Mastering the Machine

If you visit this sight regularly you may have noticed a change in the sidebar; there is now a button that says “Download Mastering the Machine”. I wrote in a previous post about changes I am making to both this site and my business site. Well, the Audience Business Masterclass finished up a few weeks ago and I have started implementing some of what I learned.

An important feature of a business website is the ability to get leads from qualified people who visit the site. Now this site is not a business site, but I have mentioned before that unless somebody comments on a post or sends an e-mail I don’t really have any interaction with readers. That’s Ok here but it really wouldn’t be much good on my other site. I do track statistics of who visits this site and what they are looking for when they arrive via search engine. I receive somewhere between 20 and 40 visitors a day here and try to ensure that what appears on the site is useful for visitors.

The home page of this site now has a graphic like the one shown above on it. This is sort of a test of the system I am going to implement on my business site. The general idea that I learned from the Audience Business Masterclass is that in exchange for a visitor entrusting you with their e-mail address you have to provide something of value. In the case of my business, I consult with companies that are purchasing automated equipment or putting in a manufacturing line. The document “Mastering the Machine” is a 26 page e-book that shows all the steps that are required to properly plan, purchase and document machinery. Much of the information in the document comes from my experience running my machine-building company and working for a large custom machine builder.

The booklet is oriented strongly toward my target customers: plant and engineering managers. Most of the readers on this site are engineers or technical people, quite a few students seem to visit also. Still, the e-book has some good information in it and I thought I’d make it available here also. One big difference between this site and the business site: The goal of the business site is to engage readers and keep my company’s name on their mind. As such it is important to e-mail people on the subscription list with company information and useful tips in the hope that they will use my services. On this site I really don’t have a product, although I do intend to promote my book here after it is published (in about a month I hope!) So if you download the document here you are not going to receive many e-mails. Of course it is also really easy to unsubscribe.

********** Ladder Logic **********

For those of you who have been following my 200-level posts on PLC programming and ladder logic I have a challenge for you. A good friend of mine who follows this site pointed out a mistake I made in the organizational chart on the left side of the posts (thanks Gordon!!) That organizational chart was generated using Allen-Bradley’s Logix 5000 programming software and does not come from an actual program. I generated it purely for instructional purposes. If I had been writing a real program I would have caught it, but it is kind of a doozy. You can see the chart on any of the 201-205 ladder logic posts I have written over the last month or so.

Next week I will post what the mistake is, but if you think you know what it is leave a comment. There will be a prize for the first person to identify what it is. Sorry, Wright Industries employees are not eligible for the prize.

So hey, give the button a push if you want to check out the e-book, and take a guess at what the mistake is in the organizational chart!