A note for newbies: Have patience!
I just want to give a quick update here. I was working on my site for almost 2 and a half months when I suddenly decided to change my url. I asked support to help me and they managed to set it to point to a new shorter url I bought from here.
What happened next is a disaster. I got a lot of 404s, my pages where not rendering correctly, all my rankings were gone, and by the time I noticed it, I was back to square one.
But I didn't give up. I slowly fixed one error at a time, learned some basic coding out of necessity (to understand what the code errors mean, and how to fix them), and I STARTED TO USE THE SITE COMMENTS platform again.
I agree that it's tiring to give 2 comments in exchange for 1. But it's worth it. I have been patiently giving out comments, and now, most of my articles' ranks are back. I have 2 articles on page 1, and the rest are within 2nd-10th page.
LESSONS LEARNED:
1. Follow the BASIC training especially if you are a NEWBIE. Read the lessons and watch the videos 10x if you must. Take your time, this is not a race. I am currently on Getting Started Course 5, Lesson 4 - but this is my third time! I have been repeating it since it turns out that I misunderstood and did it wrongly during the first two times.
2. While it is tempting to use YOAST instead of AIO, you are just a newbie. Use AIO first and if you really feel like trying something that is not stated in the official training, then go for it. But NOT in the initial stages maybe. Switching from AIO to Yoast, then back to AIO gave my site a lot of problems. Took me a week to fix it.
3. USE THE SITE COMMENTS - They work! I have a 1 week old article and because of the comments from the site comments platform, it is now on Page 1.
4. Quality over Quantity - While it is advised to write as often as you can, you'd rather take it slow and have 2-3 articles a week than 1 article a day. If you can have quality and quantity, then it would be the best! But I'll always choose quality over quantity.
5. Stick to a schedule and be consistent - If you can only commit to 2 articles a week, that's fine. Some of us have full-time day jobs, busy domestic life and other personal matters to attend to. That 2 articles a week is still 8 articles a month. That will be 96 articles in 1 year. And if they are quality articles, then you're sure to get the results you expect. :)
BONUS: Instead of listening to Spotify, listen to Jay's live trainings. :) Although we cannot do most them yet because we are just on the early stages of our training, you will know what to expect to do next in the future.
All the best to us!
Pitin
Recent Comments
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It is great when we learn from our mistakes and persist until we get it right. Great post!
Of course. What's the sense of motivating you before not to give up if I wouldn't like this magnificent outcome. :)
Congratulation on your massive achievement Pitin.
I envy you for learning how to code. Haha! :D
Haha. Your motivation really worked norz:) And by learning how to code means learning where to paste what haha. I dont write codes omg. I just right click and inspect elements on other websites and see how i can use the code on my site haha
Ahaha! I thought you're a coder now. That gives me idea. Thanks Pitin, I'll go ahead and begin inspecting other websites. :D
Thanks for writing this blog Pitin. Very timely advice for me. I'm only here a couple of weeks but feeling the pressure in my full time job and domestic life too! So good to hear about quality over quantity being the aim. I'm more inclined to write less articles, but of a higher quality. Thanks for this again and take care. Your wee one is just gorgeous!
Ruth
Thanks Ruth! :) I have a full-time day job too and a busy domestic life. I only can write 1 to 2 articles a week but I make sure they are quality articles. I am giving it a year to earn at least $1k a month. Hopefully I'll be successful. :)
Hi Mister Wailor! :) I visited your site and it looks like you are doing a good job. :) If writing is one your hobbies then you already have the advantage. :) Add patience to that, you are sure to succeed!
Great advice. I really need to write more articles. Been using a lot of time on my design and layout.
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I'm gonna take your advice :))
Hi Sasha.:) Welcome to WA and thanks for taking my advice.:)