memenode
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Just before new year I launched a new site which I have been working at, on and off, for the last two months. It was the project I picked among a list of project candidates that I would try first in my attempts to start making around $5000 a month by September 9. 2009. During these couple of months I did occasionally struggle with motivation.
The problem with me is that I have multiple of interests and the only common thread between them is that all of them involve working with computers and internet. Gaming, electronic music, web design, space exploration, futurism, science fiction, high tech and philosophy (free form thinking and pursuit of freedom and self-empowerment). What a mess eh? But those are the things that I usually cycle between.
And that's the thing, I cycle. One day I'm totally into one of those interests and another day I am totally into something else where the other interests seem temporarily dull. There may be one of those which could hold me motivated continuously, perhaps philosophy, but I'm not yet 100% sure.
So what I thought of was to pursue the current primary project for 8 hours a day or so and take the rest to pursue the other interests, and if I find that some of the other interests could spawn a project that could overshadow the current primary one in terms of potential (profitability and overall satisfaction), I could just switch them over or even sell the current primary project.
But this could lead to switching primary projects too often, or in other words, a lack of focus. For example, I am right now seriously tempted to switch the site I just launched because after a hundred or so visitors I received practically no significant conversions. I expect a project that will earn $5K a month to be viral. What I experienced with my just launched site seems to indicate that it wont go viral and that it's a dead end considering my (high) expectations.
But I'm not sure if it will really indicate a lack of focus or perhaps just the opposite.
If my overarching goal is stated as follows: Start making $5000 a month by September 9. 2009 with an online venture then focusing on that goal could lead to working on multiple projects at the same time, or switching projects quickly until I hit something I am really confident about and that really shows signs of early success. The end goal is to start making $5000, regardless of how I reach that and how many web sites will I have to maintain at once in order to make those kinds of earnings (5 per $1K, 10 per $500 etc..).
Could that really be called "being focused"? Or is the only way to really be focused on this goal, to pick a single interest and a single web site and work solely on that until it either achieves the goal or fails, regardless of how tempted I may be to ditch it quickly because I feel it's not quite it?
I think web publishing is a peculiar business, because barrier to entry is so low. Experimentation is generally cheap and this allows for great innovation potential. Perhaps it IS a better way to take advantage of these facts instead of treating each web site as if it was an expensive "no turning back" kinda brick and mortar biz? Diffusion of focus then maybe becomes less important or it doesn't even happen because each web site requires a certain same basic set of skills and jobs (web design, internet marketing etc.) so it's not like each new start requires relearning the fundamentals...
What you think?
The problem with me is that I have multiple of interests and the only common thread between them is that all of them involve working with computers and internet. Gaming, electronic music, web design, space exploration, futurism, science fiction, high tech and philosophy (free form thinking and pursuit of freedom and self-empowerment). What a mess eh? But those are the things that I usually cycle between.
And that's the thing, I cycle. One day I'm totally into one of those interests and another day I am totally into something else where the other interests seem temporarily dull. There may be one of those which could hold me motivated continuously, perhaps philosophy, but I'm not yet 100% sure.
So what I thought of was to pursue the current primary project for 8 hours a day or so and take the rest to pursue the other interests, and if I find that some of the other interests could spawn a project that could overshadow the current primary one in terms of potential (profitability and overall satisfaction), I could just switch them over or even sell the current primary project.
But this could lead to switching primary projects too often, or in other words, a lack of focus. For example, I am right now seriously tempted to switch the site I just launched because after a hundred or so visitors I received practically no significant conversions. I expect a project that will earn $5K a month to be viral. What I experienced with my just launched site seems to indicate that it wont go viral and that it's a dead end considering my (high) expectations.
But I'm not sure if it will really indicate a lack of focus or perhaps just the opposite.
If my overarching goal is stated as follows: Start making $5000 a month by September 9. 2009 with an online venture then focusing on that goal could lead to working on multiple projects at the same time, or switching projects quickly until I hit something I am really confident about and that really shows signs of early success. The end goal is to start making $5000, regardless of how I reach that and how many web sites will I have to maintain at once in order to make those kinds of earnings (5 per $1K, 10 per $500 etc..).
Could that really be called "being focused"? Or is the only way to really be focused on this goal, to pick a single interest and a single web site and work solely on that until it either achieves the goal or fails, regardless of how tempted I may be to ditch it quickly because I feel it's not quite it?
I think web publishing is a peculiar business, because barrier to entry is so low. Experimentation is generally cheap and this allows for great innovation potential. Perhaps it IS a better way to take advantage of these facts instead of treating each web site as if it was an expensive "no turning back" kinda brick and mortar biz? Diffusion of focus then maybe becomes less important or it doesn't even happen because each web site requires a certain same basic set of skills and jobs (web design, internet marketing etc.) so it's not like each new start requires relearning the fundamentals...
What you think?
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