IT’S ALIVE: Business Launch

OK, it has been awhile….  So 5 key points to catch up:

1. I completed the prototype phase of the new business (which lasted about 6 months), and I think rather successfully. I received a fair amount of feedback on the site, class content, etc etc. Enough positive feedback to make me confident to invest a bit more $ into relaunching the site as a membership model.

2. A membership model? Yes. It was always my ideal. Selling online training (the core of the new biz) is a great opportuity for the holy grail of business models: those that create renewable/predictable revenue streams!

3. I hired a small agency to help with the overhaul and membership model ecommerce system.  The agency is one with a great blog I had been reading for sometime.  Why not work with the freelancer who did the original WP site? Because he didn’t seem that interested.  My last real request to him was to help update the banner–which looked really amateurish. he seemed to think it was fine.  Really?? Then either we have such different expectations or he just wasn’t paying attention–either way, it disqualified him from being considered for the work. (Hint to web design freelancers: if a client tells you they think something needs improvement, at least offer a thoughtful option–don’t just brush it off.  Give an idea and advise your client what the fee would be to implement it).

4. The new design effort had its fair shares of ups and downs.  Finding and selecting membership software was a pain. We started down one path, discovered a critical limitation, and ended up switching at the last minute. Not a huge deal in terms of $$$, but did lose a few days of time. The end reuslts was much better though (aMember was the final solution–and I am very happy with it).

5. I launched the new site 1 week ago, and memberships are rolling in. OK, free memberships so far…but I am confident that paid levels will start soon.  So far I am marketing just to my existing network and my twitter followers (almost 700 now!).  I will start Google adwords etc next week.

I am: excited, hopeful, scared, revenue-hungry, proud, ready.

Two Months later….update on new business development

Quick update:

1. Been head-down creating content for the new biz. It is taking much longer to create each of the online courses than I expected. I have 7 courses done now, but 2 more are ready to be narrated.

2. The web site that I thougth was ok, and that friends and business pals also liked, has gotten some negative feedback recently. And the specific poitns are good ones. Argh. So now I am about to hire a new agency to re-do. $2,500.

3. The days evaporate. I an not believe it is the end of June.

4. I am nowhere near my revenue generation goals…. I had to “give” myself some money to extend my development time.

5. My current thinking is that as soon as I have 20 courses complete, I will evolve to a membership basis and then turn on Google Adwords.

6. Twitter and LinkedIn continue to be good sources of networking, but not lead gen.

My feelings right now are tired, disappointed, but still confident in the basic business plan.

My name is Kathryn and I’m A Social Networking Addict

Been heads down the past few weeks working on content creation (kinda important since that’s my product!) and social networking.

OHMYGOD social networking is the ultimate form of procrastination! I had no idea.  I’m like a drug addict.  I started with a little LinkedIn…just a basic profile…then joined a couple more groups…started on Twitter…installed Tweetdeck…updated Naymz…started a Ning…put Twitter on my iPhone…joined the Business Week Business Exchange Forum…started commenting on other Blogs…started Tweeting DAILY…this is insane.

I’m like a drug addict who tells themselves, “I can control this,” and then sees a new drug they just have to “try.”

Have I made some great new contacts? Yes. Has it made me any direct $$$? No. Or at least, not yet.  I’ll give it some more time to see what real results I get.

Web site rev coming soon!

Traffic to the site is lackluster (25 visitors a day most days, a few 40-50 days), but I still haven’t turned on most of my planned marketing activities.  I am waiting for the next site update to go live.  The designer came up with some improvements based on the initial feedback we received, and I like his new mock up. It’s not a major major update—but it is significant.  We are adding some features, improving usability.  And he sharpened up some of the graphics.

I am beefing up content, which takes time. I have 4 tutorials done, and 2 more in the works.  I am thinking that maybe I will wait until I have 10 to start Google AdWords.

While part of me is dissapointed to not be getting more traffic and more response, I have been reading a book about business blogging lately, and the most successful business bloggers say that it took them a year before they started to see any real traffic. So my experience is not unusual.  Still, it feels kind of like throwing party that nobody comes to.

Status Update

Now that the site is officially launched, how well am I doing at getting the word out?

I posted the eBook to Scribd a week ago: 50 views and 2 downloads so far.
I also posted to SlideShare a week ago: so far 176 views.
The website itself: 254 visitors to date.
Twitter: I now have 50 followers, and most seem relevant.
Sales leads: nothing I can attribute to the site yet. All the leads I have are from pre-existing relationships.

So overall, some progress, but nothing amazing.

This week I am going to focus on website updates and content creation. I think I just need a lot more content. I am also using Google adwords research to hep me select my next content topics.

Launch!

The store finally launched yesterday, 3/23/09.

Yay!

So with that, I started some traffic driving activities. My plan is to move slowly.  I still want the ability to make improvements before I go completely full-steam ahead.  So far:

1. Mad Mimi newsletter out to 300 contacts

2. Press release promoting the book sent to PR Web and about 6 other similar websites.

3. LinkedIn updates.

4. Posts to Scribd and Slideshare.

I want to see what feedback I get the next day or 2.  If all is well (no tech issues, no horrific reactions), I will start Google adwords, and sending out copies of my book  to reviewers at sites that might not only review the book, but might link to my site’s free content as well.

I am back in business!

