Be Prepared to Change Strategy At Any Time

Caroline — your REAL tangible asset will be your email list. Stay the course. I predict greatness.

Mark Mason’s last blog post..Filsame is Brilliant — Butterfly Reports is Live

LOL. Yea, you need to keep that email list so you can spam it with affiliate links.

Caroline, I think you’re spot on here. We’ve all heard the statistics about how internet technology changes every 18 months, 18 weeks, 18 minutes, whatever, and we have to be prepared to be flexible with our plans. Being overly rigid will not help entrepreneurs in a constantly changing industry.

Great stuff. Glad I delurked. Off to read Ben’s post — can’t believe I haven’t read it yet!

@Sarah — Well, that is something to consider. Opt-in lists need to be used in a way that is consistent with what your business is really about. That’s going to vary on a person by person basis. But if you have a valuable product that helps people, you need a way to reach them. Permission marketing through email lists is a good way to do that, if done correctly.

Mark Mason’s last blog post..Filsame is Brilliant — Butterfly Reports is Live

Based on what you say in your tagline about “delving into the world of IM”, I’d expect your long term strategy to continue evolving, as you you work through a learning process.

In my own experience, some things have worked as expected while others haven’t panned out. In the latter case, I just learned something new NOT to do.

Hang in there - keep trying new stuff, and always be open to learn. Over time, a strategy you’re comfortable will settle out.

John’s last blog post..Chase What Matters - How to Stay in Debt for Life

Caroline
you make it sound black and white.

Just continue the blog, but just post once a month, or whatever you can manage. that will retain charting your progress.

I think you will lose fans when the continuity falters, but that isn’t the issue for this blog anyway

But if you evolve in to more of a long term blog of advice, then new people will come back.

Guest posts are an idea (wouldn’t; mind a go myself) but without you to “debate” the topic, they can just post on their own blogs can’t they?

But don’t understand the importance of your blog in propelling whatever your real thing is. You have a list. Maybe not one you can name. But they are listening, if only by RSS.

As you’ll see in PLF2, a list and/or affiliates, are fairly essential, and you have the numbers to convert enough.

Don’t burn bridges. And don;t throw the baby out with the bath water. Cutting down is one thing. Cutting out is another.

Peter.

Peter Buick’s last blog post..Get Real Slide 2

Honestly.. I think you hit the nail on the head.

Most people here reading this.. have blogs or website or more.. and also just don’t have time to even read newletters or finish their own products as well.

I myself struggle on a constant basis with time. I have several websites/blogs/a kiddo/and a freelance job.. yet I constantly find myself distracted with Twitter or something (ha.. yes.. I will blame twitter for all my problems now.. lol)

But I DO read your posts- why- its encouragement. Its full of quality info. Its real.

Cut back..test it out- just post 2 times a week or something or just use it as a tool to keep up with your findings- hey I wanna know what works too! I will still read it.. others will as well. Maybe it will give us the extra time to get our stuff done.. or twitter! lol

Anyways… Good luck with the decision.

-Lolo

Guest posting is fine as long as 2 rules are enforced (my opinion of course)…

1. The guest post can not be entirely self serving to the poster - starting as a thought provoking “article” ending in just a pitch for an affiliate product.

2. You mentioned 1 per week or so and I think that’s fine. It’s some of the CHOWderheads that have mostly guest posts that really annoy people.

But of course I won’t mention any names…

Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Alice Seba’s Spring Cleaning Course - VERY Limited Seating

Caroline, I think your blog can remain completely viable (and even continue to grow) even when only posting a few times a week. Especially considering the kinds of people that are interested in what you have to say need time to work on their own projects as well. Providing a little less content for your fans and followers could actually increase demand and of consumption of your posts when they arrive that much more.

I also think one guest post a week could be a good thing as well. It helps build community, introduces new perspectives and you still retain final say on what you will put in your blog so there’s no real risk..

Jason Gilman’s last blog post..What is Axodys?

Don’t do what you’re uncomfortable (another lesson on going with your gut?).

