May 17th, 2008
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In response to my question - “tell us about your blog’s ‘tipping point’” Collis Ta’eed from PSDTUTS and (Freelance Switch) responded with the following comprehensive guest post.
Years ago when I had more time to spare, one of my favourite pastimes was to play computer games. In particular, I rather liked those real-time strategy games like Warcraft and Starcraft, which brought hours of enjoyment, to the decline of my studies and chagrin of my girlfriend of the time.
I’ve not had the time to play one of those games recently, but now and again I do think about them, and how they relate to blogging and business. In particular they are useful for looking at the tipping point for a blog that I run called PSDTUTS, and how it went from small site to expanding little business.
Strategy Games
So in case you’ve not had the great pleasure to play one a real-time strategy game, let me outline roughly what happens in them. Generally you begin every round with a starting set of resources like gold and timber, and a few little guys to do your bidding. It’s your job to build a base by constructing buildings with your gold, use the buildings to train more guys and use the guys to harvest resources so you can then build more, train more, and so on.
Now the trick to these games is that you need to balance your growth and expansion if you want to be successful. You have to use your resources wisely and make your base self-sufficient, as your initial resources will run out quickly and you’ll be left floundering.
So what’s this got to do with blogging?
PSDTUTS
In September last year, I started a Photoshop tutorial blog called PSDTUTS where we post comprehensive tutorials and general articles about Photoshop. My early tutorials brought lots of traffic because they were longer and more in-depth than anyone else was really writing at the time, so the site stood out. But because I work on lots of projects, I have only a limited amount of time and could only put together one tutorial each week. And while the traffic was good, there wasn’t much income from the site. From memory it was just under a thousand a month from Adsense, some affiliate links and some text-link-ads I was selling.
So in many ways, it was kind of like being in one of those strategy games I mentioned earlier. I had a little base, with a few posts going up a month, some resources coming in, and one guy to do my bidding - me! While not a bad situation to be in, I wanted to expand.
So I started spending what little income I had, and hired a tutorial writer. I also offered cash for contributions that we published and started accepting community contributions. After a few months of this we’d gotten to publishing two, and sometimes three tutorials a week, and correspondingly income had gone up. Unfortunately, so had costs. Because PSDTUTS is and has always been popular, hosting all those masses of big images on every tutorial meant that I was serving up over a terabyte of data every month. Plus our tutorial writers cost money, because if you want the best content, you have to pay for it. And the more time I spent on the blog, the more I thought that I should be accounting for my own time in the accounts.
This status quo lasted for another three months. The site grew, but slowly. I was tied down to it, having to keep up my own work on the site. And though it wasn’t really losing (much) money, it certainly was not profitable. Without profits, there wasn’t really any way to expand, and so I was stuck.
So the question was how to harvest more resources. In strategy games, there are usually some key buildings that you need to build, that allow you to get more out of what you’ve already got. This was important because it was clear that if I simply hired more writers, built more sites, stuck more ads in, or a host of other expansion ideas, I wouldn’t really be getting anywhere.
The Tipping Point
In the end it was an idea that I’d shelved because it was too hard that made the difference. Where previously we’d been giving away the source Photoshop (PSD) file, then selling them individually, now we built a paid membership system. The system, which we call PSDTUTS Plus costs people $9 a month to join. For that they get to download the source files and we put up periodic extra tutorials that only they get to read. It’s built using aMember and Wordpress, and took me a good two weeks to put together initially.
It took a little while of saving and a bunch of work to get the system up and running. But as all players of strategy games know, this is often the case in building a pivotal part of your base. And as in strategy games, it paid off when a few hundred loyal readers joined! Sure there is extra work now, because it’s really important that these readers get value for their money, but the tradeoff is extremely positive.
So all of a sudden the site went from break even, to profitability. So what to do next?
Expand, expand, expand!
