Progress Reports – Digital Nerdy

How it all started... Last May 2022, I realized that I've been working throughout my life for almost 8.5 years already and I still haven't achieve what I truly wanted (my family's life has improved so much as compared when I was just studying), however, I know there is more to life than working for someone else and having a weekdays tied to your "work" or "job". (My goal is to be financially free before I turned 35 years old and now I am 29. Considering my cash flows and net worth, this is almost next to impossible unless I do some changes to my life. I can't let it slip now as I have already consumed almost 9 years of my life working for someone else) It was also in university days that I first learned about financial freedom and took me 4 years after to creating my first website (an e-commerce website in Shopify selling leather products with business model of dropshipping) to fulfill this dream of being financially free. My first site didn't made any sale at all and everything is a total mess. I tried creating a new website (a pug-breed-focus-products through drop shipping) but nothing also happened, and then I decided to start a hobby blog about self-improvement in 2018. I was on and off posting some article about self-improvement, habits, success, mindsets and everything I wanted to share but nothing really happened from this website (From 2018 to 2022, I posted articles sporadically. I was able to create 60+ articles during this period, gained less than 100 followers and just had a total pageviews of 2,812, majority of this page views is actually just from me and my girlfriend reading my articles. lol). It was just last month before I turned 29, that I realized that making the same decision won't allow me to go where I wanted to go (by working as an accountant to one of Big 4 audit firm outside my home country). Since in the first place this is why I am still in the same situation dreaming of financial freedom. It is not the nature of my current work that creeps me every night about financial freedom (as tbh I am enjoying the challenges and how it improves me personally) but more so on the aspect that I know I can do what others can do and be financially free. I always say to myself "If others were able to do this and be both happy and successful, how come I won't be able to do it too". The Start of Digital Nerdy I first have this desperate thought of resigning after a year and then start my business in my home country (although at this point I already have 2 business ventures - Mini Restaurant and Cleaning service, both a traditional type of business that my co-founder is managing - we are not taking any profit from these businesses and trying to reinvest all its profit back to the business) however, I realized that it is way too risky and has higher chance of failure (considering its scalability and how competitive traditional businesses are). Although quitting my job may work since I am taking a leap to a point of no return (psychology says that you tend to be more driven when you don't have any other choice but to push forward), the fact that I am earning $80K as an accountant to having zero income seems to be the worst plan. Taking the leap will allow me to have time to do everything that I wanted and build the skill sets needed, but having zero income and relying solely from my savings isn't sound like the perfect plan. So what's the perfect plan? I realized that the best time to start a business is not when you quit your job but when you are still earning from your full-time job. We may reason out that we don't have time but the truth is, we always have it. At the end of the day, it all boils down to whether you really "wanted it badly" or just literally "wanting it". Don't focus on being an expert and starting your business once you quit your job, but rather on becoming the person whom you aspire to be while you are still earning from your full-time job (Start now!! Without any excuses). Don't jump off from the cruise ship you're in before building your own boat, start building your boat now and jump once you've built it. Never make it an excuse that you have to quit your job to change your life. Do something now while you are still at your day job and quit when you've managed to earn from your side hustle. That's why I decided to buy a blogging course from Income School and decided to start building my boat before taking the huge leap of my life.... June 2022 Progress Report I decided to have a niche around Affiliate Marketing / Content Writing, which is a very competitive and saturated niche. I believe it would take me 24 months to see visible result but the fact that it is competitive means to me that there is a huge potential and return from this. Buying the course from Income School is a game changer from me. I realized that there are so many mistakes that I am doing from my hobby blog before, that's why I am not seeing any results from that blog. I also watched most of Adam Enfroy's YT videos and read a lot in Income School forums on how bloggers has successfully overcame the ghost town and started earning from $0 to $22,000 by just writing contents on their blog. There is no limit to how much you can earn online, you beliefs about it are usually that ones that is stopping you from reaching it. (Of course this all depends on the skills that you build along the way which can translate to money. But, this skill building starts with your mindset and limiting beliefs, if you have a limiting belief that you can never earn from blogging I bet you will certainly end up quitting too early and not earning anything, thus, I highly believe that your mindset plays a significant role on why you're where you are right now.) Digital Nerdy Google Analytics Insights Articles Posted: 9 (I tried purchasing 2 contents from writers in Fiverr just wanted to experiment buying contents but I realized that it would be best for me to do it on my own to learn more from the process) Page views: 306 (I think most of the views are also coming from me viewing my own articles, not really sure if this pageviews are any indicator of me having a good start but typically there shouldn't be any pageview especially if articles are just a month of less) This is the details on the user where these page views are coming from: I am writing from Cayman Islands (that's why quarter of the users are coming Cayman Islands) and it is just nice to see that majority of my readers are coming from US. Financial Report - June 2022 Income - ($616.50) Revenue: $0 Expenses: ($616.50) Hosting and Domain - $47.28 Income School Course - $449 Content Writers - $107.23 (hired 2 content writers - one native and one non-native english speaker) Canva - $12.99 Income School Timeline I am behind the Income School timeline in terms of the articles posted. I should have posted a total of 13 articles but was only able to do 9. In terms of my page views, it is expected to have nil view but I was able to gain 306 page views (hopefully this is a good indicator that I am doing well). Take-Aways This Month Publish at least 30+ articles before considering of hiring content writersBuild the habit of posting regularly, publishing daily articles is too ambitious. Learn first to build the system of being a bloggerHaving a keyword analysis for a month of content can help me create and publish contents regularlyIt is taking me more than 5 hours just to create a single article with nearly 2000 words. Don't focus on the time spent writing or having a very very good article for now, just focus on creating contents that helps the audience.Similar to above, at this stage I shouldn't focus too much on monetization but rather on publishing contents. Master the keyword search analysis before thinking about any monetization.Don't waste my working hours (my day job) to avoid backlogs and spending my supposedly free time for content creation to my day job's task.EVERYONE MUST GO THROUGH THIS PAINFUL PROCESS of just pure hardwork without seeing any real result. This is the start of ghost town and those who persevere and continue pushing are the ones who can only reap the rewards. Keep publishing no matter what!! Trust the process!! Plans For July 2022 Publish 25+ articles by scheduling a specific time and day during the month to creating contentsHave at least 30+ topics from my keyword analysis.Spend less time playing tennis/watching YT videos and allot those time instead to Digital Nerdy.Have at least 3 topic categories I am writing this progress report to let myself be accountable on Digital Nerdy's progress and record my journey towards full-time income. This journey will never be easy but I know soon enough it will happen and will be more than what I could ever imagine. I just have to stick with it and be consistent (I look forward to seeing my future self reading my first progress report and smiling how things have changed as compared to where I started).