We talk a lot about the “possibilities” online – how you can become rich and famous practically overnight. Yes, a lot of it is Hype – but you know what I mean. Everyone is trying to get you to achieve at your top level.
Under ideal circumstances we all WANT to be the best we can be – but what if you just can’t do it all right now? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else address this, so I wanted to give you what I consider the “minimum” you can do online and still keep up.
Here are the things you MUST do every week to be sure you are still participating.
1. Check your email daily. I am always amazed when people tell me “I missed that offer because I didn’t check my email.” If you want to be considered as “doing business online” you MUST check your email at least once a day. Things move too fast to miss a day.
With smart phones, ipads, constant connectivity everywhere, there is no excuse to not check your email. And not just some of it. ALL of it. If you can’t get through all of your email in a day – you’re getting too much.
If this is the case, then you need to
– Unsubscribe from anything you don’t read regularly
– Get a spam filter to get rid of the junk you’re wading through
– Learn to sort faster, using automated rules in your email program
2. Post to your blog weekly. I’m setting the bar pretty low, but you need to be put OUT information at least once a week. If you are doing it less frequently than that, then you either have nothing to say (I doubt that!) or you’re still hung up with fear and perfectionism.
Get over it! If you’re afraid to publish your own articles on your blog, at least add a PLR article each week. Basically no one knows you are IN business online if you’re not putting out some sort of content.
3. Connect socially once or twice a week. Your preferred connection may be blog comments on others’ blogs. It may be participating in a forum. Or it could be Twitter or Facebook. Regardless of what you choose, you need to post something at least a couple times per week – just to let people know you’re still “out here.”
We’ve all gone through periods when we had personal issues to deal with or for one reason or another couldn’t actively build our business. If you’ll do just the Minimum for a while, you’ll find you won’t have to start again from scratch when you do ramp up again.
What a great question you raised and then answered so pragmaticaly, Jeanette. Good to have some guidelines for what is the minimum, for those times when life aks us to focus is on other things. You’ve also defined how people know we exist online–by putting out content and offers! That seems so obvious, yet so easily overlooked.
Thanks Jeanette! I appreciate all of your wisdom and encouragement!