The smart thing to do here would probably have been to not do too much, and build up some cash reserves. But where’s the fun and excitement in that? And besides, it wouldn’t really be a tipping point, if all I did was collect money. As we know from strategy games, there’s only one thing you can do when your resources have grown - build more!
So in the months since, I’ve hired an editor, commissioned some celebrity writers, expanded the posting schedule, and a few weeks ago built the first sister site at NETTUTS (http://nettuts.com). And as these new expansions increase revenue, we can expand more, train more, and harvest more resources.
What’s the lesson here?
Well aside from learning that playing Warcraft wasn’t a waste of time after all, I suppose you could say that thinking strategically about your blog is important if you want to build a business with it. Look carefully at what you are spending versus what you are getting back. Think long term and don’t be afraid to spend money along the way - so long as it’s wisely spent. And good luck!
Read how other Pro Bloggers answered the question about their blog’s Tipping Points at:
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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Here’s a question that might provoke some interesting discussion over the weekend:
Which Social Bookmarking Site Would You Prefer to Hit the Front Page Of?
Would you prefer to hit the popular page on Digg, hit StumbleUpon’s buzz page, make it big on Delicious, Mixx or Reddit or is there some other social bookmarking page that you’d rather do well on?
Also - WHY did you choose the one you’ve chosen? Is it just about the raw numbers of readers, that it leads to secondary links, that it’s more focused and brings a higher quality of reader?
Now it’s over to you for your say….
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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Alicia said it best… “Here at b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel, we’re always doing something. This week, we’re rounding up our “Top 5″ posts.” And with that here we go- we are giving you our top 5 picks from our respected sites.
We will kick it off with Alicia at Mental Health Notes- She did her own take on the top picks…Top 5 Posts I had the most fun writing for Mental Health Notes
Kristen at Lively Women gave us Lively Women’s Top 5 Posts, 2007-2008- I’m joining the rest of the Health and Wellness bloggers in selecting my 5 favorite posts of all time since I started writing this blog. Who knew it would be so difficult??? Here are 5 of my all-time favorites (and picking just five was TORTURE):
Kristina at Autism Vox focused on one topic… About this vaccine issue- previous posts- With another round of vaccine court going on this week, the question of whether there’s a link between vaccines and autism is again getting a lot of discussion. Here’s five past posts on this blog that suggest how this one hypothesis about the cause of autism has become entwined…
Karen’s Pink Ribbon Review offered a wonderful idea- a look into her past blogging experience. A Blast From the Past: Five of My Favorite Posts From The Breast Blog… I started blogging about breast cancer on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. I know that for a fact, because I recently revisited The Breast Blog, my first breast cancer blog…
Gab at Fertility Notes has The Fabbest Five Pots From fertility Notes (so far)- …a combination of my favorite, your favorite, most commented, most viewed…
Gab also gives us Daily Tomorrow Looks Back At it’s Favorite Five Posts- The five most popular posts from the last few months…
Moving on, Angelique at Breaking the Mirror has a great twist on this idea- The post’s you’ve never seen... Instead of the usual round-up of favorite posts or highly regarded posts, I thought I’d pass along links to the five posts from 2008 that you probably never saw…
Grace and Kids Health Notes gave us Top 5 Posts at Kids Health Notes- So I pondered what the top 5 posts for Kids Health Notes would be.. and I realize it has to do with well-written posts that are relevant anytime of the year - and part of what makes a healthy childhood.
Liberty and Liz have been hard at work over at Healthbolt and just reached a milestone. With that they gave you My Pick- Healthbolt’s Top 5 Posts- I did some maths and five months working on ‘the Bolt’ equates to around 250 posts between us. That’s a whole lot of words. My choice for Top 5 Posts…
Mary Emma and Liz also had for us My Pick- To 5 Alzheimer’s Notes Posts- Sometimes it’s good to recap, so here’s a quick roundup of my favorite…
Scott at Health and Men gave us Health and Men’s Top Five of All Time
Mark at A Dozen Steps offered up Top Five All Time Posts… Theses entries have been, and remain, at the top of the statistics for most viewed every month here at A Dozen Steps…
Hope and Weighting Line- one of our newcomers but she has for us Weight Loss Blog Top 5 Pots For May… In case you’re new here, I’d like to share my top five posts for May (up to today). These posts are totally based on numbers. Here are my top five, most-viewed blog posts….read and enjoy!
