My T-shirt tutorial website is live and I have never been more excited about a website launch!
Why?
Because for the first time I feel like I’m doing things in the RIGHT order.
Even though 2 Create a Website has had tremendous amounts of success, I always felt like I did a lot of things backwards.
For example, I waited way too long to start a list, sell products, etc. That’s largely because I didn’t have to.
Having said that, it worked very well for me because I got an early start and was able to capitalize on search engine optimization, residual affiliate programs that I still earn from today and other advantages you gain as an early adopter.
But things have evolved since I launched this site, and my strategy has to evolve as well.
When I launched a website many years ago, I’d focus on building up a ton of content for search engine traffic and monetize that free info with affiliate links ads.
That won’t work as well today.
I also care more about building a list and selling my OWN products instead of someone else’s.
In this post I will discuss what I am doing differently with my new site, and how I’ve grown in a business sense.
But first…
Say Hello to Passive Shirt Profits!
If you’ve been following me lately, you can’t be surprised about a new website.
Since getting into Merch by Amazon last fall, I have been completely obsessed with print on demand — the process of uploading an image, adding it to a product and earning a royalty when it’s sold.
By the end of this year, I will cross the six figure mark in royalties, and most of those earnings have come recently.
I’ve also branched out and I’m selling designs in over 25 different niches/topics thanks to Merch.
Not bad for a part-time gig!
I decided to create Passive Shirt Profits for two main reasons:
- I want to diversify my income with courses and not just rely on the very unreliable POD income
- There is a gap in the market when it comes to helping newbies learn software as it relates to creating T-shirt designs
I keep hearing people in the POD world complain about Photoshop or Illustrator being difficult to learn, and I say to myself, “That’s ’cause you haven’t taken my courses!” 😀
I don’t want to just focus on individual print on demand sites like Merch By Amazon.
I want to teach practical skills such as coming up with creative shirt concepts for many niches (one of my secret weapons with Merch By Amazon) and software.
It seems so many people are doing Merch sites and courses with a lot of the same info. I want mine to include more practical lessons.
That’s why it’s important to research what potential competitors are doing and pay attention to comments in private groups, forums, etc. I used this as inspiration for my upcoming courses.
With that being said, let’s get into what I’m doing differently…
I Started an Email List Early
I will never, ever, ever, launch another site again without having an email list.
I didn’t launch one for this site until 2010. By that time, 2 Create a Website was eight years old!
I also did not have any products to sell at the time, so I didn’t really utilize my email list to the fullest.
This time I started an email list immediately, and thanks to my private group and podcast I already have 31 subscribers after just 2 weeks.
The Podcasting Hype is Real
I launched my PSP Podcast on May 29th without announcing it, and had 30+ downloads and two email subscribers within the first week.
(I have a call to action for my list at the end of the episodes.)
That goes to show that people are searching and listening to podcasts about Merch and print on demand, so choosing that as one of my traffic methods seems to have been a good choice.
Podcasting is always a great option for money/business topics anyway.
After two weeks, I’ve already had 150 downloads! (The additional traffic boost came from announcing it to my private group after the first week).
By the way, I’m loving Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player! (No affiliation) It’s so functional and works great on mobile too!
I love that people can listen to all shows in one place on my landing page, search episodes and share on social media — all in one concise, mobile-friendly interface!
I am Not Waiting Eons to Launch a Product
Three courses for PSP are already complete, and should be out within a week or so. Make sure you are on my list if you want to be notified.
I’m just waiting for my reviewers to give me feedback so I can polish them up before launch.
One reason I’m announcing the site before the courses launch is so I’ll have people on my list.
And it feels super encouraging to have people in my private group actually ASK me when the courses are coming out!
That’s confirmation there is demand for what I’m teaching, and that’s always a plus when you create a site and product.
Also, when you wait a long time to launch a product, you may struggle with what to include and what to leave out because you already have so much published content.
This was a huge struggle with me on this site when I first launched my affiliate course in 2014.
It took me a full year of updates to finally get it to a point where there is a significant amount of different info that I don’t have elsewhere.
Now I understand why people say your first course draft is always your worst because you are constantly adding/improving over time.
And just for the record, it’s totally fine to include material in your course that you’ve covered in blog posts, emails, etc. (especially if you are upfront about it). I personally wanted it to have a lot of new material.
I didn’t struggle with that with PSP because I have very little content out here on this subject, and that was completely intentional.
I Simplified The Site Layout
I cannot believe I actually have a website with only one column!
