My projects.
I love building things, and many of my skills and interests have come from personal projects. Some of my favourite projects include:
How to Edit & How to Write Thought Leadership
courses.ryanlaw.me | 2022—Present
I built a self-paced video course to help me understand the mechanics and unit economics of online course creation. I focus on the hard problems of content marketing, starting with how to write thought leadership content and moving on to how to edit. Some 500 people have purchased my first course.
Blog Roast
blogroast.co | 2022—Present
Blog Roast is an experiment to learn about video content. The channel started because I was running content analysis workshops with the team, and wondered if they could work as YouTube videos too (1:many instead of 1:1).
The Schrödinger Effect
theschrodingereffect.com | 2019—Present
I'm a guitarist and joint songwriter for The Schrödinger Effect, a pop-rock band. We've released five songs to date, with more currently in production.
The Rainmaker Writings
rainmakerwritings.com | 2019—Present
A series of post-apocalyptic fantasy novels. As a professional writer with a love of fantasy and sci fi, "writing a novel" was always on my bucket list. When I left my job in 2018, I decided to make it happen. I am currently two books into a three-book trilogy, and have sold a few hundreds copies of each.
100 Days of Python
replit.com/learn/100-days-of-python/ | 2024
I completed Replit’s 100 Days of Python course (I recommend it). Working for tech companies without understanding programming feels a little like being mute. Simple projects like accessing APIs, scraping websites, and creating and querying simple databases, helped introduce me to a few basic programming concepts. It was also a ton of fun!
Crescent Flooring
crescentflooring.co.uk | 2023
In the space of a few days between leaving Animalz and joining Ahrefs I built and launched a website for my brother-in-law, a local carpet fitter with zero online presence.
I used Squarespace to build simple page templates; generative AI to publish pages for every location he served and service he offered; and built a few NAP citations to kickstart organic growth.
Ash Tales
ashtales.com | 2015—2020
Ash Tales was a podcast where I narrated original end-of-the-world stories. I built an Airtable database and series of Zapier automations to manage a substantial volume of submissions (several hundred per month at its peak), and narrated and edited all podcast episodes myself.
Ash Tales ran to 22 episodes with ~200k downloads, and was supported by blog content generating a high of ~30k visits per month. The site was featured in the Writer’s & Artists’ Yearbook and reviewed in The Guardian newspaper.
Today, I use the site to sell my novels and test new content marketing strategies.
Waterline Apparel
waterlineapparel.bigcartel.com | 2012 - 2013
I spent my student bursary starting a t-shirt company. I designed, marketed, and sold small batches of t-shirts. I have no idea if I made any money, but I learned a ton about marketing.
"Independent threads, DIY ethos and strictly limited edition – Waterline Apparel is a fresh-faced clothing startup from the heart of Sheffield. We do things differently so that you can rep a bit of Steel City Style and stand out from the crowd, in exclusive designs limited to 25 prints. Get involved and get unique!"