🍩 Good day, Donuts!
My last and first email for this year—2022— was in January. And here is what happened.
But first, I didn’t have a facelift, but milachervenkova.rocks had. I’ve improved the design, including all posts and pages. There are more changes to come, but for now, I like how the website is evolving.
By the way, do me a favor - check if there are large spaces between the icons and the menu in the header on mobile/tablet/desktop devices. Please send me a screenshot of your device model if you notice any problems. Thanks a ton!
Now, let's see what happened with my personal life and my solo business (they are connected).
The Obstacles in My Personal Life
As some of you may recall, in December 2021, I went back to my hometown in the mountains. I spend two months there. One of my family members has been fighting addiction for many years, and the problem has progressed. I returned to be there with my family and help whatever I could. I won’t go into details, but if you are someone who fights addiction or has friends and relatives in the same position - you are not alone. And you should not be ashamed of it. Luckily, the situation in my family has improved, and we are a little less stressed about that person's health.
At the end of January, before going back to Sofia (where I live), I got sick of COVID. Me and my father, we both got sick. Our symptoms were not severe (I was able to work), but the symptoms continued for three weeks. And when I got back to Sofia (it was a hell of a trip, puking the entire time) and started training again, I noticed that I had problems with breathing and endurance due to my COVID illness. I felt as if I had lost years of training experience. As if my muscles have lost their memory. I had to start building my strength and endurance again from base one.
I also had to quit my planned 20-day Kom-Emine trail hiking trip in Bulgaria. For the last five months, I was again a beginner in training. At least my half-life-long training in consistency and habit-creation has paid off. I’ve recovered, I am feeling great, working out every day, and I am almost back to my fittest physical shape.
The Obstacles in My Business Life
Despite all the struggles in my personal life, I didn’t let that part eat my workaholism. However, the last six months were tough because I poured so much energy into my niche website project, and the results were awful. There wasn’t any positive progress in organic traffic growth.
Until recently.
To be more precise - in April, I made one significant structural change to my website (the niche website project in outdoors), and this change showed me what my main problem with this website was.
For a week, I stopped doing any work on the website. I was only analyzing the SERP and my competitors.
I made more changes.
I incorporated a new system for tracking goals and progress (OKRs + Kanban), and right now, I am tracking every single task, initiative, or change to measure the impact it has on traffic growth.
When I see an outlier, I do more of that.
Because this is a big topic, I will prepare a blog post where I will explain everything I’ve changed and why did I change it. Be patient with me. I will try to prepare it for next Sunday’s newsletter.
Update on My Forever Goal
My forever goal is to work forever on milaonsupplements.com and never sell it. I am happy to say that I have rebranded the website, and today, milaonsupplements.com is brainsandgainz.com. I am proud of the new website and the new topical angle. I’ve poured my soul into the entire design. There are much more changes to make. I haven’t added new content yet, but that is the next step.
I am publicly sharing this project because you can’t steal my personal story and experience. You can steal my keywords, but they will be worthless without the author's authenticity.
I would appreciate it if you could take a look at the website and share your feedback or if you notice bugs (there are some I am aware of and soon-to-be-fixed).
Update on My Projects
Currently, I have six projects (niche websites), and with milachervenkova.rocks, they are 7. They are a lot to handle, but I am a productivity freak. I have a Kanban system behind me that supports my day-to-day operation in a way that, without that Kanban workflow, I would be lost entirely. Again, I am working on a big piece where I will explain how my system works and why it works (forget to-do lists).
One of my websites was hit by the latest Google’s Core Update, and the rest of my websites were intact or positively influenced. In another post, I will explain what I plan to do with the website impacted by Google’s core algo update (the story is bizarre but interesting for experimentation).
Miscellaneous Updates
I am still renovating my apartment. I’ve concluded that this is an art project, not a renovation one. I’ve installed the new flooring myself. My father said that I did an awe job. And I believe him. It looks great. It took me only two weekends to complete it (there isn’t a single straight wall or corner here, so don’t judge me for being slow).
I fast for 20 hours daily, usually breaking my fast around 2 PM. My last meal is around 7 PM.
I am still a hardcore carnovore.
I work out every day. At 5 PM, I close my PC, put my phone on airplane mode, and shake my kettlebells.
I read books even more. All kinds of books. Non-stop. I also write more. For the first time in my life, I don't hate writing (thanks to Stephen Kings's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft).
Well, forgive me for disappearing so abruptly. I thought a lot about this newsletter and what content I want to create for my marketing website. All I know is that I want to write and create for this website and my readers. I will stay longer this time. I will aim at forever.
Talk to you next Sunday.
Own your future, Friends!
Mila đź’Ś
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