Photo-A-Day #1657

In my case I am usually the contingency plan for people. I’ve been the fallback guy for blind date balls, the anchor for kickball teams (that’s what the last guy picked is, right?) and one time I even got to speak at a conference because the original speaker became ill. Seriously though I am usually the guy called to fix up issues that no one else can fix. I am a walking contingency plan. That means that I can be counted on to get the job done, and done correctly. When you are the contingency plan then you get to do some cool things but you also get some high pressure things sent your way.

Case in Point

Today I spent three and a half hours with the president of the company I work for in my 9 to 5. He is teaching a class to many of our top computer scientists and it was my job today to record the class. So far I have been behind the scenes taking the videos shot by someone else and making DVDs fro that footage. The footage that I’d gotten to edit so far has been adequate, not great. In some cases the class had already begun and in every case the time it takes to switch tapes was missing. When you are working with someone like our president, who is a wonderful highly intelligent person, you don’t want to waste their time or break their flow. So what do you do when you can’t interrupt the flow but at the same time cannot switch tapes in a flash?

You Need to Establish a Contingency Plan

In order to make everything run super smooth I tested all the equipment a day prior to the taping. I also made sure that everything was packed correctly and neatly. I made sure that I had spare batteries, tapes and a backup camera. This morning I switched out every battery and tested all the equipment. I set up my Flip Mino HD on the video camera so that I could start taping with that a little while before I made the tape change and a little while into the new tape. This way I could make a nicely blended video and not miss a thing. This might be a bit of overkill but you don’t screw up in front of the big boss unless you want to find a new job.

Why You Should Have a Blog Contingency Plan?

Think about these scenarios.

1. Your Database crashes and you lose your blog
   Contingency plan – Blog Backup. Are you backing up your blog on a regular basis?
2. Your laptop dies.
   Contingency plan – Mobile Posting. Is your blog ready to accept blog posting via mobile phone
3. You cannot blog at all.
   Contingency plan – Blogger network. Do you have a network of bloggers who can guest post for you?

Those were just a few different reasons to come up with contingency plans for your blog. When you regularly back-up your blog you won’t lose all of your hard work. Platforms like WordPress allow you to run backups whenever you’d like so make sure that you work that in on whatever schedule works for you. For mobile posting you have many options, two that I have used on a regular basis are Zannel and Utterli. Both allow you to upload photos, text or even audio and video right from your mobile phone. Then there is the extreme case where you cannot blog at all so having a network of bloggers who could guest post for you is key. On our honeymoon we went to Aruba and in Aruba the price we had to pay in order to get any sort of Internet access was insane. I scheduled 9 people to take photo-a-day photos and guest posts for me and trusted our friend Maureen (Auntie Mo) to coordinate and post them. Also most recently my friend Buck Daddy Rogers the Original Daddy Blogger helped me out by offering to do a guest post for me.

Do you have a Contingency Plan for Your Revenue Stream?

Early on when I started blogging I was making a decent amount of money through PayPerPost then Google slapped down my PR. It took a while for me to build back up my PR and continue to earn some extra income. This weekend when I was at Blogworld & New Media Expo I learned more about the importance of multiple revenue streams. With multiple streams trickling in not only do they add up to become lakes and even oceans of wealth but if one dries up then you have others still coming in. There are people who are doing things right and they are offering their advice for free as well as for pay. Here are links to some of the places that I earn money as well as links to people who I am looking towards to teach me how to earn.

Here are some ways I Make Money or am Looking to Make Money

• Make money with Twitter with Sponsored Tweets (referral link)
• Learn to be a blogging Rockstar with Under 30 Rockstar Business Series (aff link)
• Join a major Affiliate Marketing company at MarketLeverage (referral link)
• Become a better blogger with Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (aff link)
• Create your own university with Prfessor (aff link)
• Free advice from Jim Kukral – 5 Day Motivational Bootcamp
• Jeremy Schoemaker’s major training course ShoeMoney X training program
  (Closing forever October 30th so get it now, it is free and I do get a contest entry for every person who signs up through me)
• I freelance for Kim Ann Curtin as her blog consultant. Her blogs are The Coach Shoppe and The Wall Street Coach
• I freelance for Ed Gerety as his blog consultant. His blog is Ed Gerety’s Dream Big Blog
• I also freelance as Stacey Hylen’s blog consultant for her blogs Business Optimizer Coach and Business Optimization Week

Motivate yourself with these great books. I have read or am reading each one.

• Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s book Trust Agents (aff link)
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It (aff link)
• Jonathan Field’s book Career Renegade (aff link)

So, I hope that you are able to think of many different contingency plans. If you have others I’d love to hear what they are.