April 2, 2019 Journal Entry

Wifey and I have decided to give it a go using the Project 24 blogging methodology as taught by two guys at IncomeSchool.com.

Case Study:

  • Can I make a profit following the Project 24 method found at IncomeSchool.com? It is a 60 step process and eludes to being able to replace your full-time job in 24 months.

Background:

  • I have been blogging for over ten years but only dabbling. I am familiar with Blogger and WP.  The blog I spent the most time on was self-sufficiency themed blog but mostly served as a family journal.  The Orange Jeep Dad moniker from those days continues on as I occasional blog on that old platform to check in on friends. I also have resurrected the YouTube channel for posting my P24 blogging escapades. I have coded in HTML, PHP, CSS, C++, …and I’m so old I cut my teeth on Basic, Fortran, and Cobol. This is my first attempt to get serious with blogging in hopes of replacing my 9-5 job.

Timeline:

  • April: Establish niche site #1, complete Steps 1-21 of Project 24
  • May: Complete Steps 22-40
  • June: Complete Steps 41-60
  • July: Establish niche site #2, complete Steps 1-21
  • Aug: Complete Steps 22-40
  • Sept: Complete Steps 41-60

Month 1 – April 2019

Steps 1-20 include the following:

  1. Watch the video on what it is all about
  2. Choose your topic and domain
  3. Sign up for hosting
  4. Get a logo
  5. Themes and Plugins
  6. WordPress settings, SEO
  7. Watch video: No Nonsense SEO
  8. Create an Article Hit List
  9. Watch video: Formatting posts
  10. Write first Response Post
  11. Write second…
  12. Write third…
  13. Write fourth…
  14. Write fifth…
  15. Write sixth…
  16. Write seventh…
  17. Write eighth…
  18. Write nineth
  19. Write tenth…
  20. Add legal content blurb
  21. Resizing images

Niche Ideas (steps 1-7)

I watched the video. It can be found on their YT channel. It was very difficult for me to decide on a niche. There is a list from Income School that you can download from their site and it contains dozens of ideas. My first question was “how many are still good if you’ve been giving this list out for a while?” So I continued until I found my own.

My advice: if you can’t decide on a niche, go with what you know. I won’t divulge mine but let’s just say if I was a plumber… I would create a blog about the plumbing profession. For full transparency, I have released the name of my Niche #1 – The Radiologic Technologist.

I have worked in the radiology field for the past two decades. I am hopeful that I have enough experience in this niche that I can continue to find content to write about and stay engaged. (Fastforward three months: I have made a few videos on the topic of choosing a niche.)

Niche Videos:

  1. My first horrible attempt at a niche discussion...in my car. (warning, horrible audio)
  2. My second equally horrible niche discussion, still in my car.
  3. My third automobile video is on selecting a hosting service.
  4. Now in an office, I share my thoughts on niche selection.
  5. And lastly, I share some of the marketing efforts I made on the first niche.

Logo Creation

I used good old FlamingText.com to create a temporary logo. It is very easy to use and the final product is free.

I used a nulled theme of Divi from Elegant Themes until I got to a point where the functionality was broken due to needing an update. Of course, you can’t update a nulled theme so I dropped around $80 for an annual subscription to Elegant Themes.  If you end up buying Divi, please consider using my affiliate link.

Helpful Hint: To learn Divi like a boss, watch Ferdy Korp’s 3+ hour tutorial. It is SO worth the time because he teaches you EVERYTHING you need to know about setting up your WordPress, installing Divi and building an entire website.

Domain Name and Hosting

So I picked a domain name with the words of my profession in it, as mentioned earlier.  I went with BlueHost for hosting as suggested by Income School. I bought the annual hosting package for $80 and it came with the domain name free. I set up Word Press and began creating content.

Article Hit List

The Income School guys teach this on their YouTube channel as well. You basically search Google for your niche word and see what Google shows as the common questions around that search. Using their method, I came up with about ten article topics to write about.

Writing 10 Response Posts

Knocking these out took me a little over a week. I work full-time and have a large family so I did these mostly at night after everyone had gone to bed. Many nights I stayed up until 2 or 3 am to get the posts done. I started the whole process mid-April and was able to finish with the 10 Response Posts by May 1st.

Resizing the Images

I actually didn’t want to do this due to monotony. I skipped it and moved on to the next month’s tasks. Ultimately I went back and completed this step.

Stats:

I saw no traffic this month (April) and didn’t even have a hit counter or analytics installed. Project 24 says you won’t see your first $5 profit, until month SIX of the process. I was content just blogging my brains out for April.

[Sneak Peek, I’m six weeks in and seeing traffic and income. Nothing great, mind you but it is starting and way ahead of the projected plan. ]

Family duties call. I’ll continue with what I did in May with some screenshots as soon as I get more free time.