Marijke and Help my Hurt gave us Top 5 Posts From Last Week- Here at the Health and Wellness Channel, we’re developing a regular tradition of weekly post round ups. Here are my top 5 posts for the past week…
Angela at Breastfeeding 123 gave us Friday Five: Top Five “Best”Breastfeeding 123 Blog Posts- …I think it’s the post of which I am most proud, the post into which I put extra effort and care. So I offer for your consideration, in no particular order…
And finally, Gloria at Cancer Commentary gave us her take on the top 5 with Top 5 Posts By Readership-…wanted to give you the most popular posts in the blog. Mostly read, mostly commented I guess.
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Written by Kendra on May 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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What is Founderitis? It is been called “Founders Syndrome” and it is not some type of medical disease but rather a disease that can infect your business if you are not careful.
The Wikipedia definition of “Founderitis” is stated as follows:
“The term “founderitis” or “founder’s syndrome” refers to the unhealthy condition that afflicts many companies whose founders maintain a stranglehold on organizational leadership. While many companies owe their success — and in fact their very existence — to their founders, those same individuals can create chaos that ultimately leads to the organization’s collapse. The challenge to founding CEOs and boards of directors is to take steps to change conflict and chaos into opportunities for growth.”
Diagnosing Founderitis
I came across this funny diagnosis from Infoshackle.com and it comes complete with a 12 step program.
“When Founderitis strikes, the Founder’s drive, energy and vision, characteristics crucial to the startup’s initial success, become a hindrance to the company’s maturation into a self-sustaining entity. To assess yourself or a loved one for Founderitis, determine if any of the following symptoms are present:
- Inability to delegate
- Anger when not included in every decision
- Paranoia derived from a sense that the venture is “slipping out of their control”
- Ignoring input from subject-matter experts
- Expressing prescient knowledge, even when lacking subject-matter expertise
- Lack of respect for formalized planning
- Subterfuge of efforts to institute procedures, processes and controls
Founderitis is akin to an active, engaged parent who is a wonderful caregiver until the child reaches adolescence. As the child enters its teens and requires an increasing level of independence to properly mature and prosper, the Founderitis parent futilely attempts to restrict the influence of outside factors and limit the child’s ability to act autonomously. The result is usually a fractured parent / child relationship or an ‘adult child’ that never develops the life-skills necessary to succeed on their own.
One of the most insidious aspects of Founderitis is that the more profound the case, the deeper the denial on the part of the carrier. The afflicted Founder will honestly believe that all of his actions are in the company’s best interest, though their definition of ‘best interest’ is actually whatever is in their own ‘self-interest’.
Like any startup executive, the Founder must honestly separate his self-interest from the company’s interest. For instance, it might be in his self-interest to lead the sales efforts, as well as a great learning experience and a heck of a lot of fun. However, it may not be in the company’s best interest to lose precious time to market while an inexperienced sales novice attempts to learn on the job.”
5 Ways to Avoid Founderitis
I have personally experience this running my own business. I have found some ways to avoid it:
- Respect the need for planning activities, staff meetings, and administrative policies;
- Realize that as the company grows circumstances may dictate new approaches;
- Institute new systems with approval of your board;
- Seek and accept input from others in making decisions;
- Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
Don’t worry if you can’t over come this there is a simple solution. The route many take is to get your board to hire a professional CEO and take a long vacation.
So how many of you have had problems with founderitis? What is your story? Have a great example to share? Let the comments be the conversation.
Written by Steven Fisher on May 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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