2020 Reflective
It’s that time of year again! Where phrases like ‘oh go on then, I deserve it’ inform every random purchase you could possibly make, where you look back on all of the great places you’ve visited, people you’ve seen, and memories you’ve made across the year.
Well, not quite.
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. For many, it’s a montage of pajamas and Netflix and confusing rhetoric from politicians on what you’re allowed to do any given week. This year has certainly changed our way of living, but in many ways I think it’s brought us closer. I’ve watched as businesses have closed down and the educational system has moved largely online. Luckily for me, I’m blessed in that my work is all from home anyway. In a way, lockdown has actually been responsible for helping me to concentrate on my career, and make strides towards scaling up my freelancing and looking positively towards the future.
Every year I am enamored with the hope that comes with a new year closing in on us; and honestly, this year is no different. A vaccine is in sight, people have adapted to this new way of living, and we’re all stronger for it.
At the start of 2020, I found on Twitter news of a ‘mysterious virus’ that had infected 136 people in Wuhan. Like many of us, I initially laughed this off, believing it was just another case of the media fear-mongering the populace; most likely to distract us from something truly worth knowing about. I was very, very wrong.
My situation is a little different from most university students; I’m a mature student, with no parents or guardians to fall back on, so my term-time address serves as my home address. For some inexplicable reason, this is a nightmare to explain to Student Finance, but that’s a story for another time. When COVID hit the UK, and the universities closed, I had to move out of my term-time address because of it being university halls. Essentially, I was made homeless. Luckily I have good people around me, and was able to find a sofa to sleep on while we waited out the summer.
There was nothing to do except sit in the house, and looking back I did well to keep working daily rather than simply staying on games and watching shows. There was a lot of that, don’t get me wrong, but it was balanced with lots of content writing and social media marketing work for clients I either found directly, on Upwork, or were approached by.
As well as my client work, and articles I’d write for both LinkedIn and Medium, I was also working on an affiliate marketing site known as ColoringBookCorner, working in the adult coloring book niche. This was a one-man operation, so required a lot of content writing, SMM, webmastering — all that good stuff.
I’d started CBC in 2019 shortly before beginning my Digital Marketing degree at the University of Chester, and this website has been nothing short of invaluable. As I covered in my article Why Every Student Should Have an Affiliate Blog, affiliate marketing teaches you many of the fundamentals that go into digital marketing, especially as a freelancer. Content writing, SEO, keyword research, social media marketing just to name a few — and believe me, those aspects take enough time.
Unfortunately, midway through 2020 I pulled the plug on the website to move on from it. More experienced marketers often say it takes anywhere up to two years to see growth from an affiliate site. They never really specifically say what that growth looks like and whether there should be a reasonable amount of growth beforehand. In my case, my Google Analytics and Google Search Console showed me that there was practically nothing going on. I did have some success with the social side of things, namely Twitter and Pinterest. I managed to amass a following of around 70 people in just under a fortnight on the former. On Pinterest, I managed to amass just shy of 2k impressions daily, and just over 100 engagements a day.
Any digital marketer worth their salt reads case studies and personal experiences from other marketers as often as they can. For me, this was through sub-reddits on Reddit related to digital marketing; which is where I realised that Coloring Book Corner was too big of an investment for me at this stage in my career.
The adult coloring book niche is very popular, and as a result — the keywords are FILLED with stiff competition. Almost every keyword was at least a 30 in terms of keyword difficulty (KD), and my core competitors (with a domain authority of 60) were regularly running paid ads to increase their web traffic; something that I didn’t have the budget for.
On top of that, because of the difficulty of the niche itself, and the pre-existing volume of content for it, Google was very reluctant to even index my posts for a while, which made web traffic quite difficult to come across. Social was pretty much my only channel of gaining web visitors, and while the social media accounts were measurably encouraging engagement, the web traffic side of things just wasn’t happening.
To cut a long story short; I decided that based off the case studies I’d read from other beginners, and judging the niche along with speaking to more experienced marketers specifically about my situation, I decided that Coloring Book Corner wasn’t right for me at the current time.
I still believe that the content I was making was good. I utilized the Skyscraper Technique religiously, and wrote some of the best web content I’ve ever written. I re-purposed content from my blog posts into social media posts, and there was evidence that my social accounts were scaling up slowly.
