While I have been posting fairly regularly on my influences and tactics, I haven’t stopped to reflect in detail or report on the internals of IT Arsenal, or my business efforts online, here’s a recap on what’s worked this year, what hasn’t, where I’ve been challenged, and the numbers.
Recap, State of Business
IT Arsenal has been slow to grow but has always grown, while that’s not exciting, it’s satisfying. At the start, clarity was a constant struggle, ideas vs execution. It was made up of nearly all services, trading time for money, cloudy in terms of portraying what the business does, and very little effort put into any sort of public reach.
I continue to see that the more obvious and simple an offer is, the more a decision is forced on the user to love or hate something, the better an idea fails or succeeds. Yes, ideas can fail better than others. I want an idea that sucks to be over and gone as quickly as possible.
As it stands now, monthly memberships reign as the biggest money maker, with services, and then products last. It’s not the ideal ratios for freedom, but improving, and the services are heavily systematized with forms and e-mails. I’m constantly working on how to make it more clear on what problems IT Arsenal solves, and it’s paying off. People are purchasing on the website or submitting clear problem requests.
I recently edited my about page and introduced myself as “Batman for business technology problems”. You’ll never stop molding how you are perceived, but doing it gradually is important.
I think I’ve seen the biggest improvements over the last year in homepage focus, newsletter signups (I actually send them out now) and clear visuals. I’ve had improved income month to month, and I ignore more ideas for services and products now more than ever. I didn’t think that would make a positive difference but it certainly has, it can’t be expressed how much you need to make clear and simple what you want to offer. The problem, the solution, your ideal user, how you stand out. They need to be refined over and over, and it seems like only the heat of going through the motions, of experience, of trying to sell, asking questions, and “digging in” will do it.
In the beginning years I constantly felt like I had to do “just a few more things” before I was a business, before I could feel “legitimate” – that is now gone. It’s not because I have actually finished that “thing”, or have a certain number of blog posts. I’ve realized that the feeling was holding me back, and there was nothing substantial to it.
I loved and still love helping but courting a potential user was more difficult in how things were a year ago, in terms of the language I used, the e-mails I got, the visuals and my “presence” ….through tons of small changes, continued networking, it’s gotten easier. I can do more with less, and while I still am making little effort at marketing, sales are easier to make.
It’s funny how business stretches and molds a person, continually building experience but in terms of actual products or services, they either work or they don’t, there’s very little stretch space. The quicker you can throw something out and build something else is super important. Gut check yourself often.
Reach is on the up, I’m not necessarily generating more free content, but interacting more. I’ve noticed users publicly mention IT Arsenal on a small but consistent level.
I also have an intern and another interested in learning the systems and how I coordinate the day to day operations at IT Arsenal.
What’s Working
- Homepage – Strong newsletter offer above the fold, works.
- Monthly membership – It really works for technical support if you can’t define down to an explicit problem and answer to have a continuity working agreement.
- Gravity Forms [WP plugin] – designing interaction, gathering information with questions vs an empty box. Learn about your users at every turn, auto responses.
- Newsletter – I’m actually sending one, not just collecting. I was an idiot to not get really familiar with this process years ago. Asking for response, the first e-mail in my newsletter asks for a quick response, and those who do respond, get an immediate reply.
- Build Your Own Request – It’s helped great to send users who have some sort of “special” need right to a form that forces them to answer specific questions.
- Case Studies – Users love to know that they have been heard, and payed attention to! [Case Study: When to Contact the Developer (featuring @jonathanmead and @matharuajay) – IT Arsenal http://bit.ly/QXdaGZ]
- Timer – Datexx Cube
- Vacation – I had so much clarity after taking a prolonged break, I came back and stopped bad habits almost immediately.
- YouTube Screencasts – More video has increased my traffic and interaction.
- ManageWP – This tool helps me manage multiple websites
- Buffer – Allows for batch social media posting, has helped with “reach”
- Google Doc for active projects [template I use]
- Evernote for task management
- Screenshots for posting on social media of happy users
- Boomerang for customer service
- Using a Gravity Form in place of invoicing of any kind [I send them here and tweak the link so they don’t have to enter their name or price – http://itarsenal.com/services-shop/concierge/service-concierge-approved-service-payment/?first=FIRST&last=LAST&title=TITLE&price=PRICE&email=EMAIL]
What’s Not Working
- Too little creation time.
- No accountability. [just started a weekly call to remedy this!]
- Not being interested in others content more than my own.
- The Facebook feedback guild I created is just about dead, 70 members, almost no responses.
- Not enough marketing – IT Arsenal needs more attention, more feedback so there’s more user interaction time and less time shuffling ideas in Evernote.
- Wasting time on things that don’t really matter. [which you realize after reflecting each week and asking, if I could only accomplish 2 things today, what would they be?]
Challenges
- Writing regularly – I have a massive store of posts I’d like to write, but I never write them.
- Community – Groups I’m involved in are either non-responsive, or I’m not involved enough.
- Discipline – Ignoring your new ideas so you can execute on your half finished ones.
One of the most constant struggles is to stop paying attention to the chatter, current users who have already had attention, and all the open windows and instead make what’s working better, something new, or stop doing what isn’t working.
Numbers
Compared to last year
- 44.44% More traffic this year that last year
- Over $5k ahead of last year, and twice as many transactions with 2 months left in 2012
- 160 new newsletter signups
Plans
Continued growth, obviously, but more turn over of ideas, more exposure and reach.
A refinement of the categories in which IT Arsenal operates, including the presentation of these solution areas. If I were a TV station, these would make up my programming, all services, products, and posts fit into these areas, mostly the essentials. [draft mockups below]
Increased focus on iteration and scaling and automation/efficiency.
I’ll be introducing a new product in the sales system realm, a course on image creation/hacking, revamping the WP trainer, and releasing a new service for e-mail setup.
I also have commitments to be more involved in a few communities, and hopefully garner some more exposure on the web for social proof. All this will be underway by the end of the year, and complete half way into next. I have bigger income goals, and am actually excited to blog. It took a while, but after carving out the categories I want to blog about, it seems more purposeful, and less “shotgun in the dark”.
I’m ready for the fire.