InfoProfitSavvy

Before we begin, I want to make it clear that I am not trying to make an argument here. I agree with the heart of 45n5’s point. I just question how hardfast his “no new plugins after you have made your first blog post” rule is.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

45n5 said in his blogpost basic-business-plan-to-make-600-profit-per-month the following rules…

“Rules, Rules, Rules:

a. You can never change the url structure of you blog after you make your first post. Never, no redirects, nothing.

b. You may not install any additional plugins after your first blog post is made. You must finish with what you start with. (possible exception for spam plugins)

c. You may never change the layout of any blog

d. You write the majority of your posts on things people buy

I had never heard of such a rule as not adding any plugins after a first post has been on a blog and so I asked him why this was.

I could see why not to change the permalink structure. That was obvious. I wasn’t sure about the layout issue. But I was completely puzzled about the “plugin” issue.

Was I somehow messing up my SEO or pagerank or my google juice if I installed new plugins? Was I in someway doing damage to my blogs in the search engines? So I asked why not to have new plugins. Why was this a RULE??

AND he wrote a response post called step-away-from-the-plugins-and-layout to respond to my question.

His answer was that the fact that I had spent two hours trying to get the mybloglog widget to work with this theme and ended up having to get rid of the widget altogether and create a text widget instead for it to work is explanation enough of why he made that rule.

While I understand his point… here is one that I want to make in rebuttal.

I think his “Rule” is well-intended and is designed to encourage people to stay focused and not get distracted while they are working. Can’t argue with that.

My only concern is this… some people never get out of the starting gate because they fear they have to have everything PERFECT before they can even begin. They procrastinate and procrastinate actually marketing because they are so busy collecting tools and debating whether to use one layout or another or one blogging platform or another.

I think that these rules may actually hinder someone who may skew towards being a “can’t start it unless I can do it perfectly” personality. These rules certainly can make someone feel like it is imperative to wait one more day and make sure they have the perfect plugins and the perfect layout before they begin their blog.

I think there needs to be a balance. I agree that tweaking can take the place of working. COMPLETELY AGREE. But I also believe that tweaking can take the place of STARTING.

Getting started on a new blog means risking doing it imperfectly. It means risking having the wrong plugins or too many plugins or too few plugins. It means learning about new web 2.0 tools and figuring out how to implement them.

So while I get his point and his concerns… I hope he can get mine. Sometimes getting started with that first blog post means risking that it isn’t perfect and it may require tweaks. And those tweaks may need to be made before you are making $600 a month online.

ALSO.. case in point…

I read one of his earlier blog posts about being bugged by twitter in blogposts. I also read a post from “IncomeHero”to please always offer full feed.

So taking these perspectives into consideration, I deactivated my “evermore” plugin which was truncating my rss feed. I also adjusted my twitter feed into my sidebar instead of into my blogposts.

How long did it take me to do those things? About four minutes. Was it worth four minutes of my time? Abso-freakin-lutely if it made my rss feed easier more enjoyable for my readers.

So, while I understand the reasoning behind 45n5’s rules… I question the hard-fastness of them.