Website Update - My Progress So Far

byMBakker

116 followers

Updated 5 years ago

Okay, so I decided that today, I'll be doing my first website update! I've been at WA for a little over 2 weeks now and I'd like to think I've achieved lots of things in that time. So what have I been up to? Glad you asked! Here is my breakdown of my first weeks at WA.

Setting Up My First Website

Like everyone here, I signed up for the free membership and started out by following the basic training. With the help of Kyle, I set up my first website, focused on skincare. I chose this niche because I've really been getting into it myself recently.

Even though I know it's a very competitive niche, I couldn't imagine myself actually writing daily about something I wasn't 100% passionate about. Even if things wouldn't work out, I would still be learning about this topic myself, and thus, it would be a win-win.

I started out using a very basic Wordpress theme and focused on my content rather than my website appearance, since in my eyes, content is way more important. I wrote articles, researched scientific studies and implemented as many keywords as possible into my articles.

It wasn't much, but it was a start!

Going Premium

This was never the plan initially, and here's why. I'm not in a position at all where I can be spending 50 dollars a month on a course, however good it may be. That's why the starting offer was tempting, 19 dollars is still quite a bit of money for a struggling student, but it was a better option that paying full price.

I had gone through the first part of the training and was really miffed that I would have to pay to see the rest. I had been doing some micro working recently and earned some money off of that, so I decided to take the leap and purchased my Premium membership.

Okay, great! Now spend more money on a domain, trust me, you'll need it. At least, that's how it appeared to me. I was feeling worse and worse about spending money like this, but did it anyway in the hopes that one day, it would pay itself back tenfold. Another 14 dollars was taken from my bank account for my own personal domain.

Continuing to Build

After going premium, I happily continued doing the training and worked on my website every moment I was free. I work as an au pair, so I am free when the children are in school, as well as in the weekends.

At some point, it felt like I was constantly jumping from one job to the next. I pumped out 3 articles on a Sunday, then got up at 6.45 am the next day to take care of the three boys I work with. I barely let myself relax and enjoy my days off.

I've since become more relaxed in this. If I post an article a day, and do some training and social media promoting, I can consider that a successful day. Rome wasn't built in a day either, and that's still standing!

I joined a couple of affiliate programs and have been trying to really provide interesting products on my website, suitable for the audience I want. No revenue so far, but there have been about 30 clicks!

Complete Makeover

The more content I posted to my website, the more I looked at it. Really looked at it. I realized I hated my layout, it looked like some type of early 2000s emo teen's blog. I vowed to give my website a complete makeover, from head to toe.

I chose a different theme, and found one that I absolutely adored. It looks clean, professional, and modern. I also decided I wanted to have my own logo designed.

Now Kyle doesn't specifically mention this in the Entrepreneur training, but I personally think a logo is the way to go if you want to be instantly recognizable. It also tells people that I'm taking this seriously and that I'm not just another newbie copying and pasting content from other websites.

So, I went onto Fiverr and had a logo designed for Skincare Mentor, complete with a social media toolkit for when the time came for me to make an appearance there. This cost me, in total, £5.74.

The girl who designed it was an absolute star and made my branding exactly the way I wanted it! Feel free to send me a personal message if you'd like me to pass on her details!

Logo and new theme in place, I felt completely ready to conquer the world!

Where I'm At Now

At the moment, I'm still going through the social media training. It's proving to be by far the most difficult portion of the training so far, since I'm constantly switching between websites and sharing my content any way I can, without my friends and family getting involved yet.

I made the conscious decision not to tell them about my website yet, since I want to build on it a little longer before the inevitable criticism from the people close to me drags me down. I joined Pinterest, Twitter and made a Facebook page.

Anyone who knows by the way, if I make a Facebook page and share things on it, if it will automatically be shared to my personal profile too? Can I keep these two separate for a while?

I'm also currently fighting with Instagram, who blocked my account saying I violated their terms before I ever posted anything to it. Sigh.

I've really been focusing on checking my stats, making sitemaps and receiving feedback from other WA members in order to really optimize my readers' experience.

And that's the gist of my first two weeks here! I feel like I've accomplished a lot already, and I'm patiently waiting for that big search engine break that will drive the traffic to my website!

Anyone who recognizes this process? Any advice or tips? I look forward to hearing from you all!

All the best!

Melanie
skincarementor.com