Increase on-line traffic: Should You Attempt This Yourself?

The incomparable Seth Godin today published a brief article about the relationship between expertise and passion.

In it he says:

“I think if the work is important, it should be done with passion and skill and flair. But the work of balancing the books, or running Google adwords or making sure that customers are treated well at the ski school often has nothing to do with the product or service itself. It’s more important that you be passionate about what you do all day than it is to be passionate about the product that is being sold. Give me someone with domain expertise and the passion to do great work any time. Belief in the mission matters (a lot!), but it doesn’t replace skill.”

The question then for a small business owner seeking to promote their product, or service, via a website is should they attempt to master website building and maintenance themselves, or should they hire someone else to do it for them?

Internet Mrketing coach Alex Jeffreys is in no doubt that technical matters should be outsourced to industry experts, unless of course you’re an expert yourself. In his book a business owner’s role is simply to decide in what direction s/he wants the business to go, and then get others to do the sweat-work for them. It’s worked for other business leaders too.

It worked for Richard Branson, and before him John Paul Getty, Nelson Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. No general fights with rifle and bayonet but their skill in directing specialists in firepower and logistics can sever thousand of causalities, including civilians and also the foe who gets soundly defeated.

Alex Jeffreys learned this lesson from Internet marketing mega star Rich Schefren. Schefren was a businessman long before he entered the Internet arena.

His ‘Manifesto‘ is a milestone document as far as helping Internet marketers organize their lives. Seth Godin would undoubtedly agree with much of the Manifesto. Many have started their entrepreneurial careers working for Seth Godin, for example Photo JoJo’s founder Amit Gupta who worked with Seth Godin to set up ‘Change This‘.

Godin prizes brains and flair and if you’re possessed of these then working for Seth Godin could kick-start your success. The question for me now is should I continue to tweak this website, a little here, a little there to increase my on-line traffic, or should I hire an expert?

Hell I’m going to tweak it myself, for me raising the traffic profile is an enjoyable part of the game. On the other hand I outsourced the video on this page to Google and Seth Godin

Business Blogs: How to Build A Better Blog: Seth Godin and Tom Peters
Don’t believe me and Patsi when we say business blogging is essential for your business? Would you believe Seth Godin and Tom Peters, two major uber-business gurus?

Seth Godin: The Rational Marketer and the Irrational Customer
Seth Godin: The Rational Marketer and the Irrational Customer. What to do when face with crazy customers? Bought to you by Pukky, our neutral business and economics analyst, from Seth’s Godin’s Blog.

I saw Seth Godin in London
Charles Handy and Dave Snowden are two of my favourites and now I need to add another; Seth Godin…thanks to Steve Clayton who furnished me with a ticket. It was a fairly high octane performance from Seth as by his own admission.

Seth Godin brings the smackdown
If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting? In my experience, not much. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start now.”

“All Marketers are Liars” - Seth Godin speaks at Google
Seth Godin is the author of six bestsellers, including Permission Marketing, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller for a year and a Fortune Best Business Book.

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