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![]()  I've been a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad for a few years now. I enjoy it's simplicity and direct impact. While specific 'get rich' step by step tips aren't outlined in the book (and some commentators even doubt its veracity), it does contain several simple but powerful ideas on what separates the “rich” from the “poor”. It also frames its narrative in the strong Freudian template of the father-child relationship. Kiyosaki correctly notes that the difference between “rich” people and “poor” people is not education (oftentimes, rich people have less educational attainment than poor people) but mentality. To get rich one has to “think rich” (kudos to Napoleon Hill). The rich have certain mental habits that ensure they attain and maintain their wealth and status. Looking back on Kiyosaki's book, the same can be true of webmasters. I help run Webmasterlabor.Com—the Internet's leading provider of offshore outsourced web content and online promotion services. Through my job, I've run across many differing types of successful webmasters and online entrepreneurs. Through several years of interaction, coffee shop meeting, formal meetings, and endless hours of ICQ/YIM/AIM chats I've noticed several key patterns and similarities among these webmasters. This blog post lists some of those commonalities.
1) Successful webmasters focus on learning from failures. It has been said that “failure is the dress rehearsal for success.” Nobody knows this more than successful webmasters. Let's face it, not every plan proceeds according to, well, plan. That's life. Capital runs out. Traffic sources dry up. Partners flake. The potential for failure is everywhere. However, what determines our eventual success is how we handle the inevitable minor hiccup or even the major pothole on the road to success. One particularly successful webmaster who lost over $1M on an online script development project paraphrased a quote by Intel's Andy Grove--I've started one hundred companies in my life and all of them failed. My hundred first company was Intel. He went on to recoup his money and then some through other ventures. Learning from past mistakes and remaining focused and unbowed are what separates webmasters who make it from those who fall by the wayside. Sure, the Internet offers many ways to make money. However, it takes PERSEVERANCE and determination to pull through.
Keep this in mind next time you check your Adsense, YPN, or other affiliate stats. Don't let your analysis start and end with the fact that you made $0 for the day. Figure out WHY. List out possible reasons and right next to them list out possible SOLUTIONS. If the reason is not enough effort—budget more time to your endeavors. If you put in the effort but still come up short budget more analysis on your business model, your content model, or your promotions strategy. The proper FORMULA is there somewhere—keep looking and look closely with an open mind. Also... take refuge in the fact that what would separate you from your competition is your ability to hang in there and learn. Everyone can relate to making money and good times. It is the successful entrepreneurs that can still run their game when the money runs dry and times get tough. It is these tough times that separate those that make it from those that are too scared to see their effort through to the end. 2) Successful webmasters do not get envious or jealous they get INSPIRED. How many times do you read webmaster forums and notice how people announcing new cars or homes are invariably hit with an occasional insult or doubting responses? Whether someone is bragging, exaggerating, or straight out lying doesn't matter to the successful webmaster. What matters is that he is INSPIRED by others success or stories of success. He or she uses these success stories to paint a mental picture of the prize at the end of the tunnel. These stories serve as an inspiration to work harder and smarter. Jealous and envious people look only at the ENDS or THINGS that success brings. That's the end of the analysis. They just imagine--”Man, how sweet would it be to get that (fill in the blank—usual suspects are: Mercedes, BMW, Hummer, mansions, etc”). The smart and successful webmaster looks at the rewards and draws inspiration from the prize to power them through the challenges and ordeals of daily constant effort. Don't end with just the dream. Dream while working. 3) Succesful webmasters do not copy, they enhance or they reinvent.
Sure. Imitation may be the best form of flattery but blind imitation oftentimes leads nowhere and sometimes leads to that other word that ends in “ation”--litigation. Blindly copying another webmaster's website without a full and proper understanding of the principles behind what makes an implementation works a lot of times leads to failure and frustration. Successful webmasters look beyond the appearance and model of a particular online business to look for PRINCIPLES. These principles form the building blocks upon which they can add their unique outlook and problem solving skills to service their particular customer pool. It's one thing to get on the DIGG, FURL, MYSPACE, YAHOO, GOOGLE, EBAY, YOUTUBE, etc bandwagon. It's another to systematically study how a particular implementation's principles work and to which other circumstances or customer base it will work on. By using principles, webmasters don't copy—they enhance and reinvent. For example: forums and bulletin boards are a BBS era/pre-Internet social communications model. By studying the dynamics of how each persona posts, webmasters added profiles. Other webmasters studied profile-driven forums and added additional communication and networking tools. Based on the principle that individual posters want their own space and personal statements, free homepages were pioneered. So on and so forth. Eventually, you see the gamut of the individual principle for self-expression range from a simple forum to user-driven community networking sites like MySpace with all the CSS, chat links, embedded videos, and other bells and whistles. However, it all started with simple principles that one webmaster added to which in turn was improved on by another webmaster.
The key to successfully enhancing another person's work is to figure out what problem they are solving and how they are doing it. The webmaster then looks at how to tweak and apply the same principles to his own particular problem set.
4) Succesful webmasters are not afraid to delegate
Thinking small and thinking too much in the “here and now” leaves many webmasters' businesses in the slow lane. If you want to get big, you must think big. Thinking big does not just mean thinking on a large scale level. It also means thinking in terms of how your website model or target market is linked to other markets or promotional models. This level of thinking means prizing STRATEGY above all else. You are not a graphics designer. You are not a copywriter. You are not an accountant. You are not a promoter. You are not the many small parts of your website(s), you are something larger than the sum of all your site's parts—you are an ENTREPRENEUR. Once you accept this, you have to strategize accordingly and act accordingly. Outsource the ministerial and component parts of your business to specialists and focus on what is important—STRATEGY.
Besides giving you more time and space to focus on strategy, outsourcing the smaller pieces of your online business activities gives you a fresh set of eyes. Specialists see things you may not see and may help you spot and fix problems with your site, your promotions strategies, and/or strategic business positioning. It is easier to square a 2 into a 4 when you're working with another person (with his/her own unique perspective and specialist experience) than if you're trying to solve the problem alone.
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