Reflecting on Blue Print at 6 Months, and Our Next Steps

Also, for brands + PRs: Please take our editorial survey.

Author

Adam Hurly
June 02, 2025

Hullo Blue Princes. Blue Print is officially six months old this week, so it feels like the right time to reflect, and look ahead to the next half year. 

For some of you, Blue Print may just be this weekly newsletter, or the occasional Instagram carousal that your algorithm feeds up. There’s a lot happening though, which I want to share here.

Readers, viewers, brands, publicists, family, friends, and strangers: Thank you for supporting Blue Print in its very early days. I predict rapid evolutions ahead, and will treasure these early months where it felt like I was writing this newsletter on a week-to-week whim, to this select handful of readers.

BRANDs + PRs: Take Our Editorial Survey

Brands and PRs: please respond to this email for a survey link; one exists for founders/marketers, another for PRs. I appreciate you giving us some feedback on the editorial landscape as you see it / as it impacts your brand(s).

Why Blue Print Needs to Exist

Our “why”? It’s easy. The amount of thoughtful men's grooming coverage compared to the real market need (and growing consumer interest) is grossly disproportionate, and that disconnect felt both like an opportunity and obligation for me, as one of the few primary and prolific chroniclers of the category.

Coverage pivoted from print to digital, skyrocketed in the pandemic, flattened because of Google search’s dominance and editorial staff shortages, and now we’re staring down the barrel of AI (where video and named perspectives will be king), while we navigate a glut of social media misinformation and dime-a-dozen influencers.

I'm building Blue Print to create a dedicated space for the informed, tested, and trusted men's grooming conversation. Not as a sidebar to lifestyle content, not as an afterthought to broader beauty or style or wellness coverage, but as the primary focus it deserves to be. 

Eventually, Blue Print will evolve beyond "by Adam Hurly." I want to build something larger than myself, a platform where my name becomes less relevant to the conversation because the brand and its authority stand on their own, on the voices of multiple contributors. 

Proof of Concept and Interest: Reflecting on the First 6 Months

This is really a reflection on the first 30 months, because before our December ‘24 launch, my partner André and I spent two years building Blue Print’s foundation. That meant me writing long-form articles (90+, many 3000+ words; we launched with 1/3 of those); for him it was building our website from scratch (as opposed to using a generic blog-angled WordPress), and perfecting every pixel across mobile and desktop. We put it on ice for a few months to move internationally, and then resumed, to record and edit 10 longform foundational YouTube videos.

In total, it was hundreds of nights spent burning the midnight oil while also both having full-time careers. (Blue Print has been André’s full time job for one year now, and is technically mine too; on paper, I’m not sure if my client work is my primary gig or side hustle now...the lines have blurred in these six months, albeit by design. I digress.)

I knew the website wouldn't drive most of our traffic initially, but it was crucial for digital credibility and framework. (The credibility front: My name is extremely valuable in web results on men’s grooming; I needed it to be out there, especially part of the business’ name.) I didn't want Blue Print to feel like just another Substack. And I new it would take the most time to build a site from scratch, so if we didn’t launch with one, we might skirt the task later on… I couldn’t give us that option. So we took our time.

Here’s why I’m already grateful for that investment: When someone texted me this week asking for advice on hair transplants and medications, I pointed him to blue-print.co/hair-loss where all our comprehensive coverage lives. It’s only 9 articles yet, but a year from now it will be 3-4 times that amount, especially on the heels of a signed contract for a 24-part video series on hair transplants + recovery. (Ditto for the current 9 videos on that same topic on our Hair Loss YouTube playlist.)

We launched with strategic partnerships: 15 men’s-focused brands for our initial giveaways that gave us baseline followers across Instagram, YouTube, and newsletter. I did this mostly so that I wasn’t “speaking into the void” on any channel while we started out—and in part to flex on the relationships I have built (that part for proof that Blue Print has votes of confidence from the brands, too, including Braun, Harry’s, Andis, Nutrafol, and SMNT). 

And while social media algorithms feel knee-capping on Meta and TikTok (for the latter, we have multiple videos with 6-figure views, but just 600 followers…), we have nearly 28,000 YouTube subscribers after just six months. Our newsletter is creeping towards quadruple digits and maintains a 70% open rate. 

On the topic of social media and YouTube: Months 1-4 were about rolling out longform foundational YouTube content that we shot last fall. To see how different types of videos perform, both immediately and ongoing; which ones yield subscriptions, shares, sales conversion? In April, we focused heavily on short-form video across YT, TikTok, and IG, to feel those day-of wins and disappointments, and to define the different dimensions of “success” across various video styles and all three core channels.

Look, we don’t have concrete answers; that April experiment ended just a month ago, but it was imperative to build that habit, work that muscle, in order to have a more intentional approach to future small-picture content and big-picture direction.

We're seeing strong traction on hyper-specific product coverage like launch news and individual reviews; same for problem-solving content like swass and chafing solutions, and comprehensive hair loss guidance; our destination-focused content always proves successful too (and falls so nicely in line with our tagline “The World of Men’s Grooming”… also, you think this travel journalist is gonna give up his travel perks? Think again.).

YouTube is showing the most promise, with handfuls of videos (vertical shorts and horizontal longform) getting hundreds of views daily, and many getting thousands or tens of thousands out of the gate. My most exciting plans for Blue Print lie with YouTube, but I think that’s a 2026-and-beyond buildout.

