We Got Fired!
A post on Everybodygoto dot Com inspired this one as Ali hit the nail when he said:”One important thing that I did yesterday was to fire myself on a project that was constantly nagging me, because I started it on a whim and never followed it through. It was time to get rid of it and concentrate on what I am capable of doing and not what I think I can do. I feel so relieved now.”
We took a sip of our cold milk, staring at the article when it came to us. We’ve been starting up several projects lately but just can’t find the time or resources to commit to them. They’re laying on the shelves gathering dust. Normally you’d think that whatever you’ve got laying around, planned for the future can do no harm but when we thought about it, these unfinished projects were taking up some of our time every day!
-Now here’s a great idea to use for project A! Let’s see if this will work better on project B. Hmmm, how about if we do it like this? Nah, it’s not gonna work, back to the drawing board. Ooooh look at all the time we just wasted. Again.-
Seriously, we needed to take a step back and cut off atleast 50% dead weight which was draining the attention from the projects we do know what to do with! Much like deciding to quit updating our other blog. We took out a notepad and jotted down all our domains. Each domain/project would get a rating between 0 and 5. Anything below 3 is going in the dumpster! Might fetch a penny or two by someone who thinks the project is worth seeing through. Pennies you can put in the projects you’re dedicated to, hence improving them!
We needed to set criteria for ourselves:
- Can we finish this project by ourselves? Do we need to pay anyone to code/design/develop something for us?
- Will it still be in demand by the estimated time of completion?
- Has someone else made something similar in the meantime and do you think your product can compete?
- Have you still got the passion you had when you started working on it?
You’ll get 1 point to start with for your efforts, if then you can’t get to atleast a total of 3 points after you’ve asked yourself these questions, it’s probably not worth your time anymore. Don’t let it linger, sell it while you still can and you’ll really feel a weight dropping off your shoulders. You’re freeing up your schedule, adding to your finances and you’re clearing your head! No more frustrations when you feel like you’re running into a brick wall again. There’s simpely no more brick wall to run into!
Go ahead, do yourself a favor and write that memo!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
When I first started blogging, I was trying to make money like everyone else. I think I had about 9 blogs on different things and even though they were making some money, they were not the worth the time. Now I mainly focus on my personal blog and one money blog. Those 2 alone are hard enough to keep up with. I think we all need to do some “cleaning up”.
It never hurts to re-examine the purpose of any blog/website. Sometimes it helps strengthen the original idea and sometimes it means leaving ideas on the cutting room floor as it were. George Lucas once said the hardest thing about being a filmmaker is having to decide to cut out your favorite scene. Blogging can be like this. Sometimes you need to scrap that article that just isn’t cutting the mustard.
When I first started out..I tried creating 15 blog accounts using the free Blogger service. I had one blog for every money/finance related topic - one for eBay, one for investments, etc. I figured the more the better. Obviously I found it impossible to handle and realized that quantity over quality would not work. I nuked them all and consolidated everything into the one blog I have now. Maybe one day I will expand….one day..one day.. [*looks into the distance longingly*]
-Raymond (MONEY BLUE BOOK)
Why don’t you have a download ebook Make Mooney Online like those other dot com moguls out there. I’m sure it would be much better than the other grifting going on out there…can’t wait, oh please oh please respond, this is my favorite mooney making blog out here. thank you.
How many cows do you know that write books?!
i don`t know one cow writing a book. not even an e-book.
Just the cow named John, man !
Good advices man. I’ve 4 blogs now, but, i thing I’ll try to focus on two (one about bible studies and the other about blogger tricks and tips, all French blog).
Nah, e-books are for the birds! John Cow needs to do a video. Now, I’ve seen LOTS of cows on tv and movies.
Good advise. Sometimes it’s so easy to miss the garden for all the weeds. In “real life” I try to keep projects to a minimum but online I often find myself buried in responsibilities. This served as a wakeup call of sorts.
A good book related to this topic is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. A lot of blog and on-line business owners tend to be ‘the technician’ and don’t know when to let go of doing technical projects themselves. Of course, there is a flipside that he covers in the book that can happen when the ‘technician’ becomes the ‘manager’.
While it was written ‘pre-Internet’ in 1995, a lot of it still applies today. I highly recommend it.
I had a clear out last week and binned three domains. I’m also doing this thing where I throw out any new niches/ideas I have to the blogosphere for anybody else to take, at least until I get my current projects finished.
Mark Cuban did a similar thing about a year ago, business ideas that he had, but didn’t have time to do anything about, so he posted them on his blog.
I thought it quite generous, even though I didn’t do anything with the information.
One of my old projects failed but I recently did a whole theme update myself including nice graphics and everything. Come check it out cows!
Still looks the same to us?
LOL. I need to give my blog a makeover
Didn’t notice the revamped sidebar? Common cows, you have to look around a bit!
Make money or die!
Make love not war.
Make a goal not a wish
I’ve got a great idea, and it’ll probably work a little too, I need some money though to start it to buy the correct tools, it’s like $280 or something. It’s tough when you need to spend some to make an idea happen because you really don’t want to spend that.
[...] out the full post at JohnCow (not a misspelling). If you enjoyed this article, please Subscribe via RSS and don’t forget to [...]
LOL unless he finds a cow costume, I am not sure he really wants to show up the face behind the John Cow.