I have decided to take an indefinite break from writing new posts.

Why?

Because despite some nice comments from a few subscribers, the response in terms of traffic (442 visitors/month), Twitter subscribers (23), and email subscribers (23) has been pretty disappointing to say the least.

So why did it fail?

There are many reasons. But the main ones I think are: (1) it didn’t offer anything new; (2) I tried to cover too many topics; and (3) I didn’t really add a new voice to the blogosphere.

I started enthusiastically enough writing 6 new posts a day. Within a couple of weeks I soon realized I couldn’t keep up that work rate, and still have time for the rest of my business. So I reduced it to one post a day. But the lack of traffic squeezed any enthusiasm out of me that I had left for the blog.

I like to fail fast (this is one of many). And when I realized the site wasn’t going as well as I had hoped, I started to spend more time on new projects.

If by some miracle the site traffic picks up in the future, then I will look at it again.

For now, thank you for supporting the site.

Best wishes,

Michael

Welcome to my new Marketing Munch blog!

I feel like this is the first step in a new journey for me, both professionally and personally. Let me explain…

Since 1998 I have experienced moderate success in this industry. Over the last 12 years I have founded two companies, sold a website to a SoftBank funded start-up, wrote and self-published one of the first ebooks on search engine optimization, and delivered millions of dollars in affiliate revenue to my clients.

But now I am at a point in my life whereby I want to do more than just ‘make a living’ from the internet. I have a burning desire to build a company that makes a difference while I am alive, and hopefully long after I am gone.

I am now in my 40s and I feel I can put in another good 10 years of hard work. I want to slow down a bit when I hit 50, so that I can spend more time helping others, enjoying my kids before I and they get too old, and enjoy life a bit more overall.

Recently I have had this growing urge to make a difference, to give back and help those less fortunate than myself. Some might call it a mid-life crisis. I don’t think it is a mid-life crisis – I certainly don’t have the urge to buy a Harley Davidson and take off.

I think it’s more of a mid-life realization that I could achieve than just bring up my family. I think I can contribute to something greater than myself and my family.

I could try to make more money to splash out on a bigger house, a fancy car, designer clothes, more glamorous vacations, etc. But how much additional happiness would that bring compared to giving desperately poor invididuals a helping hand to get out of poverty, or help contribute to a terminally ill kid’s last wish, or help give kids basic necessities we often take for granted, such as clean water, nutritious food, health care, educational opportunities, and spiritual nurturing? There is no comparison, is there?

I have always wanted to do more to help those less fortunate than myself, but I am ashamed to say I have always found the excuse not to do anything about it. I contribute to charities, but I know I could contribute a lot more.

Earlier this year I picked up an old man off the floor in a store after he fell over. An incredible feeling of elation came over me – it felt really good to help someone. Is this what happiness feels like? I don’t know. But I sure enjoyed the feeling it gave me and I want more of it.

I decided I could use my passion of building my internet business to help others. With my burning desire to help others, I started having visions that I and maybe thousands of socially-motivated, shared-profit enterprises will contribute a sizable share of its profits to help make a difference in the world.

I’m not sure how realistic my vision is, considering I am blind as a bat – you should see the coke-bottle contact lenses I wear! :-)

Well, I wouldn’t find out unless I tried, so I am now on a mission to build a successful, socially-motivated, shared-profit company, with the goal of making a difference. And maybe it will inspire other entrepreneurs to do the same.

I believe that socially-motivated, shared-profit companies can contribute, and more importantly create long-term sustained charitable contributions, to help charities and non-profit organizations continue to do their great work.

I pledge to share, by way of donations, 25% of profits with charities and non-profit organizations. I pledge to allocate as best we can profits made in a particular country to charities and non-profit organizations based within that country.

The other 75% of profits are reinvested back into the company to maintain the websites, improve existing products, research and build new products; and used to reward and motivate everyone to generate even bigger profits. Because bigger profits result in even bigger contributions to charities and non-profit organizations.

I do not have a name for this type of company. Some may call it Capitalism with a conscience. It falls somewhere between the traditional for-profit company and a non-profit organization. I believe that this type of model could be the future of commerce as entrepreneurs become more conscious of giving back to society.

The long term goal is to build an organization that will successfully create long-term sustained charitable contributions to help charities and non-profit organizations continue to do their great work.

I have already started on our first project. Running a small business I have never invested in a proper team to help me. For years I worked as an affiliate marketer and did most of the work myself.

For this new company I decided I want to build a ‘proper’ business and have hired a team comprising of experienced Ruby on Rails web developers, a professional graphics designer, and a very experienced IT expert. For the first time in 12 years in this business I actually feel like I am in the middle of a ‘real’ production.

I am investing a lot more money into this project so the risks are bigger. But I feel this is the way to build a company. It’s way more fun and has far greater potential than building stuff on your own.

I hope you will join me in my long journey by subscribing to this blog either by subscribing to the email updates, RSS feed, or returning to this blog every so often.

You will read about our journey as we build our organization, and share our success stories and the lessons we learn along the way. We are self-funded and only have a modest budget to work with, so we will use tried-and-tested as well as innovative low-cost techniques to build our organization and get the word out. If you run your own or work for a small business, join me on this ambitious journey.

I look forward to sharing my journey with you.