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Tim
Tim Southernwood

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Anatomy of a Launch
9/4/2008 4:21:19 PM

Anatomy of a Launch

Hi there 101'ers

My colleague Diane Bjorling and I will be sharing with you the forum readers a little of our experience with the creation of BlogNetAwards.com and our subsequent launch (which this forum thread is all about)

The discussion between us all will certainly determine the length of this particular thread, and I'd just like to invite all of you to share any of your experiences, or ask any questions you might have.

Of course a new website in "launch mode" seems to hover in that state for some time. We're nowhere near our goals at this point, but the activity is increasing on a daily basis, and on something like this that doesn't offer an immediate reward for the participant (like building a list or a downline in a matrix) we have to accept that there isn't a feeding frenzy mentality at work here. We expect our growth to be slow and steady..

People are busy. That's just the fact.

We were actually a little behind in some of the things we wanted ready for the launch, so in hindsight this "soft launch" is just what we needed.

What we're finding out initially is that contrary to the general belief that launching on a holiday is a bad idea, our launch on Labor Day Monday was actually not bad for a new blog.

Remember..this isn't a site with an affiliate honey pot of cash. People actually don't have much of an incentive to refer others *unless their blog is nominated* in which case then there is a lot of incentive. In fact that's something I'm looking to work on. If there's some way I can work a referral rewards program into this..you can bet I will ;-) The issue there is that while we know of ways to track the traffic you might bring to the site, there's no way (that we know of yet) to link that person to you when they become active on the site.

Anyway.

The creative process was actually rather rapid. About the middle of July I had a brainstorm one morning in the shower, and the name came to me right away (sorry but that's where I do some of my best thinking..in the shower)

It was in fact a little crazy to embark any new project when in fact we already had too many other things to work on, but that's the way things are sometimes, when you get a great idea..it needs to be acted upon or the opportunity is often lost.

But even a "good idea" needs to go through the proper process. So after telling Diane about my idea, we had to then go to work and prove the model.
That (in our terminology) means RESEARCH.

People come up with inventions every day, but how many ever make it to market? Do you think most manufacturers do their "homework" and research a product or a market before they enter it?

In our case, there was no question there were more than a few Blog Award sites, and many have been around a good number of years. Now if you think that kind of research showing lots of competition is a signal to get out and look at something else..I'm going to to disagree.

Lots of competition means there is a market! so we continued and looked closer at the competition. What were they doing (in our opinion) right, and what were they doing wrong, and where was the money>?

We found sites that weren't always easy to understand or navigate, sites that had little visual imagry to generate excitement, and apparently sites that used a fair amount of "automation".
So our goal then was to see what we felt we could do to improve on those examples, and was there enough room for us in the market.

Short answer. Yes.

I'll leave this up to Diane now to pick up, fill in any blanks, and add her own perspective before we move on to the actual creation of the site, and of course the Launch of Blog Net Awards.

 

Tim Southernwood/Get eH² Packs!/BlogNet Awards We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
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Diane Bjorling

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Re: Anatomy of a Launch
9/4/2008 5:49:29 PM
Hi Everyone.

You will notice that for the most part I tend to stay in the back ground a lot of the time, lol, part of that is because I am so busy working all the sites, researching or responding to mail  and  teaching or maybe a better wording would be coaching other people, I just don't always have the time, literally to get out there and just talk to everyone.

Most of the time when I do talk I do it in relationship to blogging as blogging to me is just another way to have a conversation with others, but with a target in mind and done in specific ways. 

When Tim started talking to me about his shower brainstorm, I did as I always do, by the way. I listened.   Part of brainstorming with another person is being able to listen, thinking and forming questions that will be of value.  All to often people go into blogging with ideas that are half formed or so lacking in vision that they will fail.  Finding a person you can trust and just talking your way through it, has an untold reward to it.  It give one clarity and a path to follow.  In Tim's and my case...If I remember correctly I believe I said..what about them?   As Tim talked..the words being typed.. I could feel the passion ..the drive ..the enthusiasm.

