How I Strayed from the Core Training (again) and What I’m Doing to Fix It

For weeks, I’ve been stuck on Core Training, Phase 2, Lesson 3: “Keyword Research with Jaaxy.” And the funny part is, the problem isn’t Jaaxy. I can check QSR manually if I need to. (This is the old one I'm talking about - not the new release). It wasn't the tool. It’s… me.

Two things tripped me up:

1. I read too fast.
2. I rush ahead thinking I’m being efficient.

The task says: “Find and add 10 potential low competition keywords to your Writing Tasks.”

What I read was: “Find and add 10 potential low competition keywords to your Writing Tasks AND WRITE THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY.”

Classic me. I don’t double back. I double down.
So I wrote them. And then I added more. And then I published them thinking, yeah, that’ll do. I'm onto some real winners here.

Then I hit the next lesson… “Now we’re going to focus on creating helpful content.”
Me at my desk: forehead slap

Lesson learned: if you’re stuck, check the lesson plan instead of assuming you got the message the first time.

Don’t Assume You Know What You’re Doing

This bit stung a little.

I’ve done SEO — worked as an SEO copywriter too — so I figured I could fast-track things. Get ahead. Skip the “slower” steps.

Reality check: the SEO I learned years ago is a different game now. AI has changed everything. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it does mean you can’t rely on what used to work.

And here’s what caught me out:

AI content can look great at the first proofread. Even on the second glance. Leave it a month… and suddenly it reads like someone who’s never owned a dog (publishing on a breed-specific domain) is trying to explain Staffy behaviour to me. That was rough reading, and a total downer considering the amount of time spent feeding in input to publish embarrassing content.
Classic case of proximity blindness — what looks spot-on when you’re knee-deep in it turns into “who wrote this nonsense?” a month later. If you don’t know what I mean, look up “the illusion of explanatory depth.”

The posts that are picking up impressions and clicks right now? They’re the ones where it’s clearly me writing. The ones I rushed? AI’s in the driver’s seat. I’m just the publisher.

What I’ve realised is this:

If I don’t put my experience, stories, and actual perspective into the input, the output is AI reality, not human reality. AI can’t humanise your content until you give it something from you to work with. Without that, it’s bland at best and gibberish at worst.

Reining in the Existing Content

It’s not all doom and gloom. Even the rushed posts give Google something to chew on. When I paused and analysed my GSC data, I noticed something peculiar. Many posts were gaining momentum, just needing a little nudge. With some further scrutiny, I was able to identify 27 posts sitting on page 2 with decent impressions.

So I pulled some data from GSC, tossed it into GPT, got a CSV back, pushed it into Google Sheets, made my tweaks, and then dumped it into Todoist.

I now have 271 editing tasks spread across those 27 posts. That’s gold (IMO).

It means I know exactly where to focus. Google already sees potential. My job now is to polish the content, tighten the intent, add experience, hit the PAAs, and build stronger internal links.

All the stuff I should have done the first time.

Lean In…

When people here say “follow the core training,” this is what (I reckon) they mean. Not “don’t ever experiment.” Just… build the foundations first. Everything else — Pinterest, social media, YouTube, fancy tools — works better when the bones of your site are solid.

Reminder for me: stick to the process.

For those who’ve been through this… what’s the longest you’ve spent working any one part of the 'core' training?