Ranking, Link Building & Google Analytics

 It has been a great week of learning new ideas and concepts that will be beneficial to your business. Learning about SEO (search engine operation) has been enlightening and I think I can see areas of improvement in the family business. I enjoyed the assignments offered and the opportunity to take a closer look at the analytics that we will use in the future.  I have also felt a little drained this week with other responsibilities and I feel happy that we have reached the end of the semester.

I still haven't resolved my landing page problem and Project 5 had us looking at the free audit site and gaining suggestions that we can make changes to that will make out ads even better. My problem was how do you change a URL? or the description tag? Who knows? but I will get that assignment in and hope for the best. I'm also not looking for the final assignment but you do your best and then leave the rest to your classmates and your instructor. Thanks, it's been a great semester!

Social Media Reflection

Its been a busy week, and I have had my ups and downs throughout this semester, but I feel like it is all part of the learning process that you have to go through. I got caught up with things at work and didn't do my project properly cause I don't know if I truly understood what I was supposed to do. Getting to this point was a tough one, but I made it through most of the course but the last two weeks had me chasing things that I don't think I needed to worry about and missing out on the changes that I should have been making on my ad campaigns so that I could get my project done correctly. I still couldn't figure out how to change the landing page, and I felt like my front page needed me on it, but the theme discussion came up again, and I couldn't figure that out. However, I have received a few phone calls from people marketing their services to make my website unforgettable for a price. I'm a student; I don't have any money is my reply, and then there's a click and silence! 

The social media information was great, and I want to get something on to the Facebook marketplace to get the information out there. I also loved the Linkedin concept of getting help from like-minded individuals and networking opportunities that could help you to grow your business and your network. I want to apologize for dropping the ball this week, life happened, and I couldn't get my brain around some of my assignments. Either way, I appreciate the learning and the ideas gleaned from this week's lesson.

Landing Page Optimization & Basic SEO

My class has been excellent this week; the lightbulb finally flicked on, and I realized with the help of Chelsea that I was in the wrong campaign, and so that's the reason why I could not see anything that I was supposed to see. Chelsea helped me figure out that I was on the "smart" campaign rather than the "search" campaign, which meant I could not see any of the Google Analytics I had previously needed for assignments and my project. I emailed my instructor and found that I was indeed in the wrong campaign, and she helped me get onto the right campaign. Can you believe that once loaded, I started to see what I was supposed to see. Hallelujah!  I quickly signed up and worked on a campaign with two ads and another one with just one. You would not believe how easy this was to do compared to the struggles that I have had from the previous eight or so weeks of not understanding what the heck was doing and why I saw nothing that I was supposed to see. I finally understand what I'm supposed to be doing, and I can see the same buttons that the examples were showing and the buttons I'm supposed to push, so this part was significant in my books.

Landing pages and SEO are fascinating concepts and worth understanding because if you do it right, you will get the views you need and maybe even the results you are hoping to attain. I learned a lot about the importance of having your ads direct you to the right landing pages because it does make a difference. Using the right keywords can increase the SEO of your website, and having the correct information listed on your ad campaign does make a difference. My dilemma is how do you get it to go to the right landing page?  I think I remember reading about a code on your pages that help you do that, but I can't remember if I read that right.

So my current task is waiting for information from my friends at Shopify support to help me figure that out. Yay Shopify!

Optimizing Ad Performance

Doesn't that sound difficult to you? Optimizing your Ad performance takes a lot of work, and my challenges continue. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see my keywords, and that was an easy solution, but once it was solved and I read on, I discovered other things I couldn't see. I think that my challenge is I don't see what the examples show me about how it should look. I pushed the keywords and saw some information but couldn't figure out if that was the information I needed. This class has been one hurdle after the other, but I refuse to let it get the best of me, and I will ask questions and keep trying. 

Thank you to Marsha, who sent me a youtube video that sounded good, but then I couldn't see what he said I should be seeing. I do appreciate the help, though, from my classmate. I see numbers, and I guess that is a good thing, but I am not sure if I should be running two campaigns cause somehow I have two now, and I currently have one paused while the other is working. So many questions and I wish I were technically competent, but that's not happening. I also thought that maybe my product is too expensive, but I'm not sure how you figure that out because my product is not like those I see online.