Less frequent posts won’t bother me. It’s quality that counts. I think it will be just as valuable in charting your progress if you post a bit less.

However, it may be that the blog does affect your other stuff indirectly (focusing just on core things can be a trap). So if the other sites drop as your posting on this blog drops, it may mean that there is a relationship. I point this out because a friend lost his computer business when he stopped supplying parts which were a hassle and not very profitable. People then stopped buying the computers from him - they wanted one place to get everything. I’m saying this not because I think it will affect your business this way but to point out that sometimes things are related in surprising ways.

Evan’s last blog post..Your Neighbour and Your Self: Which First?

Well, Caroline,

A couple of thoughts. One, you’ve talked before about how you felt your voice was very important to this blog therefore no guests, and I agreed with that (although if you asked me or any of your 1,800, we’d never be able to say no to posting!). I voted no above, because I do think your voice is the reason for your large readership in a short time (which I’ve probably said in other comments, more than once :) )

Two of the biggest blogs I read, Problogger and Copyblogger, have become so stuffed with guest posts that their own voices are becoming diluted. Both guys still can write fabulous stuff, but they mostly don’t anymore! I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve thought of unsubscribing to each. You won’t take it that far, I’m sure… but how do you find a guest poster who can write to your readers? The mission of this blog is so individual and quirky, I just can’t see guests as working here.

On lightening the load: a lot of bloggers believe a less-frequent posting schedule gets you a more-engaged audience. If it’s “Oh, that’s just Caroline again, I’ll catch up with her tomorrow,” you can wind up with audience burnout as well as Caroline burnout. Most say three posts a week is enough to keep readers expecting you, while keeping yourself from being overwhelmed.

My vote for finding free time would be to lower the posting frequency. A happy Caroline is a witty, relevant Caroline, so do rest, then we can enjoy your thought all the more.

Regards,

Kelly

And P.S. “you all subscribe just to hear me rant about sleazy sales letters or whatever.” Yes, I think many of us do. Your voice. I think that’s what holds your loyal readers here for sure.

Kelly’s last blog post..Road Trip: Guest Post at Big Bright Bulb

You’ve put yourself in the position of branding your blog as yourself. You are your blog’s brand. For that reason, guest bloggers would be a little odd. But mainly, people are here for YOU. People really like your personality and your humanity. If you that THAT out of this blog, then yes, you will lose subscribers and traffic. You cannot be substituted.

Remarkablogger’s last blog post..What Public Relations 1.0 Teaches Us about Business Blogging

I love and appreciate your opinionated, honest posts, esp. about sales letters! I’d rather hear from you rather than a guest blogger. I can totally understand your commitment to your asset building projects. I’m going to be one of those people who signs up for your SU project, and I think that membership-type sites can be very nice recurring income, to give one example: I’m going to sign up for Aaron Wall’s SEO membership project, it’s $100 a month (he’s already got about 500 people signed up, I think)…not bad monthly money if you can get it.

Changing strategies is what brings success to a person :) If you stick to one thing, you’ll never excel. Just look at John Chow :P

-Mike

Mike Huang’s last blog post..VLOG Blogging For Success

I totally agree with what people are saying here. I read your blog because you are sincere, straight to the point, and I enjoy reading about your journey. It is your voice that I come to read. Three posts a week is enough to keep me reading, as long as the content is engaging. Then perhaps I will get more productive work done!

Amelia WALLACE’s last blog post..Educational toy saves the (rainy) day

Caroline, did you check DoshDosh? He only post 2-3 times per week and sometimes 1 time per week and check his RSS. Rss readers will keep subscriber if you provide Quality and Not Quantity. (This is my opinion).

Googlelady’s last blog post..Hostpapa Coupons Codes & Deals For April 2008

I myself have decided to post less often on my blog so I could spend more time with my kids and stop getting all our food burnt!
So if someone understands the situation you are in, I completely do and I won’t hold any grudges if you decide to post less often or even if you allow guest posters from time to time, after all you said it yourself, this is your blog and you can do whatever you like. I don’t know how guest posting works but if there is a way you can review the post and decide whether or not it should be published, go for it! I know that a lot of bloggers would love the opportunity to post here.
Keep doing whatever works for you, don’t feel obliged to spend too much time blogging if this means you can’t do what you really want!

