For those who follow my blog closely, you may have noticed I haven't been updating this lately. No, it isn't another personal reason-- haven't I used that excuse enough?
The reason no one has heard from me is that I've been closeted away, making plans. Why?
WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER
That's why. (If you're shaking your head, puzzled, read on.)
Since the end of last week, I've been looking at my schedule. . . and became grumpier and grumpier. While many people find it difficult to discipline themselves enough to work at home, I have the opposite problem-- I keep thinking if I do more, work harder, try harder, I'll make more money. This is SO not true. In fact, all I've managed to accomplish is to feel burned out, exhausted and deeply deprived of R&R-- and I have no one but myself to blame!
One disadvantage of working at home is that you can never leave your office-- and you get no days off. Unless you give them to yourself. Of course, everyone thinks that's easy-- the problem is, it's useless to take time off, if all you do is think about what you should be doing. Not good.
On Tuesday (3/6) I basically walked away from everything I've been doing for the last 8 or 9 weeks and said, "enough! Find something new!" Because, even if I am making money, all the money in the world won't help me when I work myself to death.
I tried to do this in January, I know. But somehow, I got off the track of "Work Smarter, Not Harder." Now I'm going to try again.
Another little thought that's been gnawing away at me is. . . why am I using blogs? I mean, blogs are for people who want a place online, but don't have their own website (I do) or don't know how to program in html (I do) or who don't know how to create a site feed (I do). Gosh! With that many I do's I should be celebrating at least one marriage-- ;-)
And, too, I've been making myself steadily crazier by adding more and more blogs to my list. First this blog, then the Frugal Marketer, which is a great concept and I have tons of ideas for it. . . and then In A Word (or Two), which is part of my dream project.
(In case you didn't know: my dream is to just focus on writing and to, eventually, write ebooks and publish both my own and others'-- real books, books that don't get published in the offline world only because the author doesn't happen to share a cab with a publisher (true story-- one author I saw at a conference said she got her first book published because she happened to share a cab with the owner of a publishing house-- now that takes talent!), or work in a publishing house or have a sister who's an editor. In other words, books by ordinary people who just happen to stink at marketing.)
I could create more blogs-- I could go blog-crazy in the process, too! But, no.
Instead, I want to do something else. I want to put them all together and create a REAL newsletter. Not exactly an earth-shattering idea at first glance, I know. But this newsletter will be completely original, it will contain all the areas that I already create (including my articles, too), and it will be available both as an email or as an RSS Feed. :-) It will contain ads, yes, both my own and others', but it will deliver valuable content, about up-to-the-minute ideas. This is all still in the planning stages. . . but I hope to have it available by the end of this month or in early April. We'll see. And, if I can organize this properly, I'll still delivery just as much info-- but save half the time. (Thought I was forgetting to point of this blog, for a minute, didn't you. . . ;-) )
When I launch it, I will definitely put a forward on this blog (as well as my others) so you can change the feeds or get on the mailing list. In fact, I may start a sign-up to it prior to its launch.
I'm also going to go ahead with another pet-project of mine. I have wanted to create a forum for the last few months, one that focuses on writing for the internet. It will be a marketing forum, but the accent will be on writing and helping others learn to write. Honestly, without writing skills, marketing is virtually impossible. With writing skills, however, one can make money-- without spending a dime! This is a niche of marketing that is so over looked and begging to be addressed. And there's only a handful of marketers willing and able to take it on-- so it's MINE! :))
Oh, and I'm also planning to completely re-vamp my site-- when I do, I'll announce it here, too. I want a completely new look and new layout, something that will lend itself to easier purusal by visitors-- and something I can update faster, so I can keep abreast of the latest trends more easily. This, too, is in the planning stages. Look for news of it as it develops. And wish me luck-- all of this is designed to be able to cut my workload in half. . . something we should all do.
Well, I've made this too long already. Look for more updates about these projects in the days and weeks to come.-- Tracker Mo
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