This week, the examples of understanding the numbers were excellent and will help me understand if my campaign is working and if it will be profitable. It's going to take some practice and constantly refer back to the examples, but I hope that it will help me understand my numbers better. I must say that I haven't gotten a good understanding of negative keywords, but I have a tutoring session, and I am writing down what I don't understand to ask her the questions I need to be answered. Anyways, I'm having challenges, it is true, but I'm learning at the same time, and that makes it worth it.

Relevance and a Quality Score

As stated on google, "The Quality Score is a diagnostic tool meant to give you a sense of how well your ads are doing in comparison to other advertisers." Relevance refers to how closely your ad matches what the users are looking for if they search for your site. All this stuff sounded great to me, but I had trouble linking it again because I think I might have already linked it but wasn't sure. When I got my tracking number, it was the same as what I already had, but it had the number 2 at the end. 

These processes have been challenging for me, but anything worth trying becomes worth it in the end. I tried to keep up with assignments with what I had found, but I am sure that there was so much more to it all. I have a zoom meeting request with my instructor, and I hope to get things resolved with her help. Don't get me wrong, the struggle is genuine, and I wouldn't say I like it, but it has forced me to look at what I was doing wrong and learn from it all.

I took pictures and made up a larger box for my friend's 79-year mother, who got married this weekend and is waiting for my website to go live. Another friend asked if I sold just the fruit without the chocolate cause she is allergic, so I decided to add those to my collection! I had a session with Shopify about filling the space next to my logo, and they suggested a new theme. I thought I had added it in, but I saw it, and then it disappeared; I couldn't understand what was going on, so I went back to the one I started with, the Simple theme.

I must put a plug in for my instructor. She has been amazing and has lifted my spirits on many occasions when I felt lost and ready to give up. My two friends have been my support and constantly ask to make sure that I am getting things done and help as they can. I may not be good at this, but I have a great support system through family and friends that encourage me to keep going. I don't think it's been a total bust this week, but I am grateful for the help I have received from various people along the way. THANK YOU!

My Reflection on writing Ads

Here we go, another week down, and I feel like I'm running on the back burner in trying to catch up. This week I am out of town and so studying and reading and trying to get things done while away is not always easy. Can you still visit with friends and attend activities, be social and still manage to do what is needed to get assignments done? Yes, I can, and I'm grateful for the support of friends who gave me ideas while doing my ad for my website, even though it didn't end up looking the way it was supposed to, but I didn't realize that until after the fact.

I'm hoping to get things sorted out this weekend and get up to date by Monday. Thank you for the support of classmates who are using the same platform and who have been able to point me in the right direction and give me a better understanding of my website. I feel incredibly grateful for that support because I can look at their website, and she can help me know what I need to fix, which gives me hope.

I know that I can do this; I know my Heavenly Father has allowed me to learn, so I'm taking this opportunity to develop my web creation website.

I am also very grateful for the Shopify and HostGator support team working on getting things working for me.

The LORD is at the HELM of this ship

This class has dealt me some massive blows, but it's due to my choice. I didn't figure out why I couldn't get my Google ads linked up to my new website, it just wouldn't link, and the support people at Shopify were clueless as to why the link was not working. I have been plodding along just trying to get my assignments done and thinking, why is this class pushing me through the wringer? I am learning that God is at the helm of the ship that I am on. He knows so much more than I do and so roll with the punches and know that He's got you're your back.

At the start of this semester, I signed up for two classes; I'm generally not very good at keeping an eye on my classes until the semester begins. This year, for some reason, my other class disappeared off my list, and so I figured that I'd take the one class because I'm not very tech-savvy and would need lots of extra time to get it right. I did not know then that there was a purpose to this incident; the Lord knew what would be happening in my life.

The family business that I work for lost the head of its household, which was a significant blow for our business. I spent many nights at their home, comforting the kids and trying to help his wife, as well as trying to keep working at the business. Luckily, we were only working three days because of Covid, and the travel back and forth from Gilroy and San Jose put some significant miles on the work vehicle that usually stays in town. Taking only one class made this event so much easier to work through and get things done; even when my assignments were late, they got done.

