Village Academy General SEO Time Management
| Time Management |
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Time management is a popular topic lately. Most people are at opposite
ends of the spectrum when it comes to managing their time. They are
either really good at it, or they are horrible at it. Middle ground is
not an area of much focus. However if you are thinking about starting
any type of online business, time management could be your most
important concern. * Good quality site design * Updating website * Adding content * Creating and maintaining an aggressive link campaign * Adding software to meet your businesses needs * Keeping daily books * Finding new vendors * Building a shipping system * Building ordering systems that work for your particular niche * Finding vendors to supply you with the needs of your niche (like shipping supplies) These are just a few things, but you have to consider that most times you have to figure things out before you ever get started. For example, if you have not been in business before, you have to find shipping supplies. You also have to build your own system to accommodate the ordering process and how the product gets to the shipper. You have to find Vendors which can be very time consuming. If you elect to build your own site and do not know much about websites and html editors, this will zap tremendous amounts of time. Now add SEO, which is search engine optimization, and your time will really add up. SEO is a science and understanding how pages get ranked is crucial to your businesses success. Learning all there is to know is very time consuming and yet you still have to run the business when you get orders. So how do you do it? Outsource Some people get hung up on spending money in the beginning of their quest for Ecommerce. In many scenarios time is money, in fact that is the way that most businesses that are successful think. I know for me, in my stores, that I can always sell product, but I never have enough time to promote those products better so I can sell more. This gets me into the bad habit of working in my business verses working on it. Working on your business pays much bigger returns than working in it. Anyone can create a job for your self, but it takes someone with a larger vision that will create a business that operates smartly. I address the notion of high value activities verses low value activities in another article. Briefly there are items that if you accomplish have a very high value. Those things, like building a system, are things you want to do more. Getting an order, boxing it up and taking it to the shipper are low value activities. Those activities make you a slave to the day-to-day operations that take you away from growing your business and making it better. High value activities pay higher dividends, so you have to outsource your duties. Let’s look at an example. Today you have to do two things. The first is updating the site with some articles and move some items on the site so that they are on sale. You could also clean up some graphics and tighten up some sales pages. The second thing you need to do is some SEO work so that some of your items that sell poorly move up in the search engines thus selling more of them. Which is a better use of your time? We are assuming in this example that you understand SEO thoroughly and know exactly what to do. (Most don’t) So let’s break it down. A website programmer costs anywhere from $25 to $50 per hour and maybe less if you know someone who needs work. A Search Engine Optimization company or individual costs around $125 to $200 per hour. In this example you will probably need to spend about 5 hours for each job. * 5 times $25 equals $125 * 5 times $125 equals $625 So what costs you less in the long run? Outsourcing the website work makes much more sense. Now of course if you do not understand or know the particulars of SEO, you will definitely have to pay to have it done or pay to learn how. Learning this art pays for itself many times over. However, most people should at least learn enough to know what avenue to take and what to tell their outsourcing partners to do. Now if you go back to the list you can begin to see the many things that need to be done. Outsourcing in the beginning can hurt a little so it is best to budget it right from the beginning. This is crucial. What really counts? If you are reading this article, chances are that you already have a step up from most entrepreneurs. You realize that research is key and that you really need to focus on high value activities that make you money. Growing your business and promoting your business is what makes you money and makes your effort more valuable. For us here at the Village Navigator our best time is spent in front of the white board brainstorming ideas and charting out goals and ideas. These then are implemented into action items that really make a difference in how the company moves forward. This is where you should be too. Anyone can sit down and take an hour to write an article. But if you sit down and do some serious planning for that hour, hire out the article from a writer; you will be further down the road than most. |
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