When I first started playing drums professionally in my late teens, we were all poor, well as poor as being lower middle class can be. Yes, we all went to decent schools, were well fed, had roofs over our heads and drove in “hand me down” cars that our parents had bought for us. I know, a real struggle.
What we were though, was cash poor. As musicians starting out, we were paid mainly in beer and back then cars didn’t run on beer, so it was a struggle to fuel them.
I can remember my fuel gauge always hovering just above the red light zone. That light that comes on when you have hit reserve and it’s telling you to get fuel and get it soon!
We would always scrape together just enough cash to get the fuel gauge just out of the red zone, drive to the next gig and everything was fine for a while, but in no time at all there it was, that dreaded red light telling me we were running low on fuel again.
Then there was Dave the bass player. As is the stoic nature of most bass players, he refused to live in the red light, almost empty zone. He made it a point to never let his fuel gauge drop below half way before he topped up. That way, he was always assured of having plenty in reserve, no matter what life threw at him.
Sure there were times when he had to let the needle drop below half way, but he would always refuel to full as soon as he could.
Most of us aren’t like Dave.
We tend to live in the reserve, almost empty, red light zone. Getting by on reserve and topping up just as we are about to run out, with just enough to get us by.
It’s not a great place to live, to constantly be just getting by. You deserve better than that. Use this opportunity to fill the tank and keep it close to full all the time, by taking care of yourself, doing the things that have to be done, when they have to be done and not letting things burn your fuel unnecessarily.
You need to be mindful of the rate you burn fuel too.
Not so long ago I drove a car for a few weeks that had an on board computer that displayed fuel consumption as you drove. I noticed that when I was cruising on a highway it was showing that I was using 7 litres of fuel every 100kms, but if I suddenly placed my foot to the floor and hammered that thing, I was using something like 27litres!
We tend to do that to our own fuel reserves. When we live life at full throttle, pedal to the floor, we burn through our own fuel at an alarming rate. Sure at times it’s needed, but it’s not a healthy place to live, especially if you are already living in the red light, reserve part of the gauge.
How does this apply to selling websites?
You need to build your fuel reserves here too. You will get the most return on your sites if you spend some time building value into them. You need to add some high quality, original content and some traffic. Show buyers that the site they are buying isn’t just something thrown together for a quick sale, but a well thought out site that has started to build momentum that they can continue to grow.
Not only will this increase your sales price, but you will see more repeat sales as buyers will come back for more sites that actually work!
