Digital Diversified

I started off at an article at Performancing.com, read through the comments, and ended up at another article elsewhere. The first post originally caught my eye because I have been intending to do a similar entry here for the past week.

The points made apply equally well to all business (and thus my entry title), although the time wasters specifically named probably apply more to virtual business.

Top 8 Pro Blogging Time Wasters
» 10 tips on procrastinating :: Nate Ritter ::

Since moving over to WordPress (a move I most certainly do not regret), I’ve noticed that a move that was supposed to increase efficiency and productivity for me really hasn’t done anything of the sort, at least not yet.

I’ve noticed that while the backend certainly is friendlier to content production, I haven’t been using my new found freedom to actually do any producing of said content. Instead, I’ve been indulging in several of my favorite guilty pleasures.

One of those is technical manipulation of the backend. By which I mean, endless tweaks that noone besides myself will even notice. Changing the font size of the template by one pixel. Changing the font color by one shade. Installing and then uninstalling plugins that may or may not actually serve a useful purpose. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.

I do it because I enjoy it. And honestly, because doing it is really how I amassed my vast technical expertise But seriously speaking, doing it that way, who am I really serving? Yes, I have compared and contrasted the top 30 components for Joomla, but if I never share what I learn with anyone, then what is the point? And now, I’ve deconstructed WordPress similarly, but if I never share the journey, then who do I serve?

Quite frankly, that doesn’t even serve me. Because if I spend all my time tweaking and none of it actually producing content (read: sharing the journey), then all the time spent will have gone for naught.

At this point, I’ve amassed a tidy sum of intellectual property. And I have a knack for sharing what I’ve amassed in such a way that it aids people in their own personal journeys. Not producing content does us both a disservice. The time I spend indulging my personal hobbies (basically on company time) is time I’m not exchanging my intellectual property for potential income from clients.

Take this internet services arm of my business, for instance. Digital Diversified has built its bottom line on client education. This is the value we add for our clients. Our clients, usually offline and desperately wanting to get online, depend on us to teach them. About what this internet thing really is, what it’s really all about, and what any of it means for them personally.

One of the main reasons I switched to blogging instead of building a static website (page by painstaking page), is because blogging is a much more efficient means of transmitting information (time sensitive or not).

Being on the phone with clients has proven itself not to be the best medium for education. (Good, but still too lacking in several areas to be named “best”.) It’s just way too freakin hard for people to get it when someone is talking at them. I started blogging because I had been spending a great deal of time on the phone, making notes to email at call end, so that clients had something to refer to later.

With a blog that I can break up the subject matter with and refer clients to, backing it up with face time (or phone time), the job gets done far more efficiently and thoroughly. It’s win-win all around. The bulk of the subject matter is in a format more easily digested and applied by clients, and when I do spend personal time with them, it really is personal time - time dedicated to helping them solve individual issues.

Now if I could just get posting, this brilliant strategy would have a chance of actually succeeding…