Investing in myself

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Whenever I commit to deep work I make a note of it in my calendar. I add an event and jot down all the tasks that I had completed within that time slot. It helps remind me if I've been putting the time in. In last week's post I challenged myself to commit to an hour of deep work a day. I didn't commit to it every day this week, but when I look back at my calendar, I'm amazed at how much deep work I did compared to the previous weeks.

Holding myself accountable via a weekly journal seems to be working. I'm glad I decided to do this.

This week I was focusing less on the building and more on the marketing side of things. SEO is still relevant and I wanted to understand what it takes to rank high on Google. I purchased How To Get To The Top of Google by Tim Cameron-Kitchen and tried to understand the right techniques. Rather than reading from beginning to end, I flipped through the chapters looking for key pieces of information.

I decided to get to work and strategically target the right keywords for my website. There is an art to this process. I'm positive I could do better, but I wanted to jump in and figure it out as I go along. I know that I will find my bearings the more time I spend in this area.

The book suggests using the tool Answer the Public to help understand what questions people are asking on the internet. I was hesitant when I realised I had to pay to gain full access. Since I've yet to generate an income, I didn't want to increase my overhead. Then I realised that I'm not throwing my money away. This is a tool that will help me grow and be better at marketing. I saw this as an investment rather than an expense.

It costs money to build a business. Hosting fees, domain names, and paid ads. I can cut costs as much as possible, but sooner or later I'm going to need to spend a little bit in order to make money. I need to remind myself that a purchase like this is an investment. It will save me time and effort and will help improve the business.