Am I Built for This? Part II

I was on to something around this time last year. Through similar soul searching as I've been going through lately, I came to the conclusion that seems to be correct...

I'm not a worker bee.

Worker bees can do the same thing, over and over without issue. I can't do that. I get bored. I come up with new ideas and I'm quickly lead astray to follow those ideas.

I'm the alpha male.

I'm the lion with the mane.

I'm the pack leader.

I'm Miracle Ingredient Z-247.

My solution was that rather than fighting my nature, I should embrace it. CEOs are the idea guys, not worker bees. So, in order to facilitate my non-worker bee status I hired employees. However, due to a number of circumstances I had to let them both go.

It's time to return to the idea of having employees - people that can work full time on specific aspects of my business that need attention but get neglected by me. Things like link building fit the bill. What I need to do is create a machine. A machine that addresses each aspect of a specific business plan and assigns those aspects to worker bees.

The business model I plan to use is very simple:
1. Build Wordpress blogs in high traffic, highly competitive markets.
2. Get content ranked and build lists from SEO traffic.
3. Promote affiliate products until my own products are ready.

Of course, I've broken this down into more steps; specifically 15 steps. Of those 15 steps, seven are ones that need my direct influence. The rest would be handled by worker bees.

I envision eventually taking myself out of the machine with the exception of only the beginning steps of market research. The machine will be able to take the market and information I provide to build and maintain these sites. Before starting the full construction of the machine, I need more income. So, for the foreseeable future I'm going to work on traffic for my two main product sites.

I'm currently in talks with a former employee about her coming back to work for me again. I will also hire one more person as a link builder. The content needed to generate the traffic is already on these sites, I just need to get that content ranked higher.

I'm also in the process of converting my first product site over to Wordpress. It will be a vast improvement and will be able to take advantage of all of the fun WP SEO plugins out there.

That's where things stand right now.

Am I Built for This?

The longer I'm in this business, the more desperate I become to make it work. I know that a lot of people will say that desperation is good...

That desperation will make you go further...

Push harder...

I know longer think that's the case. The more I look at my behavior over the past 6 years, the more I realize that desperation has made me soft. I say I put in hard work, but am I really doing that? I say that I'm doing all that I can, but is that really the truth?

I think not.

Analyzing my behavior, I can clearly see that since 2008 - when I REALLY decided that I wanted to go full time with this business - I've been looking for easier and easier methods to make it happen. I continue to make deadline after deadline for achieving my exit income. I make plan after plan while my attention span for each continues to get shorter and shorter.

I've gone from being dedicated and realistic about achieving success to making ridiculous timelines for "making it work"; then I become disappointed when it doesn't happen.

I don't stick with anything long enough to see it to fruition and my income shows the ugly result of my lack of focus.

I can't do this anymore...

At least not the way that I have been.

I had my taxes done last night. While I was sitting in the office and talking with my tax friend, Jan (she does my taxes every year), the numbers made everything crystal clear.

I've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on advertising, on testing new markets as an affiliate, and on "guidance and education". But at the end of the day, the ONLY sources of real profit were my main product site and some old Adsense sites I built in the very beginning of this journey!

Throw away all of the testing new markets with PPC and CPV, and it was blindingly obvious what was my only real, consistent, proven, and reliable source of income - my own products and Adsense. Not CPA offers, not affiliate promotions outside of the market of my main site, not offering services to other marketers. None of that!

Jan said it so plainly that it literally hurt to hear it....

"Why don't you just stick to that (creating products)?"

Why?

Because it's not as exciting...

Because it's not as "fast"...

Because it's "way too slow" for my ridiculous timelines, goals, and deadlines...

And yet, if I had just turned off all of the noise. If I had only said to myself in 2006, "I'm just going to make products", I wouldn't be writing this post.

The "fast" methods have ALL let me down.

The sad irony is that the "Not fast enough" way was and is the ONLY way to make it.

I'm fan of always telling people that all of the things you hear about for making money work.

Article marketing works...

PPC works...

PPV works...

SEO works...

But when it comes to ME, the truth is that there is one thing that works. Making products, getting rankings in Google, building my list, and selling products through the list.

That's it! That's been the more reliable, most stable, most profitable method for me out of EVERYTHING.

It's not quick. It's not exciting. But it works.

The 80/20 Rule has been ignored for too long and at my own expense.


So, where do I go from here?

Well, I have 5 products currently - 3 in my main niche and 2 in other niches. That's where I start. I have a coach now who I KNOW gets results. Hopefully, I let him keep me honest about how much effort I'm actually putting in.

I throw out the deadlines.
I unsubscribe from everyone's list with the exception of 2 people.
I dedicate time each day to REAL SEO work.
I stop chasing the dragon.


This is going to be interesting.