Monday Motivation :: Recovering Rented Headspace
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I feel a little bad that I let Google rent so much headspace in the last few days that I posted my first ever mad rant today. I wrote it on Saturday and even let it sit for a while before hitting publish in the hopes I could tone my anger down… I failed. 
Which brings up an issue that definitely can affect productivity - what do you do when you are having a really bad day? How do you turn things around when you are having a really hard time getting your game face on?
Like today. No game face here.
Well, what I really need to be doing is 1 :: asking myself better questions, and 2 :: focusing on what will move me forward rather than what’s holding me back.
So I will do that today as part of Monday Motivation.
Old question :: How can I get Google back? 
New question :: How can I diversify my own traffic sources to lower Google’s percentage of referral traffic from 28% down to less than 10%?
Old question :: How can I get on the cover of Time Magazine as the Mommy Blogger that brought Google Down? 
New question :: How can I lead by example and teach my readers to build an online business without relying on Google?
By asking these questions already I feel less angry and more excited about moving forward. And after BlogWorld last week, I can’t wait to fill you in on all the things I learned.
Ah - headspace recovered.
So what the heck is Monday Motivation anyway?
Step 1 - let us know what you are going to get done today (your to-do list, so to speak).
Step 2 - put it in a comment below or a post on your own site.
Step 3 - let us know what will motivate you to get it done - a reward, consequences, or whatever you need to think that will ensure you do what you say you are going to do. I’ve found that the public announcement and accountability is a particularly great motivator, but throw down consequences if you really need a kick in the pants to get stuff done!
Today before I go to bed I will:
- Get through the 226 emails in my inbox
- Write one more blog post
- Create my to do list for the week
- Craft a plan to carve out extra time to revamp my business plan
- Spend 30 minutes cleaning
- Spend 2 hours with family tonight
- Check stats only one more time today
If I don’t finish these as promised I will write a public love letter to Google.
HA!! Now THAT’S leverage!!!
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow).
Dawud Miracle has one focus: to help you get it. The it? How your website, and blog, can change the way you do business. You can find out more at 
I’ve been following the Monday Motivation for a while, but I’ve never participated. I’m participating this week because I’ve been lazy the past few weeks and I really need to get somewhere this week. So here’s what I’m going to get done this week:
1. Write 5 blog posts
2. Brainstorm topics for 100 more posts
3. Post items for sale on Blujay
4. Join at least 3 online communities and actively network
5. Send resumes (or fill out applications) for at least 10 jobs
6. Request law school recommendation letters
7. Fill out law school application
8. Work out at the Y at least 3 times
Extra credit for:
1. Prewriting rough drafts for blog posts for next week
2. Additional trips to the Y
3. Identifying additional places to network (beyond my goal of three)
This seems like a lot, but since I am currently unemployed, I have all day. Besides, I’m the dumbass who thought it would be a good idea to take 25 college credits in one semester and survived (with all As, no less). This should be a piece of cake.
If I don’t get it done, I will post my failure in a follow up comment and the first person to email me will receive 1 item of their choice from the items I post on Blujay.
As I sit here, I’m getting a craving for Braum’s Cappuccino Sundae. If I get it all done, including any of the extra credit, by day’s end Friday, I’ll treat myself to Braum’s on Saturday.
Sarah - that is indeed an ambitious list! Keep us posted and let us know if we can do anything to help you get it all done!
No need to get involved. Google will collapse soon enough under the weight of its own hubris. There just a bunch of arrogant kids. The only meaningful Google business unit is nothing more than an online yellow pages for a world-wide strip mall of small businesses and schemers (Google being the biggest of them all). Social networks and online communities will eventually overtake Google as the mechanism through which people learn about new products and services. We’re a species built around the notion of community (e.g. eMoms Network). You can’t change that by tossing everything into a single bucket and extorting fees.
I wanted to accomplish the following today.
Write a link post.
Write 2 blog post.
Get my eyes checked.
Stay out of trouble at work.
Allow my baby (2 yrs) use me as a doll
Read all 40 RSS feeds in my reader.
Well let’s see it is now 6:30 pm and I started my link post. I wrote one post, had my eye appointment cancelled for today. I did not get fired or yelled at work. My 2 year old brought four blankets and 5 stuffed baby’s/animals out to snuggle up with. I am currently on 28 of the 40 post, oh darn three or feeds came in.
Good luck with Google.
JB
Just had to tell you I LOVED the Time cover. And how long did that take you to make and did it help you blow off any steam doin it?
