Back Again to the Idea of Signal to Noise
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
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!
