Running Out of Steam!

[jbsmith]

Aitch - this simply means its time to take stock of last 14-months - what went wrong, what went well, what did you learn, who did you meet that truly was living your dream versus people who just talked the talk?

Its important to identify mentors early on in an area that you have chosen to use to realize your dreams. Someone to help you find your way.

First, its critical that you know what you want. Not just in terms of financial reward, but in terms of what sort of people you want to work with, what you want your impact to be on people or the world, what type of things you like doing - others not so much, and what you would do with your extra income if you achieved the goals you have set.

Way too many people don't have realistic goals, others have a goal (let's say $80K online, but don't have a clue how to assess which business model is most likely to get them there) You need to have the goal AND pursue mentors that will help you understand exactly what it will take to achieve your goal - if they can't tell you, then move on to someone else.

There are many ways to be successful online - no one set method, so its a matter of knowing enough about what you want to allow a mentor to help you.

Cheers....

Jeff

[Aitch]

Hey Jeff thanks for the post.

Aitch - this simply means its time to take stock of last 14-months - what went wrong, what went well, what did you learn, who did you meet that truly was living your dream versus people who just talked the talk?

Ahh! Reflection and hind sight. Valuable tools indeed. Mr. Roomfinder was my first ever web project and for the most part it’s been nothing but a joy from day one as I began to put my thoughts into practice. 14 months down the line, and I'm still playing with it but it's hardly making a brass tack Hmm! It has to be my first born!

Of course lessons have been learnt along the way and I can think of a few of the most important that I’ve listed below:

Lesson: Do what you can yourself and only outsource if it makes sense both in time and money. I no longer need to hire the services of web designers, just developers for the dynamic content. A short 4 day course on Dreamweaver helped with that one. I recommend all budding webmasters to get a grip of the mere basics of web design. You’ll save on money and become more creative as a result. Here's a great little link

Lesson: I tried to copy what others local webmasters did as a way to generate income, but I didn’t take the following factors into account:

* Their site’s were different! Different content, functions, facilities, visitors, and advertisers.
* I didn’t anticipate web credibility is something that’s built up over time (and lots of it), so folk aren’t usually queuing up to visit your site and advertise on it come open day.

Lesson: Keep focused. I had all sorts of unrelated bits and pieces going on but no one gave a toss. Big waste of time! Stay with the main theme until you know what the visitors want from the site and build on user feedback.

Lesson: However enthusiastic one might be about one’s project, don’t ram it down the virtual throats of other sites and forums without invitation. I believe Yaro's written a piece about that somewhere.

Lesson: Avoid the vultures. There have been a couple of occasions where I’ve been approached by bigger sites who wanted to partner with mine, but these guys were takers not givers. One local website wanted me to change the name of my site to match his, then give him 50% rights in return for a bit of free advertising! Avoid the vultures! If others want a slice of your hard earned pie, then it looks like you’re onto a good thing. Stick with it unless you’re looking for partners and get independent advice from others before making any decisions. Don’t be bullied into making rash decissions with one-liners like, “This deal's only on offer until the end of today, so don’t think about it too much”.

Lesson: Don’t go it alone. Join forums (like this one) for idea and tip sharing. Educate, educate, educate! Be nice and nice things will come to pass. Help those that helped you and even those that didn’t.

Lesson: Prepare yourself for a great big fat bag full of patience and persistence – touched on in other threads.

Lesson: Get out of the house! Give yourself a break from time to time no matter how enthusiastic your are. You’ll find that stepping back sometimes helps you to step forward with renewed vigor. It’s a bit like the tortoise and the hare story. Slow is fast!

I think I’ve actually learnt a lot more than I realise and wasted more time than I care to think about, but it’s all part of the learning process. Sometimes I think I know Jack Sh*t about any of it but upon reflection, I realise I’ve come to know quite a bit.

It’s important to identify mentors early on in an area that you have chosen to use to realize your dreams. Someone to help you find your way.

There are a couple of folk I find myself looking up to. I do find that the very successful in business (the untouchables I call them!) tend to be a little shrewd and keep their cards fairly close to their chest, but help is quite often at hand if you just ask. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.

First, it’s critical that you know what you want. Not just in terms of financial reward, but in terms of what sort of people you want to work with, what you want your impact to be on people or the world, what type of things you like doing - others not so much, and what you would do with your extra income if you achieved the goals you have set.

This is so important. Firstly, I need to live, so I need money. I have to support myself and so I have to have financial goals. I live in Thailand (I stayed here after a failed business venture). I want to continue living here so I need to do something to generate an income. I’ve had no money coming in for almost 2 years now and as I’m not a millionaire, I need to give myself a financial target.

So, my aim is to be making around £400 sterling a month by the end of the year through my internet related businesses. The dream target would be £1000 but the 400 will ease up on the savings and take the pressure off quite nicely while I pursue further in my online career.

