Here we go again.

ByMike

New Year’s Resolutions are tough.

For the past few years, I’ve tried to do a 30-day challenge. Once, it was to create a series of goal-setting videos for students. (I made it to day 20 before I burnt out.)

Before that, it was to create a series of vlogs for this website. I think I made it to around day 25 that time. Either way, I haven’t been able to clinch 30 days.

So, I’m giving it a go again this year. It’s December 30, 2021 and I’m going to just start.

Again.

Like the last two times.

So, what will be different this time? Great question.

First of all, I’m not going to do video. I love making YouTube videos but scripting, revising, practicing, recording, editing, and then publishing takes a lot of time. I figure if I can spend one hour of editing on Camtasia for 1 minute of video time, I’m happy. (More times than not, I get caught up and it takes much more than an hour of editing.)

So, this time, I’m going to try to just write down ideas. Like a “web log” of ideas. You know. Blog. Get it?

Looking back, it’s been three years that I’ve been trying to earn a living from the internet. Jan 1, 2019 was day zero. Time flies when you’re trying to rebuild yourself after a major life change. (And yet, I still need to take everything day-by-day. It’s a weird irony.)

This year, I’m looking to finish up the year having made around $32,262 (CAD).

Last year (2020), I made a few dollars more, pulling in $33,668.

The year before that when I just started, it was $17,440.

So, I’m definitely doing better than in year one, but year three didn’t grow as much as I had hoped for.

I’ve been trying to work on this SEOTeacher site for a while, but I just haven’t been able to make it a priority.

First, I was spending time doing digital marketing for small businesses. Then, I shifted my focus to creating social-emotional learning lessons for Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ve actually downsized my client load so I can spend more time creating teaching lessons and other content. (Hence the drop in income for year three.)

But, I’ve always thought the diamond in the rough was the story of how I make money online.

Times are tough, people are pivoting careers, and I thought my story might be interesting to others.

Or, at least to me. Kind of like a public stream of consciousness.

I’m going to try to write ten minutes a day. I’ve got 17 seconds left. Let’s see how this goes.

Cheers, Mike

Strategy:

  • I’m using WordPress to write these micro posts. I’m using the Toolset plugin to create this post type. I figure I’m procrastinating and feeling daunted by having to write giant posts that are optimized for search ranking. So, I’m hoping that just writing small ten minute blitzes might help me get content up. And then, if I can automate the internal linking structure to some keystone content like reviews, maybe that can eventually get some traffic and income.

Effort:

  • Right now, I’m starting with a ten minute blitz to write content. Then, another ten to fifteen minutes to revise the content and manually add some relevant links. If I finish revising early, then I do some technical stuff. (Like tweaking the wordpress plugins and what not.)

Optimizing:

  • I know from previous attempts that there’s never enough time. I’m thinking of using the link whisper plugin to try to connect the micro posts together. I initially thought about splitting the paragraphs up into smaller posts and then showing them at the bottom of the corner-stone pages to add text… but I think manually splitting paragraphs into separate posts will take forever. Keep it simple. (That’s what I’ve learned from trying to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers.)

Tinkering:

  • I’m trying something new here. I’ve got a Google Nest Hub Max thingie beside me. Yup, I’ve used timers before, but I’ve forked out $200 so I can visually see my timer. (For some odd reason, you can’t get a visual timer in the Google Home app.) Yup, I’ve used timer apps before like Forest, but this is voice-activated and hopefully easier to do. I need to find a way to automate the submission of sitemaps to Google… Yoast?