A Small Win When Everything Felt Like It Was Falling Apart

Some of you may have read my recent blog post,
“A Hard SEO Lesson I Learned the AI Way: Read This Before You Fix What Isn’t Broken.”

It was a hard lesson. One small change triggered a chain reaction that hurt my rankings, and for a while it felt like everything I’d worked for was slipping away.

But something important happened during that low point.

I realized I didn’t want to be a hostage to Google or Bing.

For years, I relied almost entirely on organic traffic. When that traffic disappeared, it was discouraging. Instead of quitting or waiting in frustration, I decided to do something that honestly scared me.

I stepped outside my comfort zone.

I started running $1-a-day Facebook ads. Nothing fancy. No complex funnel. Just enough to keep people visiting my site while Google reevaluates things.

I won’t lie — I had knots in my stomach when I launched them. Paid traffic has always intimidated me. But I did it anyway.

What Happened After 11 Days

Here’s what the results actually looked like:

• $9.94 total spent
• 17,794 impressions
• 10,777 people reached
• 291 link clicks
• $0.03 cost per click
• 69 landing page views
• 310 post engagements

More importantly, people were still showing up, reading content, and engaging with my site. It didn’t feel “dead” anymore, and I learned something completely new in the process.

Why This Matters (At Least to Me)

Is this life-changing money?
No.

Is it a replacement for SEO?
No.

But it is momentum.

This small win reminded me that progress doesn’t always come from ranking #1. Sometimes it comes from refusing to quit and being willing to feel uncomfortable.

I don’t know what my next step is yet. Maybe email marketing. Maybe refining ads. Maybe something else entirely.

But for now, I’m celebrating this win.

If you’re stuck waiting on rankings, feeling discouraged, or afraid to try something new, let this be encouragement:

Sometimes a small win is exactly what keeps you moving forward.

If you’ve experienced something similar or pushed past fear to try something new, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.