Why Automating Your Proccess Is The Only Way To Stay Sane
Creating passive income is not as it seems: you will find yourself lost in the hundreds of ways you can earn money online. It’s not that you can’t create your own passive income stream, it’s just that…. well, it might take a while. The best thing you can do is to speed up this process, or in other words, refine your process(es) to the point where you can try new things as soon as you brush off the dirt from your knees from your last set of “passive” experiments!
For example, as you read in my first Google Adwords campaign post, I waited entirely too long to test the product. Had I tried this as soon as I had thought about it, I would have “failed” earlier. I would be testing my next set of products right now. As it turns out, I put too much into it and now can’t do much with it. The website only set me back $100.00, the domain less than $10.00, the campaign $0.00, but weirdly it’s none of those things that I regret. One thing I most regret is the time wasted. After all, no one can give me back the whole month of February (if you can, contact me).
Not all was lost: I can modify and re-use that website for other products, so that will always pay off. Also, I have learned a valuable lesson about myself: test things within a 2-3 week span OR I will lose interest quickly!
What can we do to refine our “processes” so we don’t get bogged down and lose time? Automate your processes, silly. I’ve very recently found a niche (less than week) that I would like to test. I can’t, however, sell one product (that would be like Amazon only selling one book), so I have to sell a handful of these products in various models on my website.
Even though I already have a product site, it’s targeted towards promoting one affiliate product. This is of no use to me for my next test. Learning from my mistakes, I am hell bent on creating a multi-product “testing” website (I will only be gauging how many orders I might receive by capturing emails, I haven’t thought about shopping carts, etc yet) which I can use time after time. I am doing the bulk of the work now, i.e., loading the product page with several products, setting up the color scheme of the page, creating a form to capture the email.
Guess what? I am using .NET (MS haters can suck it elsewhere) because that is what I know and I don’t need to bog myself down with learning something new right now. The purpose isn’t to educate myself but to test a market and set something up if all goes well. If not, I’ll move on with another niche. Also, as a programmer, I feel dirty programming something “quick” as we know that can diminish quality, but I have to remember that my the competition websites (in this niche) seem to be stuck in the early 90s. My website doesn’t have to win awards for beauty, but rather help potential customers find the product they were seeking!
One really important thing about this multi-product test site is that it will be dynamic. Next time I need to test something, all I have to do is go into the database tables and enter details like new website name, new tagline, new set of products, etc. I won’t have to code the website part again, as that is the beauty of building dynamic websites/things. So compare that to quite a few hours work (maybe even days) to setup a new website every time to maybe less than two hours for my next round of testing, thanks to coding the site as dynamically as I can. Awesome. I don’t want to get distracted in the process of creating new websites from scratch every time.
Maybe e-commerce testing isn’t your passive income stream you’re experimenting with. Maybe you write for eHow, InfoBarrel, Suite101, or Associated Content. To reduce wasted time, you should create a set time for each process: research-30 minutes, write article-30 mins, etc. Perhaps you’re thinking of hiring a writer. Establish a process with him/her. Perhaps you can set 30 minutes, twice a week to do proper research for topics using the Google Keyword Research and then sending these topics to your writer.
The best advantage of automating your “process” is taking the emotion out of it. I’m not sure if I can explain this too clearly, but for me, setting up passive income streams has been somewhat emotionally draining. I have created my own pressures and clearly this is not what I need more of in my life. Hopefully by automating, I can get used to the process of each experiment. It won’t be emotionally draining to know I have quite a few hours of work left to setup another test website (and so on). Of course, I’ll feel less emotional about experimenting with more time and experience.
If you’re starting out like me, then great. We are “starting out” and we can automate our process as much as possible right from the beginning so that we don’t waste time on repetitive tasks. If you’ve been doing this for a while and have been on an emotional roller coaster ever since, then stop! You can’t live life like that. Modify your strategies and automate as much as possible.
What have you automated successfully? What has worked? What hasn’t? Please share!
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19 Responses to “Why Automating Your Proccess Is The Only Way To Stay Sane”
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[...] Moon Hussain writing on experimentsinpassiveincome.com talks about her journey (ups and downs) of her various experiments in passive income, but what resonates for me was her post on Why Automating Your Processess is the Only Way to Stay Sane. [...]
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I’ve automated just about everything I can think, from bill paying to revenue generators (although it be small) and I still find I am spinning my wheels on pointless tasks.
I am taking a hiatus for the week to free my mind….:)
Ms. Freeman@Baby Steps of an Internet Entrepreneur´s last blog ..Take an Immediate Media Fast
Make sure you come back!
Haha, you have a great blog over there, of course I’ll be by
Sometimes a break is all we need. I got back from CA in January. Damnit, I can’t go on vacation yet! Have fun, Ms. Freeman!
Not only do you have a Type A personality, you have the classic symtems of ADD. LOL. That’s okay, we are in the same barrel together.
