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The Only Employee

It’s a slow cycle when you are trying to learn everything you can about the Internet, Search Engines, Social Media and all the rest that just creating a presence online entails.

There is no easy way to do it all at once on the job. The goal would eventually outsource some of these tasks, but if that is not yet affordable, you have to do it yourself.

I am not sure if being an early adopter helps, but it does allow you to guess the future trajectory of the Internet and better place yourself to be in its path. To do this, I have relied on various tools and I will give my new list as it always changes (see "early adopter" above).

Friendfeed – Everything people post, like or comment on.
Twitter – This instant, before blogs and news sites many times.
Feedly – I am still working on an article to do this feed reading system justice.
WebMynd – Search is more than just Google

This is the general process I follow.  Follow and subscribe to anything related to what you do, especially those sites that get the new stuff first. And listen. Eventually you will know everything you can about that topic and then you can start interacting and commenting, maybe even writing about it.

Downloading Employees

I watch for a lot of new tools, software and technology. I also look for techniques that speed processes up. And most of the tools I have found, I would have found no other way. I would never had searched for that specific software, but by listening to like-minded people, I happened to bump into it.

Searching tends to narrow your view in terrain you are unfamiliar with. It is much better to follow the stream of knowledge until you know enough to search.

I focus a lot on software because it speeds up what I do online. I found Jitterbit to move data for me automatically, the software above to keep track of news, LiveWriter to write blog posts among a lot of other things. I have also downloaded crap.

The decision to keep or ditch software has to be made quickly before too much time is invested in learning a new system, especially with software that stores data, whether online or on your desktop. These are hard times and a lot of internet companies that offer free services have no business model.

To put it more simply, what if you wrote 200 blog posts in blogging software that no longer will be updated and there is no easy way to export your posts? That’s a lot of lost work. Email software can have similar repercussions.

And I had to put an aside in here. Email brought it up. If you are writing new software and are going to compete with some big names, import and and export your competitors formats if at all possible. It makes the potential lost time nil.

I have used Thunderbird for years because I wasn’t sure how to get everything out of it. Then along came Postbox that made searching email more easy. By day two, it was my email software. I had been using Webnotes and Delicious.

Then I discovered Diigo and it’s toolbar. It imported my Delicious account and sends everything I bookmark to Delicious so I have a backup, but it as has highlighting and notes.

How Tools Evolve and Why Most People Do A Majority of Things the Hard Way

Back in the day, if you forgot the http:// part of a url, your browser went nowhere. It just took a while for people to ask why and a while for a few of those why’s to reach the few developer’s that were developing those days. And then there were those that thought it was stupid but said nothing.

And for a more recent example, we will go with Firefox. Until the most recent version, it asked if you wanted to save your passwords for sites before you actually knew if you logged in. I had sites that had two bad sets of logins for every good one. Now it asks after.

There are more people on the internet. There are more people developing. And there are better ways of getting feedback on software. Tools evolve faster.

Most post do not find these tools because they don’t know they exist.

Which Software?

When switch board operators were replaced with automated systems, many people complained that computers would take everyone’s jobs. If we used switch board operators these days, everyone in the world would be one. Some people just don’t like technology. Some think too much software is impersonal. And too much is.

Ebay used to email bills to users and they had to snail mail a check back. There is no way they could do that today.

There are things we like to call part of our job that could be done by monkeys and somehow we hold onto them like they are part of us. Any process or partial process that is monotonous or requires no thought can be done by software or will be soon. Don’t hold onto them. Analyze then and recognize the pattern.

• Why the hell can’t I just get a list of all my shouts on Digg emailed to me? That would be quicker.
• All these Twitter clients are pretty cool, but if one could add all these features, it would kick ass.
• Why can’t I find a listening client that can branch from one keyword to many and track everything from blogs to forums to Twitter, and instant niche based trend tool?
• Why can’t I connect Filemaker directly to Magento?

And then follow people and subscribe to blogs that relate to what you do and what you like. And your magically run into the tools you are looking for and more. Because as the internet grows, your pet peeves become less unique and chances are someone else is asking the same questions. And eventually a developer will pick up the idea or someone will like the idea so much, they will learn to develop like I did.

And software can become too much. It can waste time. So it is best to analyze your situation first and know what will solve your problem or save you time. Then you will have the chance to be picky when you try new software.

The End Result

I have made money online for 4 years now. Eventually I ran into a plateau and that plateau was time. I quickly had to recognize which tasks could be speeded up or automated. It was either that or hope that slow and steady would hold out. But wasted time is wasted time. I automated things like datafeed updates, affiliate Adwords campaign ROI tracking and the like to save time.

This time gave me enough to learn a bit about blogging. The internet was changing and I had to learn some new ropes. I had to get where I was comfortable with it. But since it was taking all the rest of the time and I wanted to explore social media, I had to let blogging schedule drop off a bit, at least at this blog.

Sometimes there are miscalculations and then drastic time has to be cut from one thing or another just to make money. And sometimes the internet landscape changes and you have to go back and fix something that you had semi-automated.

But the best case scenario is this:

• Learn to look out for what is coming next, because as technologies come in the front, other ones get pushed out the end. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind.
• The only way to gain more time to learn something that will help you make more money is creating more time, outsourcing that work, becoming more efficient or finding software to do the job.
• And hopefully in the end that is an upward spiral.

Writing Down the Bones

If you have not read this book, do so now. It was written by Natalie Goldberg. It will change your attitude about writing and is my backpack, wherever I go. Does writer’s block happen? Is it a cop out? The answers don’t really matter when you are facing a blank page and your fingers refuse to move. Or on those days you are sure you could write, but no idea seems right.

