We Have Liftoff
By · Comments
The desk project is underway at OnlineCadSchool.com
I am pressed for time, but wanted to post this for anyone who cares. Today is the first day that I am publicizing my site, so with that, I have started my desk project. I am going to take measurements and try to get a 3d model of the room made before the SUPER BOWWWWWL, which is why I am pressed for time.
Here is the intro to the project: OnlineCadSchool.com Desk Project Intro
Three Things I NEED to do to be Successful
By · Comments
Three Things to Be Successful
It’s the night before I finish my site skeleton, OnlineCadSchool.com. Everything on my work list has been completed, and tomorrow I’ll be adding a few initial content items to make the site at least worthy of reading for a few minutes.
I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head about different directions to take the site. As I was designing the site, and filling it with blurbs of content, I realized that, similar to a more narrow macro view of building my online empire (take it one site at a time, build a solid base before moving on to new projects), I should take a more narrow view for OCS.
I think it’s important that I establish more credibility as an expert in my field. I think I NEED to WILL focus on the following three things, in order to be successful:
- I really do need to learn more about CAD. I’m becoming more and more proficient by the day by simply performing my job tasks. In order to become an elite 3d modeler, however, I will have to work outside of the rat race on developing my 3d modeling skills. The irony in how I will be looking to do this? I am going to look for a site similar to how I envision my own, and become a member! (not necessarily paid, but I will be hanging around
) - Concentrate heavily on video tutorials, with text supplement. These tutorials are going to be the foundation of my site, so they need to be a.) plentiful, and b.) made of FANTASTIC quality.
- Work on an advanced project that people will interest people so that they follow along with the project. The finished product will make people go “Wow, that’s neat! Can I do that?”. I already have my first project lined up. The project scope will be posted by 12:00 A.M. tomorrow, and you can check it out by navigating to OnlineCadSchool.com, and clicking on the “projects” link in the nav bar.
That’s all for today. After working 70 hours this week, I think I deserve a beer or six. Have a great weekend, and GO STEELERS~!!
Updated Spreadsheet, time to get to work
By · CommentsAs I was developing my spreadsheet, I realized that planning for 12 months is not going to work. I did plan thru march though, with some very specific goals.
Check out my schedule here:
At the end of March, OnlineCadSchool.com will have the following statistics:
- 35 forum postings under alias “OnlineCadSchool”
- 35 blog comments under alias “OnlineCadSchool”
- 5 solid pages with promotions
- 5 project posts
- 32 tutorial videos
At this point, I will be looking at my analytics data, as well as other factors, and planning out my next few months based on what worked and what didn’t work.
Of course I will be updating here documenting my progress the entire time. Thanks for reading.
Straying from Original Plan: Adapting?
By · CommentsI have discovered that the plan I made with my spreadsheet is not going to work. I was lurking around some other bloggers’ sites, and found an ebook about how the author approaches building a site. I took a good while to read this ebook, and as I read it, I applied it to my own situation. Here is a link to the site where I picked up the book:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/
After reading this ebook, here’s what I’ve decided/realized:
- I am going to focus on developing one site, and document it here at iMarketingInsights.com
- The site that I will be focusing on is http://www.onlinecadschool.com
- The two main reasons I am going to develop this site are: I use cad (Mechanical Desktop and Inventor) at my 9-5 every single day, and I enjoy it. In other words I am interested in my subject, and can be considered an expert in the field
- I am able to provide a valuable service to my users. I have never taken a cad class and have learned all through experience at work. There were some frustrating times while learning how to do some operations in cad, and I would turn to the internet for guidance. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the in-depth help I needed.
- I can think of several avenues for monetization including: Affiliate sales of cad software, developing my own program and selling it, providing a subscription based service, a classified marketplace to connect customers with designers, and generating leads for cad work, to name a few.
- The first step is to generate some goals. My first goal is to generate SMART goals. My goal for my first goal is: Set a SMART goal for every Sunday at midnight, for one year. My target goal for my first goal is to have it done by Sunday, January 25th at midnight.
Don’t you hate it when you say the same word over and over again and it starts to sound funny? I think I just did that with “goal”. I guess I better get used to it, eh?
Anyways, I’m excited that I have found something to which I can dedicate my time. At the same time, the amount of work in front of me is a bit daunting.
As I stated before, I will be documenting my journey here at iMarketingInsights. Leave your comments, positive or negative, down below.
PS: My NFL playoffs bet update: I lost $5. 
