I think I want to make an app.

I was listening to Neil Patel talk about the one thing that brings him more traffic than SEO. It’s his SEO tool. I forget what it’s called.

Basically, it’s a free tool with premium features. (So, it’s freemium.) People use it, share it, and write about it online so his site gets backlinks.

I was thinking I need an SEOT app.

I’ve thought about it a few times in a few different ways. If I were in the classroom, and if I seriously wanted my students to work on goals, I’d have to build them into marks.

(Not marks for accomplishing your goal. I’d tie it into marks for writing responses or reading comprehension, or oral presentations. I’ve done that in the past and I really do need to make that an Educircles project. So many things, so little time.)

Anyhoo, as we make our way through the SEOT goal worksheets and think critically about whether the strategy in the video would work or not, I’d build in time to work on their goals. A work period for their learning skills project. Or something like not. Not sure what I’ll call it.

Maybe they spend time working on their goals. Maybe they’re spending time researching. Or learning. Or recording their thoughts and observations.

I’d want an app that you could keep track of ideas on the fly and jot down thoughts quickly without friction.

And then once a week, when I do my SEOT wheel of success, I’d want the app to show me some of the thoughts I had during the week and then ask me a series of questions (based on the rubric.)

Then the app would simply give me a score out of 4 for my use of strategies, effort, optimization, and tinkering that week and automatically create my wheel of success. (I think it’s called a radar graph.)

And then you could take your finger and slide through time and see the shape of your wheel changing. Maybe the app would also be a spot where you could keep track of whatever variable you’re measuring so you could see how your wheel of success compares to your progress.

If you’re trying to get in shape, maybe you’re measuring your weight or how far you can run.

If you’re trying to be an influencer, maybe you’re keeping track of the money you’ve made so far.

I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. So, I’d probably be looking at sales figures. Maybe I’m looking at the total amount of money made that month. Maybe I’d want to keep track of how much more money I’ve made this year (compared with last.) Individual days can really vary, so maybe it’s a 7-day rolling average. Or 14-day rolling average.

(Rolling averages are something I learned from watching Covid case counts reported on the media. It makes sense – individual days might have spikes and valleys, but we want to see how the trend is doing.)

Now, the hard part of this note. Deciding what to tag it as.

• Is it Tinkering? I’m thinking of trying something new?
• Is it Optimizing? Keeping track of my wheels of success?

I could tie it into strategy – creating an app as a way to get backlinks to the main SEOT site which will bring in more traffic which will help lead to more sales of SEOT products.

Or, do I talk about effort. Although I could spend a lot of time and energy trying to learn how to make an app and manage it. And, I’d love that learning process.

But, really, it’s not in my core product direction, so I should probably outsource it.

Bottom line: if you’re a random app developer strolling by and you use Fiverr or something, send me an email: [email protected]

Cheers,

Mike