South West eCommerce

Monthly report time, something I kind of look forward to doing, but am challenged by the time it takes us.

How did the month go?  Well we’re less mopey than we were last month.  We are sure from this that we’ve made the right choice of direction, and we’re aware that there’s more work to be done before we reach the promised land (I kind of feel I’ve been to the mountain top and looked over, but that’s not really true, it’s still faith).

Cashflow is up, and we’ve retired one site and made the decision that another isn’t worth our energy at an SEO level, it’ll have to either find its own way or we’ll do some PPC work from time to time.  Times are tough all over and if a site isn’t returning something for our sweat, we need to reduce our sweat.

If I need to make a call about how we’re feeling, I think we’re still feeling “a bit excited” by progress, but much more relaxed than last month.  With the timeline approaching for our cash injection from selling one component of the business out, we’re getting close to replacing the income that component earned us.  The direction is right, but really we wanted to be basking in the sunlight of success, riches and adoration by our peers by now.  Maybe next month.

Back to reality...  site by site, how did we do?  Remember we will eventually be living entirely on the stuff we report here and to break even we need two and a half bags of money.

Site A – We’re down on our earnings from this site, but it’s a regular sale and more comforting than selling one last month in what should have been a bonanza moment.  We’re down about 75% but able to see this is heading in the right direction.  Still need to develop the killer instinct for sales on this one, but am happy to see it moving something.  About 1% of a bag of money.(They’re BoMs now).

Site B – Up a bit over 10%, but on a rise of 50% last month.  This is still an ordinary result from what should be a powerful tool.  You’ll recall January saw us completely re think what we are doing and start on a new direction for it.  It’s soaked up work at an alarming rate but the redesign has got us a bunch of leverage and made us much more positive about the future of the magazine site.  The work has paid off in delivering more leverage than ever and there are a lot of non cash responses that are very encouraging.  Converting them to something that will feed the families is clearly the next part of this equation.  It’s slow but we’ve developed a cashflow structure for it and can see another couple of products that will go onto the site and late this year it may just be what we’d always hoped for.  Still only about 2% of a BoM. 

Site C – Isn’t it nice to be able to see the up side.  Down nearly another 20%.  This is a summertime product and reviewing our market, it’s holding its own better than we could have demanded.  The Return on investment from PPC marketing grew from 88% to about 300%, and as we continue to refine through our winter, an upswing in the spring is probable.  We’re continuing article marketing and watching our rankings in the search engines steadily trickle up.  We reported last month that this site attracted the attention of a merchant who is eager to have us replicate our success.  We’re still waiting on them to get their preparations done.... another thing that’ll be great when it happens and an indicator that even when the marketers tell you that you can be rich in the next month, you have to do the work and batten down for the long game.  Just under 10% of a Bom.

Site D – Up about 70%.  This is what you’d hope for given that there was an important seasonal issue in our favour.  Let’s see what next month brings.  This is definitely a product that will spike several times a year.  We’re sure the market is fine, but we can’t count on it steadily and so a good result doesn’t bring quite the celebrations it might in another circumstance. This site looks likely to always pay it’s own bills and there are a couple of occasions that’ll be winners for us.  The up/ down nature of this is OK if we find other sites that work on contrary days or seasons.  Earned us about 20% of a Bom.

Site E – A bounce back from a really crappy January.  Up about 50%.  We were looking for a steady month and this is an outcome that makes us feel a bit relaxed.  We’re not on fire about it, but it’s OK.  If we keep trickling up the way we expect, and get to where we don’t have to work quite so hard, this will become a pleasing enough stat.  Over 4% of a Bom now.  Keeping an eye on it and doing the steady work.

Site F – This shows what a tough business this is for us.  The site actually picked up about 50%, but we’re not putting as much work into it for the foreseeable future.  As it pays its own way, it’ll keep trickling in cash for us and our output is going to drop significantly, so it’s return on our energy expended should improve.  When they get to this point, semi retiring them doesn’t hurt because the domain keeps aging, and every so often google will do something we don’t understand.  It could step into a breach for us some time in the future.  A bit over 1% of a Bom.  Leaving it “spelling” in the paddock.

