It stresses me out that I don't have much idea of what to do with all this inbound marketing, business blogging, and content marketing knowledge. The best I have is that I can apply it to online media and publishing, but that's about it. For some reason, I feel like I should do something more with it besides applying it to something else. It's still interesting and important stuff, so I want to keep up with the topic without just passively consuming it or reading up about it. I want to apply it in ways besides improving my business.
Consulting Work?
I could turn most of Stirring Media's current services into consulting work. I think there's less competition for things like inbound marketing consulting and content marketing consulting, versus being a marketing agency or providing those services. I also think that I would make a very good consultant. One of the most frustrating things about the work I was doing previously (and now, to an extent. I still need to make an income as I build the online publishing portion) is that consulting isn't in the contract so I usually felt somewhat constrained when providing services. One clients only posts 250-350 word posts. Even if I do give them 600-800 word posts, they cut out half of it and post a 300-word version. I could say something if I were a consultant, but would saying something mean anything if I just provide the service? They're not paying me to listen to me, and even if they did listen to me, would they tell their other contributors to double the size of their posts? I really don't know if they'd change, even though the change would make my service more effective and their blog better. As an agency, you can't really be an agency of change unless a client hires you to be an agent of change and to create strategy as well as content. However, if you're not hired to do that, it's then a hassle to get some money's worth out of the information. You don't want to do too much consulting for free.
There is the Stirring Standard
I started this site a while ago as a publication that sources most of its content from business blogs. The point was the give great business blogs a platform for their content, a way to have the good stuff rise above the rest. It would also be one more way to get found online and to set some standards for what's considered good content. This is something that needs to happen soon as more and more folks jump into content marketing, so we're all starting to just drown each other out and to make it harder for our target audience to find our content. Also, this site would have been a way to give businesses and their stories a little more legitimacy while building back links. I believe businesses have good stories to tell and can offer something valuable and beneficial to people. I think businesses can go beyond selling a product or service, much more than was possible or necessary than years past. People don't want to be sold to anymore. Anyway, still don't know what to do with the site. Not sure if I would pursue the business blog idea.
At least with consulting idea, I have an additional source of income that I could utilize right now. I also wouldn't need to delete so many pages from the website. I could simply rewrite most of them, so I would only take a temporary hit to SEO instead of a permanent one (it would be permanent because the pages would be gone, and it would probably leave broken links strewn across my website, which would also hurt). I better add this to the revenue model, and then send all my homework to my business coach.