On this day, exactly two years ago, I took one of the boldest decisions in my life. I decided to purchase a domain for my blog. It’s the time when I did not have any debit card or credit card or an account with Paypal. I just had a Payza account, because it did not ask me to verify documents for doing payments.
I made use of it and purchased a domain at Gossimer. The domain was onlinerockershub.com
Two years have passed, and the domain is still active in spite of so many struggles and hurdles. I did come across some situations to give up blogging and focus only on my studies, but I decided to give a break rather than quitting.
If I decide to quit now, I will keep on doing that at every stage of my life. So, learning to take rest is the better than quitting.
Building myself along with OnlineRockersHub:
After so many changes, OnlineRockersHub is a now a website to teach beginners on blogging, WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing.
During the last one year, I just did not build OnlineRockersHub alone, I built myself too. It helped me to develop some good practices and build my skills.
In this post, I will give you a brief view of what happened in the last 1 year.
If you are keen to know, how OnlineRockersHub came up during its 1 year, read this post I published during the 1st Birthday.
Positive events during this 2nd year:
During this second year, I made some good contacts with bloggers. I took some important decisions. Not to forget, I had some surprises too.
ShareASale Application Approved:
If you are aware of affiliate marketing, then you must be knowing ShareASale. It is one of the best affiliate marketplaces on the internet. Everyone loves to join ShareASale as an affiliate. Even, I too wished. But, my application was being rejected every time for almost 1 year.
And, then finally on April 18, 2017, my application was approved. From then on, I made some good income at ShareASale. I am yet to reach my threshold. Only after I reach, I can make my first payment.
If you are looking for an affiliate marketplace, consider ShareASale. It has got an amazing interface for affiliate link building.
Launched ORH Coupons and Deals:
Ever since I started to learn affiliate marketing, I was interested in sharing coupons and deals, to grow my affiliate revenue. I realized that coupons and deals site is the best way to get those highly targeted audiences for affiliate marketing.
So, I decided and launched a coupons and deals site. I named it as ORH Coupons & Deals.
Why do you keep website names so long?
I don’t know. But, it became a habit.
SEMRush made a real-time website analysis on OnlineRockersHub:
I must consider myself lucky to get this opportunity. I did send SEMRush to consider my website for their real-time analysis on Social Media. To my surprise, they accepted my request and decided to do a real-time analysis.
And the day came 12th July 2017.
It wasn’t a happy moment for me during the analysis. I felt angry on hearing all those criticisms at the beginning. But, I did not give up my patience. I made a note of all those comments and suggestions.
And then I made a checklist of tasks.
And now, when I turn back, I completed 90% of those tasks. One or two tasks are difficult to do at present. But, might happen one day.
I must thank SEMRush for selecting my website for analysis. Only because of that analysis, I was able to boost the SEO of my website to a certain extent.
If you also want SEMRush to make an audit for your website, join SEMRush and send them a request. They might consider your website. Fingers crossed!
Launched Science Savvy:
If you were following OnlineRockersHub for more than a year, you might have seen some Science related posts here. Often it led to some confusions for my readers,
What is this blog all about?
I decided to put an end to this confusion and dilemma. Because
It’s better to be late than never.
I moved those content to a new subdomain called Science Savvy on September 18, 2017.
Moving them to a new domain would have been awesome, but I couldn’t afford to buy a new domain and hosting for this. That’s why I decided to settle on a subdomain.
Launched Quotes Drive:
Just like science stuff, I did have some motivational quotes here.
I moved them too. This time, one more new subdomain called Quotes Drive.
I launched it on September 22, 2017, but until today, I haven’t used this subdomain much. But for sure, I will build this as much as possible in the future.
New theme and a new look for OnlineRockersHub and its subdomains:
Have you heard about Divi?
It’s one of the most popular WordPress themes. And, I did purchase it for $70 along with Elegant Themes Membership for 1 year.
I was amazed to see Elegant Themes pricing.
What’s special there?
You can’t purchase just one product from them. If you want to buy a plugin or theme for them, you must buy all at a time.
Initially, I was confused whether to buy or not.
But then, I decided to go on with it.
Because, for a membership, apart from Divi theme, I get premium plugins like Monarch, Bloom etc. Also, I came to know, even after the membership ends, they will provide me with plugin and theme updates. The only thing that I don’t get after the end of membership is their valuable customer support.
So, Elegant Themes Membership is definitely worth buying.
Migrating my email list to SendInBlue:
I was maintaining my email list with phpList. But, then I came to know, it sends emails through my IP address. I started enquiring many email marketing companies and came to know that sending emails through your IP address will hurt its reputation.
Therefore, there are many chances for all your emails being marked as spam.
So, I was looking for a perfect email marketing software that will send my emails using a different IP address.
And then, I came across SendInBlue.
Why SendInBlue when there is so many email marketing software?
The main reason why I chose SendInBlue is its flexibility. They allow me to send 600 emails per day with my free account.
What else a free user is gonna ask!
I was very happy with SendInBlue’s performance, and that’s why I wrote a SendInBlue review.
Selected as top 1% reader at Pocket for the second consecutive year:
I just felt this as an appreciation for my interest in Blogging, which led me to read more and more blog posts through Pocket.
But, I don’t think I will make it for the next year. Because I shifted my reading habits towards books and novels.
So far, I have discussed all happy moments. But, we must realize that life is unfair. So, definitely, you will come across speed breakers on your road.
Speed Breakers in this journey:
Removed eBooks section from OnlineRockersHub:
You might not Know. I have written two eBooks.
Really, Where are they?
I had to remove them from OnlineRockersHub and Amazon Kindle, as a precaution for GST (Goods and Service Tax). I am still building my website and haven’t turned it into a company yet. Managing GST every month will be difficult for me. And that’s my I removed it. But, I am very sure, one day I will bring back this eBooks section.
GoodBye QuestionUs!
QuestionUs was the forum that I created for OnlineRockersHub readers. But, it lacked user participation. After a period of time, I realized I was the only one repeatedly making posts there. No one else posted their queries. Also, it had too broad categories. Managing such broad categories with limited plugins looked absurd.
So, I decided to take down QuestionUs on September 16, 2017
I launched it at the wrong time with a wrong set of tools. It’s a mistake, from which I need to learn a lot.
At the end of this year, I am somewhat satisfied, as it gave me a lot of experience. So, it’s time to celebrate.
Celebration mode on!
FotoJet Plus Giveaway:
To celebrate this 2nd anniversary, I came up with an idea of Giveaway. FotoJet sponsored this Giveaway. I announced about this giveaway in my last month Income Report.
To my surprise, I got overwhelming support from my readers. The giveaway received 1079 entries. While announcing the giveaway, I mentioned I will announce the winners on April 9, 2018 (On the 2nd year anniversary of OnlineRockersHub).
So, it’s time to reveal those winners.
Winners are to be brought to the spotlight, right?
So, let me reveal those winners in this video.
Congratulations to all those three lucky winners!
Wrapping Up:
It’s a pleasant blogging journey for the last couple of years. But now, I need to focus on building this.
Because I could see a big obstacle on my journey. It’s the revenue.
I need to plan properly and make some income to expand this website. This is the only target for my next year.
Hope, I will find a way to make it.
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