At first I thought it would feel restrictive.
Then I realized I actually enjoy reading clean sites with lots of white space (especially on mobile), and I rarely pay attention to the sidebar links and widgets.
More importantly, when I check my Google Analytics I realized how many people have the same browsing habits!
Because more and more people browse on mobile devices now, that means the sidebar drops below the main content (if your theme is responsive).
As a result, many people don’t even see your sidebar, much less click on the links!
So I made the decision to go with a minimalist design approach. We’ll see how long that lasts! 🙂
There’s not a lot to do at PSP just yet, and that was done for a reason.
Right now, I’m focusing on podcasting and building my list for the upcoming courses. I’m keeping it very simple right now so I can track certain activities.
I’m using the Maker Pro StudioPress theme. (affiliate link)
I Paid More Attention To What My Audience Needs
This is the first time I’ve ever had a niche community prior to building a website and it was very helpful.
The great thing about starting a private group before launching a site and product is that I have been able to gain insight into what people struggle with so I can address those issues in my courses.
When you create a course, it’s easy to fall into the trap of adding what YOU think is important, but a customer might value something else.
Here you are going on and on about step B and your audience is yelling….
“Hey!! But wait! You didn’t even explain step A well enough!”
We make a lot of assumptions when we’re creating our products and many times it’s because we don’t really know what people want.
In addition, we’re often too close to the subject and assume people know or will learn it the way that we did. So we skip what we think is obvious to us, but it might not be obvious to the student.
I am also having people review my courses before launch. I also did this with my Spreadshirt course, and I promised to never launch without this step.
It’s always good to get a person in your target audience to view the course with fresh eyes from THEIR perspective.
Again, we are often so close to our content, we miss key information that someone might need.
I’m Starting With a 101 Course
I’ve read over and over again that you should always have an intro course to upsell other advanced courses.
Plus, if someone likes your intro course they are much more likely to buy more.
So for example, I have a 101 course for someone who knows absolutely nothing about print on demand, what software to buy, etc.
The follow-up courses are on brainstorming, software, etc.
I’m also planning to have smaller courses and then offer a bundle that will be less expensive than buying each course individually.
My first courses on Udemy taught me a lot about what students like and don’t like. Those lessons were invaluable.
I’ve learned from feedback that people like…
- a mix of text and video content
- shorter videos (My avg. video length is 5 min)
- shorter courses (No more than 90 minutes)
I’m using Thinkific (no affiliation), and I’ll do another post about why I chose them and ditched Teachable at the last minute. Thanks, LaTosha for the push to switch.
(Learn why I won’t be uploading to Udemy anymore.)
I’m Learning to Set Boundaries
If you value your sanity and want people to respect that your time is valuable, you HAVE to learn to set boundaries for yourself and business.
There was a time when I would do a LOT for people for free, and while I know people appreciated it, I now realize some abused it.
Even worse…
It drained the heck out of me!
And PLEASE don’t feel sorry for me because I allowed it. I’m sharing this so YOU don’t fall into the same trap I did.
The one incident that sticks out in my mind was when I helped a gentleman with his website code. We went back and forth for 3 days until the issue was finally resolved.
He praised me for the help I gave him and I felt awesome.
A week later he was back with another site issue…
And then another…
And another. 🙁
Now multiply this story by several others over the course of many years.
From the outside, it looked generous and helpful. I genuinely DO enjoy helping people.
But trying to help everyone came with a price…
- I began to feel overwhelmed, stressed and started to experience burnout.
- I was teaching people that my time doesn’t cost a dime and some began to expect it.
- I had less time to work on my own stuff
Keep in mind, I’m not just talking about answering questions that require one or two sentence answers. I certainly don’t mind it when people email me with questions.
In fact, I welcome that!
I’m talking about extensive work like helping people with code, coming up with strategies for their sites and things that took a lot of time — especially when you are doing this for several people per month.
(Not to mention I was also doing this for people in my personal life for free.)
That’s one of the reasons I decided to open my Facebook group to students only. That was my first small step into the world of setting boundaries.
Two years ago, I would have felt selfish saying all this, and would have NEVER admitted this on my blog.
Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for setting those boundaries. Also, don’t complain about people sucking up your time without paying if you’re allowing it.
There’s an old saying that goes…
You teach people how to treat you.
That holds true in every area of life, even business.
While I will never change how I operate in terms of integrity and ethics online, I have learned that it is OK to say “no” and set boundaries for what I will and won’t do for free.
