- Mar 10, 2010
- 42,695
- 107,111
This is from a song that was even before my time, @Billy Batts.
I had this thought process come up several times in the past 4 - 6 days so I thought I'd share my thoughts and maybe we can get some of yours as well.
In a conversation with one of my trusted business partners we chatted about this business principle and just a bit ago @royserpa quoted me here:
We are in such a dynamic fast moving industry that we cannot count on things being the same tomorrow or even in just a few hours from now so we have to be able to pivot on a dime.
You may think that your service, site, process, method, <insert what you want related to IM> will last forever and you will be on easy street until you are older than dirt.
Wrong.
In case I stuttered I'll reiterate, WRONG.
Lots of industries have a certain aspect that have withstood the test of time with some tweaking and ours has aspects as well but our tweaking has to be significantly more aggressive as we see the changes from the third parties we are trying to game (Google, FB, IG, Pinterest, <insert your deal> as the IM industry has so many more moving parts than one can count.
Autoblogs used to be all the rage but they are almost non-existent in most instances as they don't generate the rankings they used to and are not accepted by many revenue stream opportunities. They are not completely dead as I know some guys that still make bank from them but in most instances they are a waste of time and energy.
Xrumer spamming used to drive huge traffic but now all it does, in most instances, is annoy forum owners who block that stuff.
Links on WP sites that allow commenting (who allows that now?) was a good way to get decent backlinks but now those links are merely camouflage links and not links to rank a site.
Banking on FB by setting up a few hundred accounts and letting software run 24/7 was a superb way to generate stupid money but now you have to have a few thousand accounts and operate on an entirely different plane (gosh, I miss those weekly payments!).
HTML was the go to for sites at one time (Yo, @MisterF, show this to your better half) but it is work you no linger need to do 90% of the time due to WP and some of the other CMSs.
Remember AOL? That is about all you can do with it now as it is a shell of it's former self.
Netscape.
What is that?
The Jets winning the Super Bowl i 1970?
Golly gee... I remember that but what have they done for us in the past 50 years.
Are we all setting ourselves up for failure?
Nope, we are setting ourselves up to have an exit strategy or a strategy to pivot like champion and be prepared to so so.
That requires a few things:
1) Flexibility. Don't be the guy that holds onto December 31 as if it will never turn to January 1st.
2) Realize that you have to change or you will not have the revenue stream you had yesterday.
3) Let go of things. Feel free to sell off what you have in terms of business/sites/services/etc as there is a time and a place for that often.
4) Take on a partner in some instances if you have deficiencies to deal with the tomorrows and they are more qualified to do so. A piece of the pie is better than a pie in your face.
Most of you guys and gals are younger and thus should be more flexible in your thought processes but most of you have not seen enough of the water under the bridge. It is going to flow and it is going to change and if you do not you'll be sitting there holding an asset that was once valuable and is now Blockbuster Videos.
I had this thought process come up several times in the past 4 - 6 days so I thought I'd share my thoughts and maybe we can get some of yours as well.
In a conversation with one of my trusted business partners we chatted about this business principle and just a bit ago @royserpa quoted me here:
We are in such a dynamic fast moving industry that we cannot count on things being the same tomorrow or even in just a few hours from now so we have to be able to pivot on a dime.
You may think that your service, site, process, method, <insert what you want related to IM> will last forever and you will be on easy street until you are older than dirt.
Wrong.
In case I stuttered I'll reiterate, WRONG.
Lots of industries have a certain aspect that have withstood the test of time with some tweaking and ours has aspects as well but our tweaking has to be significantly more aggressive as we see the changes from the third parties we are trying to game (Google, FB, IG, Pinterest, <insert your deal> as the IM industry has so many more moving parts than one can count.
Autoblogs used to be all the rage but they are almost non-existent in most instances as they don't generate the rankings they used to and are not accepted by many revenue stream opportunities. They are not completely dead as I know some guys that still make bank from them but in most instances they are a waste of time and energy.
Xrumer spamming used to drive huge traffic but now all it does, in most instances, is annoy forum owners who block that stuff.
Links on WP sites that allow commenting (who allows that now?) was a good way to get decent backlinks but now those links are merely camouflage links and not links to rank a site.
Banking on FB by setting up a few hundred accounts and letting software run 24/7 was a superb way to generate stupid money but now you have to have a few thousand accounts and operate on an entirely different plane (gosh, I miss those weekly payments!).
HTML was the go to for sites at one time (Yo, @MisterF, show this to your better half) but it is work you no linger need to do 90% of the time due to WP and some of the other CMSs.
Remember AOL? That is about all you can do with it now as it is a shell of it's former self.
Netscape.
What is that?
The Jets winning the Super Bowl i 1970?
Golly gee... I remember that but what have they done for us in the past 50 years.
Are we all setting ourselves up for failure?
Nope, we are setting ourselves up to have an exit strategy or a strategy to pivot like champion and be prepared to so so.
That requires a few things:
1) Flexibility. Don't be the guy that holds onto December 31 as if it will never turn to January 1st.
2) Realize that you have to change or you will not have the revenue stream you had yesterday.
3) Let go of things. Feel free to sell off what you have in terms of business/sites/services/etc as there is a time and a place for that often.
4) Take on a partner in some instances if you have deficiencies to deal with the tomorrows and they are more qualified to do so. A piece of the pie is better than a pie in your face.
Most of you guys and gals are younger and thus should be more flexible in your thought processes but most of you have not seen enough of the water under the bridge. It is going to flow and it is going to change and if you do not you'll be sitting there holding an asset that was once valuable and is now Blockbuster Videos.