Internet Junkie’s last blog post..Don’t Buy Any Make Money Online E-Books Until You’ve Seen This!

I think that a guest blogger/s could work as long as you are very selective and don’t over do, possibly have them write on something that is not your area of expertise but complementarity to what you write.

I have just hit on a new schedule for myself using themed months (or weeks) which is helping me to focus on three areas that are important at this time in the life of my internet business, one of the very key areas being as you said, product development (that’s slated for this month). I’ve produced more targeted and effective work in the last month since using this system than I have probably in the past year. For everyone the balance may be different, depending on where you are in your biz, the main idea is to make it easy to focus on a balanced plan of effective activities that will grow your bottom line, for at least part of every day - for me that means chunking a theme - making it a priority for a set time period - or I become completely scattered.

I think that by posting less to your blog and spending more time in product creation is just a logical way to instill much needed balance for your business/bottom line and personally look forward to what you will be coming up with in the way of products.

It’s not the last post that I have done on my blog, so I am leaving a link here to the podcast that I did last week on it,
http://queenofkaos.com/WAHMblog/289/themes-for-increased-productivity/

Jan - queenofkaos’s last blog post..Speaking of Focus…

I don’t think I will mind whether the post is by you and the quantity of posts that you will publish in a week. I remain subscribed to Yaro’s blog even though he did not update all the time. I guess value will prevail in the end.

Wayne Liew’s last blog post..Blogosphere Summary Week #7

Blogging is like sailing on uncharted seas. If the wind becomes unfavorable, we have to set our sail onto the direction that will help us reach our destination.

Affordable Web Hosts’s last blog post..What Will Happen to America After Barack Obama?

Well Caroline one thing is for sure time is truly money so I read your blog probably twice or thrice a month. But I always come back, why? Because you provide Real Value Always.
I’ll be surprised if the readership numbers fall significantly.
Yes get guest posts if you can but don’t set a goal that will now bite into your precious time all over again.
Your blog is a valuable to the internet community.
Best of luck.

Ayopeju Falekulo’s last blog post..The Maastricht Fair and UK Events This Weekend

Hi Caroline,
Thought I’d put my two-penneth in as yours is one of the few blogs on blogging/internet marketing etc. that I read.
Personally I would still come and read your blog if you chose to post less often. There always comes a time when you need to re-evaluate. I don’t think you would lose people if you posted less often. I come here to hear what you have to say because I like your honest approach. Out of the two, I’d rather see less posts than guest posting.
Plenty of other blogs only post a couple of times a week but keep their audience. That way you would have the energy to devote to your other projects.

Lily’s last blog post..Where to Buy Portuguese Food Online

Time is money and money is time and only you know the best way forward. I hope there was no secret message in your post about you thinking about hanging up your boots!! I think your best course of action would be to continue what you have been doing all these months but instead of posting everyday, post every couple of days. That would free up 3-4 days every week for you to concentrate on other ventures. Just my two pence worth :)

You mentioned in this post that your blog itself doesn’t make money. (directly). It does indirectly presell your ebook which presells your bluehost sales.

I wonder if your blog has enough content to be self-sustaining to drive ebook downloads and bluehost commissions without regular posting.

Do you have any stats on how many ebook downloads came from your blog and how many came as a result of your email blast? (I think I read in here somewhere that you had an email marketing strategy. Forgive me if I’m wrong.)

WebDiggin’s last blog post..You have a 1 in 14 chance of winning $5

@John, yup that’s right. Years ago I used to think I could plan things in detail many years ahead but now I realise that things evolve all the time so nowadays I rarely plan more than a few months ahead and just go with the flow.

@Peter, oh I have no intention of cutting out, only cutting back. I wouldn’t cut back to as low as once a month or even once a week! I still want to post a few times a week.

