Mark Bowley
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A very unusual summer

A very unusual summer

Mark Bowley
September 19, 2024

I’ve just had quite an unusual summer. So much so, I had to put some routine things aside for a while, such as this newsletter. I’m kicking myself about it, but sometimes you’ve just got to focus on work and family.

June was busy (as I mentioned before) but then July and August surpassed expectations.

I’ll explain why in a moment, but first you’ll notice I’m again trying something different with this email. I’m going to write it freely, without the usual sections and structure. I’ve seen how others make this work and I’m going t give it a go. I’m hoping it will allow more flow, and help me share more often (the goal is weekly, or bi-weekly at least).

So, back to the summer story. In July I had to do jury service, which was interesting but quite disruptive when you’re freelance. When you’re used to maximising efficiency at work, it’s quite a shock having to slow down to the pace of an institution. Kind of like ‘sitting on your hands’, if you know the expression.

Then, August. Normally I can count on a slight freelance work slowdown, but it never appeared this time. It turned into multiple big freelance project deadlines, which was quite unexpected but needed doing.

On top of that, I’ve helped my (grown) children with 3 house moves! My daughter moved out of university (she graduated LIS), and then into a new flat in another city. My son also got a place at university, so we helped him move in there too. Phew!

Needless to say, I’m only just catching my breath in September.

Even though I’ve been mega busy, I have been able to do small things in between the big things, such as a little work on writing and side projects.

I’ve continued to write on my Tiny SEO Lessons publication on Medium, with the most recent post being Get Creative With Backlinks To Kickstart Your SEO Engine. I’ve also continued to post on my own blog, and on my Medium profile.

So where am I with SEO adventures? This year I’ve surpassed my previous best success (Starrt.co, 3K monthly views) by quite a margin.

My new experiment, freeappsai.com, launched in April and is now at 4.5K monthly views, and over 1.4K Google Clicks. That’s grown 50% in the last 30 days. Which is mind-blowing, but I guess it’s in line with what most people say about SEO taking about 6 months to kick in. So I may just focus on this one for a while and see how big it can get. In particular, I want to start generating revenue, now that it has a strong traffic.

Now, let’s talk about my work. This subject is continuing to evolve in my mind, and stepping back over the busy summer has meant I’ve had more head space for it. Thankfully, it’s focussed my mind a little more now.

In short, I’ve realised I don’t want to specialise in one tool or discipline anymore. I’ve learned (after 30 years working) I’m a born generalist, motivated by curiosity and the challenge of solving varied problems. I’ll write more about this and my plans in future emails.

By the way, I’m starting to pay more attention to Threads these days. X just feels a bit of a mess most of the time. I still really enjoy interacting with people and friends on X, but I want to try other things. So, if you’re on Threads, join me at @markbowley.me.

If you’ve made it this far through my email, thank you! If anything stood out, drop me a reply, I’d love to hear your thoughts.