If I Could Start Over…
Creating this new site caused me to reflect a LOT on 2 Create a Website.
If I could launch this all over again I would have kept the content much more focused instead of covering Internet marketing, earning online AND WordPress.
Website creation or blogging might seem specific enough at first, but it attracts people who want to create so many different kinds of sites and their reasons for the site varies.
I would get questions on how to create sites I had no idea or interest in creating, as a result, I alienated potential subscribers and customers right off the bat.
Looking back, I would have narrowed down the focus to tutorials for creating a specific kind of site like an infopreneur website — which is really what this site is.
So if you’re looking to create a site in this space, make note of that. Don’t be afraid to narrow the focus down.
Everyone and their mama 🙂 has a how-to blogging site these days, but not many are “niching down” to a type of website (ecommerce, membership, infopreneur, etc.), and I think there are major opportunities there.
It may feel like you are alienating people, but what you’re doing is attracting a very specific audience that will be easier to target content to.
This Isn’t Goodbye…
…It’s more like “hello” to new lessons!
While I may not be blogging or podcasting here regularly (it’s not like I have been anyway!), I will certainly be back to share the lessons along the way like I am now.
Having a new site will make my content here even more helpful if you’re also doing some of the same things.
So you’re not getting rid of me that easily! 🙂
Having said that, I will be focusing more of my attention on PSP due to the fact it’s new and I will be dedicating time to helping students when the courses launch.
I’m Growing Up!
This has been such a journey, and I’m so happy to be able to share these lessons with you. 🙂
I’ve been in transition for quite a while now with my business, and I finally feel like I’m moving in the right direction.
One thing’s for sure…
There is a big difference between monetizing free content with ads and affiliate links and selling your own products when it comes to overall strategy.
I have learned how much I truly did NOT understand about business and setting boundaries.
It’s ironic that people often come to me for coaching on starting an online business when I feel like I’m JUST now grasping many of the core fundamentals.
Kinda crazy, right?
But I don’t regret a thing I did or any mistake I made because that’s how I learned.
You have to put things out there and make mistakes so you can learn what to do, and more importantly, what NOT to do!
So the journey continues… 🙂
Solowayne says
This blog is full of useful information.It has really help me to monetize my blog. Thanks for being so generous.
Frances says
Hi Lisa,
Have you launched those bundled courses yet, and do you have any marketing courses available ?
Lisa Irby says
Yes, I launched last year and I also launched a new course this year on Passive Shirt Profits.
I’ve already had 4 testimonials come in from people making money. So exciting!
https://learn.passiveshirtprofits.com/courses/pod-niche-shop-success
Kasam says
Hello Lisa,
very informative post you made ?
I am working to increase traffic to my website but I am failing :(, I don’t know why…
Will you, please, advise me what to do?
Regards, Kasam
Masood Malik says
Hello Lisa,
very informative post you made 🙂
I am working to increase traffic to my website but I am failing :(, I don’t know why…
Will you, please, advise me what to do?
Regards, Masood Malik
Denis says
Hey Lisa. Great new site. I’m interested in this so I’ll be following you.
I signed up for your list though, and didn’t get the ebook!
The confirmation mail didn’t go to spam but arrived in my inbox alright.
I clicked the link and it said I’ve successfully confirmed.
(If I click it again it says I’ve already confirmed.)
But the ebook has arrived neither in my inbox nor in my spam folder.
The email I used in this comment is the same as the one I used to sign up to your other site’s list.
Anyway looking forward to that new site’s conent.
Lisa Irby says
Hi Denis, that’s strange! I’ll email it to the email you have for this comment. Sorry about that!
Denis says
I got it!
Thanks.
Chris Flynn says
Hey Lisa, Still after 6 years your blog look fresh and helpful. In the starting of My blogging journey i always curious to see your latest post to implement on my site. As SEO Has been changed a lot in 2017 so please make a guide on Do follow links, Many bloggers are making links to pay money to author. What is the right way to create Do follow links. Share some tutorial Lisa
Lisa Irby says
Hi Chris, if I may be honest I don’t even follow SEO anymore. I am using podcasting and video to drive traffic to this new site. Google has gobbled up so much of this site’s traffic over the years that I don’t even keep up with the latest. Fortunately there are other ways besides SEO to drive traffic.
Faisal Nouman says
Finally, you’ve inspired me to really focus on my niche. It was always there, but buried beneath my “need” to help all and sundry with all and sundry. LOL
Lisa Irby says
Happy to hear that!
