View Full Version : making it - today
Reading the latest posts on how unpredictable, up and down, and illogical some of the things webmasters rely on as guides, I came up with an idea or question. What do you think about the following?
Logically, it's probably a balance of all things. But the whole point is making it, having a stable business that earns money and maintaining if not improving that status. It makes sense that we look for practical methods and indicators to guide us. However, it seems (or not?) that a percentage of these methods and indicators are unreliable. If this is true, then it makes me wonder if what determines the fate of our business and income as webmasters is something much simpler: just showing up, doing the basic requirements and details, doing a good job but not overdoing and not looking back. Just going forward the next day and not paying too much concern with the bells and whistles. That still means keeping informed and up to date, such as webmaster boards are for, but more than anything just putting one foot in front of the other no matter what the weather is outside (monsoons and natural disasters may be temporary exceptions). Just an idea, and it could be totally wrong.
This is a big difference between knowing all the ins and outs of everything possible to get an edge. I'm wondering what other webmasters think about these ideas.
LavenderLounge
05-14-2010, 06:40 AM
But the whole point is making it, having a stable business that earns money and maintaining if not improving that status. It makes sense that we look for practical methods and indicators to guide us....
This is a big difference between knowing all the ins and outs of everything possible to get an edge. I'm wondering what other webmasters think about these ideas.
I've been thinking in the same direction. A lot of SEO tricks I've used in the past now work against you as Google gets wind of it. Content is still king and can always be adapted to any new platform that gets invented.
zbuckz_lloyd
05-14-2010, 07:21 AM
You may want to check out the Pareto Principle as I have found that it applies to adult as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
Mark Wolff
05-14-2010, 08:14 AM
Good post Tim. I think success is a combination of several things. You need to have knowledge. And you want to keep increasing and updating that knowledge by spending time every week reading tutorials, going on the boards reading up on the latest SEO methods etc. However i think Woody Allen once said that "80% of becoming successful in life, is just showing up"
Hard work, discipline and being able to work through tough times can take you a long way.
Over the years speaking with successful affiliates they all seem to have one thing in common. They showed up every morning, stuck with a program and kept working away until they started seeing results. For every high earning webmaster out there. There are 500 that quit and gave up when they didn't see the results right away. Most careers take years to develop. The ones that succeed are the ones that show up stick with a game plan and are not distracted by outside pressures. Persistence
Thanks Mark, it's good to hear those observations over a large number of people you work with. That's the kind of info I was curious about. I'm sincerely interested in all kinds of webmasters' thoughts about this, too, even if they differ.
I forgot to mention in the my original post that I am not knocking those who are up on seemingly all things and tactics possible. Some people are just born good at that, find it engaging, and it keeps them happy. But it's just not me.
gaydemon
05-14-2010, 12:01 PM
You may want to check out the Pareto Principle as I have found that it applies to adult as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
I think it probably does. Or at least it feels like it. You will create lots of projects, finish jobs, ideas etc etc.. but only a small amount of the things you do will actually either be successfull or make sales.
I find it incredible important to keep up to date with things, i used to be worried about how I was supposed to learn all the new things or even know what's "new" to learn. But it's actually proved to be fairly easy, you sort of pick things up and trends tend to guide you. For example you might hear about RSS somewhere, then hear it again mentioned by someone else. Maybe that's enough to make you more curious and you lookup some articles and start reading about it here and there.. and before you know it you've actually picked up some good knowledge about a subject.
I do however still put a lot of trust in big solid books. If there is something that I really want to learn I order a few books. Like HTML5 coming up, I've pre-ordered several. Flicking through code and design books works really well for me. I never read them fully but flick through them and pick up things I find interesting.
The next step for me personally is to pick things into pieces. Take html5, I might find try and find a really nice looking site that's designed usign html5 then deconstruct it and rebuild it myself into a new site.
As any business or life itself I guess, you must evolve or you will not surivive for long.
Adam Mason
05-14-2010, 03:29 PM
The Director of my website development company recently told me that I operate in the most hostile and unstable business environment known to man. Things / trends / bright ideas / etc can change the online world in less than 3 months - at most 6. I don't think turning up each day is good enough - you have to turn up and be ready to run your legs off to get ahead.
