Stuck in Indecision Mode

I just listened to a Podcast from Cliff Ravenscraft that I was primarily listening to because I didn’t have any other new Podcasts to listen to.  I wasn’t expecting it to be real relevant to me, but it definitely was.  It opened my eyes to a few things that I really need to resolve so that I can move forward.

I’m in this “I have too many things floating around in my head” limbo and I think as a form of therapy I’ll talk through it here with you today.  So take a seat in the chair, I’ll lie down on the virtual couch and hopefully with some help and suggestions from you, my virtual therapist for the day, we’ll work through this and blast forward.  😉

And who knows, just by typing this out and sharing it here, perhaps I’ll help solve parts on my own as well.  Let’s see what happens!

Branding Podcast

The Podcast was about “Choosing Your Brand Name…” and Cliff had some great examples of his own brands such as Podcast Answer Man.  Obviously you know exactly what his Podcast is about and that makes for a great easy to remember, identifiable brand.

He mentioned you could also go with less obvious names and mentioned Mixergy as an example, but said in that case you have to love the name, own it and evangelize the brand and eventually word of mouth will take over.  Much more difficult initially to gain traction that way, but it can certainly work.

I personally like the idea of a very easy to remember, identifiable brand name like PodcastAnswerMan.com rather than having to rely on positive buzz and word of mouth.

All great info, but I realized while listening that has been a big part of why I’m feeling a bit lost.  I have a huge lack of clarity right now in regards to my brand, which is causing me to have a lack of focus and progress.

Single Motivating Purpose

Taking some cues from the guys over at Internet Business Mastery, I want to create a Single Motivating Purpose, or SMP.  You could think of that as your own personal mission statement.  That seems relatively clear to me in my head, but let’s see what comes out…

My SMP is to share experiences, tips and tools with other like minded folks to help everyone achieve a greater level of success with their online adventures. 

Ok, so maybe I am pretty clear on that.  That is really what I’ve been thinking all along and that is also basically what I put as my mission on my about page when I started the site a few years back.

To take things one step further, I’d really like to help others get from that breakeven point where you’re getting by and doing just ok, to a point where you are beginning to enjoy a higher level of success and thriving!

Ok, I think I’m actually good there.  I like where that is going and I’ve been pretty clear all along with the overall idea of why I’m here and what I’m hoping to be able to bring to everyone out there following along.  Hopefully that sounds good to you as well!  So no worries there.

Indecision Mode

So I need to dig a bit deeper on where I think I’m struggling the most.  I think there are two primary things I struggle with.  Lack of a clear brand and struggling a bit with anonymity vs being fully out there.

The site has been NicheSiteTool.com since it started.  One of the main reasons I created the site was because I was a big fan of Market Samurai and wanted to promote that “Niche Site Tool” on the site.  But that is not the primary focus of the site and doesn’t reflect a real brand.

So, I decided to register www.NicheSiteTools.com.  That makes more sense to me as an overall site and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but now looking back at my SMP I’m not sure it would be the ideal fit.

I want to share experiences, tips and tools, but the domain name really only addresses the tools part.  If I were to see the name www.NicheSiteTools.com I would expect to find a site with a great list of the best tools to create niche sites.  Agree?  While I have some of that on my resources page, my purpose really isn’t to bring you new tools all the time.

So I need to do 1 of 2 things there…Either convert over to utilizing NicheSiteTools.com and embrace the brand and run with it or come up with a brand new domain that might more accurately reflect my SMP.

I’d REALLY like some thoughts and opinions on that.

The other thing I struggle with quite a bit is maintaining a balance of anonymity/privacy and transparency online.  I really have no problem at all sharing full personal details with anyone, I just like to keep my online adventures separate from my day job and my normal circle of friends.

Really what I stress about is the idea of a potential future employer Googling my name and finding a bunch of different niche sites and deciding that I have all these other things going on and thinking perhaps I wouldn’t be good for the job, limiting my future options.

My other thought is that I really don’t want existing co-workers and most of my regular circle of friends to necessarily know about my online adventures.  Most of them would not relate and it is just something I prefer to keep separate.

I feel that limits me a little.  For instance, since Google +/ Google Authorship really requires you to utilize your full real name and they’re moving more and more in that direction with YouTube as well, I feel that I can’t take advantage of portions of that avenue.

I actually mentioned this to some folks online when I first got started and one of the guys I follow regularly, actually said that is a bit of an issue for him as well, which made me at least feel like I wasn’t alone in my thinking.

He is a fellow blogger in the Internet Marketing arena and he said that he would prefer a bit more anonymity at times as well.  He works for a semiconductor company in Texas for a day job and I always hear him saying on his Podcast that he loves his job and has no intentions or desires to leave.

Quite honestly, even though at times I love my job, if I could completely replace my income with passive income streams from my online adventures that would be the ultimate!

I would love to be able to work from anywhere and have the freedom to travel to see family and friends at a moments notice, attend wonderful conferences whenever I wanted to, etc…really who wouldn’t want that?

I suspect that this person I’m referring to would also want that, but feels that he has to constantly reassure his employer that he doesn’t plan to go anywhere to be sure his job is stable.

So anyway, that has been a concern of mine and I’m curious how any of you with existing day jobs and difference circles of friends deal with that.

Is that a concern for you at all?  Do you struggle with similar concerns and if so, have you figured out a good way to balance that or is it a bit of a roadblock for you also?

Conclusion

What I would like to do is hash all of this out between now and year end and then start 2014 with a new brand and domain name and hit the ground running.  I’d appreciate any and all suggestions you might have on that.

If you think I’m crazy and just need to suck it up, use nichesitetools.com and get to work creating more content and niche sites, feel free to tell me that!

If you think I should do a bit of a larger re-branding with a site name that more closely matches my SMP and have any particular ideas along those lines, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly to chris “@” nichesitetool.com and let me know what you think.  I’d greatly appreciate it!