Amy says
Hey Lisa:
You stated “When I launched a website many years ago, I’d focus on building up a ton of content for search engine traffic and monetize that free info with affiliate links ads.
That won’t work as well today.”
Why is that? I’m working on an infopreneur site myself. So is focusing on adding lots of good content and affiliate links no longer a good strategy? Thanks for your insight.
Lisa Irby says
It’s not a good strategy for SEO or ranking a website. So it’s always good to add great content and affiliate marketing is alive and well. But you have to do different things to drive traffic to your site. That’s what I meant. I should have been more clear on that.
So yes, by all means add your links and content. But develop an alternative strategy other than “waiting on Google traffic.”
For example with http://www.passiveshirtprofits.com I created a podcast and it’s really helped me gain a new audience. I’ve purposely done nothing else but podcast because I’m testing to see how much traction I can get. I just had a lady sign up for my intro course yesterday because she found the podcast.
James says
How long do I wait to have my new website monetized so i could generate income
Lisa Irby says
Money comes when you get traffic. So it depends on how long that takes which will vary.
Marcel Cowart says
Hello Lisa,
compliment for this detailed blog. But I have a question. What is more important for you or what is more successful: podcast or email list?
Thanks
Marcel
Lisa Irby says
I would have to say the email list only because with my recent launch the majority of people who bought were on my list. I use the podcast on passiveshirtprofits.com to build my list. So they work hand in hand.
Capo Milano says
Wow awesome post! And u are right at boundaries….
Thanks for the article. It helps me alot 🙂
Manish Kumar says
Hi Lisa Irby,
Awesome Post!
I like your practical approach.The benefits of building an email list aren’t confined to developing a stronger sense of trust with your clients. Rather, what most of us like to hear is that building a strong, consistent relationship with your audience tends to result in something pretty spectacular: a stronger income and loyal clients.
Podcasts make information personal.Podcasts are convenient and easy to consume. It’s an on demand technology. Podcasts are one way to deliver on a social networking strategy.
Simplicity is the key to success as mentioned by you.
I will share your post on twitter.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Isaac says
Hi lisa, where do you host your podcast
Lisa Irby says
I use Libsyn.
DNN says
Congratulations, Lisa. You made it to DNN. Thanks for just being you. Keep the nice smile going and let’s see more YouTube videos from you. Feel free to shoutout DNN anytime! (smile) <3 🙂
DNN says
I was always struggling with the e-mail list thingy. What I’d like to do is collect e-mails and send them in the future as e-newsletter mass messages. So lets say i want to send 10k e-mails at once using an e-mail service and not sent from my server. Is there such an e-mail service that does that at those numbers at once? And if so, how much do you think it’ll coast as a monthly fee?
Lisa Irby says
Sure, that’s all I’ve ever used and what I was referring to in this post. So when my courses launch I will send a mass email to notify people. I use AWeber, but today you can use ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, etc. and there are dozens of them out there now. The fee depends on how many subscribers you have on your list. It increases for every X amount.
DNN says
All good, Lisa darling. Would be nice to see your pretty face on a new YouTube video on your channel. Love your smile by the way! (smile)
Lisa Irby says
Lol!! Thanks. I’ll be back on the Tube!
Michelle Gilmore says
Congrats Lisa on your new site and sharing with us your new direction. I love your style and perspective and how you can adapt so quickly from what works and what doesn’t and know how to make your business grow. You have some very effective insight of yourself and what can help a lot of people. You also write well and your articles are interesting when the subject can be boring or difficult to grasp. Thanks you are a star in cyberspace and very knowledgeable congratulations on your success.
Lisa Irby says
Thanks Michelle! Appreciate that.
Tony 3C's B says
Boom Skaka Laka Boom,
Yep it WAS a long one Lisa but very worthy and well worth the read.
I think most of us think we do things backwards when we start off and finally “get a grip” of things.
I actually just published about launching and the 3C’s just now too!
It’s been a while since I’ve been here, LOVE the personal graphics 😉
Lisa Irby says
Gotta love Bitmoji! lol Thank you. Good luck with your new site!
Keeon says
Great post Lisa! Thanks for all the things you do. I definitely value your time and I am looking forward to great things in the future.
Lisa Irby says
Hey Keeon, thank you so much. Looking forward to this!
