The Difference Between the Haves and the Have Nots in Web Marketing
I am currently a have not, but I’d love to be a have. The problem is me. I’ve come to the realization that there’s only one real difference between the haves and have nots in web marketing and that’s work ethic.
The haves do the work, even if they hire it out. No matter how it happens, in the end, the work does get done.
Have nots do some work, but maybe not the work that needs to be done to move a website towards its earning potential. They might think of themselves as hard-workers, but in the end, the truth is that they either do too little, or waste time on the little things that don’t do anything to move them forward.
That’s me. I work hard, and I work a lot, but I don’t always (almost never) work at what really needs to be done.
Since I’m practicing self-discipline now, I’m changing that. And yes, despite my prior rant against accountability, I have a spreadsheet that makes me accountable to myself for what I’ve accomplished.
Nothing fancy. I have a set number of pages of real content I want on each site I build, based around good keyword research (as opposed to bad keyword research—at a time when I’m really not 100% what the difference is :) but nevertheless I move on…).
My spreadsheet has a single column where I input the current number of pages of real content I have on a site (excluding any standard pages such as privacy, about, contact, blah-blah). I update the number whenever I add content to a site. So there you go. Simple. Easy. Only someone who is lazy wouldn’t update it… (I am self-disciplined, I remind myself. I’m not talking about me.)
I wrote previously about how I had looked at my report (this same spreadsheet, from which I learned the undeniable truth about how much content I’ve actually not created for all of my websites) and come to the conclusion that I had issues I really needed to face.
I’ve never really given my business a chance to grow into something because my work ethic sucked.
It’s time to change that, so here I am, practicing self-discipline and trying to become the person I want to be.
When I looked at that spreadsheet, it was clear to me that all my bellyaching about how much work I’d put into my websites and how little progress I’d made was more than a little skewed. I don’t know what all the work is that I’ve been doing, but I’ve clearly not been doing it with any kind of focus or plan. There’s no regularity to the pattern, no signs of systematic follow-thru or follow-up on any of my web projects to date.
For me to really make the changes I want to make, that has to change dramatically. I have to pick one path, one method, and stick to it until the end. Minor course corrections are always going to be okay, but massive overhauls of how I’m trying to do things won’t work. Because frankly, that’s probably what’s been throwing me off track all along.
So, I now have a plan—and I’m quite excited by it.
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