Why I decided to stop being such a tightarse
Urgh. So I got a bit busy with client work, fell into a heap, and have just recovered. I did a 500-page content audit across three websites and wrote a damn fine 18,000-word report to go with it. OK, so I didn’t audit every page myself or write all 18,000 words, but it was my baby and I’m proud of her.
Those weekly posts I promised to diligently document my digital adventures? Ooops.
I am now in the midst of doing the content audit thing all over again for a different client, albeit on a smaller scale.
In the last two weeks, I’ve also been doing content modelling, which makes my brain a bit hurty, but I love it. There are so many angles to look at content from before you even consider the words. There are so many lenses to apply. I love it when it all starts to make sense and you can see the connections between sections, pages and content right down to the microcontent element level. Next week we’ll kick off the pilot content component of the project where we start actioning all the things we’ve learned about this organisation and their content.
Anyway, here’s what’s been happening in my digital adventures.
Why I decided to stop being such a tightarse
A few weeks ago I wrote about my epiphany where I realised that if I don’t build it, no one will come. Since then, I have been mostly focused during my out of consulting hours on my eCommerce store. I have stopped being such a tightarse and I am reinvesting profits back into the business. I know, genius-level thinking there. 🙄 It’s only taken me about nine years to get to this point.
It’s a chicken and egg scenario — you have to invest to grow the business to make more profit, but you have to make more profit to invest to grow your profit further.
Screw that.
I’m going to invest all profit back into the business for the next few months and see what happens.
Step 1 to not being such a tightarse
The first thing I did was I hire someone to help me add products to my online store. I had added 50 new products myself, but that probably took me 20+ hours, which is not a good use of my time.
We did a trial run and he added 100 products for me, following my instructions and doing it perfectly. So I got him to add 100 more.
After adding about 250 new products, one of my major suppliers contacted me to say they are no longer supporting wholesalers. In one email, I lost 100 products from my website. Not the new ones I put up, but some of my popular sellers. That was a timely reminder to not put all my eCommerce eggs in the one basket. I am really running with the egg themes today.
I am going to expand my range of suppliers in case companies withdraw support for wholesalers or simply choose to no longer supply to me.
Side note: this also worries me a little about my consulting work. The majority of it comes from one source these days, a very lovely source, but if that source were to disappear, I need an active pipeline to keep the work flowing.
I’ve already made back about a quarter of what all that work cost me through sales. In a matter of days. So here I am kicking myself for not experimenting with outsourcing before.
I make it sound easy — he added products for me. But there was still a lot of work I had to do to make the products live. From SEO optimisation of each product through to checking and adding individual product spec details and working out the pricing. Then creating collections in my Facebook store and scheduling the products in Tailwind to publish on Pinterest and Grum to publish on Instagram. For the next batch of products, I’m going to do that work upfront and give him more details and content to add to each product page.
Step 2 to not being such a tightarse
The second thing I’m going to do is *gasp* advertise my products via Facebook Ads. I paid for a two-hour online workshop with Bianca McKenzie to help refine my FB ad strategy. Bianca is an all-around good human being — we’re in a mastermind group together — and she really knows her stuff when it comes to Facebook advertising.
I am now feeling much more confident about running ads. I know what metrics to aspire to. I know who and how I’ll target people. I’ll report back in a few weeks.
On my Kindle
My friend Margaret recommended this hoot-inducing factual read about the early western explorers to come to the land that was to become known as Australia, and the first white colonists to settle. It reminded me of Bill Bryson’s ‘Downunder’ — another thoroughly delightful and hilarious read. This will make an excellent stocking-filler for that hard-to-buy-for relative.
I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
Originally published at The Smarter Writer.
