Vertical Limit: Goals March 2019

bymarchanna

593 followers

Updated 5 years ago

There it is: K2

K2; it's the most dangerous mountain in the world.

If you haven't yet, you need to watch the drama/thriller movie, 'Vertical Limit,' made in the year 2000, after we all survived the irrelevant Y2K crisis somehow (I'll briefly comment on into irrelevant WA crises later).

Now this movie, it's one of my all-time favorites. It's loosely based on the August 1995 expedition/disaster, when six climbers died in a massive storm returning from the summit. The experienced son of Sir Edmund Hillary, Peter Hillary, had noticed the weather change and decided to turn back from his effort that day, consequently saving his life. Wow.

So in this movie, Scott Glenn is just brilliant as Montgomery 'up there, you're not dying, you're dead' Wick, the late Bill Paxton as an unusually devilish character, the silver-spooned Elliot Vaughn, Robin Tunney is absolutely gorgeous and believable as guide Annie Garrett, Izabella Scorupco is superb as the 'sheila' Monique 'Peter wants to know if I can climb' Aubertine. Boy, could she ever!

I could go on about this one...the amazingly, starkly beautiful and dangerous setting, the heights and the dazzling fear that this mountain can create.

Everest may be taller and deadly still, but it's not as fearsome as climbing K2.

But wait, WA is not a movie review site!

Yes, I know. I am spindrifting dangerously off-topic in relation to the purpose of this site. Still, I want to use the notion of vertical limit as the theme of this blog, so I think it's only fair to bring up this great movie in a very brief way :)

On to business.

It's true I haven't checked in since January and it's about time to do so.

So what's been happening? Well, in the main, I had to make a decision that had consequences. Who wants to make any kind of decision that doesn't, at the end of the day?

The Decision to go Vertical Was Due to a Limit

I did it, I violated a cardinal rule here at WA.

Yes, I went off the reservation, curved around the bend, dove into the abyss, ate the bananas, jumped off my rocker -- you name the idiom for going cuckoo, I did it!

The cardinal rule:

'Marc, you're supposed to do all of Kyle's training first! You're'e a very very very bad boy!'

Spindrift getting at some very, very very bad boys!

The problem is, website design and web page design is more vertically integrated than I had imagined. The basic training package is good, no doubt, but it didn't cover one particular issue....so I drifted...into other research.

What caused this spindrift? Well, I was concerned about SEO. These pages of mine, I wanted them to be easily found on google. I kept coming across what seemed to be key trainings by WAers Smartketeer, LynneHuy, and Magistudios (among others). I had to look into this.... I spinned, and I drifted.... but I thought there is a reason this stuff is popping up right now, I need to look into this.

Serendipity, synchronicity, all that fuzzy jazz, you know I mean, my buddies!

SEO Research Cast a Spell on Me

So the SEO aspect is just something I needed to learn and believe me I did. Check out these things I'm now doing for all of my posts. This is an unfinished checklist of important things I need to do for each post.

I say unfinished because each time I think I'm done creating this list, something else comes up that needs to be added.

By the way, the below snippet was created by using Greenshot and it's an app I highly recommend for your screenshots. No link is provided because the link police are on the prowl lately for potential wolves like me, heehee. That's a joke.

Here it is, sorry it's a bit hard to read but I wanted it all on one snap:

Barely complete list of things that must be done for each post/page/website/video

Keeping the Main Goal in Mind, This Happened

So what led me astray after that was the SERP research.

Yes, thanks a lot, Jay of Magistudios, making me research my core keyword like that! Gheesh.

I thought these guys were supposed to help us with their training.

All they do is make me work and work and work!

So the SERP research is about analyzing the top 5 results that pop up. Why the top 5? Well, you can do the top ten or even all the ones that show up on page 1 of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). However, the top 5 of these are the ones that usually show on the screen after skipping the ones with paid ads. The idea is that if you can 'beat' the 5th one on the list with your SEO, your website will replace that one on the list.

The SERP analysis training is excellent, I highly recommend it. You can find it in the wonderful world of training here at WA! I know I should put a link in here for ya, sorry running out of time this blog post is taking a bit longer than planned.

Huh? This SERP analysis sez I'm a wolf spider, not a wolf!

Anyway, so in doing this SERP I found a website about training to go freelance as an ESL teacher. This completely diverted my efforts as I looked into divesting myself of working for schools and actually turning my site into a site designed to attract clients for direct teaching.

Why I had not thought of this before, I don't know. What I do know is that I had refined my goal to include why I wanted that goal. I had set my modest income goal for another $10k per year, and by focusing on why (basically to get a permanent visa here in the UK and go on a nice holiday someplace WARM), the universe delivered unto me this solution.

So, in this case I must really thank RoopeKiuttu, a WA member who mentioned something about knowing why of goals and also, as I recall, I first heard that from JerryHuang, too! I highly suggest following these guys! You gotta hang with the right pack and these guys will teach you something and they won't whine and moan about irrelevant crises here on WA.

That's my word of advice for today -- don't get caught up in the drama of nonsense. This is WA, not Facebook. Remember that, my friends :)

What are the Goals for March?

Perhaps you will have decided that some elements of my web design have changed. I'm glad I did some vertical re-alignment, even though it went against the common assumption that all training must be completed first.

What's been accomplished:

• A new core keyword has been found and thoroughly researched.
• Two web pages have been completed with images and videos (yes of myself).
• These pages have been optimized for SEO using YOAST
• All SEO training elements have been used to SEO the videos, images, and posts (I'll need to double check this again this month (March).
• A new business direction has been determined.
• Membership on certain freelance sites has been initiated
• A teaching platform has been chosen, as well as platforms for scheduling, equipment for online teaching (already available)

Goals

• Keep the main goals in mind from January in relation to the new business opportunity. I'll need to look at them and adjust them. Report back on the adjustments during March.
• Land my first truly freelance client by the end of the month (March)
• Identify customized course materials (March)
• Maintain the image of the website as one to attract teachers and learners, the main goal of affiliate marketing is not to be forgotten (ongoing).

Thanks for reading everyone! This is a free idea zone so I look forward to your comments down here! Please share your ideas, I'd love to hear from you!

Marc