LaTosha Johnson says
Hi Lisa,
First of all, congrats on the new site! 🙂
I’m so happy Thinkific worked out for you. They have been good to me so far and truly hope they will be for you as well. I’m knocking on wood for both of us lol
You seriously never cease to amaze me. I totally understand why people would view you as a coach. You’re extremely knowledgeable and down to earth. Life is heading you down that path so you could easily roll with it if you wanted to do so. 😉 I’m glad that you set boundaries with your time. That has always been something that I have struggled with but I’ve gotten much better.
It’s amazing how if you give some people an inch they try to take a mile…
I can’t wait to listen to your Tshirt podcasts because I really enjoyed the ones on this site. I’m trying to up my Tshirt game and I recently got accepted into the Amazon Merch program, so the timing of your courses launching is perfect for me.
Thanks again for kindness and generosity in the tools and tips you share with us. Much appreciated! I wish you nothing but continued success! 🙂
Lisa Irby says
Thank you LaTosha! I am so glad that other idea failed. This was what I was supposed to be doing and things happen for a reason.
I am soooo happy I am with Thinkific. Their support is amazing and they get back to me so quickly!!
Congrats on your Merch application! Time to make that money!! 🙂
Dannielle says
You are amazinnngggg. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it.
Freddy Junior says
Hey Lisa!
Great tips for a new blog/website owner!
I so agree with you that building an emails from the very beginning is super important!
I have learned that lesson the hard way. I remember when I first started online with my very first self-hosted blog site – I did not care to build an email list for about a year or so.
I highly recommend new bloggers to invest in their email marketing education. Trust me, you will thank yourself in the future if you grow that email list to the thousands!
I love your new website and the value you are giving there, Lisa!
That is a new marketplace I’m yet to learn more about and play with!
Thank you very much for sharing this and all the cool value!
Cheers! 🙂
Lisa Irby says
Yes, I regret not collecting emails and I also didn’t have a product at the time so my strategy was kind of all over the place. LOL Thank you.
Elayseah says
This is awesome! I’m excited to check out your new site and Podcast.
Claude says
Bonjour Lkza je n’ai jamais suivis un seule de vos cours, je suis nul et n’ai jamais compris, j’aime vous lire.
Claude
Lisa Irby says
I hope you’re saying nice things, Claude ’cause I don’t know French! 🙂
Amy says
I loved this post, Lisa. I’ve had my site now for about three months and it seems like I am moving at a snail’s pace with content creation.
Now I feel better knowing that you are still learning.
See you in class soon!
Lisa Irby says
Sounds good, Amy!
Carlos says
Hi Lisa,
Firstly, thank you for sharing this with us.
I’m really excited to hear that you will soon have a course helping people with this.
Are you able to provide a rough date on when your course will launch? I have just been accepted to the Merch program by Amazon and it would be great to be able to use your course to help me with my first product.
I have already bought some of your other courses and the value you provide goes above and beyond in my opinion, which is why i’m super excited to hear you’ll be making a course for this.
Whether you can give a date at this time or not, I look forward to it.
Lisa Irby says
It’s happening next week! So I’ll see you in class, Carlos! 🙂
Kim George says
Hellooooo Lisa! OMG Congrattttttulationss to you for starting the new site and another congrats for charging what you are WORTH! You are sooo right about teaching people how to treat you – if folks think that they can take advantage of you they will. Sad but true.
I am so super excited for this new journey you are embarking on and have subbed to your email list. I know that you are going to knock it out of the park ladybug. Well wishes and I can’t wait to listen in on the new podcast — heck youre inspiring me to start one of my own (but we shall c about that)lol!
But seriously tho, Excited for your new journey and I want to personally thank you for your support. Wishing you a grand week ahead 🙂
Lisa Irby says
Hey Kim! I am so glad we connected, and I love watching your site evolve. There is no doubt in my mind from first glance the type of person you are targeting and we can all learn from that.
As I’ve said many times, I learn a lot from you and love the feel of your new layout. I always tell people who need social media presence help to go to you.
Thanks for your support!
Paula says
Awesome post, Lisa…as usual you explain things so well. This site was the first help that I found many years ago when i began my journey to start a website. I have also taken some of your courses and LOVED every one of them. You have been such a help to me, but more than that….your blog posts and videos have been motivating and encouraging to me to keep going. I thank you for that!
So glad you are creating a new journey and will definitely be “following” you all the way along the path. I know I have lots more to learn and look forward to seeing where you are going!
Good luck and best wishes for continued success!
Paula
Lisa Irby says
Hey Paula!! That’s so cool. I really like it when people share how/when they found my site and it’s so inspiring to hear how it’s helped people so thanks for that. Appreciate the support over the years.
