Yesterday I blinked, and I realized that it had been nearly 13 years since I started Breaking Eighty.
Holy crap.
Cue the cliche “it feels like just yesterday I….”
But no, really.
It doesn’t feel like 12 years ago that I took my first proper golf trip to Whistling Straits, Arcadia Bluffs, and a dozen other courses.
It doesn’t feel like it’s been a decade since the first time I played Pebble Beach.
And there’s no way it’s been 8 years since I started the Eighty Club.
But here we are.
To be able to continue doing this full time over a decade later is a true privilege and I don’t take that lightly. So thank you for allowing me to continue seeing where this weird golf blog will take us.
I’ve largely taken the past month off.
I did all the holidays with family, we celebrated my daughter’s 4th birthday, and did quick stints to Caldera Springs and Disneyland.
I didn’t realize how much I needed the time off until I’d taken it.
I’ve spent a lot of time during the break thinking about this site, my business as a whole, and what I want to spend my time doing in 2025 and beyond.
And today I figured I’d peel back the curtain a little bit, and for those that are interested, share a little bit about what went well this past year, what didn’t, and where I’d like to see Breaking Eighty go in 2025.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done a proper annual review. Here’s the one for I did looking back at 2022. Let’s see if anything has changed.
What Went Well in 2024?
First, let’s check some of the highlights.
1) I published 92 YouTube Videos
On a daily, or even weekly basis, I rarely feel like I accomplish everything I hope to.
But then when you look back and see a number like this, it makes you think “ok, I guess I did do some work this year.”
These 92 videos led to 3,248,255 views, and 19,618 new subscribers.
I’m really happy with that. Sure there’s plenty of room for growth, but for a niche golf review channel? Not bad.
For years, I was a writer.
But this past year, I found myself wondering “Am I a YouTuber now?”
I expect 2025 will help me answer that question once and for all.
2. I Made More Money than Ever.
If success is simply all about how much money you make, then 2024 was my most successful year in 15 years of working for myself.
Previously 2023 was my best year, and it wasn’t close.
After that, I remember thinking “there’s no way I’ll surpass that in 2024, and that’s ok.”
Turns out, I was wrong.
My business did just shy of 7 figures in 2024, and just like 2023, I’d be shocked if I get there again this year.
Considering I have low overhead and no employees, that goes a long way.
3. I Elevated My Product Reviews
More than any other year, the vast majority of my content in 2024 came in the form of product reviews.
While ideally there’d be a better mix of travel and editorial content, I really believe we do the very best product reviews on the internet.
Despite neverending offers for sponsored content, we continue to keep our reviews unbiased, and I’m not afraid to call out the negatives of a product right alongside the positives.
There are aren’t that many people who are doing both written and video versions of their reviews, and doing both at a really high level. This is one of the things that I think sets Breaking Eighty apart, and I’m proud of the work that’s been done there – even if I question the long-term sustainability of it.
4. Diversity of Income
Compared to your typical “influencer” who makes most of their money from brand deals, I don’t.
But depending on what counts as a unique income stream, I have well over a dozen.
Just to name a few:
- Display ad revenue
- Eighty Club dues
- Affiliate revenue from 50+ brands
- Amazon affiliate revenue
- Course sales at Location Rebel (my other primary website)
- YouTube ad revenue for both Breaking Eighty and Location Rebel
- And more.
As a solopreneur, this has really helped ease the stress over the years. If one part of this business slows down, it’s good to know there are other parts of it that will help keep it afloat.
However, for all the benefits of this, it’s led me to being spread too thin and changes need to be made.
5. Beginning to Get Some Help
As I’ve alluded to above, continuing Breaking Eighty the way it’s historically been isn’t sustainable. Whether it’s burnout or simply a lack of hours in the day to do everything I’d like to do – I need to get more help.
Over the years, I’ve tried things out with various people and it’s never really worked out.
A lot of that is on me. Doing this for as long as I have on my own makes it a challenge to find the right people to fit into that.
But we’re slowly making progress.
