First of all, I have to apologise to you for not posting in a while (oh no, excuses and more excuses!)

I am actually busy with my blog network project I mentioned in my previous blog post.

Add a bad, bad Internet connection to that, I have successfully completed the startup process of my blog network twice the original project length :P

Even the project itself is not finished, yet! Argh!

Through this blog post, I’d like to share a thing or two I learn about setting up and managing a network of sites, as well as showcasing the blog network I’ve just set up. Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

Lesson #1: Knowing when to delegate

Having 10 sites mean more income – right? Technically, yes.

However, having 10 sites also mean dividing your attention to 10% each!

This is where the problem lies – many people want to be lone rangers – they want to do everything themselves and do things their way.

While doing everything yourself means total business control, but the main drawback of being a soloist is you can’t have too many businesses!

In my case, I run dozens of blogs and websites, and this has overwhelmed me for a long time.

The number one lesson I learned is that although delegating is a must-have skill by all entrepreneurs who want to run several businesses, delegating involves hiring people and paying them well – this is, often, costly.

The key here is timing – knowing when to delegate is uber-important.

Delegating too early will put much pressure on your business cash flow. Delegating too late will lose you time-sensitive opportunities – those that rarely exist, and will not happen again ever, or at least for a long period of time, i.e. Investing in gold.

Lesson #2: managing your business vs. looking for business opportunities

You need to master the balancing act between managing your business and looking for business opportunities.

Involving too much in your business will lack you securing business opportunities, and vice versa.

In my case, I manage and tinker my business a bit too much (hence the very late update of this blog – 10 days without new blog post – unforgivable!). I myself am trying to find the right balance, including the work-life balance.

I’ve lost some great business opportunities, and was late to grab some others. On the latter case, joining me2everyone.com – one of the most coveted online business opportunity and community around could bring better potential for me, if I had known it earlier!

Lesson #3: Stop being a perfectionist if you don’t have the mean

I am somewhat a perfectionist. I can tweak Noobpreneur.com days and nights to find the best place to put a single image.

This is my strength and also my weakness. Being perfectionist built me great looking blogs. But being one also slowed me down in building the blog network. If I didn’t like a thing, I will work on it until it looks right.

My suggestion to you is stop being a perfectionist if you don’t have something to support it. What I mean by support is resources that help you, well, being perfectionist.

In my case, a budget to hire Web Property Manager, SEO Specialist and Website Builder is a major problem right now. If you don’t have the budget, I suppose you should learn to lower your standard a bit.

The logic is this: you probably can create the best tasted burgers around, but you can’t beat so-so-tasted burgers of McDonalds in their business management and franchising plans. And create the best burgers can’t make you rich – what can make you rich is your business system built around your burgers.

Lessons in progress: Automate things

One solution to ‘stall’ your need in delegating is to automate things. This can come in many ways: web business that need minimal maintenance, web business that are self-updating, or web business that are run by affiliates.

In term of blogs, hiring writers and/or accepting guest posts can make a big difference. Regarding auto-blogs, I tend to avoid them, although I have some on my portfolio.

If you have any tips, ideas or suggestions, please share with us by commenting on this post :)

Ivan Widjaya
Blog network noob

Appendix: 10 finance blogs I started (will be updated here)

1. Money Estate – personal finance blog
2. Loanpoly – loan tips and advice blog
3. Investing Basic – investing tips for dummies blog
4. Insurance Fundamental – insurance tips and ideas blog
5. Debt Consolidation Estate – debt consolidation info and tips blog
6. Forex Trading Estate – forex trading info and tips
7. Credit Card Debt Relief Tips – credit card debt relief info and tips blog
8. Debt Snapper – debt relief tips and info site
9. Debt Nada – debt elimination site
10. Money Buzz – personal finance news site
11. Equity Basics – equity info site
12. Credit Mall – credit cards and personal loans site
13. Bankruptcy Builder – avoid bankruptcy info site

Image by websuccessdiva.