Thank you so much Tim. 

Sounds like a FUN challenge with benefits - now to get the SuccessBlog back up and running!!!

Blessings!

Judy

Day 2 - Anatomy of a Launch

First I want to start off today by thanking all those who are participating by making comments. You add value to the discussion through your participation, and it's always appreciated.

I'm glad that Diane remarked extensively about the research portion of our website creation, because without research we would have been shooting in the dark HOPING to hit on something.

I can't begin to describe the feeling of confidence knowing the niche and knowing the potential before entering into the work and expense. It makes the spending decisions much easier if you are confident of a return. If you are guessing, then that will translate through to a lack of confidence and even mistakes in judgment, with time and money wasted.

So, with our research in hand, the next step was of course the draft plan. More thought about the target audience, what is in it for them, how can the plan provide them what they want>, then what will it look like, how will it operate, how can it be automated, etc. etc.
There are many decisions to be made, and I'm going to tell all of you straight up, I started to waver a bit..and tried to cut corners on some costs.
We tried to do some of our own graphics, but quickly found that it took us FOREVER, the results were amateurish, and in the end the work had to be redone. As you can see from the professional look of the site the cost of professional help PAYS OFF!

In order to facilitate the design, I went looking for just the right theme because for my site concept I just couldn't think of one I had seen that really fit the bill.

Fortunately I ran across just what the "doctor ordered". A theme that was setup perfectly (almost to a "t") to what I envisioned, and luckily was customizable enough to meet ALL my expectations and requirements. It's not a freebie though, but the price I paid was worth it in the assistance we've received from the seller.

As soon as I found the theme I went right out and got the domain blognetawards . Then things shifted into high gear!
I also contracted the assistance of an editor (who's still helping tweak things a bit) and I have a programmer who's building me a secret weapon to help with the site.

The rest was lots of late nights developing more ideas, creating the content, and getting it up on the site. Now let me share the power of a Word Press blog with those of you who don't know much about it. Without ANY promotion and without allowing our work to ping the search engines, we STILL started getting visitors to the site. In the last day of two of July (when I got the site up) we actually had 12 visitors!

August we had about 180.

Now remember that's without any promotion or notifying the search engines that we existed. THEY FOUND US! If that doesn't explain part of the power of a Word Press Blog..I don't know what will.

I had a Herbalife site up for a month and with a TON of promoting..never got that many visitors!

After our launch and some promotion we've already (in the first 2 days of Sept) surpassed our August total, in fact it's looking like we'll beat August by a factor of 10!! That means I'm expecting between 1800 and 2400 UNIQUE visitors just this month alone.

We've also been going over the numbers, and can see the amount of time our visitors are staying on the site (webalyzer stats on c-panel) and had a rather high percentage of people staying less than 30 seconds. This immediately told us (and adding to that the comments we got) that we were losing people because they didn't know what to do. They came.. looked for information to tell them quickly what it was all about, were met with a lot of text, and then they were gone.

Folks. If you don't have even this very basic level of control and understanding of what's happening on your launch you really don't have a launch. You have an opening.
Understanding the metrics of your promotions and the activity on your pages is critical to being able to make the necessary changes to improve your numbers.

If you don't know your numbers you can't quantify any changes you do make. The numbers added with other data can quite clearly tell you what you need to change or improve upon.

Our numbers and comments told us people were confused. There is no clear call to action, and so people without a direction carry on with their busy lives.
So that is the first change you'll see on our front page.

Diane..
Your turn.

Tim I remember those days of the drafting of BlogNet Awards, bouncing ideas, fine tuning of what we/you wanted.  I don't think people always realize the sheer amount of work that goes into such a thing. There were times when nights ran into days..but through it all we were so focused that we did not see anything else.

Not only did the themes/templates have to be looked at..but then there were the wordpress plugins, how people would vote as there are a number of ways..how were we going to track people who nominated, Voted and comment to be able to enter the Comment Cash Contest. 

Because this is a Cash Contest, we had to look into the legalities...Every country has different rules..we did not want to leave countries out, so we had to delve into that aspect.  The Terms of service had to written just right to reflect what we are doing.. then there was the searching of what types of categories..in fact we had to sit and talk about any category that might be adult content.. how would we deal with it..how to word...so many factors...all part and parcel of creating a successful business.

I think we also need to point out Tim that at least for me, I have not had business management training, so while all this was going on, I was also reading books on the proper procedures to business management.  Learning how to word things,talk to people. Write proper form letters that would convey what we needed. Learning how to organize so many things so that we did not lose sight of the details that had to and still have to be dealt with on a daily basis.

Adding into this mix, was dealing with other people.  We not only had to convey our thoughts clearly, we had to deal with time delays ( it is about a 12 difference in some countries), we had to deal with language and so many other things..remember the person..Ben..he had a plumbing leak...meeting called off.  These are some of the things when creating a busines...dealing with the third parties...their lives and their schedules.  We have been so lucky in that the people who have been working for us...have been terrific.