My dad continues to do all of my video editing for the YouTube channel. Being able to work with him on a daily basis is one of the best parts of what I do.
I’ve found one reliable writer to help with some of the written product reviews. Marc is a true master of his craft, and has that rare trait of being able to thoroughly test golf products and articulate his findings thoughtfully.
More recently, my friend Ian has been helping to manage the Eighty Club community. It’s led to increased activity and discussion on our forums and has brought new life into the group.
What Didn’t Go Well in 2024?
For all the success I had this past year, it pretty much boiled down to one thing “do more reviews.”
That’s been successful.
But at the expense of what?
Well, plenty.
1. Actually Playing Golf
The biggest thing? I really didn’t play very much golf this year.
I posted 20 rounds, and my index went from 9.4 to 10.6.
Most of the time playing I was actually reviewing products. Often this means, not keeping score, shooting videos, and generally making the golf secondary. This is great, I love it. But I’d also like to play a lot more this year, and follow through with my goal of fixing my golf swing!
In 2023 I played over 20 new courses and crossed off 10 in my quest to play the top 100 courses in the world.
In 2024 I played 5 new courses, and didn’t get any new ones off the list.
Don’t get me wrong, I had some amazing experiences. Porcupine Creek, Nemacolin, and Richland at Reynolds Lake Oconee were all wonderful.
But both golf and travel were a bit more limited this year.
2. Social Media was Non-Existent
Instagram was one of the primary drivers of growth for Breaking Eighty from 2013 to 2019.
And then something happened.
I got kind of sick of it.
Everything from dealing with the finicky algorithm, to shifting focus to YouTube, to frankly just not wanting to feel like I was “showing off” with some of the experiences I get to have because of what I do for a living.
The problem is that it’s really the best/easiest way to stay in touch with my audience. It’s personal. It’s faster and more casual than email.
And it’s also a way to be creative on a regular basis without having to make a big deal out of it all.
But unless I was covering a golf resort, or occasionally promoting a blog post – I’ve been very quiet.
And Twitter? Tik-Tok? Not even on my radar.
This leads us to…
3. A General Lack of Creativity
90% of my content in 2024 was product reviews.
And I’ve got a pretty good routine down for what these look like.
This is necessary, as I have far more content to create than bandwidth to do it.
The downside is that the creativity often gets lost.
This past year I didn’t experiment much with the format of my videos. I didn’t branch out with my product photography. I did very little with short-form content.
I know my YouTube videos could be so much better with a little more time and effort.
But it’s tough to find the balance between quality and quantity.
Is it worth making a video 20% better at the expense of not doing a video on another product? Maybe, maybe not.
I also did very little creative, editorial writing.
For better or worse, I’ve mostly focused on the things that bring in direct revenue.
More money is great, but part of what I love about Breaking Eighty is that its in a weird little niche that intersects with all the things I’m personally interested in.
I would have liked to see more of that.
The caveat, is I did enjoy a lot of the travel content this year. Like this video from Nemacolin:
4. Planning and Organization
I’m a notoriously unorganized person. No matter how hard I try to get more organized, keep a better editorial calendar, or just bring some semblance of structure to my life – it’s always been a challenge.
This year I found myself especially struggling with it.
As the site and brand grows, so do opportunities.
I found myself saying yes to a lot of things, and then being very slow to deliver on the things I agreed to.
Ths makes me look less than professional and adds to the chaos in my mind on any given day.
I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunities I do, but growth will be limited until I can conquer my own organizational inadequacies.
5. SEO and Site Traffic
In 16 years of blogging professionally, I’ve never experienced a time like I have over the last 18 months.
Breaking Eighty, like thousands of other niche sites, primarily rely on web traffic from Google searches.
There are so many bloggers out there who have become world-class experts in small niche categories, and make their livings writing about them – just as I do here.
Starting in September 2023 with their “Helpful Content Update” Google has been changing their algorithm in the most dramatic ways I’ve seen in more than a decade.
The result? The worst search experience I’ve ever seen.