There have been many challenges in this class with technical challenges and not understanding how to do things, but I have great friends, and they worked with me and helped me push through the challenges the best that I could. This week an answer came to me through a fellow student as we are now working together as groups using the same platform. I couldn't link google to my site, and she said that I might not have a domain because it should work. She suggested that I buy it, but I swore that I did buy one when we were doing the lesson on getting a domain name. She had me looking for the receipt from that purchase and nothing, but I swore that chocolatedrift.com was my domain, and I didn't want to sign up for another one. Then a thought came into mind that I had signed up with a hosting group when we did that lesson, so I went back to the lesson and went through the steps, and there it was it had me signing up with HostGator the payment wasn't in my email, but I did have a PayPal receipt.

I contacted Shopify asking what I could do, they suggested transferring the domain name, I went to HostGator to see how I could transfer it, and they gave me a particular number. So back to Shopify, and I had help trying to do it, and guess what I couldn't because it is a new domain, and I would have to wait for 60 days. The next suggestion, have HostGator point the domain name to Shopify; then, in 60 days, you can transfer it.

HostGator had me verify my email address, and then I had to wait for 24hrs to point to Shopify. 

Can you believe all this stuff? No, but the Lord is at the helm of this ship, and He knows what I need to learn. HostGator and Shopify have fantastic customer support; both groups are incredibly willing to help me get my website running correctly to do what I need to for my website assignments.

Today I get to play with the keywords on google ads that I never got the chance to previously; actually, I'll probably get better keywords since I made those up. A fellow student helped me find my mistake, and in the process, I gained some insight into things that might work for our family business and its current website. There is always a purpose to the things that happen in this life, and I learned this week in my self-reliance class that the Lord knows who I am and loves me. He is in the details of life, and things happen for a reason. This week started hard but has ended well, and I did okay in my website assignment; with a few tweaks, my website will be a good one. Yay!!

My Website Struggles.

I have been sitting here, reflecting on my week, which has been challenging because I am not tech-savvy, and creating a website this week has been challenging. I chose to use Shopify as my host for my website because my nephew recommended the sight for ease as a one-stop-shop for everything I needed. When I looked at the site previously, I was taken by the videos that you can use to help you get your site up and running; I mean, they say they provide all the help that you would need. Yeah, no! I think they meant that you have to read through everything and stop, start, replay, stop, try it again, and still have no clue!

I have learned so much this week; I have great friends willing to help me understand how to put this website together and then let me try my best and still get lost because I still couldn’t figure it out. Once I understood and put it together, my nephew was there to tell me how I did and proudly encouraged me because he knew how challenged I have been in trying to do this myself.

I learned that there is so much more to go into business than what I knew beforehand. Some permits and licenses need to be acquired; I need to get a food service certificate, outline my home kitchen, etc. I feel a little overwhelmed, but I have accomplished a website that still needs work but looks great. My nephew told me so, and that speaks volumes to me. I have been blessed, and I know that this struggle has been given to me because I can accomplish everything with the Lord’s help. He has carried me this week, and for that, I feel honored and truly blessed.

Thank you for a great week, and I look forward to the more good stuff in this class.

Whats NEW this time?

 It feels like everything is new this week, with learning about two other websites similar to what you are looking to start your business in and then trying to find those similarities that could be a perfect compliment in your website. Dried fruit is only part of a larger grouping of products that are being sold together, and so that gives me ideas, but for now, I need to stick with what I currently have.

Its been a busy week with a funeral, family gatherings, and the preparations needed to get everything done. It started okay, and I enjoyed the chance to research into these two different businesses that sell the same items and to see how they structured their website and sell their products. I still feel like I am lacking, but I need to push forward either way. I have a product to sell; I need to put together a website that can do that for me.

PayPal, I use that to pay for things but never thought that I would use it for a business. Does it make it easier to put all your products up or just what you have in stock? Do you need to have an account before you can fully use all its functions? Previously I had been contemplating using Venmo, but it seems like there is still lots to learn, and PayPal is globally recognized, which will be beneficial if I plan to expand in the future.

