It's been a very long time since the last post - April to be exact. I could not let the end of the year pass without at least posting once. So much has happened this year, both good and bad.
I lost my grandfather and an uncle within months of each other.
But I gained a wife and a new family!
All in all, things have been good.
I've been working in the job that I took back in June 2012. It was supposed to only be until August 2012, then October, then November. Then it became indefinite - until 2 weeks ago. I told my boss about my business! Not all of it, just that I do "web development" and that I wanted to be on her side of the table (boss) rather than on mine (employee). Being an entrepreneur with several businesses, she understands and has been very supportive. We worked out that I would go part-time with the job in the Spring 2014.
That will continue to provide an income stream while giving me more time to work on The Business.
How has the Business been? It depends on your perspective. Income is at an all time low. I do not think it has been this low since before I created my first product back in 2006. However, there has been a HUGE shift.
I've culled all but two of my sites! The one with my main products on it and my new weight loss venture. That's it. I don't work on any other sites and I barely work on the main one. I have been experimenting with this weight loss site and things are looking very good.
I hired writers. Not writers who speak English as their second language; American and British writers. They do not do one off articles but are part of the team. I pay them more than I ever thought I would for an article and the quality shows. They love to write and have churned out 1-3 articles every week since July 2013!
Every week!
The content on the site is top-notch; something that I can be proud to show to others. That content has brought visitors without any real marketing yet. We've had 125 uniques this month without doing ANY SEO or paid advertising. That number is small but I think it is great considering that all we have done is put out good content.
Here's where things get really interesting. The model that I have developed using this weight loss site can be transferred to my old sites that are still around or I could jump into major markets with brand new sites. The writers are doing the heavy lifting to get the content going on a regular basis to develop the audience. This lets me focus on product development and marketing - exactly where my focus should be. It's very exciting but I'm staying focused. Before taking this model to another market, the weight loss site needs to hit $10k profit/month. That would let me feel comfortable enough to invest in another market.
Getting to that $10k is not going to be as tough as it sounds. The first product for the weight loss site is almost ready. The initial autoresponder sequence is almost ready. The opt-in forms are complete. I just need to make the sales page for the product and the download pages for the free report and product. Then it will be time to launch.
No more Google or even Bing for ads. We are going to go Facebook and banner ads. That will be a tricky transition but I know it will work. Also, I will be piggy-backing on the following of existing personalities in the market to help build the following for the weight loss site by paying for guest posts. That's right. Rather than trying to siphon traffic from someone else's site, I will find those who already have a following and pay them to write a piece or two for my site. Part of the contract will be that they announce on social media or their site (or both) that they created a post for my site. That should draw their crowd to us.
Things are good. I just need to keep the focus and do the heavy lifting necessary to start the launch. I have been procrastinating about writing the sales letter and uploading the autoresponder sequence. I just need to man up.