I’m in a very fortunate position here. I live in the tropics surrounded by great food, fantastic weather, lovely people, and a host of nice friends, and to cap it all, I’m free to be working on my online ventures full time until January 2007. If I’m not making diddlysquat by then, it’s time to throw the towel in and go home while I still have a bit of cash left.

But it’s not just about the money. It’s about waking up every morning feeling good on a more often than not basis.

I, like most people, would love to have as much money as I can get my hands on, but not at any cost. I’ll work hard but not to the extent that I become a miserly hermit. I need people, I need the outdoors, I need sunshine and basic interaction. I also need online as well as offline buddies, simply because so much of my time is spent logged on to the web.

My Mr. Roomfinder project makes but a buck a day with Google AdSense. This is a far cry from the $2000 I thought I’d be generating on the site through banner ads, but this was down to my early ignorance of the market and some cultural issues I never took into consideration. Sometimes Google will get me $3 in a day, but never more than that.

But, the biggest kick I get is when I logon at the start of my day to see that a landlord or agency has uploaded their vacant property to the site. It’s a compliment to my efforts that local landlords think that a site knocked up by a foreigner in their country is worthy of use. I believe it will get popular if allowed to grow organically over time and I still think the Roomfinder fruits are yet to yield.

The biggest kick this webmaster can get is when an email lands in the inbox from someone unknown saying a simple thank you for the site, pointing out that they have just found their next home because of it.

When I begin to make more money through my new ventures, I will re-invest that money into making more money. But I as pointed out earlier, all work and no play makes Jack a dull bore, so my efforts will be genuine and hard working but by no means obsessive.

There are many ways to be successful online - no one set method, so it’s a matter of knowing enough about what you want to allow a mentor to help you.

That is so true. I now have a clear focus on which direction I’m heading in but things can always change along the way. Financial ambition (or lack of it!) keeps me grounded. It’s important to plan ahead but planning the results can only lead to disappointments. I’d sooner make less money and be happy than make sh*t loads of cash only to find I’m too busy, and too stressed out to enjoy it.

So, my main objective is about doing the next step and not to worry about the end results. The end results will only happen if I work for them, but all I need to concentrate on for the moment is what’s in front of me right now.

Your post has prompted some good questions Jeff and although the response has been all about me me and me, let’s hope there’s a couple of useful bits in here for those that read it.

So what about you Jeff? Fancy saying hello in the What Do You Do? How Is Your Business Going?

Aitch

[TimK]

Hi, Aitch. I just went back to read this thread for inspiration. I too have been feeling like I'm running out of steam. And I've only been at my project for 4 months! Of course, I've been sick with a sinus infection, so that might have something to do with it.

I currently work full-time, and I'm trying to earn enough from my blog in order to open up other career options, to take on riskier projects and so forth.

I'm very passionate about my blog topic, and that's important. When I'm working on blog entries, I feel energized and optimistic.

When I look at traffic stats and revenue, I feel... Well, let's just say I don't feel energized and optimistic. I've earned a grand total of two dollars and twenty-four cents via AdSense. I see on average 57 visitors to my site each day, and my podcast episodes have been downloaded on average 48 times each.

Of course, Steve Pavlina says he ran his blog for 4 months before he saw any income. So if I'm as hot as he--and I'm not--I shouldn't expect much yet.

My goal is to be able to monetize the site by the one-year anniversary, so I have to keep going at least that long. That would be until November. And that probably means between 500 and 1000 daily visitors. So today I did something I hadn't done before. I ran a projection, based on my traffic stats for December, January, and February. Here's what I got for average daily visitors:

Historical visitors/day:

• Dec: 26.91
• Jan: 37.10
• Feb: 49.29

Average growth rate: 1.353620534
Predicted visitors/day:

• Mar: 66.72
• Apr: 90.31
• May: 122.25
• Jun: 165.48
• Jul: 224.00
• Aug: 303.21
• Sep: 410.43
• Oct: 555.56
• Nov: 752.02

Now, I know, this projection is sensitive to assumptions and variance. Still, this table makes me feel better.

-TimK

[Aitch]

Nice post TimK. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

You know, one of the most important things that have helped me is to be able to write stuff down and click the send or submit button. It's good to talk even when no one’s listening!

In hind sight, my biggest set back has been the fact that I didn't know my ar*se from my elbow when I first jumped in at the deep end. Sure I did some research but it was misguided and I went off and barked up a few wrong trees!

I had a bunch of great ideas (or so I thought) but didn't have a clue whether folks shared them or not. I was alone and isolated with my own thoughts.

It's all different now. I've found online forums, courses, and new friends around the globe. I've connected with other like minded individuals that are happy to share and discuss the entrepreneurial issues of the day, but the most important thing of all is that i've got interactive, involved, and networked. In other words, I’m plugged in.

You're in the right place. Keep bouncing ideas around. You never know who might be reading! You'll also get to a point when someone reaches out for help and you have the answers they’re looking for, and that my friend, is how it works.

To teach something, is a great way to learn IMO.

Stick around Timk, we appreciate your participation in the forums.

Aitch