I\’m glad I broke it. I wouldn\’t be here today if I hadn\’t broken it.
No, I\’m not talking about a vase I won in a church raffle. And I certainly don\’t mean the world 100 meter sprint record.
I didn\’t break a nail, though I could probably use a good manicure. And I didn\’t break a vow of silence. I\’d have to be silent for more than ten minutes for that to take place.
But I broke it just the same.
I\’m talking about my routine.
In general, routine is a good thing. When you\’re building an online publishing business, you want to get in the habit of posting every day, writing and answering emails, doing research, and checking your ad stats and traffic flows. All of that should be a regular thing, like your morning coffee or an evening in front of the TV.
Treat your website as something you only visit when you feel like it though and you shouldn\’t be surprised when you find your users treat it the same way. Treat it as a job that you have to turn up to every day — or risk losing — and you should find that it keeps growing.
But it doesn\’t take much for a routine to turn into a rut, and that\’s where you have to watch out.
I could very easily have stayed where I was when my sites started making money. They were bringing in good income and I was very happy with the way things were going. But I wanted to know what else online publishing could do for me, so I left time in my day to experiment with other advertising systems, to build new sites, and look for joint ventures. And to write a book, of course.
You should do the same thing.
If all you want to do is write a blog, and earn a few bucks for it, that\’s fine. But if you want to make a lot of bucks with a network of sites and a rock-solid online publishing business, you will need to leave room in your day for expansion. Even if it means breaking your routine.