Ileane says
Lisa! Congratulations on the new site and a new podcast too. You’re incredible.
I do have a question about you’re email provider for PSP – are you using AWeber – or something different?
I’m looking forward to following you on this new journey. I love how you have transitioned and how you continue to inspire us to think outside the box.
Love ya!
Lisa Irby says
Thank you Ileane! I am still using AWeber but am considering Convert Kit. I can’t make up my mind. I was going to move but AWeber just gave me an upgrade and I still kept my amazing rate (I mean AMAZING rate) so it’s hard to move away. Plus, they keep adding tracking/conversion metrics. How ’bout you? What are you using now?
Ileane says
I’m still with AWeber 🙂
John says
Hi, Lisa,
I have been following your site for a long time. First, your past focus on WordPress really did help me:) I know there is a change of focus now but just wanted you to know that all of the work you have done over the years was super helpful. On a karmic level, it is just important to state that.
Second, you are so very right about boundaries. I’ve learned that there are people in this world who take … and take … and take. It is just their nature. Unless we establish firm boundaries, they will continue to do it.
At some point, you might want to consider offering a one on one consultation session with people if that is what they want (after the course). If you do, I encourage you to think about charging by the hour. In fact, in my experience, that’s the norm. You would have to figure our pricing, etc.
But I’ll say this – I would only do it if you get paid exactly what your time is worth. I know some who charge $200.00 an hour (and that is just the starting point).
Anyway, always have enjoyed your work and efforts! I’ll be thinking about what you shared in this update, particularly starting the email sign up form early!
Lisa Irby says
Thank you John! It is an amazing feeling once you figure out the boundary thing because I was really struggling with that for a very long time and felt guilty admitting it.
I have received requests about the coaching already, and I will probably offer additional Skype, hourly coaching. There seems to be a demand for that and I may consider that once the courses are out so thanks for your insight on that! Perhaps I could add that as an option with the purchase of a course.
Also, thank you for being such a loyal follower. My WordPress tips aren’t done by any means. I will still be doing website tips, etc. I’m just focusing on PSP for now. But I’ll still be here poppin’ in and out as I continue to learn! 🙂
Prince says
I remember I made my first post some months back on your post about backlinks.
On reading this, seem I am commenting to also say I started a new music blog after getting a little set back and it took me a while to pick up….but I hope to be able to achieve better results with this than previous blog.
I always get motivated anytime I land on your blog…keep up the good work.
Lisa Irby says
Well I’m glad you stuck around after finding my post on backlinks, Prince. Thank you!
Darlene at HerCountryMusic says
Aloha Lisa!
You said it’s funny how pp seek you out for coaching when you just now feel like you’re mastering it… or something to that effect 🙂
Here’s why (or at least for me):
I trust you.
I’ve been around long enough to know you’re the real deal. So whether you have it all figured out or not, I can count on you giving it to me straight even if it means no money in your pocket. That’s rare and I appreciate that about you.
The other thing I noticed, is not only do I ready every single word of your emails and posts, but I always feel encouraged by them.
darlene
Lisa Irby says
Wow!! I appreciate you for saying that. Thank you, Darlene. Glad I could help encourage you!
Mitchell Allen says
Hi Lisa,
First, congratulations, you are an Internet Rock Star!
Second, you hit the nail on the head (mine, anyway) with this advice:
“Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for setting those boundaries. Also, don’t complain about people sucking up your time without paying if you’re allowing it.”
That is sobering and empowering at the same time.
Finally, you’ve inspired me to really focus on my niche. It was always there, but buried beneath my “need” to help all and sundry with all and sundry. LOL
Best wishes for your PSP adventure!
Cheers,
Mitch
Lisa Irby says
It’s true and I had to realize that as an entrepreneur. The way I operated came with a price and I had to grow up and learn from that. Thank you and I really hope you do focus on you new niche site! Glad I could inspire. 🙂
Darlene at HerCountryMusic says
Hey Mitchell…
I second the boundary thing.
100%
It’s amazing how some..not all of course..but some pp will take and take and take.
So it’s healthy to set boundaries on what we’re willing to give.
darlene 🙂
Mitchell Allen says
I hear you, Darlene. It was the reason I got out of the web design business, years ago. Now, the only blame is on me for “over-providing” on some client deliverables.
It’s one thing to over-deliver to delight your customer. It’s quite another to tailor such over-delivered items to accommodate line of business issues for which I could easily write up as a separate project. Ya know?
I’m learning, though.
Cheers,
Mitch