I really enjoy building things much more than talking about them. I’ve said this multiple times before, and it remains true. That’s the main reason I haven’t been very public in the past few months. I wasn’t tweeting much, and my last update was in March this year.
Yesterday, I had a lot of free time to rewind and reflect on everything that has happened in the publishing world over the last 12 months. As I wrote earlier, at the beginning of last year, before all the crazy Google updates, I realized it was time to make some tough decisions and significant pivots.
At that time, we were doing extremely well with SEO traffic across all our websites in various niches. However, after conducting due diligence, I saw that we weren’t making any progress—in fact, we were often experiencing declines.
I took some time to analyze our Facebook traffic and saw a huge opportunity and upside there. It was a difficult switch, but just one month after completely pivoting to creating content solely for Facebook, I was convinced it was the right move.
I believe I am really good at two things: recognizing opportunities through data analysis and going all-in when I see potential. When something is working well, I don’t hesitate; my team and I go into beast mode.
That’s exactly what happened.
Now, 15 months later, we’re doing better than ever. We’re crushing it, all thanks to our focus on Facebook traffic. We’ve increased our revenue 10X compared to February last year when we decided to pivot.
Last month was our most successful month by far, and I believe we have the potential to grow even more in the future.
Today, I feel incredibly grateful for everything that’s happening. In the past year, during one of the biggest downturns in the publishing industry, we’ve managed to achieve significant growth. It feels like a dream.
For me, beating the game is the most satisfying part. Of course, money is important, but it’s not my priority. I see it as the fuel necessary to play the game and enjoy it.
Thanks to an Amazing Team
Running 20 websites in many different niches at scale is impossible without a great team. I can say that I’m fortunate enough to have one. It took me seven years to build this team, and it was far from easy, but it has been completely worth it.
When you have incredible individuals around you, everything seems much easier. When they all work together as a team with great communication and clear expectations, magic happens.
I know many of you are interested in the revenue numbers, so here they are:
Last month, I made $313K in revenue from Mediavine on the website I’m running as a challenge. How crazy is that?
It’s completely unbelievable to me that the website I decided to run as a challenge has become my most successful one.
If you had told me at the time when I decided to start this challenge that it would become my most successful website, I would have said it was impossible and that you were nuts.
Not everything in life goes as planned, but sometimes, things turn out better than we could have imagined.
What’s Working the Best?
I can tell you that the methods working best right now are exactly what I’ve been talking about.
I know some of you are looking for secret methods, but I can tell you that execution makes all the difference.
Go back to the blog section on Strevio and read all the posts; you’ll find everything you need to know there.
If I need to share one piece of advice with you, here it is:
Creativity matters the most in the current state of social media, especially on Facebook. Many times, I get asked why someone with the same number of followers as their competitors has much lower engagement.
Numbers do matter, but only to an extent. In my opinion, creativity matters 5X more.
Choose your topics carefully. Every image matters, every caption matters.
While many of you focus on reducing the cost per like, which is important, it’s even more crucial to create and post the most engaging content for your audience.
I’ve seen many cases where pages with 50K likes have 10X better engagement than pages with 500K likes. It sounds impossible, but it’s true.
Organic traffic from Facebook has never been better, and I believe it will grow even more if you can consistently post the most interesting content for your audience.
Why You Need Strevio to Succeed in the Facebook Game
My team has mentioned to me many times how Strevio helps them achieve amazing results every day. A few months ago, Strevio experienced an issue and wasn’t working well for a few hours. During that time, I received 10 Slack messages and 10 emails from our customers expressing how urgently they needed it back.
At that moment, I realized we had built an incredible product for anyone wanting to succeed with Facebook traffic.
The primary reason we’re able to create this great software is that we’re publishers ourselves. When you’re in the business, you know what you need to succeed, and that’s likely what you all need as well.
As I mentioned earlier, in the Facebook game, creativity matters the most. That’s why we built the first analytics part of Strevio. We believe we’ve created the best tool for publishers who want to grow their traffic on Facebook. This tool helps us determine which types of creatives matter the most.
There are many tools out there for scheduling and automating posts, and we offer that option too. But analyzing your data and your competitors’ data is the key to achieving amazing results. This is where Strevio stands out without competition. By the way, in the coming months, we’ll also implement even more amazing features to help you achieve your goals.
If you only focus on scheduling and automating posts on Facebook, you will only achieve mediocre results. I’m a huge fan of automation and creating processes that work by themselves, and we use them extensively, but to achieve extraordinary results, it’s not enough to just publish random posts 10 times a day.
Even though I haven’t written anything publicly for a few months, the growth of Strevio users has been unbelievable. So many of you have become our customers, and it’s incredible to see how many of you use Strevio daily. I’m very grateful, and it’s wonderful to read so many success stories from Strevio users.
Thank you, everyone!
The Future of Facebook Traffic
I’ve never been more optimistic about something than I am right now about Facebook traffic. Of course, it’s possible that things could change, but from what I see, the future has never looked brighter.
That’s why, even at this level, I’m doubling down to grow even more in the future.
I’ve noticed that many of you have gotten into the Facebook Performance Bonus program, which is amazing. Congrats on that! It’s additional revenue you’re earning just for posting on Facebook. How crazy is that?
Unfortunately, I still don’t have the Bonus program on any of my Facebook pages.
The main reason is my location—I’m not from the US or Canada—but I believe it’s just a matter of time before Facebook makes it worldwide.
A few days ago, I was frustrated about not having access to the Bonus program due to my location, but after an hour, I changed my perspective. I’m grateful that the core business is working really well, and when the time comes for us to get into the Bonus program, it will be just that—a bonus.
Happy summer to you all, and I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you for everything,
Hasib Alic