2009, The Year of Monetization

2008 has been quite a year for almost everyone and I was no exception. On this blog I spent a lot of time exploring ideas and promoting creativity and innovation through new ideas. But as I mentioned in “What Is My Idea Worth? Not As Much As You Think” ideas are worthless without execution and the real art, the real work, comes in taking your ideas from concept to realization. So in 2009, I’ll be moving the emphasis of this blog, as well as how my time is spent in the real world, from the development and exploration of ideas to the execution and monetization of those ideas. In fact, my girlfriend and I agree that officially 2009 has been declared the “Year of Monetization.” So starting after December 31, we won’t be entertaining new ideas, if we have new ideas we’ll archive them for later, and only the ideas already on the table will get our attention and time. For those ideas we pursue, they will receive the focus they deserve and will start to produce revenue or will get dropped, further narrowing the field of “stuff” we work on. After all, this isn’t meant to be an academic exercise, it’s business and if it doesn’t make money it’s a hobby and nothing more.

I hope you’ll join in and work with us on monetizing your own ideas. I’ll add three new categories to this blog entitled “Monetization,” “On-Line Marketing” and “Social Networking” that will all be focused on various aspects of helping us drive our ideas to making money. Time to stop talking and start working so prepare yourself, this will be work but it will also be a lot of fun and very rewarding.
A few specific points for 2009:

Start taking all that info we’ve been gathering and put it to work, important because it’s easy to get bogged down gathering info and never actually use it.
Elimination of ideas that aren’t working or aren’t making money, they only distract us from our goals. We have to learn when an idea simply won’t work or when it isn’t the right time and not get emotional about shelving it.
Archiving new ideas that come along and not chasing them. We can only do so much at once. I know some really busy people that never accomplish anything because they are trying to do too much and it becomes an excuse for a lack of execution.

I’d like to add that this is less about New Year’s resolutions than it is about being at a good point to start to put these things to work. Here’s to a successful 2009 for everyone!

Updated: I’d like to add this link for all of you entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs out there. If you are looking at the new year as a good time to revamp some things or are preparing to launch your biz think about tightening up things, especially your processes. A sloppy business will be more a source of headache than liberation and could be the beginning of the end (before you even start). Pam Slim did a great post on shoring things up that I highly recommend.