My Website after 4 Months

I want to tell my story to encourage other beginners or others that have tried off and on to make this work. Many know my story, but I am repeating it for those that don't.

I first started WA way back in 2016. It was 2 years after I had battled breast cancer, and nearly lost my life 4 times in the process. We were broke and I was trying to find something to help us. Unfortunately, I made very little progress back then and quit. I did not cancel my subscription, however. I tried again six years later in 2022. I even sold my husband on it, and we both worked side by side for months on our own sites. However, again, we just could not understand it, and we quit again. My husband was so distraught that he told me to cancel the subscription for good. Well, I usually listen to him, but that time I did not. We have separate bank accounts so I kept paying for the subscription. Every year I would log in at payment time, and swear I was quitting. BUT ----- we had put so much work into those websites, I just could not let that all go down the drain. So I kept paying. In 2023, we welcomed our first grandson, and that sparked something in me. An idea and a website name popped into my head, and I toyed around with it for several months. At the end of 2023, I decided it would not hurt to at least buy the domain name and sit on it. I have always doubted my decisions, and I kept going back and forth. I think it is because I am a Gemini, and I definitely have 2 sides, one very confident side and one very doubtful side! I bought the domain, and again sat on it. So all this time I was paying WA and keeping the domains every year.

My renewal came up in November of 2025. I had finally decided it was time to quit. I was doubting myself again and beating myself up for buying that domain and not using it. I was going to dump everything. But, I decided I would log on one more time to basically say goodbye. So, I logged on and almost fell out of my chair! I was shocked at all the improvements over 6 years, and saw all the fabulous tools and AI. I didn't know much about AI, but I got very excited! I actually. even got giddy! My heart started racing and I got this gutteral feeling that NOW WAS THE TIME to execute that domain I had been sitting on for 2 years. I notified Kyle because I needed a few more days to figure out how to pay as I had not saved the money because I was going to quit, remember? He was very gracious, and I got to work to find the money. I found a way to pay, and signed up for 1 MORE YEAR! I made a promise to myself that I was giving myself 1 more year and that was that! Sure?

I decided that life was too busy with the holidays, and I would totally commit January 1, 2026 and give myself until January 1, 2027. I did kind of diddle to start setting up the website, and even though I just had the barebones, I did write 5 or 6 articles. But during the holidays, I was gearing myself up for January1.

January 1 arrived, and I jumped in feet first! I was psyched up and ready to go. I dove into the core training again, and followed it word for word. It was slow going at first as I had to watch many of the sessions 4 or 5 times. I am not tech savvy, and I am old. I am 73, so the ole brain is not as sharp as it used to be. But I made a commitment this time. My commitment is: #1) treat this like a job, not a hobby #2) commit to 80 hours a month. I try to do 20 hours a week. If I get behind, I catch up by adding another hour or two to later sessions #3) follow instructions EXACTLY #4) don't skip or jump around even if I think I know what is happening in the training #5) if I get confused or can't figure it out, ASK for help , or ask Gemini #6) give myself 1 year to get my site up and running and monetized.

That is my commitment. Now for what has happened the last 3 1/2 months. The 1st month, I made goals and I accomplished them. It was basically to get my website built, following training, and start writing articles. I was familiar with Jaxxy from previous years, but it is much improved. I used it to get ideas for articles. I ended up with over 100+ articles. The second month, I missed a couple of my goals. But it was nothing major, so I added it to the third month. I had watched some of Jay's training, and he suggested creating at least 30 articles. He suggested 5 or 6 categories and 5 articles in each category, minimum. So I continued to work on my site and writing articles. I got my logo perfected, picked my colors for branding and got my site looking better, but it was a mess. I was not sure what to do about it. Toward the end of March, I read an article/watched a video from Eric Cantu talking about Gemini. I had used ChatGPT some, but thought to give Gemini a try. WOW! Was I surprised and impressed. Also, I started communicating with a mentor, and he advised me to up my article count to 60+. So I dug my heels in and started writing like a madman! I use both Chat GPT and Gemini, but now lean more toward Gemini. By the way, I only use free accounts. I do pay for Canva, which I use for my card making, and I have only the basic WA, not the Pro.

I made my goals for March. That was to reach publishing 60 articles. I DID IT! By April 1st, it was time to really put the pedal to the metal! This month, I have worked every single day for 2 to 3 hours. I tried asking questions in WA, but I needed quicker answers and more direction. So--- I decided to ask Gemini. What an experience that was and still is! First, I wanted to get my menu at the top of my page, showing my categories and my About Me page. I wanted to get the footer at the bottom with all of my legal pages. I worked on this for over a week by myself and gummed up everything! I asked Gemini, and got everything straightened out in a couple of days! Not only that, Gemini suggested I change my link color to bright pink to blend with my logo, and showed me how to do it! I love it because it is different!!

Over the last 2 weeks, I have drafted 9 more articles and published 4 more articles . I knew nothing about a homepage, and Gemini explained it to me and helped me set it up. I learned about images and Webp, centering and adding text. I learned how to cut my menu from 10 down to 4, and add categories and sub-menus to cover all my articles. I learned more about internal linking and external linking. I learned about Pillar Posts or Parent Posts and Child posts. I learned the order and how to set them up properly and how to back link them! I had no idea about any of this! Once I started using Gemini, I went down so many rabbit holes I had no idea about. I also checked all of my external links. I discovered 98% of them were either broken or dead! So I learned how to fix those. This is a very important step. You want to see what your audience will see. Check every single link! In the last couple of days, I have perfected my site, cleaned it up and organized it, and now have a home page. I also learned about site speed and all the numbers. All my numbers were 100 in both mobile and desktop, except for site speed in mobile. I was worried about it, but I have been testing it myself and had others test it, and it seems to be loading fine. I could not have accomplished all of this without using Chat GPT and Gemini. I have learned things I knew nothing about. This explains WHY I failed before. Now I have no excuse! I am over the moon. My site finally looks very professional and knowledgeable. Everything works! I am flabberghasted how far I have come and what I have accomplished in 3 weeks!

Also, it seems that Google is happy! Last week, my impressions were 51. Today they are 321! And everyday, they go up. I am also in a very competitive niche with big names that have been around for a long time. The difference is that I have lived many of the articles that I write. I use AI, but I interject bits and pieces of my experiences in almost every article. I also write personal, emotional experiences. This makes a huge difference! I am the one in control, and lived experiences cannot be beat. I read every single article 4 or 5 times before I publish. I make sure all the punctuation is correct, that sentence structure is correct, spacing and wording. One of the things I did discover about AI, is it was placing the word "people" in every place that it should have been woman or female. My site is mostly about women, and it took me several readings to catch that! I had to change it about 25 times! So really pay attention to gender referral, especially if your site is mostly about men or women.

The reason I have been so long winded about my journey is because I want everyone to see that it is possible to get to where I am. It all really depends on how much time you put in. I have logged almost 300 hours since the first of January. I will continue to dedicate 80 hours per month until I get that first sale! Also know that I am 73 years old, have cateracts, am hard of hearing and have no technical knowledge. Basically, the blind leading the blind! But I refuse to give up this time. No matter how difficult something is, I just keep going until I figure it out. So that is my story after 300 hours. Please know that if I can do it, YOU can do it! Be the "Little Engine That Could!" If you need help, reach out. If you want help, though, you have to have an open mind and be willing to listen and take suggestions. And try and try again, until YOU succeed. My goals for May are to dive into Pinterest and figure out what to do about affiliates. I will have another post June 1st to see what happens and where I am in the process. I hope I have inspired a few of you to keep going! Take care.

Connie