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What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

February 1st, 2008 | by Scott

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Earlier this week I read a great guest posting by Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian over at ProBlogger called “10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With A Non-Profit“.

I really enjoyed that piece and was glad to see Darren give it the ProBlogger exposure. My only comment of addition to what Dr. Sivasubramanian had to say in that posting is that he should say it again and include Internet Marketers as well.

Then I was commenting on another blog today where the discussion was sorta focused on trying to balance being morally comfortable with what you do for a living with being profitable (well, that’s my interpretation of it anyway), but after reading Dr. Sivasubramanian’s posting earlier this week and then this discussion today it all just made me consider the following question all day long today:

While it’s easy to make money by finding people seeking help, stepping in-front of them online and promising that our offerings will scratch their itch–is that what anyone as a child really thought they’d grow up and do with their lives?

To be clear and honest, I have no regrets about what I do for a living and don’t think I’m heading into a mid-life crisis yet, but I believe that’s a fair and sincere question to ponder for anyone from time to time. Further down I’ll explain why I have no regrets.

If you’ve followed my blog at all then you should have a clear indication that I approach Internet Marketing in the most “above board” manner as I possibly can.

I have blogged on and on here about always under promising and over delivering. I stay clear of blackhat and what I consider to be unethical tactics when it comes to marketing.

My primary focus is on building niche mini-sites, and my first rule on that is always make the mini-site informative and useful to visitors. Monetizing a mini-site is the last step and concern in the process.

I operate several mailing lists, but unlike most list operators I never send more than a single mailing per month to my readers so as not to abuse them, and I make sure the messages I do send are first and foremost of value to the people who subscribe to my list. If I can add in some advertising that relates to my topics of the month I will, but that’s always the “afterthought” and never the primary reason for creating the monthly messages.

In-fact, subscribers of the list I run for this blog know that over half of the messages I’ve sent out since its creation didn’t have a single advertisement or affiliate link in them at all. They were purely informational.

It’s not that I don’t like using a mailing list to make money, and I certainly understand the power of a responsive list subscription base… but as I’ve written here several times, “making money can not be the motivating factor of everything I do”.

If it was I’d go absolutely nuts, and wouldn’t like myself very much at all.

Now, I’ll let you in on a little secret about me. When I was young I wanted to grow up and be a Marine Biologist.

I wanted to spend my days in the Oceans, swim with dolphins, live and work in exotic tropical locations and yadda yadda yadda…

Then as a teenager I realized that between Sea World and cheap flights I could do those same things without having to labor through all that schooling and my life’s path took new directions.

Here’s another little secret about me, I’m a card carrying, tree-huggin’, bleeding heart liberal. Okay, that’s not really a secret to the folks who know me. But what is a secret is that I wasn’t always this way.

As a teen and young adult I was pretty uptight. I saw everything as black or white, had little compassion for those who “couldn’t cut it on their own” and I was highly critical of folks who were like I am now.

Then I married my high-school sweetheart. It was the 1980’s, we were actually living the “little diddy of Jack and Diane”; but within a few years we lost a child and the marriage went south. And again my life’s path–as well as how I viewed the world–took some new directions.

So, now you know a little more about me, and how I got to where I am as a man today. I make a living with my own business. I talk about much of that here on the blog, never to brag–but to share any insights I may possibly have; but the work I do isn’t who I am.

I work to support the life I want to live, I don’t live to work.

I promised earlier to share why I have no regrets about what I do, and you may have an idea about that already. But basically it’s because:

1. I don’t ever have to lie, cheat or steal to make money on my own time and terms.
2. I honestly feel I am helping the majority of folks I’ve made money from (affiliate commissions) by turning them on to products or services I believe in and which meet their needs.
3. The work I do and skills I’ve learned have allowed me to give more to the causes and issues that concern me most in the world.

That last one is the biggie. I never talk about it and will only skim the subject now because I believe part of doing good things is never requesting or receiving credit for what you’ve done–but the techniques I use to move large numbers of targeted traffic to my money earning web sites also work to move large numbers of targeted visitors to other web sites too. Like the web sites of my favorite charities or grass roots organizations that are trying to improve some part of the world for all of us.

I also have days where I’ll earn some unexpected revenue. It’s part of the game when you’ve got sites sitting out there as I do. Someone else mentions one of them in a blog or forum and suddenly there’s a massive spike in traffic and revenue.

When I see a windfall day like that I tend to earmark some of the extra revenue for one or two of the causes I support. What those causes are, or how much money and traffic I’ve sent them isn’t important, it’s the fact that by doing something I’m fairly good at and enjoy for a living I’m able to live the life I want to, which includes supporting the things I believe are important.

So, I have no regrets about my career choices. And while my work itself isn’t going to cure cancer or end senseless violence in the world… the benefits from my work may one day have made a small contribution towards something good, and that gives me peace of mind and personal satisfaction in what I’m doing.

Now, anybody want to buy some swamp land in Florida?

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Technorati Tags: Business, charity, peace of mind

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