M.A.J - Avoiding wasted time - the Low Hanging Fruit of your Website

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So, my website has been up and running for 4 months and is starting to gain some ranking traction. As with most of us here, I spread my time between writing blogs and building the site. The thing that I have found however is trying to make sure I find a good spread between writing and building. I was struggling with this until I opened my mind into my past life as a Project Manager in Government - yeah, it was that bad.

Proof of Concept

In my last government project, a software development project, we adopted the Agile methodology/approach to project management. And by 'adopt' I mean pick the latest and greatest methodology, do a 5-day course and then butcher it until it is a shell of its former self... Anyway... one of the attractive points of this methodology is to avoid wasted time and scope creep and this starts with a proof of concept (POC). A POC is where you create the absolute bare minimum build to see if it will work.

I WA speak, this is the website you create in modules 4 and 5 of Lesson 1.

Your website is created and it works. This is where you make sure it works before you do anything else.

Do you like the theme?

Do you like the font, layout and menu structure?

Can you add pages?

Can you add posts?

Etc.

You are obviously not going to continue until this is all good (for now) - so you approve your proof of concept and off you go!

Sufficiency

This is one of my favourite words in the whole world. It means we do just enough to make it work and nothing more until 1. Someone asks for it or 2. The need arises. Essentially it becomes the low hanging fruit of your website.

Let me explain it in WA speak:

At POC stage, my website is capable of receiving blog posts and publishing them to the internet. But it is not ranking - a first need is identified.

I need to set up SEO so I do it. Do I set up an email list? No - why? because who is going to subscribe if my website doesn't rank? That is not to say that email lists are absolutely critical because they are. Just not yet.

Do I look at all the plugins in case I might want one in the future? No. Why? because I don't know which ones I need.

So in this case, adding SEO is sufficient to my site and doing anything else is simply taking away from time that could be spent blogging.

The Low hanging fruit

So the low hanging fruit of the website is anything that you need to make the website work for where it is in the maturity of your project.

Things like SEO, adding blogs, loading affiliate links etc. are this low hanging fruit as they are the bare minimum you need to get it up and running and ranking.

That way you are free to do the things that the site needs as they are needed i.e. Someone asks for it or the need is identified. More importantly, you are not wasting hours on adding something that you think you may need only to find out you really didn't in the first place.


Anyway... hope that is clear? I have another blog to write so until next time...

Have fun

Paul

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Recent Comments

22

Clear the low hanging fruit first, then proceed forward...

Well done Paul!
You have broken down the “whys” and simplified them so they make sense to new members and those of us who are not so new, but working slowly.
Appreciate your input!

KyleAnn

Thanks KyleAnn - appreacited - Paul

Hi Paul,
Enjoyed your blog. Very informative and I love your concept!
Thanks for sharing:)
Donna

I work in local government so I’m across ‘adopting’ methodologies :) Loved your post, informative and entertaining.

Yeah, we certianly could mess up a totally effective methodology. - too caught up in the"but Government is different" mindset

Good and interesting post thanks for sharing

Good Tuesday morning (that is from my end) Paul

Your statement of changing website to the point butcher until it is a shell of former self is exactly where I am. Changed direction from original concept and now in the process of changing back after finally discovering Wordpress theme that would do what I wanted.

You have been most helpful with the idea of not adding plugins until decide if they are needed achieving desired objective.

Thanks
Barry

Tanks Barry, glad you found it helpful. Paul

Very helpful for me as beginner , thank you paul.

Your writing style makes this post a fun read, and an informative one! Thanks for sharing. Your experiences with government SOP of adopting a procedure, and then modifying it almost beyond recognition describes what I've experienced in public education for 20 years. Interesting.

Haha Nancy.. yep, we were pretty good at it

Paul

Brilliant Paul, I wish I could have read your blog when I started at WA. It would have saved me a lot of worry. Fortunately I'm on the right track now. Jim

You make some great points here Paul! I love the aspect around sufficiency. just knowing that things don't need to be perfect right from the start. thanks, this was a great post! :)

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