Site G – Ever feel that things conspire against you?  This site was instrumental in the decisions that led us to the shape of the business at present.  After a lot of stuffing around, this was getting to where we weren’t happy with it, but we had settled into a strategy that was going to work.  The product we were selling has developed a fatal flaw.  We’ve dropped the old product and started looking at something that does the job, and will need to watch it all carefully.  Up 400%.  This site is actually ranking well should still move the new product.  We believe that as a software site we need to continue with SEO activity and we still need to find a bunch of other products that will be complementary and make sales when traffic which has been arriving at the site gets there.  Made about 3% of a BoM.

Site H – This was a new site in January.  Last month we saw a rise in the rankings, alongside a reduction to zero in what we spent.  This month we saw our first sales.  Yeehaaaa, one that works like the marketing tells you.  We made about 3% of a BoM for the month and there will be a time when that is quite insignificant, but for us little guys, it really is nice.  The simple, reliable, progression that it made, with the new information that we’ve been taking on from Commission Blueprint is the kind of result that makes us relaxed and confident, though there’s no trip down to the new car yard just yet.  Watch how we go next month.

Site I – Retired.  The workload from this is not returning an income.  When we were “hobbyists” at this, no sales could have been tolerated.  That’s not true anymore.  We’ve mentioned playing the percentage shot in the past, this was a risk worth taking but we’re not going to push it any more if it won’t convert.

Site J – Income insignificant.  Sold one item this month, but we’ve been aware it wasn’t working and we’ve been bringing new products onto the site.  It’s not going to work as well as it should because seasonal issues are against us, we’ll just plug along at it until the season turns.  The lesson has been learned and we’re just watching to see what we gain from our accumulated wisdom.  The process is still new, so we’ll see what happens for the future.

Site K – Still new, no sales.  Started with a recommendation from Market Samurai and some prior knowledge in that we know the product sells on the internet in Australia from our own experience, and this one is overseas.  Had a seasonal opportunity but didn’t get ranking happening in time.  Next target date in a couple of months.  This month’s target to get ranking process underway and then consolidate for April.  By May we have to crack the marketing that we want.

Site L – Lost some money on this.  No real drama.  This was a Niche Blueprint site and we found a niche we thought worth a look.  Ran some PPC ads that didn’t pay off so we’ve backed off them for a while.  The progress on the SEO work looks promising and we’ll be able to say in a month whether the process is as quick as we hope.

Site K – A brand new site that made a couple of sales straight off.  Just like we’re relaxed with one new site making a small loss, we’re refraining from dancing on the desk when another makes a profit.  The systems within Commission Blueprint revealed a space in search engines that was not too densely populated and we could make some inroads there.  We tried it and in the first month, a couple of sales.  If the same keeps happening, we’re on a winner.  Nearly 2% of a BoM.  Watch for the results as the month passes.

So there it is.  Progress.  On paper it looks OK, but a bit underwhelming.  Add to it how hard we’re working and it could feel cold and mean.  There’s a disclaimer on all sorts of TV shows – “Kids, don’t try this at home”.  Well we think that lots of you should try it at home, but please, don’t try this unless you are ready to put some sweat into it.  We knew we’d have to push to make this happen.  Through our own decisions we’ve gotten to where we are without a lot of capital to back ourselves up with.  We still think this'll provide a way forward in less time than getting another degree.

Last month I finished with “If this led us to any recommendations they’d be – Start soon and start while you’ve got another income stream.  More than five years ago we knew that affiliate sales existed but we’ve never seriously pursued it.”

I’m still in the same place, just a bit less raw and wounded.  One of the bonuses is that last month we worked our pieces off, and the books at the end of the month said we went backwards.  This month, our pieces are still worked off, and though we don’t draw enough, the books of the mighty corporate juggernaut that is South West eCommerce say we broke even.  The same level of growth for another month would have us starting to dig out of the hole. 

We’d recommend anyone to get the labour saving tools and start maybe 3 sites at a time, working steadily but knowing that the first period of time was about learning and accepting that several months in, you may only be breaking even.

Start when you feel a bit resilient, because we’ve now gotten to understand that while we are not yet successful, we’re past the point where the majority of the affiliates who start, peter out and give up.  What’s good about where we are, is that the money we made this month is basically independent of the work we did this month.  Some months in we’re at a point where it’ll in no way keep us, but if we took the month off, it would pay us about 45% of a single person’s income.  Sadly then we worked more than is reasonable for growth that didn’t put any money in our pockets.  That’s the game, and we are still happy to be playing, because we’ve learned to understand that we are going to win.