I’ve just re-read that title and it sounds really pompous – Oh well, it is what it is 🙂
If you track back through my recent posts, you’ll find a lot of mention of Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge and how I have been trying to stick to the straight and narrow and really follow through with everything he has talked about.
One of the things I was most interested in was whether or not our little “band of brothers” (and, I guess, “sisters”) is artificially skewing all the numbers we are seeing on our blogs. I quite deliberately stepped out of the blog commenting in the group and concentrated on the outside world for a while, just to see if the self-congratulation was giving everyone false results.
Unfortunately, it looks like my guess was reasonable – and not only that, but it proves how crap I am at commenting in other ways! I think my WF signature has the wrong kind of message for that forum, which tends to be looking for a quick million bucks from a freebie download and I suspect that spreading myself round the internet needs to be much more intense than time seems to allow. I need to think about that one….and change my forum sig too.
Interestingly, I did get a message from one Warrior, who was keen to be on the sharp end of my reviewing technique, so the signature did have some effect, it just gave the impression that I was up for reviewing others’ work, not that they should visit here for the reviews. Fortunately for her, her WSO turns out to be pretty good, so I sent her a few corrections and suggestions on how to monetize it better. Maybe I should turn myself into a proof-reading service …..
Internet Marketing as a Business
One of the many interruptions this week, has been the arrival of my company’s “filing date” for yearly results. One thing I would say to any aspiring entrepreneur in the UK is to tiptoe into the whole Limited Company creation thing, don’t jump in with both feet like I did until you have some earnings and an accountant to sort it all out.
As a (very) small business, I’m still in a position of doing my own returns and keeping the company straight and legal is a huge time-suck.
Treating Yourself as a Business Asset
The other thing that I have committed to, is to get myself in gear and get back to the gym. Middle age spread and Internet Marketing seem made to go together and I’ve been guilty of making excuses about the gym because I felt I couldn’t spare time “away from the business”.
It has taken a while, but I have realized that actually I am the only real asset my company has. Of course there are domains and sites and email lists, but I still need to be around to make them work well, so if I croak that wouldn’t be a good thing 🙂
So, to add to all the other stuff, I have decided to treat my “gym time” as an investment in corporate asset number one i.e. me! In another post I may add all the gory details of where I’m starting from – it all feels a bit sordid really, but I’m told it helps to make a public commitment.
For those of you that have never had any need to hit the gym (curse you!) I should probably say that all of this will involve lots of running (going nowhere), lifting (building nothing) and generally pushing bits of things around that don’t want to be pushed. If only our cave-men ancestors could see us now.
I’m going to try to fit in some of the things that Tim Ferris talks about in his 4-hour body book, I find his approach to (self)experimental health really interesting. So I’ll put up his minimal stats figures in my “confession” post for you all to laugh at. Note that there will be no before and after shots until I’m pleased with the “after”.
Hey Martin, I’ll be one of those “sisters” then? 😉 I think it was inevitable that the traffic would drop off, but I do still think it was a good kick-start, and there are several blogs I will continue to follow after the Challenge is over because we’re interested in the same things. Some will, of course, be forgettable particularly when you consider the large number of participants. You’re going to have to be good to get my attention in that pack…. but, oh, look whose blog I’m commenting on! The non-challengee traffic will be harder to build up. I wouldn’t expect anything less, but I reckon we’re starting from a better position having done the challenge than not. And I’ve taken more action in the last few weeks than I have for some time, and surprised myself with my results. That makes it sound like I’m defending the program, when I don’t think you were being critical. Just sharing my thoughts on it.
Hi Janie,
Your points are well made and I think the whole idea of forcing us to take action has been a good one. I only tried my little “experiment” to see what the skew was and it definitely highlighted my need to get on top of my sign-up offer and signature. I’m touched that you should think my ramblings are worth a look, I suppose I now need to make every post a real zinger 🙂
Well, think of me as your motivation, then… I can’t quite replace Mr Holland but I’ll do my best *grin*
Haha, that’s all I need an Internet Sword of Damocles 🙂
I suspect that “Mr Holland”, as you put it, is off doing his expensive coaching now, so “we” are literally all “we” have got!