You’ve Opened the Floodgates

So you’ve done your part and have been studying every business model known to man. If you started out like I did, you probably have content all over the place that leads to a variety of different websites. You might have a few AdSense sites, maybe some affiliate review sites, or maybe even some authority sites. You’ve done more work that 99% of people will do, but now you are facing an entirely different problem.

Rather than starting out slow and picking a strategy that works, you wanted to test everything. I don’t blame you really…different strategies seem to work better for different people. I’ve tried just about everything, but the techniques that work for me (Publishing, Authority Sites) might not work for you. It is normal to throw a bunch of websites up to see what sticks. After all, it would suck to devote all of your time and effort into a single strategy that turns out to be unprofitable for you.

The problem though, is that you probably have a bit of web property on just about every 2.0 site there is. You’ve spent time with article marketing, PPC, and SEO and now you not only don’t know where to best spend your time, but you also haven’t been able to figure out why certain strategies are working. Now you’ve got a dozen different projects that are all halfway complete and you can’t figure out where to spend your time. Analytics isn’t the only problem you have, but it is a large part of it.

So, what I’d like you to do is take a step back and look at your business from a Webrepreneur’s perspective. If you continue what you are doing right now, will you be enjoying yourself? If what you are doing is working, will you be able to scale your structure in order to make more money? Lastly, are you having fun or are you stressed out and just waiting for the big payday so that you can relax?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start analyzing your business from a bird’s eye view. This includes trimming the fat and getting rid of processes that aren’t profitable and eventually outsourcing the mundane tasks that are keeping you in the role of the worker rather than the business owner. The goal of developing an online empire is not just to have money, but to create a “hands free” business structure that runs itself. This means if you are working more than normal, you might have a serious problem. If you are working 60 hours a week just to make a few hundred bucks, then you are in peril of not only running out of steam, but of giving up completely.

The Strategy for Success

Burnout is a serious issue…I’ve been there several times and each time I was dangerously close to giving up on my dreams. Luckily, like you I am dedicating to making it work and I kept plugging away. So, what I am going to recommend is the following:

Start implementing analytics immediately. Track every number that you can. Track your leads, sales, traffic, and anything else that helps you keep track of what is working and what isn’t. Use Google Analytics and monitor your performance as often as you have time for. Once you figure out what is working and why, you can put more emphasis on that and remove it from other systems that are not profitable for you.
Take a long hard look at what you are spending your time on. Make a list of everything you do on a daily basis to grow or develop your business. Take notes on what processes are working and what are not. Try to streamline the process so that you don’t leave any project unfinished and only work on things that you know are productive. If you have a project nagging you, decide if it is worth the time to finish it. If not, then ditch it and never look back. There is no need to worry about anything that doesn’t help you move your business forward.
Keep a list of essential tasks. These are the building blocks for your business. They could be SEO, advertising, regularly posting on your blog, etc. These are the tasks that you must do no matter what. List them, prioritize them, and then create a schedule so that you can ensure they get done.
Create flowcharts that detail your current practices and the practices that you are building towards. These will not only help you explain the details to an outsourced employee, but they will also force you to examine every single part of your business structure so that you can improve upon it.
Think about where you want to be a year from now. Do you want to be doing the same things every day? Is what you are doing now scalable? Create a one year plan and a five year plan that detail how you will get from where you are now to where you will be at that time. It isn’t easy, but in doing this you will see what is holding you back from growing your business. Take the time to notate everything, from revenue (net and gross), expenditures, processes, etc. Leave nothing out and refer to this often, adjusting as necessary.

I cannot stress to you enough how important streamlining your business should be. You need to have a focused plan of attack so that you make the most of your time. The goal is to make money and create more free time, but if you don’t watch your time or money, you’ll have very little of both. Most beginners jump into the Internet marketing game without having a long-term plan. This is the essential ingredient to long-term business success. Without a plan, you are destined to jump from one project to another without ever knowing where your next check is coming from. Don’t let this happen to you. Take control of your destiny and don’t ever give up.