Finishing Up Online Entrepreneur Certification Level 2
It's Never Too Late
Well, it only took about 8 or so years from the release of the Wealthy Affiliate courses, but publishing this WA blog post is the last task I need to complete level 2. I could probably write an entire book about all the reasons it's taken me so long, but they would all boil down to I had other priorities in my life.
Other Priorities
The last few years I have been focused on my day job and building the skills needed to advanced to higher, better paying positions. Somehow I convinced myself that I needed to spend all of my time focused on doing that instead of splitting my personal time between developing skills for my day job and working on my websites.
There's Always Time
However, deep down I knew I was lying to myself because I wasn't spending ALL of my free time developing skills for my job. There was a lot of wasted time browsing the internet mindlessly doing nothing at all that I could have been using to work on my websites. I did pick up some professional certifications that have helped round out my skill set, but i also could have done so much more with my websites during that time frame as well.
No Job Is Secure
About a month or so ago, I started thinking about some long-term things. The whole COVID-19 situation really put into perspective the fragility of your typical day job. While there were great strides taken in many industries that allowed businesses to stay open, functioning, and their employees working, other industries were not so fortunate and had to shut down. I consider myself to be very fortunate to have a job that I could work at throughout this whole ordeal.
This situation really drove home the point that there really isn't a safe harbor when it comes to employment. Certain jobs are more secure than others, but there's always the chance that you will be unexpectedly unemployed.
Learning To Chunk Tasks
I think one of the things I struggle with is wanting to complete an entire task in one sitting. If I'm going to write content, then I want to write entire blog posts and insert pictures and affiliate links in one go.
I think this might be a result of my day job forcing me to switch between tasks constantly. When I get home I want to do the opposite of that which is focus on tasks until they're complete and if I don't have time to complete it, then I don't start on it. Gradually, I've learned to get better at doing what I can in a certain moment and then coming back to it later just like I do at my day job.
Overcoming Obstacles
One of the things I really struggled with in Level 2 was adding images to my posts. I'm extremely risk averse and do not like the idea of using CC0 images on my websites because ultimately it's hard to trace the provenance of a particular image and know the actual copyright owner is the one who released it as CC0 instead of some random person who didn't own they copyright.
Ultimately, I decided to bite the bullet and get a subscription to a stock images site. I must admit I feel 100% better about my websites now that there are images on each page. I am still kind of concerned about the same type of thing, a person listing an image on the paid stock photo site who isn't the copyright owner, but I feel a bit better about the risk level than I do with CC0 images.
I'm Back On the Wagon
Anways, I wrote all of this to say that I started working on my websites again and I am making it a permanent part of my daily life. I've published 8 articles on my websites this month in addition to spending about 18 hours studying for another professional certification.
If I had published 8 articles a month for the entire time I've been a member at Wealthy Affiliate, then I would have over 1000 articles out there getting me traffic and commissions. I can't change the past, but I will change the future.
Recent Comments
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Try to set goals and get you a Google Calendar to keep you on track of your progress to see if that helps. I have fallen into the same trap but I'm back trying different things. I'm glad to see you back.
I haven’t really found a goals method that works for me. I may give the Google Calendar thing a shot. It helps to know I’m not the only one. I’m glad to hear you’re back at it as well.
Thomas welcome back now the wagon is rolling again. well done on not quitting, sometimes things happen just at the right time when they are meant to. Wishing you every success for your future :)
Tracy
Hi ThomasPaul, congratulations on your successful Level 2 achievement. Furthermore I would like to than you for sharing your story here in the WA community. I completely agree with what you explained about the job security as I went through such a forced job change some years ago without any pre-warning. It’s great to see your motivation to restart as I started last year same month and was getting more stress at all in my regular job due to the pandemic situation. I was lucky to working in a field with more work to do but on the other side I took this excuse to stop working on my goals I was setting 12 months ago. So, I reboot myself too and let‘s see how it goes. Would be glad to stay in contact and following you to see your successful journey and learn. All the best for you in 2021. Have a great start. Greetings Alex
Hi Alex, thank you for your comment. Yes, it’s easy to use your day job as an excuse not to work on your business. Ultimately, we have to find a way to balance the two otherwise we’re never going to get anywhere with our businesses.
See more comments
Great post, I identify with a lot of the same struggles you've had, although it was only over a 1 year period, been a member for 1 year 3 months and I only posted frequently in the 1st 3 months.
I wonder, on the photos, have you considered the free photo websites such as pexels, pixabay, and unsplash?
I also like to start articles but I tend to have a hard time finishing them, especially the reviews.
For the photos I ended up buying a monthly subscription to Dreamstime. I can download a certain number of photos each month and any unused downloads will rollover to the next month. The only catch is if I cancel my subscription, then I only have till the end of the last month to use up my downloads or I forfeit them.
I don't trust the free photo websites enough to want to download photos. It just seems like a big risk to use them. If I unwittingly use a photo that isn't CC0, then the copyright owner can come after me. I suppose the same thing could happen with a paid photo site, but I feel like the risk is less.
For articles, I tend to just write until I have nothing left to say on the topic. I'll go back through and edit them, add photos and links, and publish them.