Shopping carts, credit cards, and too many passwords

Here is the current status of the new biz:

The shopping cart is STILL not done.  Agony. Every day there are 2 or 3 things that need to be tweaked. And tweaked.  Yesterday, while testing, I found out that AmEx is not accepting orders (though MC and Visa are). So I am trying to troubleshoot that with my merchant account provider. Then I tested the whole thing on IE (I use Firefox myself), and the site looks like  cr*p under IE 6.  IE7 looks fine, but lots of folks have IE6.  So now what??? Then the download links to my products kept saying “pending” even after I completed a test purchase (so if it had been a real client, they would  have paid for a class (Flash), and then not been able to download it). Oh, and the designer forgot to put in some instructions, so I had to ask again. And a million other little edits, corrections, fixes.

I am overwhelmed by passwords. Passwords for my shopping cart admin. For my credit card merchant account. For my web site admin. For Google analytics. Twitter. Scribd. Amazon (2!). Createspace. Professional directories (4!). Ning. Crowdspring. There has got to be a better way to manage passwords….

Goal status: Shopping cart live on Monday. Start traffic-driving by end of day Tuesday. We’ll see……

Sigh…..I am definitely at one of my low points…I am exhausted, even if I get 8 hours or more sleep. I crave sweets. I crave booze. Though I have not indulged too too much on either, yet.  It feels a little lonely, driving this by myself. And it just feels like trudging through molasses…every improvement takes so much effort. Things that should be easy…that “experts” said would be fast…nope.   Everytime I think I am done with something, it needs one more tweak. Suppliers make stupid mistakes…lots of little ones.  Are they reading their work????

Software s*cks

I have been thwarted by software.

Yes, more delays. The store part of the web site is weeks behind…which means, so is revenue generation.

All in all, I am a full 2 months behind schedule, if I am being really honest with myself.

I started using Pointecast software for my flash authoring.  I am creating a library of training materials, and I selected Pointecast because of all the similar products I looked at, it seemed to have the right balance of features, user interface and price.

It looks easy enough, so I dived in 2 weeks ago.  I took my beautiful slide decks, added animations and narration…and “published” them in Pointecast.

And they didn’t work.  Many slides ended up with animations and narrations that were out of synch, and totally wacky. So I called tech suport. Oh wait, it’s a Sunday. Their tech suport is Mon-Fri west coast business hours. Over the next 2 weeks, I was back and forth with tech support. An always cordial couple of guys, and  they did fix part of the problem…but not quite enough.  What was causing the issue? And I do work odd hours. It is not unusual for me to be up at 6am or at midnight…so having no access to tech support was annoying.  They don’t even have an online user community, so I had nobody to turn to.

Agony, agony. Then finally, one of their tech support guys mentioned a possible but unlikely root cause, “Maybe it is something in your slide template.” Seemed odd, but at that point, I’d have tried doing a rain dance if he told me it would be worth a try.

He was right.  An animation I had running in my master slides (to make my logo pop a bit) was apparently wreaking havoc with the timing/synchronization of the animations and narration on the slides.

So after 2 weeks, the porblem is solved. The stupid, teeny, easily fixable problem. Ggggrrrrrr.

And as for Pointecast, now that I know not to have animations in my slide masters, it works perfectly.

Still a WIP

Just a journal update on the launch:

1. I finished getting merchant and gateway status from Authorize.net yesterday. Overall, a simple process. The account person assigned to me responded quickly to my novice questions.

2. SSL certificate. I was ignorant and did not realize I had to buy this separately. Luckily I have a business account with Host Gator, and they gave me one for free.  It was fast. But it changed my IP address so the website was unexpectedly down for a few hours. I got 2 emails from people who were nicely letting me know they could not access the site.

3. So all of the above means the shopping cart is almost done and functional. I am hoping to have it up by Monday. THEN I can finally start driving traffic to the site.

4. I hired a virtual assistant, but am struggling with effective use of the resource. I thought he would be able to handle more PPT design than he can…do I have enough other work to justify 10 hours a week? Still not sure. I may have to discontinue. I think I’ll give him one more chance with PPT–see how it goes and then decide.

5. I asked my WordPress designer to mock up a couple of possible changes to the look of the site–based on feedback I have gotten (and that I agree with). He seems a little testy. Not sure why–I am paying for his time.  Makes me feel reluctant to ask for his help.  Good to know in this economy blog designers must have plenty of work!

So…overall feelings right now…eager, pensive…so close yet so far…I am eager to launch and see how sales develop.

Getting the website market-ready

The website is still not done.  The current status:

1. I did find someone new to do the shopping cart, but he (reasonably) asked for 2 weeks.  Finding someone who knows Magento or zen cart AND Authorize.net was a little tricky. A lot of people say they can do it, but have very few examples. Even the guy I hired only had 2 relevant references. So I am taking a leap of faith….

2. My friends have given me more feedback on the prototype. So I now have a list of 8 things I want to change, But the freelancer who did the work is very busy…so I am debating: do I wait until he is free, or do I maybe offer him more $? Or do I find a new resource (blech).

3. People who use IE version 6 are seeing some fragmented design elements. Most people do seem to have 7, but still…kinda disturbing.

OK, on a more fun note: I am doing an experiment with CrowdSpring. This site is too cool. I am having a tee-shirt deisgn made for the new biz. So far I have over 20 submissions, and of that, I really like 4 of them. I feel bad for graphic artists everyhere—this is going to drive fees down dramatically.