But budget constraints along with a general lack of nitty-gritty know-how that could have helped me to have succeeded in a difficult niche stopped me in my tracks. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to work on the site daily, and the lack of validation through web visitors was making me feel like I was wasting my time. I also realised through working in that niche for a year that it wasn’t quite the niche I wanted to be making content about. You live and learn.
While consistency is important, as is determination, I think you’ve got to know when to let go. Change is a huge part of growth. I still now, four or so months since pulling the plug, believe that it was the right thing to do. It’s allowed me to focus more on my personal brand, and networking with other young marketers, and focus on my hobby project BREViews that I’d been looking to get off the ground for quite some time. The hobby project pretty much incorporates lots of digital marketing aspects I need to refine, and knowing that it’s working in a niche that I’ve always had passion for (reviewing, video essays, list articles) means that the reward is focused on actually creating the content, not the external validation that comes from an audience.
In September, I started my second year of university; and to be honest I’ve loved it far more than first year. For me, online learning is perfect. I feel I can engage more confidently knowing I’m in the comfort of my own home. I can go back and revisit past lectures, or lectures I’ve missed. And I can have McDonalds breakfast while doing a 9am Monday morning lecture; it’s the stuff dreams are made of, quite honestly.
On top of that, I’ve been hitting the ground running with my assignments. Not a single one has been lower than 70 so far, and I’m determined to keep that streak up for as long as I can!
At the start of December, I started an internship with EDGE Travel Worldwide, which was a direct result of networking with my peers. This internship allows me to work in a team environment, refine and develop my skills, and work in a niche that holds so many opportunities post-COVID.
I’ve also managed to begin a valuable working relationship with Mapscape Limited. I’ve always valued the idea of long-term clients; I think that usually yields the best result for both the marketer and the client. Scores of one-off jobs on Upwork can leave you feeling pretty lost; so finding a client that believes in me and invests in me has been a great motivator and source of self-belief; and I’m very excited to see what I can achieve for the business in 2021 and beyond.
Being locked indoors throughout 2020 has provided ample time for self-reflection; something everyone should do more of. It’s allowed me to look deeper into myself about not just career-related things, but also who I am as a person, what principles I have, where I think I’m falling short of my own standards.
I’ve struggled for quite a long time with anxiety and OCD. There are also certain disorders/ conditions that were suspected of me during school but never chased up on, and unfortunately these rear their ugly-heads often in my adult life. This year has caused my health anxiety to surge to heights never seen before; but the positive side of that is it’s allowed me to actually reflect on difficulties I’d been ignoring; and summon up the courage to start dealing with them. In 2021, I’m going to do more for my health. With support from those around me; I’m going to make an effort to let go of my worries surrounding the doctors, and reach out for some help for the issues I know I face, and to get to the bottom of whether other issues I believe I face; namely ADHD, are actually present. I’ve done as much as I can alone; set up systems that help me keep organized and on-track, but you’ve got to know when to reach out for some professional support; and I think I’m well overdue.
2020 has helped me to build deeper relationships with those closest to me; my girlfriend, my younger siblings, and my closest friends. A lot of people online comment on how the year has brought us closer in many ways despite the physical barriers that have been implemented; and I couldn’t agree more! I am thankful for my inner circle and know that I can do anything I set my mind to; especially with the support of those around me.
Over these last few days of the year, I’m hard at work crafting content for the various projects I’m involved in, and I’m looking to scale my freelancing services to the next level. By this time next year, when I’m sitting down to write the 2021 Reflective, I want to have much, much more to write about; and be in a much stronger position than I’m ending this year with.
I truly believe that the best is yet to come; not just on a personal level for each of us but as a collective. Working from home is going to be far more common in the future, and personal branding is something that nobody can escape from with how the internet is progressing. While lockdowns and social distancing may feel like a pain, I invite people to look at it as an opportunity to start a side hustle and grow in knowledge; just until we can be assured that the most vulnerable people in our country are safe and we can return to some sense of normality in the future.
Finally — connection is important, especially right now! I’d like to thank everyone who has read my waffle for this long, and invite you to comment with at least two positive things that happened to you during 2020. I also invite you to write a 2020 reflective of your own, and share it on LinkedIn as I’ve done.
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in 2021!
