Using Software to Save Time

Usually my day to day activities give me enough material to write about, especially when I break things. There is no better fuel for writing than outright bitching or lightly veiled bitching. After all, I right about what I do and I break a lot of things jumping right in. Programming doesn't give me much material though. I might right a post on how to do something in Filemaker or PHP, but that's not the type of post that will help my average reader. It's good for search engines hits though.

But sometimes I have to enter programming mode. It's a mode that takes over for a little while. It's hard to write or do anything else afterwards because my mind gets locked in it. But it's a necessary evil. It's how I create employees.

Outsourcing is also an option. One I have not tried yet, but have experienced when I had clients. And with the programmers I can afford, I could get it done quicker most of the time.

After days of doing the same things over and over, I see tasks that can be replaced by software and many times the software doesn't exist yet. When I have exhausted all the open source sites and cannot convince myself to pay for something that is not exactly what I want, I finally give in and write the thing myself.

If I was a full time affiliate marketer, I could stand to waste a little time doing monotonous tasks myself. But since I only have a few hours a week and my goal is to do this full time, I have to free up time to move forward faster. Sometimes cutting out sleep just doesn't work. Working faster doesn't work. I have used all the time available.

The only way left is to make my time more useful, so I have written software that:

• Downloads and imports my affiliate and advertising reports and gives me ROI and tracking info.
• Keeps track of all the link lists on this site so that updates don't take forever.(Just started that one this weekend)
• Updates all products on a site via one click.

I have written a lot more in the past, but they are no longer useful to me. By the time I stopped using them, I have saved hundreds of hours of time. And I know of a lot more I need to write currently. This is how I eventually break plateaus in income. And I want to get to the point where I just write, do my online socializing and cash my checks.

It's in the works. I have ideas. One step at a time with rabid patience.