Understanding this Anatomy of Launching ...from my perspective also means being honest and saying to people, that being in the postion of being the aide to the CEO..the Administrative Director is a learning curve.  You have no idea how many times I would go to Tim..crying the blues..simply because People would not listen to me. It was a frustrating period of time... I have had to learn to come into my own...learn how to deal with people..learn how to do things that quite frankly I have never done some things..but I am learning.  I am gaining the credibility I need to beable do my job and do it well. 

When Tim first showed me the stats on visitors...all I could do was sit back and be stunned.  The fact is we have not paid for advertising..we have not promoted..we have talked to some people..but that was it.  So we had to sit down and once again go..how can this be happening..and how do we keep it going...lol

We have been learning how SEO works to your advantage, we have been learning something that we knew..but seeing it work in live..is different...driving traffic to you using free methods...it is just incredible to me.

Now we are here...and now we see the issues that we need to deal with...some are very very simple to fix and we are working on them as this is being written.

As you have said Tim...strategy, knowing your numbers, tracking, working with others it all adds up.

Until the next installment..I wish you all a good day.

Don't forget....   Nominate..Vote...Comment...simple as one two three!

To Your Success,


Diane
Administrative Director

BlogNet Awards

Thanks Diane,

It would seem we are a party of two here in the forum and perhaps seen as "tooting our own horns", and maybe so.
I guess it's but for me to sum up our launch..and some of the things we've done to increase our exposure.

The slow launch (as earlier expressed) has certainly allowed us the time to work on the little bits and pieces that needed fixing. Even moreso, some of that fixing created a few more issues..lol
And so it goes.

As we all saw (that is if you're all watching the industry) even the great STOMPERNET had some major server and fulfillment issues which delayed their launch.

My point was that I set the launch date for Sept.1 and I fully intended to hold to that. We didn't spend so many late nights only to fall short. So with a final push of effort and determination, we managed to get the site up. Blognet Awards went live ON TIME.

Primarily, we've used word of mouth and some social postings to generate the initial traffic. At this point over 59% comes from direct linking (referrals), and that's an important point to note. This is exactly what "social networking" truly is. Your scope of contacts and the relationship you hold with them can directly relate into needed traffic and additional referrals.
The problem being that it takes time and dedication to build a far reaching list of social contacts.

We next began working on press releases (learning also along the way the importance of format), and are now working on additional methods of getting the word out.

Patience and perseverance will win the day.

Everyone that has seen the site has expressed their congratulations on a fine job, and with some improvements to the "call to action" and making it easier for people to understand what's expected of them, and I'm sure our numbers will improve.

If you haven't been back to the site, I invite you to go back now to see the changes I made just today. If you didn't understand how to use the site before..I think things will be MUCH clearer now.

Beyond that (and in the absence of any questions from the gallery) I leave the final word to Diane and get back to my work.

Thanks for visiting.

Hi Everyone:

When you talked to me about doing this forum Tim, you asked me my thoughts, our typical brainstorming...lol  I remember so clearly you saying how much you wanted to share what you (and by extension me) have learned through this whole process.

You wanted others to know that starting a business in not like your typical...work at home...work at home income that so many people associate with. 

Getting away from affiliate marketing to being the owner who has affiliates is one huge leap away from the pack.  It puts you  on the other side of the fence.  This is just a fact and must be dealt with.  Is that tooting ones horn....personally I don't think so. 

Whether You affiliate or whether a business owner, here is something to think about..we are always learning..honing our skills.

Back to BlogNet Awards!

What have we been doing the last few day?

We have been listening to what people have been saying in terms of any issues.
We have talked to the ( as i would say) the tekkie people , to make changes needed on the site.
We have worked on the wording to make things more simple for people to navigate the site itself
We have worked on the Press Release.  That has been and interesting learning curve, but funny enough through that particular process, it has helped to really define BlogNet awards...and what TLS Enterprises is all about.

through all of this...we have also:

-been talking to our friends and supporters
-working the social communities as they were designed to be used.
- getting the nominations up...oh here is a tip for anyone working with blogs..use notepad!  Word pad etc, can screw the coding up on a site...yikes!!
- planning the next stages for BlogNet Awards and also taking care of the other sites we have.

- sleep?  eat?  these are also things that we have been attempting to do....lol

Has it been worth it Tim?

To me personally starting a business is nothing you will ever do... yes it is work...yes you have to deal with people who have no faith....yes you have to learn and learn and learn....yes  many sleepless nights....

Is it worth it?   Damn Rights!!!!!


This launch may have come in quietly as a lamb..i can guarantee you it is going to be roaring like a lion!


If people have come here and have at least gotten a glimmer of what starting a business is about, even though they may not have commented...or didnt understand the way to comment properly...you know what?  We did what was set out to do...we shared of ourselves...we are a success.

To Ours and Everyones Success,

Diane

P.S.   my pitch for the day...got to   BlogNet Awards....nominate...Vote... Comment to enter the Comment Cash Contest.