We've had several brands provide early sponsorships that kept us afloat during our travel-heavy first quarter, and now we're transitioning from survival mode to growth mode. We're not just paying bills anymore. We're reinvesting revenue back into the Blue Print machine, and the next phase is about proving good on our mission: making Blue Print the conversation hub for men’s grooming.

Looking Ahead: Blue Print at 1 Year

The rest of 2025 is about that keyword, conversation: transforming Blue Print from a solo operation into a legitimate editorial outlet with multiple voices and multiplied assets—while also taking a more commanding, intentional, and 360-degree approach to the content we launch.

Priority one is hiring additional writers. The big-picture men's grooming conversation can't truly exist if it's just my perspective. Additional writers will contribute product love letters, grooming insights, and the kind of varied coverage that makes Blue Print feel like a real destination rather than a personal blog. I want seasoned names but I also want to cultivate new talent; most of us in the editorial space are in our 30s and 40s… who is nurturing the 20 somethings? Not to mention, most of us who are currently active at the men’s editorial outlets are white… there is a huge collective blindspot there.

Priority two is launching our podcast. I have the structure planned, the 5-star producer on board, and the budget mapped out. But I want it to be excellent from day one, which requires investment. This isn't about “just hitting record” and finding our footing. It's about creating something that immediately establishes authority and adds genuine value to the conversation. The main goal here is: Create a product that even women and beauty enthusiasts would find compelling, while welcoming male listeners at both entry- and enthusiast- levels. 

We're also refining our content approach. Instead of standalone pieces, we're building content suites, like our upcoming electrical shaver coverage, which includes three articles, plus supporting video content that can be cut for social and drive traffic back to our articles. That suite, in particular, should yield sales conversions: We learned a lot from our best beard trimmer video, which gets a few hundred organic views a day and sells a couple Philips Norelco trimmers per day, too). 

The sponsored content we're developing maintains my editorial integrity while providing genuine value to brand partners. The angle on most of them is: Here’s a brand I have known and loved for a long time. And they’re helping us build Blue Print into the men’s grooming authority, so in exchange, I’m giving them some love with this video spotlight (my favorite SKUs) for their brand. We’ll have a few videos to that tune go up in coming months.

Starting this month, we’re also creating sponsored content showing newly launched products in action, in the hands of various users, and building promotional budgets into contracts for targeted YouTube advertising. These assets can be cut for longform YouTube, short-form social, and white-listable for the latter. Most have a landing page on Blue Print as part of the terms, too, where the video is embedded along with written/Google+AI-crawlable copy.

How Brands Can Help in the Next Phase of Growth

Here's the reality: Blue Print needs brands to help build this house, the same as any content needs advertisers to keep the lights on. But I don’t want this to feel like charity; I believe we can provide you something valuable in exchange. It starts with a conversation to figure out what assets we can provide you while also honoring our editorial anchor.

Our currency isn't immediate sales conversions; it's the authority and authenticity that makes our coverage valuable when we do feature a brand. (And I’d like to think that, in a few years’ time, coverage does yield immediate sales boosts.)

The most impactful support right now is direct funding for growth, sponsorships that allow us to hire writers, launch the podcast professionally, and build our promotional budget.

Outside of funding, please take our brand survey (respond to this email for that; I have separate surveys for PRs and brand owners/marketers). It has nothing to do with sponsorships or funding.

And please, think about content partnerships that benefit both of us; let’s talk shop, shall we?

Of course, we’re open to whitelisting content, providing testimonials that honor our editorial POV, too. This Nutrafol one took off across various platforms:

The brands that bet on Blue Print now are positioning themselves as foundational partners…in what I'm confident will become the primary destination for men's grooming conversation. I liken it to “building the community center, together—a space that benefits all of us someday soon”. The question isn't whether or not we'll get there, but with how much magnitude, and how quickly… those are the outstanding variables.

Thank You and You and You Too

Before I sign off, I need to acknowledge the people and partners who've made these first six months possible. To our readers who open every newsletter, our YouTube subscribers who actually watch the videos, and everyone who's shared our content or encouraged friends to subscribe: you're building this platform with us, and proving our purpose by consuming the content. So much of this week’s newsletter is focused on our business and the brands, but we don’t have a business if it isn’t for the audience who trusts us (and that earned/maintained trust is the North Star for everything we do).

This is how digital platforms succeed—through people who believe in what we're creating and actively support it. Whether you're a longtime friend or a complete stranger who stumbled across our skincare, swass, or hair loss coverage, your engagement helps. Every share, every comment, every newsletter signup is a vote of confidence (and data point!) that keeps us going.

To the brands and publicists who took early bets on us, who provided sponsorships when we just needed to buy time (those who said they understood the entrepreneurial effort above all), thank you for seeing the vision before its realization. I don’t want to name names here—but you know who you are. (I certainly won’t forget it.)

And I gotta thank my #1 André, who spends hours each week editing video footage of me fumbling my words, finessing our finicky content management system, and guinea-pigging himself with product testing (sorry about the armpit burns you’re dealing with right now… glycolic deos are no joke). 

Digital platforms don't grow in isolation. They grow because people like you decide something is worth supporting and then actually do the work of supporting it. That shared interest and genuine enthusiasm is what transforms a two-person project into a real conversation. 

Thanks for six months so far. Here’s to the future, but also, here’s to now, when Blue Print feels experimental and so full of potential. Thanks for realizing it with us, and for reading this newsletter… to the 70% of you who open them, I mean, for appreciating all this:

Thanks for reading.

—Adam

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