MiamiBoyz
05-14-2010, 04:37 PM
The Director of my website development company recently told me that I operate in the most hostile and unstable business environment known to man. Things / trends / bright ideas / etc can change the online world in less than 3 months - at most 6. I don't think turning up each day is good enough - you have to turn up and be ready to run your legs off to get ahead.
That is very true certainly!
The 80 / 20 rule is also quite true as well.
It is especially applicable to time management and that is where it is most valuable.
Just in case anyone misunderstood, when I talked about keeping up on things is important, that includes evolving, and...keeping up on things, but within the context I was writing.
AlexManifestMan
05-15-2010, 07:28 AM
"Opinions are like assholes...everybody has one"
Of course you have heard that before, but MY opinion is that there are very few hard and fast rules. You have to learn what works for you then improve upon it with additions and trials (and by that I mean tests/experiments) along the way. What works in some niches will not work in others. We have tested things that work well for others and seen them fall flat with our members and potential customers. We do things that others say will kill a site or make it impossible for a company to be successful. In my former mainstream career, I was regularly going against the SOP and was one of the most successful architect builders in the state. But that is because I knew who I wanted my customer to be and I went out and got them.
Figure out who YOUR customer is. That is what we do. I don't want customers that want $3.99 trials. I don't want customers that spend $5.99 on vod packages. We (based on consultant information) included these low cost packages "to get the surfer hooked..then get them to buy more". Well I never thought that would work and it didn't. I believe that surfers join for specific pieces of content relating to specific models. Once they get what they wanted, they go on. I don't want those customers. We changed our minium Muscle on Demand package to $39.95 and revenues are up substantially. We don't offer trials, we don't offer downloads of video (unless you want to pay for them as an upsell) and we do just fine. But we can afford to do that because we are in a specific niche and damn good at what we do. If we had a hardcore twink site, we would have to live with totally different rules.
In this economy, we are continuing to concentrate on offering great content to surfers who want it and can afford to pay. Like Apple, keep upgrading the offerings, but do not discount the price. Our mobile and ipad sites will be completed soon. It will be a no-cost upgrade to make our standard memberships more valuable to our members. We are selling 'tickets' to the live shows. These tickets cost more than a monthly membership but customers buy them EVEN though the live shows are available free as part of a subscription. Because they don't want to see anything but the live shows and are happy to pay for them.
So whatever it is you are doing Tim, just keep making it better and better. There are those that will tell you what you can and cannot do. Take it all with a grain of salt and test your assumptions. Tiny changes can make a huge impact. The straight site is far more work than the gay one, because I am having to learn and understand what straight guys do and they are a HUGELY different demographic. But I will get that one squared out too. In the muscle niche, I will help you any way that I can.
MiamiBoyz
05-15-2010, 08:47 AM
Here is a really good blog article on the 80/20 principle and practical applications:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/397/80-20-rule-pareto-principle/
Here is a really good blog article on the 80/20 principle and practical applications:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/397/80-20-rule-pareto-principle/
Interesting. I think overall he has a good basic point, and obvious one unless I missed it. Do what you love. I believe in that. I don't think it always works, but you have to keep hoping it will.
There's a contradiction in applying the 80/20 principle as discussed in the article. Unless I am missing a point, the 80/20 principle is purportedly constant in all things. Whatever we do, we'll still have an 80/20 situation no matter what. That is, generally about 20 percent of what we do to achieve something is responsible for the result we want. Or is the author of the article saying that we can blast that and make a majority (60 or 80 or large portion) of what we do create the result we want? If so, wouldn't that disprove the 80/20 principle?
MiamiBoyz
05-15-2010, 11:14 AM
It boils down to a principle that if you can properly identify the 20% of the activities that result in the 80% of the desired results, that you would be better off concentrating on those 20% activities and not "wasting" your time/energy on the other activities that really do not produce the results you want...therefore, in theory you could work less...get better results...and have more time/energy for other areas of life.
sounds good to me! if I could find that 20%
It boils down to a principle that if you can properly identify the 20% of the activities that result in the 80% of the desired results, that you would be better off concentrating on those 20% activities and not "wasting" your time/energy on the other activities that really do not produce the results you want...therefore, in theory you could work less...get better results...and have more time/energy for other areas of life.