Where the Heck Did the Cow Run Off To!
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Wow… that is pretty much all I can say is WOW… it is hard to believe that i have been away from these pastures for almost 3 months.
I want to apologize to my readers… well that’s if you actually missed me 
First of all I want you to know all is good… there have been no personal dramas or anything… the absence was one of choice for business reasons.
My business is doing a major change in 2010… and in a good way. As a result I needed to focus as much time as possible on those changes and the managing of them. It comes down to priority focus and as much as I love Johncow and I love blogging, I needed to ensure the focus of my companies best interest was first.
So what type of changes am I talking about in my business?
Basically filtering out the chaff. What I mean by that is I needed to take a closer look at each element of my business to get a clearer picture of what was profitable and what was not. It may sound easier said then done but I WANTED IT DONE RIGHT. Now I have a very clear picture and was able to make some very clear decisions. On top of that I have major changes that have been getting done on the back end of SyndicateKahuna and Web2Mayhem and they will be rolling out soon.
OK, so enough about that.
One thing I never like to do is make a post without some type of lesson in it and so here is my lesson.
Do you know your business ROI?
Seriously.. I don’t care if you sell products, affiliate products, use just build AdSense sites… so often we are focused on the building side of things that we forget to stop and look at what we have. If you have ever read the book “Acres of Diamonds” this is what I am referring to… and I recommend you read it.
Often times we think making money means doing something new… but I think the only time you want to do that is when you have optimized what you are currently doing (there are exceptions of course).
Say for example your business model is something simple like AdSense… and lets say you have 20 sites that you are generating income from.
Have you…
- Checked the CPC value to ensure you are focusing on the best paying keywords
- Do you know the ROI for each site and focus time appropriately. Meaning if one site is making $150 a month and another $15, and they are both the same age… then you want to focus more link building and content creation on the profitable one and NOT the lower revenue one.
- Do you know where the traffic to these sites are coming from and how you can increase that
- Do you know of the low hanging fruit… current terms that you did not initially target but are sending you traffic. Usually these are on page 2 or three of google and with a little link building can be bumped up easily to page one.
The list goes on and one. There is something to be said for continuing to build sites in this model, but not if you don’t take a moment to go back and see whats working and whats not.
Summary: Are you focusing on growing your business or growing your profits.
IMPORTANT STORY (To Me Anyway): I mentioned this a few months ago but a story that really got me was when my uncle told me of an accounting firm that he worked for that only had a company net profit of $50 000 a year for 5 years. That might sound OK, since the owner paid himself a salary but the problem is it went from 5 employees to 25 in those 5 years and all they had to show for it was way more stress, more headaches and more paperwork… not a dime more profit.
Take from that story whatever you want 
We’re glad that you’re back, and your business is doing good
Thanks everyone for the welcome back… it feels good to be blogging again.
I am a frequent “Cow” reader but I stopped (for personal reasons) for about the same time you were “away”.
So,…I didn’t notice it
Nevertheless,…Welcome Back!
Alex Wilde
Glad to see you back Jason. Thanks to you I have got my affiliate business up and running but could still need some help so I am looking forward to following the cow wherever he may find new pasture.
Right then this is my second attempt at leaving you a Moo! The first one took me ten mins to write out and then clicked on your submit content but unfortunately the captcha code had changed and my previous moo was lost!
Hey Ho needs must. Here is my second attempt but this time I will make sure that I copy this entire Moo first before pressing the submit button. Anyway all I wanted to say is that it’s good to see you back.
I did think that you went down the same way as another blogger by the name of Nate Johnson (not a peep on FB, BN, Twitter and his blog is now claimed back by godaddy with no explanation from the person in question, I think he’s been abducted by aliens) but I have noticed you been on FB of recent times though.
I did however think you moved on to Pastures New (they might have been Greener) but it’s great to see you back in action on here buddy.
As for the post itself! Well it was a pleasure to read and moo back on. As for my ROI I am not too sure as I am a new blogger myself (I have been running MYNamedotCom since December 09), But I think my ROI is very good as I have invested less than $40 in it and I am now waiting for my second £64 (over $100 I think) Google cheque at the end of this Week so at least it has earned its keep and made a good profit from it!
My host also allows me to make lots of subdomains So I have created many other pages (I have gotten into web design in a big way now) for various different sites, links and products that i want to promote but have not made a lot from these as Yet. However saying that I am getting a reputation as a Web designer and developer and 1 Hair salon has asked me to create them a website for £100 at the end of this week and I have 2 Construction firms wanting sites built as well. so my investment in them is just my time and creative mind and no financial investment on my part as All i need is me and my lappy.
