How My Eyes Have Been Opened

During my experiments with media buying, it became more and more apparent that traffic is not the only problem with my business.  One of the other major issues is reliable income.  In the background since October, I've been working on a membership site that would address that problem.  I had actually started the media buying in order to see if I would be able to get traffic for the site before I went all out on it.

Unlike my other sites, the membership site was going to be my "go big or go home" attempt.  No more fighting with other affiliates for scraps - I wanted it to be a nationally known brand before I was finished.  However, with the learning curve that is inherent in learning media buying I wasn't able to test the market before building the site, paying for logo, content, etc.

Then I received an email from a certain marketer.  I'd purchased a few products from him a long time ago and I guess he decided to start emailing again.  To make a long story short, there were two products he was offering.  One covered how to build large authority sites and the other covered the membership site model.  It was in the second course that I realized how far from having an effective business structure I truly am.  One of the modules discussed how to properly structure the business so that you are managing rather than being the one to actually do the labor as well as how to set things up from Day One so that the business could be sold eventually.

HUGE eye opener!

I knew that my business was not headed where I wanted it to be.  When people asked what I do for the business, it was always hard to explain it to them.  IM is still very weird and strange to most people.  However, lately the problem has been that there are too many directions that I've been headed in.  Even with the new focus that I discussed awhile back, I've definitely narrowed things down but there isn't a singular mission.

So, last night I made an org chart.  Yes, my name is in most of the positions but I'll be replacing me with others as things go.  Next, I will create a business model for the new site and nothing happens other than processes that further the business model.  The sole exception will be my main money site.  I have an email newsletter I send out three times a week and that is the sole source of income for the business right now.  I will continue to make those newsletters, however, even that will change.  One of my workers is now tasked with gathering the information for the emails so that all I have to do is put it into Aweber.

Once the business model is complete, I will look at each step to identify my strengths, weaknesses, the things I like to do and the things I don't.  The weaknesses and the things I don't like will be passed off to workers or outsourced.  I will also look for other ways to systematize and automate so I can repeat the process in another market later.

Next, I will determine a clear goal for income.  In the course, it said that you need to set a salary for yourself and include that as one of the monthly expenses.  With that added and including other expenses, the site will need to bring in $198 gross/day.  Let's round that up to $200.  If the membership is priced at $27/month, that is a minimum 223 members.  Rounding up, that is about 8 members per day to reach that in the first month.  That's not outlandish.

Tonight, I will go to 99Designs or another similar site to get the logo made.  I have already posted a job listing for 20 articles to be created and the inquiries are flooding in=)


One business model, one focus.