Let's Talk - Where Are You With Your Online Business?

[jmmoore321]

I started my blog as a "for fun" project with my sister-in-law, not really intending to grow a business out of it. But with some hard work and good luck we've managed to make full-time income off of our ebook and selling some affiliate products.

I feel ready to take things to the next level but find it hard to balance keeping up with our current post schedule, managing customer support issues, product updates, etc. and still have time to do more traffic generation.

Not to mention trying to do all this while pregnant and with two little ones at home. It's hard but I love it! I am able to make more with my blog than my husband's full time job and I am still at home with my kids every day. It has been life changing to have this kind of success and now I just want MORE.

[tlxreed]

It's embarrassing to say I haven't made any progress. I see myself having three problems. One is no product to sell. Since many digital products are about how to make money selling digital products, I find myself reluctant to join in a cavalcade of similar products a large subset of which I find worth less than the pixels they are created with. Basically, I haven't found a product to sell or create that I feel enthusiastic about, feel I am adding value and so forth. So, no product.
Second, no process. I've studied a lot of material about marketing tactics, so I know quite a bit about stuff to do. Many processes I've learned still leave relevant portions of the process up to the learner to figure out. A lot of it is technical problems I run into while working on websites, for instance.
Third is a feeling of disconnect. When I'm working in the material world, there's real events and things to react to. When I'm working in the digital world, I find it much easier to lose focus. There's simply infinite amounts of content and at the same time, I am working primarily on a computer, not with people, places or things directly. So, there's a bit of a disconnect. Basically I never got connected to any person or groups where I felt a sense of comraderie and support in this process much less connection with a potential audience.

[Terry G]

Hi Lynn,
I'm just starting and it's tough getting things off the ground. I work 3rd's and have been putting in a lot of OT lately (a necessity when you're at the $9.00 an hour level) and I'm too tired to open the laptop. However, things are starting to normalize at work and I'll be able to better organize my time. Hey look, I actually replied to your e-mail when a month ago I would have filed under "I gotta look at this...later."
Terry

[Matthew Scarlett]

I don't know which way to vote Lynn. Since your piece on my site headphonedeals.org, as you may remember I went on to start another site called fakeheadphones.com, which deals with the massive problem of counterfeit headphones on the market.

Fakeheadphones has taken off, and I now have sponsorship from one of the biggest name in the audio industry, 'THE' biggest headphone (and one of the biggest audio) manufacturers' wants to start a 'fakheadphones.com' in there own country under my watchful eye, and the biggest and most reputable headphone store headphone.com has given me a reciprocal link and is backing my.... cause!

However, I’m struggling to turn lots of traffic into money. Despite my traffic increase many times, my income remains the same??? It is a very niche market, and I never had thoughts of grandeur as to the income, but a bit more would be nice.

As to my stats, between my blog and forum, I'm hoping to get 80,000 page views this month.

blog stats so far this month: 20th March 2010

http://fakeheadphones.com/wp-content...blog-stats.png

forum stats so far:

http://fakeheadphones.com/wp-content...orum-stats.png

[Engage]

Not to mention trying to do all this while pregnant and with two little ones at home. It's hard but I love it! I am able to make more with my blog than my husband's full time job and I am still at home with my kids every day. It has been life changing to have this kind of success and now I just want MORE.

Wow, very impressive! You go gal!

[Lynn Terry]

I don't know if it is the same thing exactly, but I know that since starting looking for product and article niches in early Feb I have found, started, then dropped projects several times. For me part of that is the learning process I think, and part is not being entirely sure how to develop the market.

Hey Bill,

This is common, and it's good that you're learning from the process - but you'll learn most by taking one of those projects all the way from start to profit. That way you can learn what works and what doesn't, get a feel for what you enjoy doing and what doesn't come easy for you, etc. Follow one of those through and you'll learn tons!

[Lynn Terry]

I can't help but wonder, how do you not beat yourself up when you don't get a blog post up, not spending enough time on social networks, or haven't emailed your list in a while or is ALMOST done with this and that???? I hate having that feeling.

Hey Kimmoy,

I understand why you're frustrated with the pace. I think we all want to "get it done now" (as in: yesterday!). That's just human nature I think. I have the gift of hindsight - and knowing that every (small) task completed gets me one step closer to the goal.

It's tough when you're right in the middle of it and there seem like a million little tasks to do, but getting them done - whether you do it, or outsource it - is the only way to get there.

Once you get everything up and running, you'll want to create a schedule or calendar of the tasks that it takes to run & maintain your business. That will keep you on task, and also make it easy to outsource certain elements when you're ready.

And then every now and then you'll want to update that task schedule and calendar, as your business grows and changes. That's what I'm in the process of doing right now!

[Lynn Terry]

First, I need to duplicate his model, and document it thoroughly. (Maybe there's a book in there somewhere, too.) Once I've done that, I might be able to improve on it. But I'm not going into this thinking that I can improve on anything until I have practiced what works for him.

Sounds like a great starting point!

[Lynn Terry]

My biggest challenge has been the technical aspects of trying to put together a website. I know nothing about coding and have tried numerous wordpress themes to try and find something that would just be workable for me. I have tried several free themes and a couple paid themes, but just couldn't figure out how to get them to work. I even tried paid tech help, but maybe that was a bit premature because I wasn't very good about knowing what to ask them to do. So that was kind of wasted money.

That's a big hurdle for a lot of people, Sandy - you're certainly not alone. I'm actually doing a live call with Christina Hills next week. I met her in Atlanta awhile back and she teaches a workshop so that people can learn all the technical things with WordPress.

Most people find it really difficult in the beginning, but once you learn it really is quite easy. That's what her workshop does - takes you from beginning to end. If you're interested you can listen in. The sign up link is:

http://www.websitecreationworkshop.com/lynn/

Either way, just keep at it - and let us know if you have any questions, whether it be about making changes or hiring someone to help you!

[Lynn Terry]

One reason for the timing is that the company where I have my day job is doing poorly, and I expect that day job to go away in about a year, maybe less.

Good incentive to make it happen!