In summary I think my ROI is looking very healthy indeed. Where do I think I will be in 3 years’ time? Well I am aiming to be one of the UKs top bloggers and not worrying about bills coming through my door anymore. In fact scrub that I will be one of the UKs Top bloggers in 3 years’ time. Lol talk about self-promotion, HeyHo I am what I am and don’t care what people think about that!
Dude it’s great to see you back in action and I am looking forward to the next post buddy!
All the Best.
-Phillip Dews
Hi Jason,
Good to have you back. I visited a few times each month to see if there was any new post.
And today there is.
What you are saying makes sense and I appreciate the reasons for putting your focus elsewhere.
The story of the accounting firm is interesting and I think that it’s repeated all over the place within different businesses.
I once started to work for a small company and found out that they were selling one product way below their cost. Not on purpose as some marketing ploy but unknowingly. Nobody had bothered to check the ROI for years.
Being too busy growing the business can, as you point out, lead to more work and nothing to show for it in terms of ROI.
I think that even if we are very careful that way, the trick is to correctly find the right time when to stop putting in more work on a project that doesn’t seem to produce any return.
How do you know if you’ve given it enough time?
It is often said that if you give up too early you could be missing a big pay off just by a few days or weeks.
It would be interesting to know what you have to say about that.
Vance
Thats a good question and for different business models it is going to be different. One thing that comes to mind however is setting a goal and having tasks that help achieve that goal, rather then just “time” its got to be a combo of goals against time (does that make sense). I cant help but think that the accounting firm was more concerned with getting clients then it was profits.
Your story of the selling a product that is losing money is not that uncommon, especially if you are selling multiple products.
Ive got caught up before thinking: Bigger is Better – But Bigger isn’t better if it is not more profitable
Exactly
Hi Jason,
Just found your blog, first time visitor. I worked for a company that went from $6M/year Sales to over $12M/year in sales in 3 years. The problem was the profit went from 12% to less than 2%. Many factors contributed to why, but bigger is not always better. If you can’t scale the company than you’re better off staying the same size and concentrate on efficiency.
-Tim
Wow… that is a great example!
If you need the money then working on what is paying the bills makes perfect sense. I fell out of love with the whole making a living online thing about 6 months ago and now I see it purely as work. The change in mindset away from doing it because I enjoy it to doing it because it pays the bills has resulted in big ROI improvements. From 9 till 5 I have my serious work head on. It also makes it easier to have breaks and other hobbies when it’s “just a job”
Good to have you back Jason.
A lot of attention is given to “scaling up” in business building.
Sometimes I think too much attention. Instead, the advice needs to be:
“Scale carefully, so you don’t lose focus on your core business…and therefore lose part/all of your core customers.”
Hi John,
Good to have you back, and that little business story just goes to prove that bigger is not always better. Often the smaller more focused is always the winner, just like in our business eh!
Hello Jason,
It’s good to have you back… I missed all your tips for helping me improve my Gogvo sites!
Looking forward to more adventures and learning with the Cow, now its back!
All the best, Sean.
hi.
all good. just keep happy – that is all that counts.
house cleaning really works.
you did know that already.
it is just a good feeling to step back and see it.
Rob
Nice to see you back Cow. Actually i do keep track of my ROI for my adsense sites (as well as many other stats). It helps to let me know if my tweaks are working or not.
Really glad your back..looking forward to the new changes coming up
David
So true, don’t fall in love with your sites, build on those who make you the most money!
Good hearing from you, Jason.
Jerry
Welcome back man..lol Thought you got kidnapped..
Jason,
Welcome back! Breaks every once in awhile are a good thing.
You’re right, it is important to make a habit of analyzing what is working for you in your business and what is most profitable.
Thanks everyone for the welcome back
It;s good to know that you have not fallen off the map permanently. The info that you provide is worth the reading. Now hopefully you have even better info to share
Welcome back Jason!
I agree it can be hard to get right down and determine ROI, a factor in ROI too, I think, is your own time. Want to get the best return there too!
Cheers,
Jeromy
Welcome back Johnk
I was wondering where you were Jason. Glad to see you’re back!
the main lessons from this post are..optimize ,prioritize.work more on what is working…thanks
Good you are back, the information that you share is filled with value, so hopefully you will continue providing great information.
Congrats on the success of your site. Just discovered it, so can’t wait to read on to learn more tips.
You are right the role of a website is important, but so is building good content. For now I will concentrate on building good content, and once I am satisfied than I’ll reassess and see what else needs to be done.