End of Semester Take-away

​I’ve learned a lot in this class. Some of it was useful, some of it… maybe not so much. But I’m still glad I learned about everything, because now I know what’s out there. If I ever want to go in a new direction with my business, I’ve got some solid tools under my belt.


One of the biggest things for me was learning about different platforms. I really like Weebly—it’s super user-friendly and great for throwing a website together fast, even if you don’t totally know what you’re doing. That said, there were some design elements I wanted on my site that Weebly just couldn’t do. And I found out that I can’t really adjust how the mobile layout looks, which is kind of frustrating. WordPress gives you more control with things like that. I don’t have those skills right now, but maybe I’ll switch over in the future. For a basic website, I don’t need WordPress—but I can definitely see why so many companies expect people to know how to use it.


Google Ads wasn’t really my cup of hot chocolate. I got a lot of impressions but not many clicks. It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t come up with the right keywords—it’s just that my product is really specific. Dinosaur-themed pottery is a pretty niche market, and that made it hard to find keywords that worked well with Google’s system.


​Some of the broader keywords brought in clicks, but not the right kind of traffic. The more specific keywords—the ones that actually described what I was selling—ended up being so narrow that Google restricted them or didn’t show my ads very often. So even though I gave it a try, I don’t think Google Ads is the best fit for my business at this time.

I’m also pretty excited about affiliates. I don’t know if I’ll become one, but it’s cool to know it’s an option. And same with wholesalers—it’s just good to know that’s a possibility if I ever need to scale up.


The one thing I know for sure I’ll keep working on is SEO. I want to get better at it so more people can find my site organically. I don’t think blogging is really my thing, but I’m still glad I learned how to write with keywords in mind. It helps me understand how content shows up in search results, even if I’m not planning to write a ton of blog posts myself.


Overall, this class gave me a ton of new tools and ideas. Even if I don’t use all of them right away, I know they’re there if I ever need them. And that’s a good feeling.