 | CRAZY NOVEMBER DAYS | | | | | What a difference a month makes ... | Posted on 30/11/2011 @ 11:59 |
At the end of last month, I recounted how October had been a dark time for me. Yet November has been completely different and my outlook has shifted from one of gloom to being able to see the light again. I may not be at the end of the tunnel financially right now, but I'm certainly getting there ...
 at a recent biker party with my friends jen and duncan
Let's face it, a knock like the loss of a key business partner can take it's toll on anyone and any business. But this month, my attitude has gradually changed from one of external priority back to an inner priority (yes, it's all about me now!) and overall I've been very focussed on what I want to achieve in the rest of the year.
I've added a number of new trial clients who are all reporting positive visitor growth to their blogs and I'm still amazed when I watch the growing visitor levels to the sblogit.com network. People are actually paying attention now and our mean visitor growth line seems to be around 40° with visitors up 31% overall in November! I wonder what the tipping point will be? How many more clients do I need to add to let the snowball roll on its own? I can't wait to find out!
Meeting with my Financial Controller today I was very pleased to see that sBlogIt Limited had made a profit for the first time. Awesome! I was expecting it a few months ago but with what happened and knowing that I'm behind on my schedule, it has allowed me to focus a little more on my marketing strategy for 2012 and I'm going to add a few "old school" channels into the mix and see what works. Will be using different phone numbers on each channel to see which one returns the best result.
I'm raring to go with a new project to enhance my clients' experience. Everyone really likes MyPulse as it makes it so easy for them to share out their blog posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, there's always room for improvement. Searching for interesting articles for everyone to share out - or get inspired to write about - is a very time consuming experience, even when using Google Alerts. I've come up with a way to automate that process and get the links directly into our database. Once there, I should be able to HTTP GET the pages and do some scripting to actually build MyPulse beats on the fly and I can then assign them to clients after I quality check them. How cool is that? Certainly a project worth pursuing.
Another fab thing that is happening is that Facebook will soon be releasing their Timeline Profiles and I've discovered a way to post what someone is reading on sblogit.com automatically into their profile. I saw the Guardian website doing it and figured it was worth looking into. Of course we need authorisation first but that's not a huge issue. There are a few tweaks FB needs to make to allow it to be truly useful but it's still in Beta and I'm sure there will be improvements coming in the near future. Sadly, it only works on a domain by domain basis, so I will need to set up an Application for each client who wants it, but I just look at it as a new revenue stream and as it is VERY complicated I can charge a premium price to set it up!
I'm not expecting many new clients in December, so will be concentrating on tidying up some loose ends, working on the MyPulse upgrade and planning for 2012. I'm toying with the idea of a rebrand at some point but that's on the back burner for the time being. I may actually take Christmas week off and spend as much time as I can with those I love.
"If you're alone, I'll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder. If you want a hug, I'll be your pillow. If you need to be happy, I'll be your smile. But anytime you need a friend, I'll just be me" - Anon
One last thing ... I've always known I have some amazing friends. Yes ok, all my friends are cool, hip and froody, but a few of them have gone above and beyond to support and help me in November and I am truly blessed to have them in my life. The quotation above is how I see my friendships and those close to me know that to be true. The world would be a better place if we all felt like that hey?
Have an awesome December everyone!
Love, light & logic ... 
STEFFI LEWIS
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