@Lolo, Twitter can be a distraction for I love it - brings me some nice traffic too!

@Dennis, no I would think carefully about what I wanted guest posts to provide, I don’t think affiliate links would be appropriate really.

@Jason, yeah that is what I am hoping. I for one find it hard to keep up with other blogs that post meaty content every single day and I know several people who have unsubscribed from here due to my posts being too long!

@Evan, yes I agree on that - everything I have done online has tied in with my blog in some way and as I look at the ideas and projects I have lined up they all interconnect with each other too and tie back to the blog in some way.

@kelly, yep you have very eloquently explained the issues I have with guest posters here - they are exactly the reasons why I have not allowed them so far. The only guest posts that I think might work would be tutorial style posts. I wouldn’t want somebody else posting opinion type posts here - that would just be weird.

@Remarkablogger, “you cannot be substituted” hehe I like that :-)

@Googlelady, yeah I have been reading DoshDosh since before I started this blog and I have seen how he has evolved. I actually preferred the style of posts he used to do but must admit that it was easier for me to keep up with him when he lowered the volume because he packs so much content into each post that it takes a while to fully digest it and put it to use.

@TonyC, no absolutely not! I love blogging so much - it gives me such a huge buzz to see the subscriber numbers rising, all the fabulous comments and emails I get every day - I really love it and could never quit! It pains me to think of having to post less, it’s not something I want to do, but feel I have to.

@WebDiggin, no unfortunately I never really setup any kind of tracking. However, I do know that I had a lot of traffic to the download page from other blogs that promoted for me. Although this blog does help to presell my own products, I am just a very small blip in the blogosphere and I couldn’t possibly expect to sell very much just from my blog alone. I feel like JV’s are essential - this is something I have only recently come to understand.

@Taffy, I got your email and replied to it but the message was rejected saying the email address was no longer valid! Let me copy here what I said in the email:

No it was not an oversight - I do not respond to every individual comment, that would be way too much. I only add my own response if I have something useful to say. I really do appreciate all the comments of support but it would not be useful for my readers for me to add “thanks very much for your support” to all of those that offer it. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say! When I first started the blog I did indeed respond to every single comment and after a while my own comments back would be a string of one-liners with me thanking my readers for thanking me and in the end my own comments were just noise so I cut back on them.

I really DO appreciate all the kinds words though - I read every single comment!

Caroline,

I think it’s best to focus on your other priorities right now. You need to do what is best for your life right now (ie bills, etc).

You’ll notice that most “big bloggers” do it for fun because they already made their money elsewhere. Blogging is very time consuming and the payoff is weak compared to other things you can do to make money. Once you make your millions, you can come back to this blog and share with everyone how you did it :)

Best of luck to you!
Max

Max’s last blog post..The REAL Secret To Making Money Online

@Max, well I do want to keep up the blog because the whole idea is that it serves as a running commentary of how I am doing in the other projects, but I do need to give more TIME to those projects for sure.

Btw, I am loving what you are doing with Blogging Experiment now!

Thank you for this thoughtful post. One of several aspects I find particularly pleasing is that you present the issues within a framework of “higher order” values as well as the “paying the mortgage” issues. I understand the argument for getting guest bloggers: at the same time, I have more than once found myself reading a post on a blog I had found valuable and wondering what had happened to a particular blogger, until I realised I was reading something by one of their guest bloggers. I’m all for keeping to the principle of “establish your own voice and be true to it” so I’m voting for no guest bloggers.

Des Walsh’s last blog post..Groundswell and Social Media in the Global Economy

I wouldn’t mind reading some guest posts now and then. But only if they are relevant to what you are doing.

I like your blog because you, up to now, create honest and from the heart articles. It’s not easy doing what you are trying to do, and your blog clearly shows this.

Just stay true to yourself and things will flow naturally. If you find you need to divert attention to other projects (incomerelated stuff) then be honest and just tell your readers.
I definately wouldn’t try and become another chow, shoemoney … (fill out the list to you liking) because I have the feeling that, and I could be wrong, it’s not your style.

