Easy to Find, Hard to Reach

I spent a good part of yesterday’s snow day working on my other website, nortonstoneworks.com. Yes, I’m forty-six and still have snow days. It is one of the magical parts of childhood I have managed to hold on to all these years. Except yesterday morning, I wasn’t glued to Channel 6 news, watching the ticker-tape of closures scroll across the screen, hoping Boothbay would pay out like a winning lotto number. Now, for better or worse, I’m the grown up that gets to declare a snow day.

Instead of making snow forts and drinking hot cocoa, I drank a glorious amount of coffee and worked on SEO. I am actively trying to improve my website so I can be more easily discovered by potential clients. Sometimes this feels counterintuitive. When those opportunities come rolling in, I am going to say no to most of them.

What a strange game, spending time and money making yourself visible, only to turn most people away. Why not just close the laptop and go make those snow forts?

Because the goal isn’t to be everything to everyone.

You want to be easy to find and hard to reach.

You want to send out a clear signal that leaves no doubt about who you are and what you do so the right people can find you. The more specific the signal, the more opportunities it attracts. Part of the deal is having to say no more often.

It is a filter, not a net.

And if you do it right, the ones who make it through are the ones worth saying yes to.