If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail

First year anniversary

I've officially passed my one year anniversary here at WA. I can say, I've learned a great deal indeed.

• got my website up and running
• been blogging consistently in the first half of my one year but it kinda slowed down lately
• I would say my writing has improved and it's become easier to write blogs that are in the thousands of words
• most of my content are getting indexed by Google though I'm yet to hit first page in any of them
• have been seeing some organic traffic flow to my website every now and then but mostly in the single digits
• have earned some change here and there

So I have indeed gotten pretty far in this journey though I know I'm still long ways in figuring out how to truly successfully monetize this endeavor.

Thoughts of giving up

As I stated I've slowed down to almost at a halt in writing blog posts lately as I felt that I am lost and getting nowhere. At one point I was discouraged and was asking myself if I should keep going at this. To be completely honest, I did actually opt out of the Premium membership, though I still have a few weeks to go with my annual membership from last year. That kind of gave me some time to think.

To add to this, a lot of things happened recently that made it more difficult to keep going at this. The major one is my wife just gave birth to our third child. So you can imagine the sleepless nights and the adjustment that we are going through right now.

So is this goodbye for me? Or am I still here?

I actually ended up renewing my annual membership after all just a few days ago. Then what kept me from leaving WA?

I would say there were two crucial realizations that made me stay.

1. First of all is the community here in WA
2. Secondly is that I realized I had no clear plan

WA community

I can truly say that the community here inside WA is amazing and invaluable!

As I was contemplating on whether to continue here or not, I decided to read some blog posts of other members that are in my network and even my extended network.

I am so grateful for all the members here who have been sharing their journey here in WA. I've read about over a handful of stories after stories of people's experiences, challenges and successes.

This made me "re"-realize (I guess I already know this but I sort of forgot and got lost along the way) that this is all a process and a journey of learning.

I'm only one year in this journey. In most businesses, it takes several years to truly cross that line where they're earning more than they're spending.

So to all of you here at WA community who have been so generous to offer your help, your thoughts, sharing your experiences and journey, I salute you and I thank you. Thanks for the encouragement.

If you fail to plan

The other thought that dawned on me was that I had no clear business plan. I had no clear goals. Yes I've gone through the training though I'd be honest that I guess I'm only blindly following it without really sitting down and constructing a clear business plan.

Benjamin Franklin said, "if you fail to plan then you are planning to fail".

That's me right there. I have no clear plan on what I'm doing.

I have been doing the hard work of writing content and trying to get it to index in Google and trying to attract traffic to my website but I realized I'm still lacking a clear business plan.

Back to the drawing board

Now I have decided to still keep writing content here and there. However, I'm stepping back and will have to sit down and think hard in coming up with a clear cut plan.

And since I'm already sharing with you my struggles, here are some questions I'm contemplating right now as I am thinking of constructing a plan.

• is the content that I'm producing relevant
• does it offers to help or solve a question or a problem
• how can I drive and increase traffic to my site
• I need to keep learning and set aside time (specific # of hours) per day or per week to spend in studying and learning
• how can I retain my audience and their attention or interest
  

Ultimately, I need to set goals and checkpoints on my journey. Keep assessing or evaluating my progress most likely every quarter.

Parting thoughts

This is where I am at right now. I still have no clear answer to all of these questions but I am definitely not yet giving up on this journey. But this time around, there's definitely some sense of seriousness and renewed determination to make this count.

To all of us in this journey, and if you've ever felt something similar as to what I've just recently gone through, let's not give up that easily and keep pressing on.

Thank you for reading and I hope I've brought some encouragement to you.

Cheers and God bless!