ExitLab – Week 6
Online business maintenance sounds boring, right?
It does — until your hosting provider sends a security warning and WordPress greets you with alerts.
Suddenly, “maintenance” doesn’t feel so dull anymore.
This week in the ExitLab wasn’t about growth.
It was about stability.
It started with an email suggesting that my website may have been compromised.
“May.”
Just enough uncertainty to make you pay attention.
Nothing dramatic happened.
But when you’re building an online business, even the possibility matters.
Instead of reacting emotionally, I slowed down.
Assessed. Updated. Verified.
Just process.
Earlier this week, I finally connected Google Analytics and Search Console properly to the site.
Verifying ownership.
Adjusting settings.
Making sure the data flows.
It took longer than expected — as these things usually do.
A few days later, Search Console reported that not all pages were being indexed correctly.
Some pages were excluded. Others flagged as duplicates.
In short: the structure needs refinement.
Installing tools is easy.
Understanding what they reveal takes time.
And maybe that’s what this week made clear: building an online business means stepping out of hobby mode and into ownership.
There was more.
I tried connecting Spring to Instagram Shop to enable direct purchases. After some research, I discovered the feature isn’t available in my country.
Time spent. Lesson learned.
I also experimented with mockups and short-form video.
Choosing the right visual. Testing effects. Adjusting timing. Matching music to a five-second clip.
Small things on the surface.
Surprisingly time-consuming in practice.
For a moment, I considered adding TikTok as a marketing channel for Once a Rebel.
But the more I worked with it, the clearer it became: this would demand consistent mental bandwidth I’m not ready to allocate right now.
So I decided not to pursue it — at least for now.
Because building an online business isn’t about being everywhere.
It’s about focusing on what you can sustain.
Online business maintenance isn’t only about security and indexing.
It’s about deciding where your attention goes.
What you improve.
What you postpone.
What you deliberately ignore.
No visible breakthroughs this week.
But the foundation is stronger.
Online business maintenance isn’t glamorous.
It doesn’t create headlines.
It doesn’t generate instant growth.
But it’s the difference between hoping it works and actually working on it.
This week wasn’t about scaling.
It was about taking it seriously.
One week left of Project 1.
No predictions.
Just one more week of consistent work – and an honest review of what it led to.