article-Internet-manager

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Internet Manager: Lead Thyself

If I want to show myself a man (a woman) able to lead my business, I have to "take" the lead. And that means, no matter how busy I might be with "other things", I still have to feed my web sites, if I'm serious about building an Internet business.

Purposefully, I have spent the last several days totally focused on bringing my web sites up-to-date. And to my surprise, I have found them to be wanting of attention on my part.

Serendipitously, in the same time frame, I came across this quote, "Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." -- (Thomas J. Watson Sr, President of IBM from 1952 to 1971)(Wikipedia)

So my thought was not a pleasant one at first, but let me explain.

Ok, I had good reasons. I had spent the last months and indeed years totally involved in medium and long-term projects that kept me away from my own web sites every day of my business weeks.

So, having had an e-awakening, I am now getting back on track -- which is something I want to talk about today...

Success in the Internet business is all about keeping on top of your web sites. If you don't keep them active, the search engines will eventually ignore them. And your visitors as well.

Without traffic your web sites are dead. You need to keep the content of your sites dynamic. In other words you need to keep them moving with activities, new content pages, new information, new offerings, new tools that offer solutions to your visitors, new ideas, etc., always bringing your pages up a notch.

What I found in my current re-uptake of my efforts is how much I had neglected my Internet work, even though I did do minimum maintenance. I had been "too busy" with local business to spend more necessary time. Yet I love my Internet business, but I realize I need to double and triple my attention.

Let this self-directed rant be a strong word of encouragement to all you out in cyber space, that, just as dynamic as the Internet is, your Internet business requires good daily (or at the very least weekly) doses of attention.

What I discovered also is that every time I read through my web site pages, I find something that needs to be fixed or adjusted. That alone is a full time job. And then, if you want to be successful at the ONline business game you need constant vigilance at increasing your traffic. That also is a full time job. And then there's the tweaking of your sales pages to improve the sales-to-visit ratios when your visitors do get to click on them, new content, blog maintenance, etc., etc.

The point of all this is: Never mind leading others... be a leader within your own personal life and business. Lead your very own self first. Then, leading others will come naturally. /dmh

Diane M. Hoffmann is president of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications Inc. which offers business resources and services to ONline and OFFline small business at http://www.business-resources-hrc.com . She is the author of numerous seminars, articles and books including "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training. (Content copyright Diane M. Hoffmann. You may reprint this article without changes and including author's name and resource box).

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