Still Missing the Final Piece

The Machine is almost complete. Actually, the day after I said I had all of my employees set, my superstar-to-be writer resigned for personal reasons. Since then, I've been looking for a new writer. Even so, the current Machine is a beast. Here are some developments:

• Went from #5 to #3 for the main keyword on my 1st product site
• Went from #5 to #1 for my main product keyword
• Have seen shifts in rankings (both up and down) across the board on the pages for which the employees are building backlinks
• One employee is skilled enough to be able to take audio I create, edit it, and create videos!!!
• Have made progress getting my main site to Wordpress (WP)

Looking at how things are going, I REALLY want to pick up another writer so that I can complete the plan. The final writer will build backlinks in higher volumes and will help generate content for the sites and future products. The Machine is shaping up to be exactly what I was looking for all along!

I also had a startling revelation while trying to convert my main product site to WP. My monetization of pages is horrible! Yes, my landing pages for my products are ok, however, the rest of the pages on my sites do a very bad job of leading the customer into any type of sales funnel. In fact, I found several pages that were ranked in the top 5 on Google for the main keyword that didn't have ANY monetization whatsoever!

- FAIL -

So, part of this transition to WP is to monetize my site properly. Every page should be selling something. I'm also going to test an experiment. I'm going to add the sales video from my salesletter directly on to relevant content pages with an order button beneath it. I'm going to see if I can make sales directly in this manner.

That's all for now.

Enter The Machine

Am I built for this?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself; am I truly built to be in this business? I mean it’s been 6 years now and I’m still not doing this full time. Nearly everyone who started at the same time as I did has quit. Yet, I recently found Jon from the Art of Money and he’s still at it. Not only is he still at it, but he is a full time Internet Marketer.

What did he do differently than I did?

He was focused. He had a plan, he worked hard, and he stuck to it.

That’s not me. I develop plans like they’re going out of style. I work hard. However, sticking to it is the issue.

Toward the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 I started to see the truth. I’m built to create ideas, to develop direction for my business. I’m not the type that can turn the bolt on the line though. As I said before, I’m not built to be a worker bee.

Back then, I only tested the waters of having an employee. The reality is that I did not use my employee’s talent to the fullest extent. That has all changed.

In the past few days, I’ve hired 3 employees. Two are new and one has worked for me previously. I’m going to train them and develop a system to turn this business into a machine.

I will provide the input in the form of market research and keywords.

The Machine will create the content.

The Machine will create the backlinks.

The Machine will do the social marketing (eventually).

I will provide the ideas for the products.

The Machine will create the products.

Two of the new employees are pretty good writers. One of those writers is skilled enough with PowerPoint and video editing that she will be able to get things set up so that all I have to do is add my voice to the videos.

The Machine was constructed faster than expected because my Coach forced my hand. In our first coaching call, he gave me a specific direction on how to generate traffic. It’s complete unconventional and guerilla. The thing about the method, though, is that it would take ALL of my time. If I wanted new content for my sites and backlinks, I had to find others to do it for me.

The difference between The Machine and myself is that The Machine will stay focused until I tell it to do otherwise. It will work on a site without being distracted by “bright, shiny objects”. All I have to do is point The Machine in the right direction and let it work.

Two full time employees and one part timer = 20 extra hours of focused work per week

In Special Forces terms, I’ve become a force multiplier.

I’ve already started training one employee on blog comments. Not only did she review the training materials, but she went out and created 8 blog comments as practice without me asking her to!

For the next 2-3 months, all my employees will do is work on my two main product sites. Those two sites alone have enough potential to give me a decent full time income after expenses.

I believe in The Machine.