New kid on the blog

113 followers

Updated 3 years ago

Hi there, Johan here from sunny South Africa!

Where do I start and what do I say? Well, for one thing, while public speaking doesn't faze me, nothing has been more challenging than WA. Why? Because you are talking to an invisible audience. Cracking a joke to break the ice, (that's the first thing they tell you to do in public speaking), doesn't really work now, does it?

Or does it? Well, if you are into delayed responses (like my banker), over an extended period of time, I suppose it does, once you get feedback in the form of likes and comments. Even dislikes, unfriend, or unfollow are good. At least there is a response!

But it's not immediate, like what you experience when addressing an audience. Effective communication is all about connecting and engaging, drawing off the other person's energy or backing off when you sense this one's a difficult horse. No, posting offers none of that which I am used to. And it's taking a toll because my dry sense of humor needs that kind of feedback to survive.

So, for today's assignment, (and I really don't like talking about myself), here is a quick rundown of what's been happening since I joined, a little more than 4 weeks ago.

Progress

Well, this is an assignment at the end of Level 2 of the Online Entrepreneur Certification.

I must admit, in the beginning, I constantly had to remind myself that it is all about TRAINING, while I ward off all funny scenarios in my mind's eye about the last word in the title.

Imagine working through a lesson and notifications, emails, and Outlook keeps on announcing the arrival of yet a new item in your Inbox. Add to that the persistent incidences of load-shedding (power utility going offline), wifi being knocked out by lightning, ewes lambing, workers not pitching, more than double your seasonal rainfall in less than 24 hours, and pretty soon something has to give!

Keeping my sanity by having some me-time quickly moved up a couple of notches on my "to-do-list".

Niche

Now, this is where the wheels just about came off!

In retrospect, regrettably, I did not pick a name along the lines of "how to...." or "10 best of ...", or anything like that. No sir, I had a name in my head, somewhat sentimental, and I figured. it's just a name right. All you need to do is stick it on some or another domain with some domain registrar. How difficult could that be? Wrong!

Were it not for targeted keywords in content creation, I realized, a bit late I'd say, that this will probably come back to bite me later. In the context of generating organic web traffic, apart from relying on targeted keywords.

Be that as it may, that's what I decided and that's the way this niche is going to play out. As they say, if you had known better, you would have done better. And I am a great believer in second chances.

Anyway, I drew my inspiration for this niche from an internet SEO guru, Neil Patel. This is what he said:

"To have an impact on your audience, you must understand their pain points”

Combined with my interest in alternative medicine, I wanted to do something for people about my age and picked a rather controversial product, namely CBD, otherwise known as cannabidiol, one of the many compounds found within the cannabis plant.

Any Successes?

Quite frankly, what defines success may vary from person to person. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, right?

I have been looking into starting an online business for over 4 years while I was still gainfully employed. Wasted a lot of money on push-button, all-done-for-you, you-don't- need -a -website, and you-don't-need-to-create-content, outright money-making schemes. I can attest, the only ones making money with those are the scammers selling you the stuff.

When you are a newbie, you even believe that website traffic can be bought. There are a lot of those out there as well. Make your pick, internet traffic, Facebook traffic, cellphone traffic. Once they start adding country-based and market segment-based to the mix; it's easy to see why people swallow all that jazz, hook, line, and sinker.

Fortunately, I stumbled across an ad for WA. Early in, I realized these guys had so much more to offer. Unlike any other program, you could actually get in touch with others already enrolled in the program.

So, having almost completed my tasks in Level 2, I now have a website, my own domain, and I know how to create content based on researched targeted keywords. I wanted to say "engaging content", but that would be copying the big boss and jumping the gun at the same time! Yes my posts are out there, but I believe driving serious amounts of organic traffic is what is instore in the next level of traing. Can't wait! Pensioner or no pensioner, I also have bills to pay you know.

Plans and Goals for the next 3 months.

There is one aspect that I am acutely aware of and that is my failure to respond to all my Inbox notifications.

For that, I want to apologise. To those whom I have not yet responded; thank you for the encouragement, your advice and being available. All of you that clicked on the Follow button, I do intend repaying you that favor by following you once I get to the end of this Level.

Secondly, I now realize the benefit of interacting with fellow WA members and have a better understanding of how it effects my ranking. So that is in need of improvement.

Thirdly, surprisingly even, I was able to assist some members with some problems regarding their website, and actually enjoyed doing that. I would like to embark on that road more often.

Fourthly; keep on producing valuable and engaging content. I want to rank with at least one of my Post in Google, Bing and Yahoo each, before my first 6 months is up.