Egee's 2023 Update | Bonus! - stats for nerds (Patreon)

Hello Flufferschnoots! It feels like a lot has happened since my last update post in May. Let's get things going with some data!

I do "retrospective" exercises (think: agile/scrum 😅) at least once a month so this might be a fun little insight into how I manage my own expectations with the channel.

Using the past 90 days as a reference, I'm up 20%+ in both views and watch-time from what I had in June. I'm net positive new subscribers, but it's actually less than what I had in June.

Revenue has become an important indicator in terms of channel health and I don't have enough data to confidently present it. But these numbers are just fine.

I've been trying to pin-point exactly what people want to see and listen to on the channel. 

As you can see, it's a mixed bag especially considering some of the "low" videos do very well in terms of views (likely because people rewatch!).

"Drive-by" viewers (as I like to call them) aren't all that valuable to me as you guys are. And as you can see, y'all make up more than half of the views on the channel!

As a little bonus here's some insight on what viewers of the channel watch 👀

I can totally see how this data would be useful to other channels (especially ones that follow trends) but I don't pay much attention to it.

Alright, that's enough data. Let's bounce into the real update-worthy topics.

Patreon Organization

My Patreon has grown and is more important to the channel than ever before. I want to make sure it's easy for people to find the content they are looking for.

Using tags to categorize posts works but it's sub optimal. Daddy Patreon recently introduced "collections" and I think that might be a better way to handle it.

They seem to be a bit like albums or playlists but I think they will complement tags and make it easier for people to find stuff.

Discord (& bonuses therein!)

I announced the Discord server back in July and it's been really great. A couple really cool supporter bonuses have blossomed from it.

#lore is a channel where I riff about Egee lore. I've talked about doing it here on Patreon but the on-the-spot nature of Discord is great for discussions!

#Skunkworks is where I can toss up random bits and snippets of things. From rambles to sounds & noises, etc.

During the holiday season there will be some events and things that I'll organize mostly via the Discord because it has voice-chat and streaming. Discord isn't required to join the events but it much easier to keep engaged!

Egee Shop!

In case you missed it, I've opened The Egee Shop! And I've got lofty goals for it.

I've talked already in the previous post but I'd be happy to dive deeper into the technical details if any of you engineers out there are interested in how Shopify works!

This silly little shop is a big deal not just because it bolsters Egee revenue but because I've wanted to get a shop running for my companion community, Egee.io, for literal years!

Egee.io is an odd little community but it has lots of gamers, techies, & artists. I've long thought a shop would help support the community and servers we host. Having a single "Egee Shop" means I could sell Egee merch but also cool tech and gaming items with fun themes!

Full-Time Egeeing

The Egee Store is a good segue to what I'm doing for work. The last time we visited this topic, I was unemployed & looking for work. Now, I'm self-employed!

I lost my job as a DevOps Engineer at tiny FinTech startup that got acquired earlier this year. I had a new job lined up but it fell through. And nothing else since then has panned out.

In July, I started a new little web hosting business and began working with some clients that I technically already had but we made things more official. I also built a new website, kick-started things on Linkedin, etc..

..But when I was doing my monthly retrospective writing exercise, I noticed a curious anomaly in my revenue: My Egee reliably earnings double month-after-month! If the trend keeps up until December, I will be able to pay all my financial obligations with Egee alone. 🤯

But that's a huge risk - how can I possibly continue my current velocity until December? That means non-stop growth for like.. 3 more months?

To achieve this goal, I need to continue to produce, continue to promote, but also come up with additional revenue streams, and that's where Egee Shop comes in! There are some other coals in the fire but the shop is the most promising at the moment.

What's Next?

More Egee! I mean seriously, the best thing I can do is produce more content. So that's what I'm going to do. 😤

It's admittedly weird to turn my back on a software career that I've had for over a decade but it seems that the writing is on the wall.

Maybe I'll go the ironic route and turn my professional "IRL" persona into an Egee character. Full Stack Engineer Egee? Product Owner Egee? Ohh, what about Scrum Master Egee?

Thanks for being such awesome Flufferschnoots. I appreciate each & every one of you. 💜