March 19, 2008

Are You Letting the Internet Think for You?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:18 am

Back Again to the Idea of Signal to Noise

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When I first got to the Internet, it was about finding out about blogging. I was intent upon writing and developing content. Then I became part of a community. Soon enough one community begot another, and another. I began to read and listen. The result was more information that this single person could process in a week. I was taking that much in everyday!

The subliminal messages were strong, loud, and constant. Be a producer! Have idea! Make things happen! Look at what everyone else is accomplishing!

I got to work having ideas and thinking about how I could change the world immediately!

I was at no loss for ideas, but somehow I managed to forget a basic principle I learned in publishing — anything worth doing requires a well-thought plan. Starting with fire and no plan often ends in a lot of smoke and nothing more.

I began to notice that a whole lot of a people with great ideas weren’t making any money.

Are You Letting the Internet Think for You?

I started a few projects with a few friends and I found out some truths about the Internet. Folks have ideas, but they don’t always think them through. I know.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend who has a thriving Internet business. Whenever he considers a change or a new product, he leaves the Internet for a week or two just to think. He was saying that the reason that he does this is because he doesn’t want to be like the guy in this story.

My friend changes his “business” every 9 months to a year. He just did it again. He left behind all that he had built in readership — just left them. He’s decided to follow another Internet guru. He built a new blog, dressed it all out, and then came to me to ask, “How do I make money with it?” What was he thinking?

What was he thinking? I suspect that he was letting the Internet think for him.

I repeat something I said earlier this week, “A blog isn’t a business any more than a building is a company.”

If you want to make money on the Internet, make sure you have three things crucial to any business.

  • Have a value proposition — a product or service that people want to buy
  • Have a plan — know how you’ll offer it and deliver it and how it will support you
  • Have a someone outside the thinking to work with you as you make decisions so that you stay on track

Thinking it through is harder when a barrage of signal to noise is always assaulting us. The noise from the Internet often repeats things that have nothing to do with good business practice.

How much time do you spend thinking your own thoughts about your business –questioning what the Internet says to do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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8 Comments to “Are You Letting the Internet Think for You?”

  1. March 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
    Suzie Cheel said

    Liz ,
    hope you are feeling better

    This post is very timely as I am about to head off with computer unplugged from the net to plan the strategy for my new blog

    Thanks

  2. March 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Good choice, Suzie.
    Planning requires room to think. :)

  3. March 19th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
    Cath Lawson said

    Hi Liz - I can relate to this. I set off on the Internet without a plan in the late nineties. I was doing really well selling an info product that I was really proud off and it was helping a lot of people.

    But, I didn’t take the time to plan properly and I wasn’t flexible. Many sites sprung up that were similar to mine, offering the same info for free. They were monetising their sites with affiliate programs, but I had no idea what was happening as I just wasn’t doing my research properly.

    In the end I packed it in, which was a shame as I had a big mailing list. I should have researched more, studied what the competition did and been more flexible instead of just giving up.

    Planning, research, keeping an eye on the competition and being flexible are so important. Your friend is crazy giving up when he has already built a community.

  4. March 19th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
    Bob Younce said

    I do fine with bullet points 1 and 2 most of the time.

    It’s “Have a someone outside the thinking to work with you as you make decisions so that you stay on track” I sometimes have difficulty with. For me, its not so much finding someone on the outside to work with you, but rather having the right person on the outside to work with you.

  5. March 20th, 2008 at 12:55 am
    Suzie Cheel said

    I got ditracted by problogger live chat and decided against the new blog- best to get the highway up to making money and functioning well before i venture down another path:)

  6. March 20th, 2008 at 6:05 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Bob!
    Having the right person, or persons, is a real trick. I’ll hand you that. That person or group needs to deeply care about YOUR goals and direction, not want to impose their own vision.

    Yeah! The ability to reflect back and question is the best quality you can find in a mastermind friend or group to work with you. :)

  7. March 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Cath!
    Committing to a living plan is the most important service we can do ourselves and our businesses. No question about that.

    Making sure that plan can grow and change in response to the world and to ourselves is part of keeping the plan alive. The plans at the best companies I worked for were solid, yet fluid and changing as information made them more intelligent.

    Learning from history is how our new plans get to have the substance they need to be valid in the first place.

    Thank you for tellng your story. You showed the value of all of these.

  8. March 20th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    HI Suzie!
    I applaud you for keeping your focus. A little less variety often breeds more success, I’m finding. :)

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