Stefson’s last blog post..Twitters and twatters. How about you?

If you think of the blog as the vehicle to get new subscribers and the email list as the vehicle to retain subscribers then you won’t go far wrong.

Caroline, you said you used to spend an hour a day at least commenting on blogs. I’m guessing this hour included the time to read all the blogs too, not just the time to actually type the comments, right?

The reason I ask is because I assumed you had been spending much more time on that. At times I’ve spent as much as 30 hours a week reading and commenting on other blogs. The only reason I could do this was because the nature of my job gave me huge amounts of downtime at work, and I had to do something.

At the same time, commenting doesn’t exactly pay the bills, so I don’t want to do that forever. Once I get a decent number of readers, I plan to unsubscribe from all the blogs I don’t absolutely have to read. I’d like to be able to read lots of blogs, but there are only 24 hours in a day and people just post way too much.

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..A Simple Productivity System

Hi Caroline,

I went through the same kind of self analysis last week and wrote about it on my “Retune your Information Stream” post.

While reading and participating in online discussion has its benefits, producing assets that will bring dollars in the door should be the primary focus of all serious online entrepreneurs

Steve Mills’s last blog post..Lifetime Customer Value Explained

I agree that change is constant to progress. All we have to do is be open with it and keep focus on what we wanted to achieve.

@Des, yeah I often do the same thing and then I feel a sense of disconnection to the original blogger.

@Hunter, yes that’s right. But what I found is that I was constantly reading regurgitated stuff that gave me no value at all just so I could leave a comment. I think I got more value out of the commenting strategy in my earlier days when it was all new to me because I was learning a lot. Nowadays there are fewer blogs that really feed me something genuinely useful.

I really don’t understand why someone would not want guest posts, if they are good posts and relevant to the subject.

It adds so much to the discussion!

Another great post. I enjoyed it.

Perhaps it helps if you start thinking about your “home” as your “store”? Selling other people’s product to complement your own, or giving away other information besides yours, can be helpful to your readers too.

Just my 2c.

Hendry Lee’s last blog post..Tips to Writing Podcast Episode Notes That Gets Maximum Readability

How many times do you think you should expect change, say in a year? Is that a stupid question?

Althaf Ahmed’s last blog post..Ain’t this Beautiful?

@Althaf, actually that’s a very interesting question. I’ve never really thought about *expecting* change as such, it just seems to crop up on me. I find that the more I do, the more I read and the more I think, the more things change. But I see this as a good thing as those changes are refining my processes to take me nearer to where I want to be.

Your detailed info will get me on my way to the next level.
I started blogging a short time ago. I still have a lot to learn.
any further pointers are always welcome. Your help is Priceless.

To Adam Hyman:

Guest posting, I believe, is suitable for blogsites that don’t contain a personal name as domain name. For Caroline’s blog, I would feel uncomfortable reading a blog she did not write. This blog is her identity. When we come to this site, we expect that any posts written here are Caroline’s production.

Affordable Web Hosts’s last blog post..How To Make Your Computer Really Fast

Caroline, your post has me thinking that maybe I need to change my strategy. I work about 55-60 hours a week and currently have 3 projects/sites that I am working on. I just added a blog to that too, which I am finding is VERY VERY time consuming. My time was alreay spread too thin, but now with my blog, my other sites are at a stand still. I hate to give up on any of my projects, but if I don’t, the only stategy change I can make is the amount of sleep I get.

About the guest posting, it wouldn’t bother me, but just a thought here… what about personalizing the post by adding your commentary and thoughts about the guest post before or after it - kind of like a mini post review.

@Gil, could you “pause” your projects rather than give up on them? Blogs are tricky because you can’t just stop work on a blog for a couple of months while you start a new project but with some sites / projects you can do exactly that. So I would suggest seeing if there are any which can be left alone for a while then put them on hold while and try to focus on fewer projects at once.

With regards to your suggestion - hmm, no I wouldn’t want to dilute the guest post with my own comments - that would feel somewhat arrogant. If appropriate I might do a follow-up post though.