From This Moment - New Year's Resolution 2020

"From this moment." Potent words backed by a powerful commitment and decision. Shania Twain made these words popular in her song by the same title. It has been sung at many wedding ceremonies, but they can also herald in life changing commitments, like a New Year's resolution.

I'm not one for these New Year's resolutions but this morning I decided it was time to commit to a change in my life. It's so easy to allow circumstances to influence what happens in one's life. To go with the flow and end up with regret and a feeling of despair.

Greatness follows the brave who dream big and have a clear vision of what they want their future to look like. When setbacks happen, they forge ahead relentlessly chasing their dreams. I was considering this last night. I offer a service to business owners to increase the visibility and effectiveness of their websites through SEO (known as search engine optimization).

It takes a certain amount of trust all round to make this work. I have to really believe in what I'm doing to pull it off. My customers have to believe in me and provide the funds for my efforts. The results come over time but when they come, they pay off very well.

So, this is a matter of faith in believing a concept before you see the results. The period between when I start and when the results start flowing in is nerve-wracking to say the least. In a way I am a forerunner of good things and my clients are people of faith who show tremendous trust in what I do.

In my blog post dated July 16, 2018 about Dyna Tuning I was operating 100% by faith in what I was doing to create a change for my client. Little did I know what would happen after that day. Whenever I called on my client I was greeted with big smiles and hugs because business was booming for them. It was as though the flood gates had opened and their once relatively quiet establishment was now overrun by customers wanting their services. I dare say that, due to the excellent services they offer, the demand has continued right through 2019 as well.

During December I decided to look at my website statistics for the year up until the end of November (that's for eleven months). Forty websites had over 90 000 unique visitors. There were over 300 000-page visits and more than 4 500 000 hits. All of my SEO paying clients have their websites on the first page of Google for vital keywords driving customers to their businesses.

My SEO efforts come in different forms. One of them is when I write about something in my blog. Another powerful method is when I do an honest review for a client whom I believe in when it comes to quality of service and commitment to my efforts. This client has remained faithful to me over many years and is still reaping the rewards of my efforts every month.

Here you can see a snip of a review I did for his company in September 2015. Over 3 000 people influenced by that review for my client. I decided long ago to make Google a partner in everything I do for my clients' websites. Because of that there are positive links to my websites from the right places that ensure success for my clients.

I spoke to someone else in the industry a while ago and she told me that one of the most powerful draw cards for websites is a positive review. Then, one day I received this email from Google confirming her words.

Another great contribution came from some of the photographs I added to Google for my clients. Here Google responded this month with a report that just during 2019 my new photos have added 9 519 views. Very often these views are from people looking for information or services - for something they want or need.

Then we have the doubters. The people I meet with who want a website but don't believe what I tell them. Just getting a website means just another page added to all the others already lost in the huge ocean of websites on the Internet. That sounds really harsh! Even if your website has all the bells and whistles and is the next best thing to sliced bread it still means nothing if it doesn't appear on the first page of Google in search results - because that's where all the traffic is. Traffic that could be coming to your business. Then these doubters start believing that websites are a waste of time and money. Wrong!

So, the point that I want to make is that I really appreciate my clients who have placed a lot of faith in what I do. I haven't asked even one of them to sign a contract for a year or whatever. It's all based on satisfaction in what I provide for them. These past two years some have returned to me after trying other agents because they believed cunning marketers who enticed them away with empty promises and they lost out big time.

All I want to do in 2020 is provide the very best services for my clients. I will be getting new clients as well and I want them to benefit from all the experience I have built up over the years. I recently upgraded two websites to the latest web standards. I'm very proud of them and would show them off to anyone who wants to see if I'm good enough at what I do. Over time I will be updating all my clients' websites to meet with new standards - it just takes a lot of time and effort to do it properly.

The first one is RBTS Racing. I'm very proud of this website.

The next one, just finished this month, is Phirimane Wedding Venue. I've never met these people in person. Someone on Facebook recommended them to me. In the beginning, all my talking to them was in Afrikaans. All communications were done via email. The wording for the pages were first done in Afrikaans and then translated by me into English. Their first website I created only worked on big screens (in those days mobile friendly websites weren't a requirement) and eventually I convinced them to let me recreate a new one. I'm so glad they said yes because now they have something far better than what they had before.

It just takes that bit of faith in what I do, and the rewards follow. You can contact me via my website (which I'm in the process of improving but haven't done yet) if you feel that you can benefit from my services.

From this moment my New Year's resolution is to be even better than before and provide the best service to my clients in 2020.