9 mistakes I’ve made whilst growing Scribly to 5 figure MRR
This week I’ve launched a biiig (and super exciting!) update to @scribly.io in the form of a brand new website as well as updated pricing and packages ✨
This is a huuuge milestone for me, as it marks the moment both I (as a founder) and Scribly (as a business) reach a new level
Trending on Indie Hackers
Hi @Daniella, thank you for sharing your insights, I enjoyed reading you're post. How did you decide on the coworking space? Purely from price/location ratio and other factors ?
Hey @tomswebdesign - good question! The two main deciding factors for me were 1) could I bring my dog? and 2) Was the location convenient enough that I wouldn't find an excuse not to go in?
The dog factor really limited my choices, but in the end I found a really great place in central Copenhagen which is where I now run things from :)
Great post!
It looks like scribbly itself has done a bit of content marketing via medium. How come you choose Medium? Or, more generally, how do you help people to find your posts in general?
Hey @IndieHacker1984 ! So initially we were just publishing on the Scribly blog, but then figured out that we could import content into Medium (using this feature: https://medium.com/p/import) which would automatically apply a canonical tag to the post. Search traffic for a lot of content related keywords is pretty low, so we decided to try and maximise exposure by posting on Medium too. However, we've found that content hasn't worked particularly well for us, or at least not in the way we've been doing it. So moving forwards, we'll be focusing on doing fewer, longer-form analytical pieces rather than posting regular blog posts.
That is interesting. Do write about how that works out for you, I would love to hear more. BTW, I don't see a 'subscribe for new posts' field anywhere on scribbly.io
This is a great read. As a content writer in a technical industry, you have done what I couldn't do: scale. Getting clients or revenue was never the issue, my issue was hiring people who could take on content creation activities and still maintain the same level of quality. I hired and fired a few people, and basically I just didn't do a very good job of being able to scale beyond myself, despite the market and client demand which is frustrating!
I'm interested to understand how you pivoted from writing the content yourself to finding other people? And have the changes you've made to the business not meant that you've gone back to operating a model similar to what you originally had as a freelancer with fewer high paying clients etc?
I don't want to continute content writing longterm after 6 years of it so am now looking at other more transactional based business models, but you've done amazingly well in what you've achieved, really enjoyed your post.
Hey @Morganne - thanks for reaching out!
Well, I have to be honest - finding writers is definitely the hardest part of the job.
Initially I was manually reaching out to writers that I came across online and running trials with them, but it was seriously so hit and miss. Quality was variable and it was super unreliable. I think a lot of content writers are so jaded by the industry that they really expected me to screw them over, so often I’d have writers just not turn in work, or disappear on the day of a deadline etc. There was definitely a process of building a trusting relationship with writers, and it took a lot of time for me to prove that I wasn’t just running an exploitative content mill.
As Scribly has grown and gotten more exposure, I’ve now found that high quality writers come directly to me. By raising my prices I’m able to work with very experienced writers who need far less post editing, which has had a huge impact on my ability to scale (editing work by less experienced writers eats up a lot of brain and (wo)man power, as I’m sure you’ve found!)
Basically the thing I’ve found above all else is that getting great content relies on you being able to pay for great writers. Once you find a core group of writers that you really trust to deliver work at your standard, you can then scale quite easily. But finding that core group you can scale with takes time, and it’s an investment. I’ve spent a lot of money on testing out writers who were just really bad, it was a total waste of my money and time. But a necessary part of the process nonetheless. I would say that, all in all, I’ve spent at least $1.5k on testing out writers that turned out to be unsuitable, so you should definitely consider that it will require an investment on your part to get to a place where you can scale with others.
In regards to your question about my role now: effectively I now have pretty much a project management role, where I make sure that content is properly briefed, assigned to the right person, and then delivered on time. So my role is very different to when I was freelancing as I’m not doing any production now.
I hope this helps! And sorry for any typos, I’m on my mobile :)
Hey thanks for the reply, I agree with everything you have said. I think my issue is that because I never put a pause on the business it was too difficult to spend a lot of dedicated time to finding those writers, and the experienced ones often have good strong client lists and are hesitant to work through other people, which i get. Like you said, many have been screwed over by agencies in the past.
It sounds like you've really made it work, I'll follow your posts with interest. I know what you've done is really tough, and it sounds like you will outlast a lot of the other new content marketing services that have cropped up that don't have the same commitment to quality that you've invested in.
Thanks for sharing. 1 and 4 are most relatable to me. While I didn't set growth "goals", I used to obsessively check metrics A LOT -- multiple times a day. Squandered a lot of energy doing this and most of the time I was disappointed because my expectations were higher than reality. Now, I check metrics for 10 minutes once every 24 hours. I try to focus the rest of the day on the actual work -- things I can directly control. If I play my cards right, growth will happen at its own pace. Just have to have faith. Peaceful progress trumps stressful success.
Keep it up!
Thanks @dhruvg! It's crazy how fixated on the numbers you get without even realising it's happening. It's so easy to get sucked into this hustler mindset, and before you know it you're insanely stressed! Best of luck with your projects 😊