The NEW Powell3D Weblog

This blog is coming down.

Scroll to the bottom and don’t be shocked by the line there that tells you which version of Wordpress it is.

It only goes to show that no matter how well-intentioned you are as a webdeveloper/marketer, there’s just not enough time in the day to do all the blogs you want do; to write all the necessary content for them just because they’re topics you’re interested in.

You can’t actually be in all those places at once. Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s a good possibility, given that you manage your time exceptionally well, that you can visit every blog you have; put the hat on for that blog to get in the proper writing mood, and do that for fifteen or twenty different blogs.

Keep in mind that, by drudging through the administrative tasks for all these blogs, you’ve eaten up a substantial part of your valuable development and creative time; and these administrative tasks, though they combine social networking such that you get to let a little of your personality shine through, they nevertheless remain arduous tasks, and still, they take up considerable time.

You are probably aware that Wordpress 2.5 is out, and reports are good, generally. You may not know that I have this blog and twelve others, and each of them suffers greatly from a lack of focus, and in many cases, complete inattention. They somehow have a purpose, and they do, each in their own way, hold a fascination for me such that I don’t want to just abandon them entirely, so in order to be successful, they all need updating.

This blog will come down, and so will FreeManInParis, TheSmartestThingToDo, YourMotherShouldKnow, and SpellRIGHTNOW. Also LooseArrow3D and TimRockMan will be getting a make-over. There will be a few new ones too. I’ll be populating Positive180 finally, and my latest domain name acquisition is my own name; so I’ll be populating that one too with content.

They were studies in Internet Marketing, Usability and Design, RSS and AJAX and other programming for which I hold a high fascination; and they’ve been sandboxes for e-Commerce development tools of all kinds. Have I learned from it? Yes, I guess so. I’m still as confused as ever in some realms of web development. Nobody can be great at everything.

I haven’t added content to this or any blog consistently. I haven’t established a rapport with any readership, whether I had an idea who you are or not -whoever you are reading this, you probably realize by now I’ve filled my plate way too full in that I’ve been trying too hard to “do it all.”

I want to understand all of the code that drives every aspect of my sites. I want to know exactly how every cookie works, and how every payment process goes from beginning to follow-up; and I want to know every CSS style declaration for every website. I want to know where traffic is coming from and what to do to encourage the good traffic to stick around and convert to sales. I can’t help but want to know everything about everything.

There comes a point when you just have to delegate some of it. You can’t do it all. Consider what you might be up against. You have to design all of this, and more:

• The appeal of the site from a visual and aesthetic point of view
• The conversion of the site from a psychological point of view
• The value of the site from a latent and semantic point of view
• the framework and all the code, all the databases, and the hosting relations
• the content
• the sponsors, the affiliate products, the advertising, testing, and tracking
• the mailing lists and the content that keeps them subscribing

and that’s the “short list.”

The idea is to manage your time well.
Start with a plan, and set the attainable short-term goals. Make sure you have the exit strategies duly noted too.

This blog is coming down, though the re-appearance of it may still contain the archive of posts herein; if I finally deem any of them worthy of saving. And otherwise, it’s time I began to write. To establish a readership through each of the channels I’ve created. It’s time for my Positive180.

In case you haven’t been following along, Positive180 is the self-improvement site I registered way back in 2002 or ‘03. Its metamorphosis has been huge but entirely behind the scenes; entirely in my head.

It’s intent, this time around, is to provide resources to those wanting to make a positive change in their lives.

I know. That’s a huge category. Taking it down a little, it is an inspirational site for HIV+ people. For me to narrow it down to that segment of the population is a very difficult thing, since that’s only one aspect I’d orignally envisioned for it. I have imagined it being almost everything for everybody. I am inspired by Steve Pavlina, so I’d hoped to model my site after his incredible site; and I’d hoped to make it a place for people who want to quit smoking, drinking, taking drugs, and all other excessive behaviors. But it has to be limited somehow. You can’t do it all.

Say it. Positive180. It’s a good name, don’t you think? What would you want it to be if it were the name of your website? Would you want to make it solely a place for HIV-positive people or would you rather make it a place for people to turn their lives around, regardless of what the bad thing was they were turning the other direction from?

How can you make a website cover every one of those issues? That’s a lot of issues. You have to take it back and ask yourself why you’re trying to have this and twelve other websites. What’s driving you to send all your energies off in disparate directions? What’s your GREAT BIG PLAN? You should have a GREAT BIG PLAN like, oh, say, retire someday and maybe get in a trip to France and Italy, maybe enjoy at least one parasol-adorned cocktail on at least one sandy beach somewhere in the Carribean?

• What do you want the money for?
• How much do you want?
• When do you want it?

Step back, take a breath, answer those questions truthfully, and then go make all those websites which you feel compelled to make. That will be your Positive180. When you stop wasting time and not having a clear picture for the things listed above, that’s when you’ll finally turn your life around and start being successful.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 12:50 am and is filed under Blogging, Marketing, Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.