Drivers, start your engines!

I'm a NASCAR geek. I have been for about 30 years. Today is the day of the Daytona 500 and I can't wait to hear those magic words today. Drivers, start your engines!

They call the Daytona 500 the Superbowl of NASCAR, but for some reason NASCAR's Superbowl is at the beginning of the season, not the end. It kind of makes sense, though because of how NASCAR is scored. Even with all of the rules changes over the past several years, a driver can still mathematically win the championship prior to the last race of the season.

What does NASCAR have to do with your online business?

Stick with me for a couple of minutes.

I was in high school when I really started following the sport. The summer of my 16th birthday I started working at a full service gas station. You youngsters may not know what that is, but many years ago when you went to a gas station you did not even get out of the car. Someone would come to your window and you'd tell them how much of what kind of fuel you wanted. You can still experience this in New Jersey, but I've not seen it anywhere else in at least 20 years.

Anyways, when I started there, I became fast friends with a guy who'd already worked there for about a year named Jason. I started hanging out with his family and him at his house. They were enormous NASCAR fans. That year, Harry Gant was doing well, so I picked him as my driver. The more I learned about Mr Gant, the more I decided he was a good choice as someone to root for on Sunday (and Friday and Saturday).

Gant earned the nickname "Mr September" when he won all four Cup races for the month in 1991 (Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville). He also won two Busch races (Richmond and Dover) that month. He was 51 years old at the time.

I think what strikes me the most about Gant is his personality. He was never a braggart. Never did you hear him say, "Look how great I am," or "I'm gonna shine these guys on." He just went out and did it. His low key personality really resonated with me.

OK, so enough of my reminiscing about the Lord of NASCAR (IMHO). Let me make my point.

You are in a marathon, not a sprint.

Much as NASCAR fans get super excited for the start of the NASCAR racing season, the Daytona 500, the Superbowl of racing, you are probably super excited about starting your online career. But rarely does the driver who wins the Daytona 500 become the season champ. You can't just do great out of the gate. You have to keep your foot on the throttle all season and do well in nearly every race.

You need to apply that to your business. It is easy to write content, work on your SEO, promote your website on social media, etc... when you are excited. You need to maintain that enthusiasm even when the "newness" of your new venture evaporates.

I'll let you in on one of my dirty little secrets. I'm not always inspired to write content, and my suspicion is that you will not always be either. In order to be successful you need to find a way to stay motivated and to get you through those times when you are feeling less motivated. I think the biggest way you can achieve that is to pace yourself. If you start out writing a blog post every single day, you're probably going to burn out.

I'm not trying to discourage you here. I'm trying to set you up for success.

Keep some gas in the tank.

If you are feeling extra motivated or inspired, then by all means, write those extra blog posts or content. I'm not telling you to not work if you're feeling inspired. But take your breaks too. Spend some time with your loved ones or go for a hike or work on your model train set. Whatever it is that puts some gas back in your tank, do it.

But if you find yourself in the position of having "extra" content after your posting goal, save the draft for a rainy day. Everyone is going to have those times when they don't have the time or inspiration to create new content. Having those extra blog posts will come in really handy in those times when you need a week off to refuel.

What happens if you run out of gas or spin out?

Well if you happen to run out of gas and stop posting on your site, you will likely lose whatever ranking you have achieved. Search engines like Google like to see regular updates to websites. It is no secret that posting frequency is a very important part of their ranking algorithm. That is why I've been harping a bit on pacing yourself. Your business will be better served to have one quality post per week forever then it will be to have five posts per week for two months then having you ramp down.

If you've fallen victim to this, do not despair. You can recover from it, but it might take a bit. And it's going to take some work.

The good news is you have a pit crew.

One of my favorite things about the community here at Wealthy Affiliate is the vast uniqueness of the people here. There are people from all over the world from all walks of life who are more than willing to lend a helping hand. They can be thought of as your pit crew.

They are there to help you work on your race car... er... business. They will give you advise (most of which is pretty good) and help provide you some motivation. I rely on the user base here quite heavily and quite often as a source of inspiration as well as for help when I need a hand figuring something out. We are all here to help each other.

On that note, I'm going to go get ready for the race. I've got some wings to cook and this cheap, domestic pilsner is not going to drink itself. Have a great Sunday and do something you enjoy today.