**ZERO TO HERO** #6. Content Creation

(or back to Zero haha)

A. Hey amigos,

a. Anvar here with another post. I’m 60 hours in and these 10 hours were quite fun. Worked a bit on setting my business email and set up abandoned cart email sequence. Then, 6 hours of content creation. Got myself a subscription for Animoto for video editing, tinkered a bit with Canva for social media content. You know, it is not something I am especially passionate about and I tend to keep putting it off. However, to my surprise that was cool, I can say I enjoyed it. You know what it resembles? Runner’s high, you don’t wanna go running but when you do you start enjoying it… Soo, here s my review

B. Review of last 10-hours hours of work

a. Did I complete set tasks?
i. Not all of them

b. How many of them did I complete?
i. 2

c. Was the time allotted for each task enough?
i. No, I spent a bit more time than expected on the Abandoned cart email sequence.
ii. Spent another hour setting up a custom business email since I purchased my domain name from Hostinger and not from Shopify. So, if you are building a Shopify store just get the domain name from them.
iii. Definitely time given for content creation and creating creatives was not enough. I haven’t even scratched the surface with those 5-6 hours. But that ok my videos, ads, posts etc don’t need to be perfect. And that’s important to keep in mind

d. Were they really important?
i. yeah

e. 3 things to become more effective.
1. Set up a post/video sequence to publish on social media (at least plan ahead what you gonna post)
2. Make use of 80/20 rule
3. Start the cycle with the Most important task. Last cycle I pinpointed the most important task for this cycle(creative creation). Yet I started the cycle with with a task of lower priority and ended up spending more time.


C. Key Takeaways

a. 1 – When video editing get the easiest to use software. I was thinking whether to spend some time teaching myself how use Adobe Premiere Pro or to get Animoto (online video editing tool). Then, I concluded that Animoto was easier to use and would get me the result faster. My priority is getting started, not creating the best video.
b. 2 – Do not buy a custom domain, buy it from Shopify.
c. 3 – Don’t post separately on FB, IG, Twitter etc.. Just post on IG and add options to post on FB, Twitter, and Tumbler.
d. 4 – Connect Canva to FB, IG, Twitter, and other social media platforms and post from Canva.
e. 5 – Schedule posts using Canva and/or Hootsuite
f. 6 - Create a .doc file with post captions/copies. This way you wont have to spend time coming up with captions every time your post. You will rotate those captions/copies.

D. Most Important Tasks

a. What is the One Thing I can be doing such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
i. Make 10 posts + 3 ad creatives

b. What is the second most important thing?
i. Test the website, customer journey, make a live purchase of the product.

E. Tasks for the next 10 hours

a. 1st hour – Go over competitors’ ad creatives
b. 2nd hour – Work on 10 posts
c. 3rd hour – Work on 10 posts
d. 4th hour - Work on 10 posts
e. 5th hour – Create 3 creatives
f. 6th hour – Create 3 creatives
g. 7th hour – Create 3 creatives
h. 8th hour – Store testing (customer experience + backend + FB pixel + Google analytics)
i. 9th hour – Store testing (customer experience + backend + FB pixel + Google analytics)
j. 10th hour - Store testing (customer experience + backend + FB pixel + Google analytics)

F. Notes (max 150 words)

a. So whats the bigger picture? Whats next?
i. Once all the social media accounts are done and ad creatives are ready, its time for the final testing of the store. Then there will be only 2 things left:
1. Running ads to my store. Im thinking of running campaigns on FB, Tiktok, or IG. Im more excited about starting with FB. Of course, later on ill lay my hands on other platforms as well
2. Providing Excellent customer service i.e. finding a reliable supplier(Aliexpress, CJ dropshipping or whatever) and setting a customer service system(planning to get Zendesk ticketing system)
ii. Of course, there are things to be done on a daily basis such as creating new creatives, new angles, testing new audiences, testing different platform. Analyzing results, making adjustments etc.
Yeah, that’s all for today. As its said “the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”. Soo, im off.
Thanks for reading till the end and good luck

**ZERO TO HERO** #xxxxxxxxxxxxx
(or back to Zero haha)

A. Hello amigos,

a. It’s time for a review session. It’s Day 19 and Im 71 hours into the project. Tbh, I thought I would be running ad campaigns by now but that ok theres nowhere to rush. Since the last entry I’ve worked on creating content for social media accounts(created 9 posts), created 1 creative, and purchase tested the store with real money. Store seems to be working fine now. You know a funny thing happened a few days ago? Well, there was someone from Mexico who somehow found my store and tried so hard to purchase the product that s/he spent 30 minutes on the site… haha… A week or so ago I set the price to $1; hence, so much effort.


B. Review of last 10-hours hours of work

a. Did I complete set tasks?
i. not all of them

b. How many of them did I complete?
i. 2- fully, 2-partially

c. Was the time allotted for each task enough?
i. It was enough but I failed to stick to the plan fully

d. Were they really important?
i. Im not quite sure if spending much time on content is needed. Im primarily doing it for social proof

e. 3 things to become more effective.
1. Stick to the plan
2. Do not overcomplicate things. Know the difference between just-in-time information and just-in-case information. Learning something in case you might need it later on is a deadly time-suck and that will delay any progress. Acquire knowledge as you need it.
3. Handle problems as they come because there are already a bunch of things you have to do. Don’t overcomplicate your life hopping on future problems/obstacles you already have enough for now.



C. Key Takeaways

a. 1 – Its good to see how big players handle customer service. And more important to learn from them. I like the customer service of Udemy; how they treat customers. They show so much empathy and sympathy for their customers that it makes it impossible not to reciprocate back. Simple things like “im sorry to hear you have this problem, I wish I could help you more” is a huge + . Another example is Freshbooks. Customer service agents sign their email as “you friend from Freshbooks, john/jack/jim”. I liked that, they seem more friendly this way
b. 2 – Apply what you learn. Many times we just accumulate knowledge with the intention to apply it some time. Its important to apply what you learn as soon as possible.
c. 3 – Not a key takeaway but this is a cool tool I found. “Temporary phone number” gives you a phone number to receive sms. It’s a great tool when you need to register on some website and you don’t have a foreign phone number.
d. 4
e. 5

D. Most Important Tasks

a. What is the One Thing I can be doing such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
i. Create 3 creatives

b. What is the second most important thing?
i. Launch a FB ad campaign

E. Tasks for the next 10 hours

a. 1st hour – Create 3 creatives
b. 2nd hour - Create 3 creatives
c. 3rd hour - Create 3 creatives
d. 4th hour – Website. Final test
e. 5th hour – FB pixel + GA
f. 6th hour - FB pixel + GA
g. 7th hour – FB ads strategy
h. 8th hour - FB ads strategy
i. 9th hour - FB ads strategy
j. 10th hour – Launching a FB ad campaign

F. Notes (max 150 words)
Finally, Im approaching the most important and the most exciting part of the ecom business: marketing, the actual money-making activity. Honestly speaking, I have no idea how its gonna go. Most probably im gonna lose my first $1000-1500 on ads, then I’ll start getting better and even start breaking even the next $1000. Let’s see. So the bigger picture here is to create good video creatives 3-4. Run ads and see which one drives more traffic&conversions. Then, test different audiences while accumulating all the data. Analyze & adjust. Rinse & Repeat. I don’t know what im doing. ahahha