The victims? Small niche site owners who have been in many cases, all but erased from Google search.
Fortunately, Breaking Eighty hasn’t received nearly the catastrophic results that so many others have.
Traffic has fluctuated dramatically with each little tweak they make, but our site traffic from search was down about 15% year over year.
And when you see some of the search results that are shown over a site like mine (or other similar golf sites that do good work), it’s pretty demoralizing.
What I’d Like to Do in 2025
All of that to say, where do we go from here?
What should 2025 look like?
Honestly, for as good as 2024 was – I hope this next year looks quite a bit different in many regards.
How so?
1) Be More Organized and Have Better Planning
In order to accomplish any of the stuff below, and fix any of the stuff above – I need to improve here.
What does this look like?
Scheduling and dedicating the time to create the system.
My general MO is to just sit down and work. I know I have stuff that needs to get done, so I pick the thing I feel like working on, and I do it.
Planning often feels like a waste of time, when I could be creating.
But if I’m going to scale, do more, work with others – there has to be a plan with at least a basic system for doing things.
I realize that’s about as far from a measurable, concrete goal as it gets. But I haven’t quite figured out what this will look like yet.
2) Rekindle My Creativity and Get Back to Doing More than Just Product Reviews
Product reviews are the crux of what I do. It’s by far my biggest source of revenue, and it’s the thing I’ve become an expert at – both in terms of product knowledge and the reviews themselves.
But this year I want to get back to doing more than that.
I’d like to get back to creating on Instagram for the creative outlet, but also the connections and conversations that go along with it.
I’d like to do more writing about golf courses, travel, and just general thoughts on the golf industry.
Posts like this and this are often the most uncomfortable posts for me to write, but the most fulfilling at the same time.
3) Travel (and Golf) More
2023 was a banner golf year with courses played in Australia, in New York, California – and many more.
I did very little golf travel in 2024, and despite even a fair amount of personal travel – most of it was to places I’ve already been.
This year, I want to mix it up. A lot.
I’ve already got new rounds planned for this month at Panther National and Dutchman’s Pipe.
My dad and I are going to Vietnam to golf in April.
And hopefully, I’ll play a few new spots in Monterey right after that.
Ballyneal in early June.
Then heading to Italy and London with my family later in the month.
Golf or not, these experiences mean far more than material things ever will.
So I’m looking forward to more adventures this year.
And despite the negativity around “list chasing,” I do still want to make progress on the goal I set for myself way back in 2013 of playing the top 100 courses in the US and World. We’re over halfway there on both lists, so I’m excited to keep that going.
4) Find a Few Select People to Help
Here’s one of my big dilemmas:
I only have so much time. If I want to grow Breaking Eighty and the business, that mostly means do more reviews and product-related content.
Now that YouTube has become such a huge part of this, it’s tougher to delegate the review content. It’s my channel, and I need to be able to speak authoritatively on any products I talk about.
I can have products sent to others to do written reviews, but with YouTube being the major driver of growth – there’s a bottleneck there that I have yet to solve.
This year I want to find a couple of motivated people to help take some pressure off of me, and help the site to grow.
5) Diversify Traffic Sources
Google is still far and away the biggest driver of traffic to the site. That’s great! But with so many changes happening to algorithms and advances in AI, I want to lessen my reliance on this moving forward.
Email has been massive over the last two years – I want to double down on that.
As mentioned, I want to get back on Instagram, both for personal creativity as well as business growth.
And I’d like to run ads in a way that doesn’t undermine the nature of what I do.
This is something I started experimenting with this past year, and have had mixed levels of success.
All of That to Say?
All of that to say? Things are good.
Great even.
I can always find things to critique. But the reality is if I can do exactly what I’ve been doing for the last 10 years, for the next 10 or 20? That’s a pretty damn good life, and about all I can ask for.
Hopefully I can make tweaks and improvements along the way, but my life (and this business) is definitely in a good place.
Anything you’d like to see on Breaking Eighty this year? Any goals for yourself in 2025? Drop a comment and let me know!
