What's New

So far, I'm not extraordinarily thrilled with my new employee. He may not last the probationary period.

Other aspects of the business are looking up. I just hired a graphic designer to do some work on a Wordpress theme I bought for use on 3 of the 4 sites in my plan. I have also developed 10 autoresponder messages for one of the markets. The other three already have autoresponders set up and ready to go.

The temptation is still there for trying to use PPC to drive traffic. Maybe I'll use MSN to start out with. The markets are large enough that I should be able to get traffic through their system and it won't be as expensive as through Yahoo or Google.

The product launch as done well especially considering the size of the market. I plan, eventually, to retool the product and place it in several much larger markets at a higher price. I know it would do well. I don't think it would take me that long to do either.

Other than that, I'm just going to focus on working the plan.

The Goal: Have the Capability to Go Fulltime in March 2010
Once I hit the necessary number for being able to go fulltime, I may stay at work for a couple more months just to save up a little emergency spending fund.

Necessary Exit Income: $225/Day Profit Consistently
It's such a small number but I've turned it into a monumentous thing. Putting the number on a pedestal is probably part of the reason why I haven't made it yet.

"Shooting for the Stars" Income Goal: $400/Day Profit Consistently
They say that you should shoot for something that you consider to be outlandish when trying to achieve a goal. My outlandish goal is going to be $400/Day Profit.

The big thing is that if I pull an average of $100/Day from the 4 markets, this goal is accomplished!

While my product niche is pretty small, I've hit $100/Day on a semi-regular basis when I was in the #3 spot on Google for the main keyword. With the plan that I'm going to have an employee implement (probably not this current employee), I should be able to get to that point.

The other three markets are big enough that I'm tempted to just tell you what they are. However, nearly 5 years of being told never to reveal your market screams "NO!"=) Anyway, each of the other 3 markets are capable of well over $500/Day each. The amount of traffic for a single keyword is often more than the entire markets for my product put together.

This should be easy as long as I get a decent employee to help make things happen.

The Death Throes of a Business?

Of the last few months, my business has been on life support in the ICU. I can't even begin to tell you all of the mistakes I've made this year. Needless to say, they've cost me BIG.

But I've also learned some very important lessons:

1. I don't learn lessons very well - Even the pain for thousands of dollars in PPC losses wasn't able to make me change my practices and temper my impatience.
2. My problem isn't lack of knowledge, it's lack of implementation - I have some AWESOME cutting edge ideas. However, I get bored and never bring them to fruition before moving on to the next "great idea".
3. My period of "Focus" was too unfocused - Even though I decided to focus on PPC -> Clickbank affiliate products, that was still too unfocused. I need to focus on a hand full of sites and get them to max profitability, then move on to the next handful.
4. Impatience has cost me my freedom - I was supposed to quit this year but being too impatient about doing so resulted in forcing me to stay in my job.
   
5. I can't do this alone.

I've probably learned more this year than in the previous 3. That's both in tactical and strategic terms.

Now the strategy is different. With the business almost being ready to move out of the ICU, things HAVE to change for me to make this work.

The new strategy:

1. Focus on 4 markets and 4 markets ONLY.
2. Build traffic through SEO practices.
3. Build a list.
4. Later develop a product in each market.
5. Once the 4 markets are generating enough to let me hit my Exit Income (at least $225/day profit consistently & sustainably), I move on to the next 4 markets.
   

I will follow this strategy religiously. As I've learned, implementation is not my strong suit. I'm more of an ideaman and leader. Rather than fight my nature and make myself be an implementor, I'm going to take the wise advice of the E-Myth and Tim Ferriss.

I should be working ON my business, not IN it.

I DON'T want to be building another job for myself - I'm doing this to be free.

So in order to make this happen, I had to do something drastic....

On November 20, 2009, I hired my first fulltime employee!