In Module 7, Alex advised us to review our plans and, based on our results to this point, determine how to revise them.

In my case, there was an urgent reason to do so: my original plan has not worked. Going through my notes, I see that the way I stated it was such that it was not results-oriented. The actions I considered were rather focused on implementing the tools of the trade. For instance, I said “Set up Google Analytics on your blog” but there was no indication on what I would be getting from GA…

In order to come up with a better approach this time, I consulted my ever-increasing library of e-books to find the following list of basics for a sound business plan:

1. Know your target market Here, perhaps, is the main reason for my dismal results: not having identified an audience with a specific need.
2. Have a product or service to sell to that market In addition to the profit pulling platforms given by Alex, creating my own e-book is essential to the growth of my business. Choosing the subject for my e-book would be much easier if I knew who my potential audience would be. Alex himself has given (actually, reminded me of) a hint: “Write about your own progress; write about what you have learned”.
3. Determine your advertising budget So far I have used free methods only, but how about the time I have invested? Shouldn’t I be willing to pay for advertising?
4. Determine your overall expense budget Well, it’s all been expenses until today. I have an idea: beyond determining how much to spend in a weekly or monthly basis, I will factor in the results the projected business growth; for instance, I could say: “I’ll spend XX dollars per month to get YY more persons into my list”. That would mean another step toward accountability.
5. Have a realistic income projection That should be easy, considering anything above $0.00 would do! I’ve been attending Rob Canyon’s Double Click Blueprint webinars and I’ve figured out a target income to start, at least for the end of the month: $100 by October 31^st.
6. Decide on your marketing strategy I’ve been given the formula: Give out good content for free, build your list, then email market to it.
7. Determine your production strategy (consider outsourcing) This is in regard to the product or service in item 2. Being a first for me, I’d like to make it myself.
8. Make a unique selling proposition My marketing proposition must present a specific benefit and it must be unique (not my words, I got them from Wikipedia…) My blog and personal broadcast messages should help with the ‘unique’ side; the ‘specific benefit’ will keep me thinking for a while.

To answer the question that titles this post: It has to be a redo!

I had slowed down (actually, stopped) posting on my blog lately… After the “25 Things” post, which was a challenge, I have been busy trying to figure out how to drive traffic to my blog.

I’ve chosen two forums for my endeavor: the Warrior Forum, which is one of the widest-known places in the IM field, and Associate Programs.com. I’m sure there might be other places where to go, but for the sake of simplicity, I decided to keep my efforts within comprehensible boundaries.

I started by choosing the threads that were most recently started and also had the fewest replies, my rationale being that if I got in them early, more later-to-come readers would go through my reply and hence see the links in my signature. Also, if the topic was started as a call for help, I could fulfill the need of the topic starter and make a head-start toward his/her confidence.

But lately I have started to participate in threads that have plenty of replies, considering that there would be more of a chance for my reply to be seen given the interest the thread generated. That is, provided long threads are read and the topic maintains that interest…

In any case, going through the forums has turned out to be learning opportunity and it has also confirmed what Alex said in one of the modules: that we can be a little bit ahead of others and thus be of their help.