When I was a kid, my brothers and I made a huge deal out of making our annual lists of resolutions. We’d work on them almost more fervently than we did our Christmas lists for Santa. Thinking back on those days, it’s a bit ridiculous, actually. I remember once signing my list, sealing it in an envelope – with a real wax seal – and then hiding it on the back of a desk drawer to keep my brothers from finding it. [Read more...]
Dec
30
A Great 30 Days
Today marks my 30th consecutive post in the 30 Days of Blogging series. That’s more than 9,000 words written and published over the past month without missing a single update. Considering where I started with my blogging talents several years ago (I used to hand-code posts maybe once a month when I got bored), I see this as quite an accomplishment! [Read more...]
Dec
29
Automation
Lately, I’ve found myself responding to several advertisements on Craigslist. There seem to be a lot of people who could benefit from my services, and I take the time to respond to each of their listings with a customized note explaining what I can do to help and the best ways to contact me. The other day I even put my own listing up on a similar website in an attempt to solicit collaboration from the WordPress development community. I realize now that both of these services might not be the best in the world. [Read more...]
Dec
28
Productization
As a consultant, I’m realizing more and more the value of “productizing” a service. At the moment, everything I do is bid for piecemeal and is thus negotiable. I set a target for my hourly salary and bid on projects such that I can meet that while still paying other necessary business expenses (software licenses, sub-contractors, etc). Such an ambiguous pricing model eventually finds me charging one fee for one client, and a different fee for another. [Read more...]
Dec
27
Goal Setting
As tomorrow starts the final week of 2009, I thought it advantageous to briefly discuss the objectives of setting goals, both for yourself and your business. Most of you are familiar with New Year’s resolutions, but few of us regard these as more than a passing fancy. Really, we set resolutions as if they’re cold-turkey life changes that will take place magically on January 1st. They’re anything but that. [Read more...]
Dec
26
The Morning After
Once again, the morning after a major holiday is littered with early wake-ups and demonstrations of mass consumerism at its worst. As a marketer I should be excited that so many people are buying in to my industry’s messaging. In reality, though, I’ve never quite understood or respected the post-holiday purchasing bender. [Read more...]