CHOOSING A SITE BUILDER & HOSTING

I feel so out of place trying to build my website and deciding on which tools to use. First, we needed to choose a site builder; this discovery landed me on Shopify, which seems easy enough, but I get a little worried while walking through a tutorial. Somehow, I signed up for HostGator, which seemed like a great choice until I was told that Shopify has a hosting site, so a quick call and that was the end of HostGator. As I researched a hosting site, I found that I liked Bluehost because of its offerings and the affordable price tag over a minimum of thirty-six months.

Shopify has a great site, and I have been trying to listen to the tutorials offered and work on the things they have asked me to do. My biggest dilemma is getting quality pictures for my site. I have taken many of my products, but my nephew suggested I hire someone to do this because my pictures don't have the right look. Another nephew has been working on a logo for me, and I do have a friend who owes me a favor that can help with the pictures. I feel blessed by the support of those around me, which gives me hope to keep pushing forward.

It's been a hectic week, and I feel a little lost, but I am enjoying the process and the steps that push me forward in my learning. Project one and its many revisions have helped me better understand the analytics process; the spreadsheet came together in a way that you could see what the top five of your twenty choices would be the best to choose. There seems to be so much more that I need to learn, and being in business is a challenge, but so is life, and I must keep pushing forward to achieve my task.

Drop Shipping and Affiliate Marketing.

Many might laugh at me, but the first time I heard about affiliate marketing is on Tik Tok. There's always a couple of things that would come up on my 'for you' page that tried to teach me how to do it in sixty seconds but were of no interest to me at all. After reading about it and learning what these two concepts were, I have a better understanding of the idea. Dropshipping takes a little more work, but you don't have to deal directly with your customers; they buy the product, and the supplier packages and ships the product to your customer; other than returns, you probably wouldn't have to deal with the customer at all. Affiliate marketing gives you a link that takes customers to the other person's page, and you get a commission for sending people in that direction. These ideas are entirely new to me and excellent for various types of businesses. I don't think I could drop shipping work for my business concept, but if I got famous and people like my chocolate dipped treats, maybe affiliate marketing would work?

I have been working on the web business matrix this week and thought I had it down. Still, I need to change some of the ideas that I had listed on my brainstorming list as they yielded no results on the google ads information area and changed my results depending on where I wanted to focus my efforts. I watched my instructor's video with tips that would help to complete the project and came away thinking I needed to get some better business ideas down, so I started over. The practice can change things, and I enjoyed using the information given through google ads to find the best product for your web business. My results showed that I should choose the sugar scrubs idea, but I decided to keep going with the idea of the dried fruit that I like to dip in chocolate. The product is excellent, and I have tested it by selling it to friends and family. I am researching the ideas and products that will help me send my product through the mail to different parts of the country without melting the chocolate. I'm still waiting on one product that you can wrap the dipped fruit in, and it will keep it cool with an ice pack in there as well.

I look forward to learning the many different business ideas this class will share with me moving forward and developing a profitable web business online.

My Web Creations Class

This week I learned about Google Ads. I had heard about it, and our website team talked a lot about it at work. Still, I had no clue what they meant and the information that can benefit your business if you understood the information given and the opportunities available for more significant sales. Using the right keywords can send interested consumers to your website and, in turn, could help you increase your sales. Learning how to use Google ads was the task we were given this week, and the step-by-step tutorial is excellent until the screens are different, and you are just clicking on boxes and hoping for the best.  I felt a little overwhelmed by this task. Opening a Google Ad account was a new challenge, but I moved forward with the help, completed the assignment, and learned what the information gleaned meant. 

I like how we are part of a fictional group working together to start our own online business. This case study takes you through the questions from a different perspective and asks you to share your thoughts with others in the class. I always think I understand the question posed, and then when I read the posts of my classmates; I feel like I was going in the wrong direction. I enjoy the chance to discuss my thoughts and value the feedback that others give me. There’s a lot to learn, and I want to try my best to understand the challenges of starting an online business, so I look forward to the discussions and ideas that each week will bring.