Heh, thanks SpokaneMama! It hardly took any time at all - but it DID pay off in the release of tons of steam. I laughed so hard when I posted it I found it hard to be angry anymore!
I wish i really understood the google crisis - I am certainly reading about it but it’s not affecting a beginner like me - at least not that I know of -
when I am fit to be tied I can either go embryotic, meaning a nap can really reset things
some times or a call to a friend with a ” got an ear” meaning just let me talk for awhile will ya?
your so networked wendy i bet you have a lot of great folks who will not only listen but listen with an understanding of where you are at
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
* I upgraded to a new template - what do you think??
While I absolutely feel the pain of everyone affected by this PR drop and/or penalties assessed by Google, I really don’t think Google is the one to be blamed here. Text Link Ads surely knows the lure of selling links on a highly trafficed/high pr blog. Text Link Ads are the ones who need to activate the no-follow on the text links. They shouldn’t expect Google to “pony up” the money it takes to detect all the backlinks generated from text link ads then disregard those links as they relate to search engine position and/or pagerank.
I don’t think the message is being sent to bloggers trying to make some money running text link ads. I think the message Google is sending is directly to Text Link Ads. They are essentially saying, “Ok, keep selling the links with no-follow, and we will penalize these sites until so many sites stop using your service that you will have to make a change!”
Granted, it sucks that bloggers/site owners have to suffer the consequences of this little standoff between Google and TLA, but in my opinion Google had to do something about this or the “gaming” would have kept going on and gotten even more ridiculous.
My advice would be to think long term here. Can you be innovative and replace the money that TLA was bringing in? Sure you can. Advertisers and revenue sources are gonna come and go. On the other hand Google is here to stay for a long time!
I read a great post on David Airey’s blog about how and why he got penalized by google and how he reversed it. You can check it out below.
http://www.davidairey.com/how-i-reversed-my-google-ranking-penalty/
P.S. I loved the Time Magazine cover. This was my first visit to your blog and I thought, “Wow, is this lady really this popular?”
TDave - although I agree with you in principle, buying and selling text links has been around longer than Google has been around. So it’s not just a standoff with TLA, but with an industry that predates their existence.
Plus, Google says Yahoo is OK to sell links because they review the links before they go into their directory. I do the same thing, but I am penalized.
And yeah, I’m kind of famous, didn’t you know? (HAHAHAHAHA - totally kidding! Glad you liked the cover and hope you come around again!
)
Like I said, I hate the whole scenario. I definitely hate that it has affected the blogging community and sites like yours. While I am no Google fanboy, I do see how Google has to protect themselves - being that a large part of their algorithms rely on links. I guess Google could have taken an altogether different approach and disregarded/penalized all the sites that advertise with TLA. To me that would have been a better approach, because “most” publishers are just innocent victims in this debunkle.
You have a good point about Google not penalizing Yahoo for selling links. Maybe Google didn’t take the right approach with this. Rather than trying to “change the internet”, maybe Google needs to spend some of those billions to detect paid links and disregard them as they relate to search ranking. You know they already have the capability, because how else are they determining who to penalize.
Yeah, you are kind of famous. I mean you get to hang out with the likes of JC, Shoemoney, etc.
It’s weird because I had heard about you so I was recommending this site to my wife then low and behold I am caught up in one of your posts.
ROFL! Check out my little MyBlogLog widget and you’ll see all the dads lurking around here - about 30-40% of our readers are guys!!!
BTW - I agree Google should be using their billions to create a better algorithm - it really shouldn’t be our jobs to make their lives easier!
Wendy,
Google has done so much to revolutionize the internet, but it’s such a scary thing to know that one company can make or break a business with their decisions. I definitely agree we all need to find ways to diversify our traffic. At the same time we need to realize we have to play by their rules (until some other search company gains more market share) or suffer the consequences. That is unless you do take down Google, and I wouldn’t put it past you :).
I will definitely be adding your site to my reader. See you around and good luck.
Love the magazine cover! You look fabulous on it - you should send it over to them just for fun.
Your penalty was hysterical and the Time cover is TOTALLY AWESOME!!! I love it! It had me laughing pretty hard, too!!
Spend 30 minutes cleaning? Isn’t that a TOTAL waste of you time or is that just me?
Update - got it all done last night! Anyone else want to throw down the gauntlet this week?
The looming love letter to Google was particularly effective in motivating my butt to action.
Well, I did it. It ran into a good chunk of the weekend, and no extra credit, but I got through my list.
The thought that I was going to report back nagged at me all week long, any time I wasn’t actively working on something. I think I accomplished more in the past week than I did in the whole month before. Thank you!!