I remember writing in school. It was a chore and it was boring. That’s because it was taught incorrectly. You studied for tests. You practiced for football. When it came to writing, you were graded on your first try to put it truthfully. Writing requires practice just like anything else.

Don’t take my word on the book:

• Writing Down the Bones
• Why Writing Down the Bones Works and Peter Elbow is Wise
• Writer’s Resources

Procrastination Nation

I get wrapped up in a lot of things. But I need to learn to write more often and more fluidly. And it’s always the thing I leave for last. After email checking, stats checking, feed reading and hitting the social sites, I leave the last half hour to write an extra post or two.

Don’t get me wrong. I get the bare minimum done first. Posts do get written pretty regularly around here and at my other blog. But I am trying to start a few more. These won’t be posted to daily, but they will need enough content that I will need to write more often.

I started with a good idea in mind and it takes me off on a tangent a lot of times. I can trim a few minutes here and a few minutes there by building automated systems to save time. Don’t get me wrong. The plan was to have all the time wasters automated. I would write the content. But if certain things were brought to me while writing it, similar but more complex than the way that Zemanta works, I could save time in research.

Putting Writing First

The fact is, writing takes the longest time, especially when it is not practiced that often. But once you start doing more of it, it becomes easier. And building a system based on the belief that I really have the stamina and will to keep that amount of writing going is putting the cart before the horse.

So for now a test. And the test is action. I know if I set aside twice as much time for writing, time where I have to be typing, whether it comes out like shit or not, I will eventually write three times as much content in twice the time. Well, I don’t really know exactly. But it works something like that. Because writing the bare minimum lowers the bar. And with practice, comes better writing.

How am I going to find the time? Setting it in the forefront of my mind for period of time. By reading books and blogs on writing and reading good nonfiction. I am always reading, but for the most part, what I read does not inspire good writing or writing in general. My wife has told me this many times.

Content and Writing Prompts

Another problem with a plan like this is that blogs tend to get in a groove. Believe I jump all round on this blog as much I think as possible, but there is only so much I can write on certain topics in a day. At least at this point, where a small part of me knows that a lot of this is procrastination. When writing becomes second nature to me, like eating three times a day, maybe there will be more content all around.

So, I was reading a post over at WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-Er about how to become a Google Trends blogger last night. And to tell you the truth I had a few beers in me. So, I started a blogger blog and started writing about trends. I was just picking random ones. I got to the point where I realized I had written a lot of posts.

With the freedom to write about anything that pops up on Google Trends, there is no excuse. Maybe I should be focusing on my work (i.e. not spreading myself even thinner), but sometimes you have to prime the pump first. And if this is what it takes, so be it. And you can be damn sure the time won’t be wasted, because like Alex said, there is traffic potential. And you can be sure I will build some links somewhere.

Everything Does Not Have to Be Perfect

For starters, I think I put it on bloglot. In fact there’s a test post up there now. I still can’t see myself using a free blogging platform. For now, on a directory. A subdomain would be nice, but I have to work out my WordPress MU installation over there first. With an active Drupal site in the root directory, I ran into issues. So I will just start up another blog inside Drupal for now. You see, I could create enough issues, I will never start this thing. I am already thinking I need a different theme and that’s my mind trying to throw something else in the way. It’s better to take the path of least resistance for a while and just start.

Now, I won’t kid myself. I know there is only so much time in the day. The hour fairy isn’t going to stop the clock for a couple of hours. Something else will have to give. And like I said, this is too get my bare minimum daily writing done which I will continue raising the bar on, until I am satisfied that it is worth investing any more automation time into the machinery. Of course, if I take off on a whim and start pumping out articles on other blogs, that is what I am trying to acheive anyway. Then, the trends blog will have to sit for a while.

You see, I have built site’s on automated content in the past and it’s always a crap shoot. Great risk for a single guy for extra windfalls, but not if you depend on it. Instead, automate the rest, just write to build truly unique content and stop waiting for Google to turn the tables any day. It happened to me once. The beginning of 2005. After a few pages refreshes, it was apparent that I was on Google’s naughty list and it was going to be a long road to make up for a site I just set up and babysat a few hours a week.

After I finished high school I made it a goal of mine not to ever stop learning. I wasn’t going to be able to afford the college degree, but I was willing to take the risk that learning itself would have value even if I didn’t have the official paperwork to prove I learned something.

At first, I wasn’t picky. I had a lot of time and no social life. I read whatever I felt like. Sometimes a subject would interest me to the point that I exhausted every book I found that referenced the field. Other times I would not finish the first book.

As time got shorter, I chose books that would teach me how to make money. I studied all of them I could find. It was time to put knowledge to work.

Now as my free time is almost non-existent, I have discovered audio books and finish one about every week just in the drive to and from work. I am learning something new everyday still and beats trying to find a quiet place at home to read a few pages here and there.

The thing I discovered is this. You do keep the education with you. It’s in there somewhere. But I also discovered that the constantly learning puts my brain in a constant state of change. A state where anything is possible, because it is always changing. As I am listening to a book about making money, I see the potential of money everywhere. As I listen to a book about getting my stuff in order, there seems to be no end to streamlining my work. My mind becomes set on whatever I am currently listening to. It is like software for the brain.

If I stop every once and a while to look over my current strengths and weaknesses, I can get a good idea of the book or books I need to read or listen to next. And while I read the new book, I become a convert to whatever the author is teaching me. This may change later as I read other books, but during the book, I make every effort to suspend all disbelief and take it at face value.

Eventually all the books I have read mix together and become part of my thinking. And the constant barrage of information has taught me that nothing is perfect, no system, no way of life, no way of thinking. Everything evolves or gets replaced. It has also taught me that the word impossible is only spoken by the type of person I never want to be.