I don’t have tons of free time for my online business.
I don’t go to many online webinars from the “Pros” … I don’t host them either. I rarely send out e-mails to my list (once a month), barely do interviews or guest posting. I don’t have the time to dedicate those methods to my online business growth right now, and I think most would say those a pretty important ones.
It’s not that I don’t like those methods, or they don’t work, they can and do, but not for me while I’m being cut throat with my time, and holding to building IT Arsenal in only a few hours a day or less.
I focus mainly on those people who buy what I have on the shelf, or might, or have already. When I do promote something or get approached, I make sure I’m the winner for that person and they have the best experience possible. Service is my strength.
I’m just making something more obvious for myself that wasn’t previously. I don’t do a lot of popular business builders right now, or if I do, I ease very slowly into them, and it’s okay, there’s no right way and as shown below I can still earn an income without them.
That is something that is consistently mind blowing about business, it’s a human interaction when generally referenced. That’s it. You provide something, and someone pays you for it. There is no specific set of right ways or wrong ways. It’s also what makes it so difficult to grasp and pin down.
These revelations are landing for me as I’ve been in this (business) space for almost a year and a half down and continue to make sense of online business and what’s working for me right now. A beautiful meeting in Laguna Beach, CA helped grant perspective on doing more of what works helped too.
WHAT’S WORKING
Partnerships – rebranding a sales page, but putting a partners information in a few paragraphs or customizing the pitch to a partners users is special. Do this for someone you’re hopeful to partner with, research their audience a little, and offer a cut. They will love to promote what you’re offering, as long as it looks good. Do as much as you can to help people partner with you, when they grow, you grow. I’ve seen this specifically with 3 partners now! Ashley, Laurie, Cath, and soon Stella. I’m going to try and co-brand a product with Ashley from The Middle Finger Project this year. Sweeeet.
Links links links. Sales links, information links, YouTube links, all that I have produced all with the focus to inform or sell. I put together a quick spreadsheet that has links to all my relevant accounts, and buyable services which is now up to 2 services and 2 products, and it’s absolutely great when someone e-mails with their problem and I have to do nothing then a few words and a link.
Having things on the shelf. It doesn’t really need saying, but it still weighs on me. I see so many people out there interested in online business but they aren’t providing anything. They have NOTHING on the shelf. Things exist because you put them into existence. Patton said a good plan ruthlessly executed right now is better than a perfect plan next week. Actions = results. Put your idea on a page, even if you have nothing to back it up, and put that page out there, deal with the rest when someone tells you they want what you have.
Trading services – I trade tech support for graphic design, coaching, and well…food.
Batching my industry reading and sharing all of my responses via bufferapp.com at one time. I’m my own worst enemy, and sometimes not reading, keeping up with my RSS, or magazines, or friends in the “fields” blogs…it bugs me. I use to try and keep up, which was a losing game. I now schedule time, batch all the “catch up” …and then use bufferapp or buffer which schedules out a stack of responses over the course of a few days as to not overwhelm. In general this has caused much more feedback and interaction.
YouTube – There’s no surprise this is a massive traffic potential. Their new interface, and my revelation that screen casts are big hits with users have my engagement and user interaction way up and actually producing clients and buyers. Is it time for you to look at YouTube as a tool?
Re-occurring payment services. I love this model and I’ve found it works exceptionally well with technical support which can be nebulous in naming convention or issue. Instead covering a broad topic, with specific deliverables for a monthly fee. It creates freedom in my schedule, and re-occurring income.
Tools
- Hellobar.com
- WordPress Plugins/Themes – Contact Form 7, Slidedeck, Platform Pro
- ScheduleOnce.com
- PayPal Re-occurring products – Mentioned above
- FollowUpThen – I’ve mentioned this before, and now use it to make sales. After I’ve worked with someone I schedule a follow up e-mail for a week or two later with a custom note to check in and a link to a service I think they could use.
- Affiliate Systems – I’m starting to sign up and become an affiliate for each system/service I use. I copy/paste my affiliate links into a spreadsheet and have them on call, I find I can easily patch them in on e-mails in social media when and ONLY when they come up organically as a need for someone.
There’s nothing revolutionary, but the difference is being on the court, not in the stands with what I’m building. Critical mass continues to build, and I’m excited for my next stand alone product and more slow growth. It seems to be my mode of operation and with how many hours I have (or don’t have) to put forward, I’m fine with that. I’m having more fun than I recently have.
INCOME/BUSINESS REPORT
- 2011 Income – $19,170
- 2011 Business Expenses $1913 (I have to verify this, there might have been other purchases that I use for business and personal use)
- Jan 2012 – $2140 (Great start, I want to double this monthly as my overall online business goal, but still, great start)
- Jan Website Traffic 1427/1258 Unique
- Jan Product Sales – 3
- Jan Service Sales – 4
- Jan Service Sales Re-occuring – 5
- Jan Affiliate Sales – 8
This year’s goal is 32k from IT Arsenal and I’m very hopeful
I love what I’m doing and I actually feel like I’m making a real difference for people, how touchy feely and awesome.
2012 Dreamlines (still developing)
I’ve simplified this to a spreadsheet with being, having, doing, with status, comment, monthly cost. I review it weekly, those who want to accomplish big things, review their goals often. I’m not so concerned about my other living costs currently as I want to pay for and sustain my dreams and goals with my business and the income is on top of a full time job income. When that changes, I’ll incorporate living needs.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avg9sbYSEUyFdFZOOXZ3d0c5bmVjWGRudUE1Mi1yOEE