Life of Matt

Credit JoeLogan

The Introduction

This is a post about making goals.  It’s also a post about making connections.  But mostly, this post is about one thing: How I’m going to gain 500 subscribers by September 7th, 2009, at 10 AM.

IvanPerez is someone who I’ve traveled along parallel paths with for a long time.  Whether it was learning organization, teaching martial arts, becoming more productive, enhancing our identity, or getting better with girls… we just seem to be into the same things.

We had known of eachother for a while, and recently, I decided to reach out to him to see if we could start helping eachother out… it seemed almost silly not to.

The Challenge

Credit ehoyer

On March 7th, 2009, at 10 AM, I received the following message from Ivan:

“OK, we’ve cooperated with the training and organizing thing. Now it’s time for hour blogs to be on fire, to build a solid base of readers, thousands of them. What do you say, are you up to it?”

 And this was my response:

“I’ve been meaning to make growing my blog a goal for sometime now… might as well start now .

I’m not quite sure what a realistic goal is… 500 subscribers each in 6 months time?”

Finally, his simple reply:

“I think that 500 suscribers from now to September is pretty realistic if we make a plan and we stick to it.”

And with that, the decision was made.

The Plan

After me and Ivan had solidified the goal, the next step was to create a plan.

Credit njhdiver

 First, using The Law of Average Joes, I set out to find the first principles that every blogger who had a large volume of users followed. I narrowed it down to five principles:

1. Make The Blog More Accessible

2.Improve My Writing Skills

3. Get the Word Out

4. Make Better (More Commercial and More Valuable) Content

5. Create More Content

Because the Blog is a form of Creative Expression, I know that not every technique or tip that others have used will work for me, however, if I find blogs that resonate with me, I’m more likely to find a role model for what will work for me… this is an application of the Law of Similar Differences.

So, I took a look at the blogs I like to find out what techniques they’re using in the five different areas. From there, I created a few different projects that I myself could do in each area. (I’ll give just a sample here)

• Make the Blog More Accessible

  • Move to Wordpress

  • Add “Best of” Navigation (Easy Access to My Best and Most Popular Posts)

  • Move to a domain name

• Improve my Writing

  • Read and Apply “The Elements of Style”

  • Start having Ivan Proofread posts before they go out.

• Get the Word Out

  • Social Networking (Be accessible on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Etc.)

  • Blogosphere  (Being Linked from Other Blogs)

  • Forums (Getting recognition through posting on internet chat groups)

• Make Better Content

  • Start Using “Best Practices” for Blogging when writing posts. (Rules to make post optimized for both search engines and readers)

• Create More Content

  • Start a Daily Writing Habit

  • Make Lists for Ideas and Inspiration

Finally, from these projects, I draw out a list of “next actions”… the very next physical thing I can do to move each one closer to completion.

• Brainstorm a list of domain names on the computer and send them to Ivan for comments

• Go to word press, create theme, and begin porting over content.

• Buy “The Elements of Style” on Amazon

• Send this post to Ivan before I send it out.

• Create a preliminary “Best Practices Checklist” based on Write to Done posts. 

• Write for a half hour tomorrow

• Add at least three ideas tomorrow to my “possible blog posts” list.

• Find a list of social networking sites, sign up under a metasite.

• Create a list of blog carnivals based around personal development (Blog Carnivals are contests hosted by blogs, for blogs in which the best articles in a particular category get linked)

• Create a list of forums based around personal development

And Now… all I have to do is take action.

The Lesson

I lied… this isn’t a post about getting 500 subscribers. It’s a post about making dreams into reality. It’s about using the resources you have to turn ideas into action. The process I’ve used here is the same process people all around the world use to realize their own dreams. And you can do it now, right now… just make the choice.

Credit michelleBlack

It’s a simple process to go from having a dream to making a plan… Just follow these steps:

1.  Find people who have done what you want to do.

2.Find the similarities between them, and write these down as  ”First Principles”

3. Zoom in on the people that are most similar to you.  Under each first principle, write down a number of specific projects they have done aligned with this principle.

4. For each project you choose, write down the very next physical action you can take to move it closer to completion.

5. Take Action.

The Epilogue

And now the moment of truth comes… do I push the publish button. By pushing the publish button, I’ll finally have to put my money where my mouth is. By pushing that button, I’m making a promise to you the readers. I promise, that I am going to get 500 new subscribers by Monday, September 7^th, 2009… at 10AM.