It’s been about 2 weeks since my last update,
So what have I been up to?  Did I manage to get the things done that I wanted to get done?
Essentially yes.
I managed to get the website for my project online.  Its online, but the website is not finished.
And until I’m ready to go somewhat public, I won’t be releasing any information about it, so for now everything’s still very vague.  Sorry.
Plus, I managed to install, to the best of my ability the SSL certificate, that little https:// green part at the left of the URL that says that the site is secure.

Was difficult, especially as I’m not a programmer, but I’ve already learnt a lot through doing this.

For the website, I installed the Divi theme from Elegant themes.  And I’ll be asking my brother to take a look at it, and perhaps we can start learning Website design (in the simplest form of course) ourselves.

I’ve started planning out the website…however, it’s not there yet, but I think this will really come together with the website planning course I’ve booked myself on, which is also run by the Small Business Centre by the WA government.  Really looking forward to that to be honest.

I also had good results in setting up some of the social media for the project.

So far, I’ve got:

  • an Instagram account (for pictures, short videos and generally interest generation)
  • A YouTube account (for which I’ll be posting brief videos for interest generation)
  • A Twitter account (for general short interactions & event/ location postings)
  • A WeChat subscription account (for Chinese interest generation, combination of Twitter & Instagram but for Chinese audiences)

The WeChat account took a while, because unless you’re a Chinese citizen you have to set up a Service account or an official Business account.  But with the help of a Chinese friend, I managed to get this online.

One of the lessons I took away from the Digital Marketing course, was to create a ‘digital marketing strategy’.  So I’ve begun that, and have begun taking note of the different hashtags # that people use to get views on the different social media platforms.

For those that have zero idea what I’m talking about, hashtags # are just like the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) keywords that you have to tag onto your article/ post/ picture/ video, to make sure it is found by the people you want to find it.

I also managed to find the car that I needed for the project, I’ve bought it, and waiting for the transfer to go through, due to Easter long weekend here in Australia, from which I’ll then pick it up.

Still I can’t post any pictures of it yet, but know that I’m very happy because this is a critical thing that was needed for the project to really get underway.

I talked to a friend in Thailand who will help me design a logo for the project too.  We came up with some good ideas together.  So I am interested to see what his graphic designer comes up with.

For the social media side of things, I will still need to make a:

-Facebook page (not because I actually will use it, but because I don’t want someone to make a facebook page and use it as competition)
-Linkedin page (for business to business contacts)
-Weibo page (Chinese microblog website, for outreach to Chinese audiences)
-Bilibili video account (to share youtube videos with Chinese audience)
-Tencent Video account (to share videos easily throughout the Wechat platform)

Oh, I also went to one of my good friend’s wedding this Saturday.  Was really nice.  First time I went to the University of Western Australia, really beautiful setting.  Met a couple of nice people and was great to catch up and celebrate their wedding with them.

And last week, I took delivery of my DJI Osmo Mobile 2, a stabiliser system for your phone so that you can get much smoother pictures and videos when recording with your phone.

I took it for a test run during the week at the beach, and again at the weekend to see a friend’s competition in the Western Australian States Surf Life Saving Carnival.

I’m mid-way through making a little video description and showcase about it, but the titles don’t seem to be working in Premiere Pro at the moment.  So I’ll post that when I can, but in the meantime, here are some pictures.

This little piece of equipment will be invaluable for my project when I finally start.

Here’s a small videos created too.  City Beach Surf Crew trying to catch a way for the finals of the Mens Rowing.

I’ve also written out on my whiteboard of messiness, all the other equipment that I still need to get.  But the plan is for this to be happening in the next 2 weeks, plus, I’ve got 2 videos of backlog stuff I need to get done.

Oh yeah, and a friend and I are working on a separate project together, and he’s set up the emails for that, so we’ve also managed to set up some of the social media needed for that too.  Which is great!  I can imagine 6 months to a year that project will be fully online and running.  Again, I have to be really vague about that project, but just know it will be a lot of fun.

From talking about that separate project, I also managed to think of the text logo for my project.   So I’ll be needed to talk to a Intellectual Property lawyer as soon as the graphic designer comes back with the actual logo, so I can get that all sorted. …It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure.

For books or ‘relaxation’ kind of stuff, I started and finished the Deathless collection.  Nearly 41 hours of listening, and started Inside Delta Force, which so far is a really good listen.

I’ll be going down south with the family at the end of this week to celebrate Christmas.  Yes, that’s right… because in our family, Christmas is just the time that we’re all together.  And that just so happens to be next weekend.

I have to say, it’s really nice working on your own project.  If you enjoy it, you’re happy to work on it as much as possible, which is convenient, because obviously it takes a lot of effort.

Once again, I’m really looking forward to the next 2 weeks.  I’m hoping I can get just as much stuff done as these last 2 weeks.