My dad gave me a great piece of advice. If at first you don’t succeed, try playing second.
My plans to dominate search with woodworking videos didn’t hit a snag.
They ran into a boulder.
Discover how I dealt with it to get me and my plans back in motion.
Enjoying this series?
It’s all about how I’m turning a hobby site into a money-making blog.
Oops, I Did it Again
In my previous post in this series I talked about the mindset switch from freebie to money-maker and how all successful bloggers eventually realize they need to invest time and money into their site success.
I also mentioned falling into the trap of wasting time on free resources and how I had fallen into that trap myself with this new woodworking endeavor.
Guess what?
I did it again.
Pure Stubbornness Got The Better of Me
You may recall that I’m in the process of learning a new CAD program that will help me design the build plans and cut list on my new mitre saw station.
I even purchased a course to help me learn it quickly. And it did, except for one thing I need to be able to do that should be super simple, but it’s not.
And I wasted a lot of my free time looking at YouTube tutorials to see how to do it because I was convinced there had to be a simple process and it was just a matter of my own ignorance of the program keeping me from accomplishing this task.
All the tutorials I saw either didn’t address it directly or were way, way, way more complex than what I was trying to do, and could not be modified down to complete my task.
I Had a Plan
I’m disappointed in that I was hoping to make my own, super simplified tutorials on how to use this program that would help novice woodworkers like me get the basics.
There’s a lot more value in monetizing those YouTube videos than in running a course, I believe.
And I wanted to use my own mitre saw station design in the tutorial.
That would get me views in multiple ways.
My videos could hit for the following search terms:
- Fusion 360
- Sketchup
- CAD
- Workbench
- Mitre saw
- Mitre saw station
- Design
- Build plans
And all of those could be combined with search terms for:
- DIY
- Woodworker
- Woodworking
- carpenter
The SEO possibilities go on and on.
READ: How I Develop an Editorial Calendar for a New Blog for more on this plan.
Traffic for the Video and the Post
Google promotes YouTube videos at the top of SERPs.
I want in on that!!!
It’s the whole reason I’m so solidly focused on video for Heartwood Art.
And, I also have a greater chance of getting the blog post, where the video is embedded, to the top of SERPs this way too.
Win-win!!!
Where to Go From Here
There is a boulder in my path.
I’ve tried to find a way around, under it, over it, and negotiate with it.
Today I decided to blow it up.
I can’t afford to keep wasting time trying to figure out how to do just one thing.
Here are my choices for going a different way with it.
Get on with the post
I can still make the build plans for the mitre saw station’s final post by cheating the program a bit and not showing the dimension on one part that will be subject to the builder’s preference anyway.
And since there are so many builder preferences on this thing any how, I’m going to split the plans into smaller modules so folks can see where to adjust their dimensions.
Doing it this way will let me get that final post out and move on to building my workbench.
Do a simplified video tutorial
For the video tutorial series, I’m going to use a simplified workbench as the first model.
The point is to teach how to use the program, not how to build a complex workbench. Any reasonable model will do for that.
Hire a Tutor
I looked on Upwork and Fiverr for folks who do CAD in Fusion 360 and found a couple that are actually affordable for what I need. I’ll be asking if they can teach me to do what I can’t figure out.
An hour of their time is WAY cheaper than an hour of mine!!!!
It’s like that old case study on whether it is worth Bill Gate’s time to stop and pick up a $100 bill on the ground.
It’s not.
He’s losing WAY more money by not staying focused on his business duties.
Retrofit the Post
Once I learn how to do this one thing, I can always include that final drawing, with MY dimensions and cut list, in the mitre saw station build post later.
Do an Advanced Video Tutorial
Once I learn how to do this one thing, I can add another video to the Fusion 360 series of tutorials and use MY mitre station as the model.
Back on Track
Instead of wrestling with a boulder, blowing it up puts me back in business with my plan.
And, I’m actually going to end up with more helpful content for both my posts and videos than if I had forced my original plan as I had it scoped out.
What’s in Your Way?
Do you have a boulder that is keeping you from moving forward?
How can you blow it up and get back into motion again?
This book could save you hundreds of dollars and months of frustration. Get it free with your subscription to
One of my boulders is my need for writing vs writing content that works for my blog. Some things I just have to get out of my head and they are relevant to my blog. I post them anyway. Later, I’ll just rewrite them more cleanly with better intention, and link my more raw posts that had to happen to those. So, it just becomes additional content. Might turn into something I regret later, I don’t know. But I take so much time assembling a post due to the way I prefer to write that just letting a post out that I felt my way through is nice now and then.