Major Site Updates Today
By · CommentsI made some pretty hefty updates to the site today. I will do a tutorial on ALL of them in the coming days/weeks. I can’t wait! I will be doing my first one, and hopefully more, tomorrow. Here are some of the things which I had already done previously, as well as done today, which I will cover in a bunch of different tutorials.
- Registered a domain name at GoDaddy
- Acquired hosting through HostGator
- Configured my domain to point to my host (nameservers)
- Created an addon domain with my host using cpanel
- Set up a database for wordpress using cpanel
- Added a user to my database using cpanel
- Downloaded Wordpress 2.7
- Configured Wordpress to communicate with my database
- Uploaded Wordpress Via FTP
- Installed Wordpress
- Downloaded Flexx theme from iThemes
- Uploaded and implemented the theme
- Set up the Flexx theme the way I wanted it
- Added a feed to the site via Feedburner
- Configured widgets to display the content I want
- Added a bunch of great plugins
- Embedded a few YouTube videos into the site
That pretty much covers most of it! Expect to see video and text/screenshot tutorials on all of these and more in the next couple weeks.
The most exciting part about these new tutorials, is that each one of them will have its own case study as well. I am going to do some keyword research, look for similar tutorials or offerings from other sites and build some links, and I invite you to come along throughout the entire process! This post will be updated with links to the tutorials and case studies as they go live. Thanks for reading, and if you are a football fan, enjoy the NFL Playoff matchups today!
NFL Playoffs - Divisional Round
By · CommentsSo I just made a bet with a coworker. It’s $5, double or nothing on the divisional round for every game. So if when I’m right with each game, I win $40. My picks are in bold.
Baltimore at Tennesse (-3)
Arizona at Carolina (-9.5)
Philadelphia at New York (-4)
San Diego at Pittsburgh (-6)
This weekend I’ll be focusing on adding a mailing opt-in list and feeds etc. to my site. I’ve never done this before, so it will be a challenge. I do see these things on other people’s sites all the time though, so how hard can it be?!? Well, I’m sure it’s difficult, but there should be plenty of literature on implementing it. On Thursday I plan on doing some tutorials, so implementing the email opt-in list and feeds into my site will make for a great tutorial. I probably won’t publish it right away, but I will record all the steps along the way, and when the time is right I’ll unleash it : )
After perusing over my schedule spreadsheet for a few minutes this morning, I already made about 10 changes to it. As I stated when I posted the spreadsheet, it will be an ongoing evolving thing. I’ll be spending a bit of time going through the spreadsheet this weekend, making it into a more specific, SMART schedule.
Starter Plan
By · CommentsAfter reading over my post from earlier this morning, I don’t think “plan” was the right word to use. I think my business is too infant for me to formulate a plan. Instead, what I was really aiming for was a schedule. Developing a plan is part of the schedule, so the plan aspect has not been lost.
This is a rough schedule I’ve developed. It’s not much, and I could have sat here all day thinking about it, but I just wanted to get this done and follow it. I can always tweak and adjust along the way. So without further adieu, here it is!
I have two posts in the works that I am excited about, and hopefully you will get some enjoyment out of them. One has to do with my approach to spending my time on my sites, and in the second I would like to make a very detailed recap of what I have done to this point, IE what resources I have tapped into, thoughts, work performed, results, etc.
Having a Plan
By · CommentsI’ll admit right now, I don’t have a definitive plan about moving forward. I have a million + 1 ideas about some stuff I’d like to cover on this site, and in general with my business, but no plan.
So my goal for the day is to formulate a plan. The plan will be general enough that it can be templated (is that a word?) and modified to be used over again without having to start from scratch. It will be specific in that it will be tailored to one website, with the goals being SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
I’ll post an update with my goals, as well as my goals in spreadsheet form when I am finished.
Let’s Toast to the First Post!
By · CommentsThis is my first post at iMarketingInsights. I have nothing to say, only work to do. If I have nothing to say, then why the hell am I posting? I must have something to say, or my fingers would not have anything to type right now! :) Okay, you caught me, I guess this post does have a point. A year from now, when I have reached my goals, I want to be able to easily find, and locate this post. This post marks the day I started. A year from now it will be nice to look back at this post, and see how far my journey has taken me. I also hope my readers (HELLO?!?! ANYBODY OUT THERE!?!?!) are able to take inspiration out of my journey from nothing to something. What that something is, well, I guess we’ll find out in a year! All I have done so far is make a website. I want to show you guys (OKAY SERIOUSLY, YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!!!) every step of the way.
Here’s to building something. Be sure to check out my video followup to this post at the bottom of the post.
kachink!
Check out my video followup to my first post.
