Common Problem of Too Many Web Ideas: Hopping from One Idea to Another

The web is full of ideas and things we can do and they make it very easy for us to lose focus on the things we want to do. A simple example is the way we get lost reading one great blog post after another and adding more ideas to our already choked pipeline of to-do lists. In the hindsight, I realize that if I had concentrated all my efforts on one thing, I would’ve been an expert by now.

When I signed up for my first domain (http://coffeebreaklabs.com) and web host (Yahoo small business), all I wanted to do was to create a useful blog and make some money out of it. Isn’t it how it all begins? Why did it fail? What next?

Some of the links mentioned on this post may be broken or may break after a while.

Look at all the things I did while hopping from one idea to another, clearly on my way to super failure:

  • Started off with one of the default HTML site templates (http://coffeebreaklabs.com/home)
  • Discovered that social networks were the norm of the day
  • Spent almost three months to create a Drupal-based site
  • Brainstormed on the site content and architecture for more days and nights
  • Created nodes to represent different types of content (concept, tasks, references)
  • Created and granted granular access levels to different types of users in a hierarchy (from a visitor to editor, strategist, and owner)
  • Launched the site without any content on it (yes, I did that!)
  • The site fell flat on its face and crawled even without any users
  • Discovered WordPress.org and got so immersed in its magic that I moved my site from Drupal to WordPress
  • Several iterations of themes and plugins (another few months!)
  • Took a dip into SEO with Google Analytics, Feedburner (RSS and Email) subscriptions
  • Did social media marketing on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In

And look at where the domain is today: it is obsolete in the larger scheme of things and it may not exist for long (the web hosting term expires soon). Wait, I’ve not given up! In its defense, I’d say that the idea itself was not bad and I might come back to it later to give it another shot. The several months of effort will guide me through my future projects with the collective wisdom I’ve gained, called experience.

In this blog, I’ll write about all the mistakes I did, the trials and errors, and the amazing things I learnt on the way, so stay tuned to this blog if you don’t want to go through the grind and waste precious time. In the upcoming articles, I’ll talk about my second avatar on the web and how I’m working hard to make new mistakes! Yeah!

What do you think were your top three mistakes when you got started on the web? Fire away in the comments!