“loose interest quickly” – my husband laughs at for me this one, but i tell him it’s that quality that will make me rich one day. Misnomer it sounds, but it will be true. 
You sound like you have your work cut out for you. I really do need to expand my horizons and schedule my time more effectively than surf the web and leave comments… oh sorry. Can’t wait to hear your results.
I think I need to reread the #4HWW to get back in sync with automating and outsourcing things. I think it sounds like a great idea!
MoneyFunk´s last blog ..Brew the Perfect Cup of Coffee (Frugal Tip)
BTW, I think .NETs are great.
MoneyFunk´s last blog ..Brew the Perfect Cup of Coffee (Frugal Tip)
Hehe, I think they’re quite lovely myself!
Christine,
I’m realizing that and I might want to loosen up, lol. When I was younger, I was really laid back and I miss that kind of attitude. I think a balance is what I need. I re-read the important chapters of the 4HWW (imp. to me, that is) about 3 weeks ago. Gave me another kick in the butt, so I highly suggest you do that.
If you don’t surf the web and leave comments, how will you forge relationships?
So, I know what book I am reading this weekend.
Now you have me thinking about writing an ebook product and setting up a test website. New focus for me? Think I am going to need to put “Money Funk | Personal Finance & Frugal Living…& Entrepreneurship?”.
Plus, I need to write some more eHow articles or dive into AC. Then… I am thinking about bidding on projects at Elance. Some of things people are putting up jobs are pretty simple to me. If I win a bid, can’t hurt to make a little cash. Plus, it might keep me from continuously changing my site (long time readers have seen my site morph ultra many of times).
Have a great weekend!
Money Funk´s last blog ..Week’s Round Up: The Ripple Effect
Christine, I’ll warn you that after your second time with the book (4HWW), you’ll be consumed by “it” again, haha. That’s good though, gets your brain going. Things with eHow and other “passive income” sources is that they take time. You might want to hire a writer from Elance. I found one really cheap and so far (knock on wood), quality is good. It’ll need slight editing, maybe an hour on 7 articles (not even!)
If you find easy jobs to do on Elance, more power to you. Do keep in mind though that you could spend that time writing for eHow or other sources and make money in the long run
In the end, it’s about what you think you can take on.
Thanks for dropping by, Christine!
Automating things are the best creation ever. Such a time saver!
Yeah, in the long run that is. Starting off is a bit of pain though!
Hi,
I see your point and I totally agree. Automating processes help us concentrate on the most important tasks. It is a great advantage to automate less important task, such as websites setup in your case, to save our time for the money generator tasks!
Isaac – Life is simpler´s last blog ..Should I quit my job – Part 1
As a programmer, the concept is really important to me. If I can write functions that can be re-used, why not save myself that time? Thanks for dropping by, Isaac!
What this post made me think is that maybe sanity should not be the goal. You want to make money and maybe sanity is an obstacle.
Ralph,
Thanks for dropping by. I think it can be done either way, but most people would prefer to stay sane, including me
Hi Moon,
The only things I’ve successfully automated at my website, (which probably doesn’t count), is my Alexa score tracker, my Feedburner/RSS feed, setting up AdSense and Affiliates that do “their” thing when someone clicks and a pinging system.
I still haven’t figured out a way to “do” everything that needs done in 1 day. I find myself getting lost in other people’s websites (like yours). I can spend all day reading and learning everything. Then I’ve lost a day of productivity at my website.
Since my website is new, I consider all the research and learning I do elsewhere to count as productivity. But it gets to a point where I need to stop. ALSO, I lose the most time when I read comments, find that person interesting and head off to their website. I know this is part of meeting people and getting the ball rolling.
I also have trouble with a niche – and what you wrote made me think. Ok, so we have a website with a niche, but there are other websites and niches I like to read and follow that don’t always relate to my site. For example, I enjoy reading about money, life motivation, dogs, starting a business, finding new niches, new trends, technology, etc. Then I’m tempted to post on their websites, because they are of interest, but people think I’m crazy because my personal website may not relate to their subject, although, my life experiences and interests do….
Anyway, you are bookmarked and I will be back!!!
Scott Barron´s last blog ..Earth Day 2010: My Pledge
Scott, don’t dismiss all that you’ve done as insignificant; everything you’ve been able to automate sounds awesome. I myself am lost with all the reading I do and have yet to find a balance. We have to remember to take action on everything we’ve learned, otherwise it’s all been a waste.
Sometimes when I read for too long or program for too long, I lose my focus for the day. My brain becomes kind of cloudy and stops absorbing material which is a huge signal for me to stop doing what I’m doing.
So you enjoy reading blogs….. but you do it to a point where you lose track. Maybe you should give yourself an hour in the morning to do that and then actively focus on other stuff throughout the day. Easier said than done. I feel your pain