This was all fine and dandy, but common sense has to come into the picture and we did indeed do research.  I will say this, have a good computer...llol  I had at times over 20- 30 tabs open, going from one window to another.   We did not so much research as we tore award sites apart.  we looked for all the flaws, every mistake, then we looked to see what made them work, what made them great.  During this process whe also noticed what was missing..the missing link ( pun intended) and worked that concept until it formed a picture.

I know to many people when they read the word research, they will say..boring...but it really isn't, look at it like being the archeologist digging to find treasure.

BlogNet Awards is not like anything you will see in that it is not like your run of the mill affiliate site...don't be offended when I say this.  My hat goes off to all the people out there who have created a business from the concept up..built it and recruited so many people to be affiliates.  Just Incredible.  My hat also goes off to all of you affiliates who day after day promote these businesses. WOW!

I will offer a word of advise to any who wants to hear it...for every idea, there has to be the person who will do the work to make it work.  Find a person that can share the dream if you will, who will stick out the long hours of painstakingly building...from the research up.  Choose those people to be by your side who will not rush the process, because if a business is not built on a solid foundation, it will surely fail. Lastly find the people who are not afraid to be honest with you, for they are the ones who will help your business last for years to come.

To Your Success,

Diane

Administrative Director
BlogNetAwards
Success Patrol
Success health News
Success Blog Net

( that was a mouthful...lol)



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Walter Webb

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Re: Anatomy of a Launch
9/4/2008 7:13:32 PM

Well the site seems to be working pretty well right now. There were a couple of minor glitches but hopefully that is done and everything runs smooothly from now on. Great idea Tim although the shower part was a little to much information lol.

"No Guts No Glory"

Walt Webb

http://allsportsontheweb.com

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Judy Smith

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Re: Anatomy of a Launch
9/4/2008 8:30:40 PM

Hello Tim & Diane,

So, can I admit confusion?- OK I am.  I suppose as I get back into this, I will understand it a bit better.  BlogNetAwards and SP (the WP blog that goies with that) are different entities?   The blogs we do on Word Pressn after joing SP, are they different from blogs on BogNetAwards?  Does it mean maintaining 2 blogs?  See, I was telling the honest truth - I am confused!

So fill me in - straighten me out. 

You guys rock, and I know you will have success with both SP and BlogNetAwards.  You are determined, and you take action and just keep on going.  i was once told that "Success is failure turned inside out" - and Tim and Diane,  you just keep on turning it over and over so I know you will succeed.

I am still working on getting my focus back - and I will! 

It is great to see you both!

Blessings,

Judy

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Tim
Tim Southernwood

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Re: Anatomy of a Launch
9/4/2008 9:20:54 PM

Hi Judy,

Don't worry dear friend. Your confusion is understandable.

The successblognet platform is quite a bit different than this new one. The goal on SuccessBlogNet is to allow new bloggers to get their feet wet without having to incur any cost.

They are separate domains, and where the Successblognet is built on WordPress-mu (mu=multiuser),  BlogNetAwards is built on WordPress

You'll be happy to know that NO, you do not have to have two blogs (or 4 or 5 like we do..lol)

Judy. What I want you to do is to keep on working on your FREE SuccessBlogNet blog, and if you want a chance (or multiple chances) to win up to $250 in the comment for cash contest, then head on over to BlogNetAwards and vote and comment on all the great blogs in there!

(and if people didn't already notice you have a great opportunity to create a lot of powerful linking for your own sites, by not only commenting on the nominated blog on our site..but also in heading over to the NOMINATED blog and comment on THEIR site. Is it work? yes..but comments create links to your site..and Google will REWARD you with better ranking and traffic)

That is our primary desire with BlogNetAwards everybody!
We're not asking you to do anything but what will BENEFIT you!
Plus we've added a sweet treat..the opportunity to WIN CASH just doing what's GOOD for your business!

Man! I wish I had an entry into a cash contest for every post I've made on other blog sites!

Tim Southernwood/Get eH² Packs!/BlogNet Awards We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
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