can be far more powerful than 10x higher views.
This focus also necessarily meant neglecting other income sources (and my main channel).
Our revenue from affiliates, sponsorships, Skillshare courses, etc all dropped compared to 2021.
But the template revenue more than made up for those drops.
Lesson: twitter.com/AlexHormozi/status/1522939320708984832
If you'd like to see the performance of that smaller channel (Thomas Frank Explains), I detailed it in this thread:
twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1604961079481798656
For additional context, here's the sub/view growth for 2022 for Thomas Frank Explains:
- Subs: 43,000 to 110,000 (67,000 added)
- Views gained: 3.43 million
- Videos published: 13 long-form, 2 Shorts
Our top content during 2022:
- Video going over Ultimate Brain (inspired by @Derek_Fitness' hyper-lengthy videos going over every ingredient in his pre-workout products)
- @NotionHQ AI video
- OLD task manager tutorial from 2020 (remaking that one soon)
I also continued focusing a lot on blogging.
I try to create a written version of most Notion tutorials I do, since some people prefer to learn through text rather than video.
Unfortunately I unwittingly broke my analytics in late November, so these stats are for Jan-Nov.
Some context on these stats:
I've been creating content since 2010. I went full-time in 2012, made my first hire in 2016, and currently have a team of 8 people (including myself).
This is a long-game business. If you're trying to do something similar, sticking it out is key.
Here's a look at all the tools we use to run our Notion template business:
- @lmsqueezy - checkout/delivery
- @circleapp - support community
- @ConvertKit - email marketing
- @pipedream - automations
- @testimonialto - testimonials
- @FrontHQ - team email
- @loom - screencasts
I've also spent years build a fast, optimized website that does well SEO-wise. That stack:
CMS: @WordPress + @elemntor
Host: @Vultr HF instance deployed through @gridpane
Speed: Server-level Nginx page/Redis object cache, @Cloudflare, @FlyingPress_
Monitoring: @uptimerobot
I'll note a few things:
- We're running at scale, so some of these tools are expensive
- I have two developers on staff
- I know how to code
You don't need to use these exact tools as a beginner. In fact, @thejustinwelsh makes more than I do with simpler tools.
If you are a beginner and want a no-code approach, try these:
Checkout: @lmsqueezy (easy to use and charges half what Gumroad does)
Site: @NotionHQ + @NotakuHQ or @super_
Email: @ConvertKit
Automation: @make_hq (@pipedream is much more code-heavy, though cheaper)
P.S. - we're working on a Notion resource detailing the features, fees, and Merchant of Record status of nearly every payment platform out there.
It launches very soon and will be free; follow me if you don't want to miss it.
Finally, strategy.
My business strategy remains largely the same:
- Establish an evergreen sales funnel (I don't really do launches or big sales pushes)
- Get to stable income
- Use income to subsidize the creation of free, epic resources
This has been my strategy since I hit $5k/mo in passive affiliate income back in 2012 via a massive WordPress tutorial.
Instead of trying to grow that affiliate income through more WordPress tutorials, I used the income to build a library of content on academic success.
I didn't want to make a paid course on how to get good grades. I wanted to make the best library of free content on how to do so that the world had ever seen.
Hence using passive income as a subsidy.
I'm leveraging that same strategy now as well.
Once we hit $100k/mo in template revenue and I was able to hire @balance_wtf to handle our customer support, our focus for the rest of 2022 went to free, yet massive content projects.
The first was my @NotionHQ formula guide - a complete, 42,000-word technical reference that covers every formula function.
That took about 4 months of full-time effort to write, and it's completely free.
learn.thomasjfrank.com/notion-formula-reference/
After that, we started on a massive Notion API tutorial, which will finally launch this week.
The video is over 2 hours, and the article version will likely crack 20,000 words.
I'm well aware of alternative actions I could have taken to make FAR more money...
...but these are resources that I want to exist in the world.
And from a strategy standpoint, I want to offer my audience a soup-to-nuts trove of answers on any possible Notion question they could have.
I believe that leads to market mindshare, which leads to long-term profit.
I also believe money is a resource that should be used to gain knowledge and fund useful and interesting projects.
That's all it is - a resource.
Therefore, it shouldn't be maximized if it comes at the cost of stagnating your learning or abandoning helpful projects.
This year, we'll continue our push to publish as much useful free content as possible, inching closer to that comprehensive library of answers for anyone who wants to learn Notion.
Additionally, I have a couple of other things I'm focused on, strategy-wise:
First, I'm investing a significant amount of our revenue into a brand new project.
I can't talk about it yet, but if you're a nerd like me... you're going to love it. Details coming soon.
Second, I'm investing in experts who can help me up my game.
I recently invested in website/landing page roasts from @jayclouse and @helloitsolly, both of which were mega-helpful. HIghly recommended.
I'm also continuing to seek out new friends who are also business owners. Iron sharpens iron.
I want to wrap up by shouting out my amazing team. I couldn't do this without them, and I love working with them. Go follow them!
- @yomartholomew & @eliwimm (dev)
- @mar15sa (ops)
- @tonystoodios (editor)
- @balance_wtf (support)
- @RansomPatterson (content/research)
Additionally, huge thanks to @Iolachristina, who interviewed me for @BusinessInsider about this milestone!
businessinsider.com/made-1-million-in-annual-revenue-selling-notion-templates-online-2023-1
As always, let me know if you have any questions on anything covered here. I love sharing what I've learned.
I also started a wiki site where I'm slowly brain-dumping everything I know about being a full-time content creator, which you may like: creator.thomasjfrank.com/