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In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about not letting perfect ruin good enough, a common mistake in the web world.

This newsletter focuses on giving you practical, interesting insights into how to successfully use technology as a tool to improve the way you do business. Bridging the gap between knowledge and understanding that all entrepreneurs have will help you make money online.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on the video content I've started to generate, your feedback has resulted in a fun announcement below.

All the best,

Don't let Perfect Ruin Good Enough
...goof's and the "consequences"

One of the most common problems I see is letting perfect ruin good enough. Lots of Internet Entrepreneurs I know have this problem and most of them don't even realize that they are applying a print sensibility to a web world - and you need to know what doing this can cost you.

Web efforts just don't need the level of proofreading and attention to detail that print efforts do - and if you focus on that you'll lose site of the correct mental thought process for web content.

This past March I sent this newsletter just like I always do. I started by "saving as" from my last version, changing the date, and I got writing. I was really excited about the issue because it talked about a mentor of mine who has passed away, Don Cantin.

I proofread my newsletter a few days after I wrote it, added a picture of Don in his glory days and overall I was pretty gosh darn pleased with myself.

Then the newsletter was "published" (sent) on the morning of March 25th and when I got it I started cursing at myself and getting upset. You see that block to the left there called "Fun Link"? I had completely and totally forgotten it and had in fact left half a sentence from the previous edition and the old link was intact.

Crap. I screwed up and I was surely looking like a fool in front of my precious readers, I debated sending an apology/correction but decided to wait a little bit.

Then something remarkable happened - absolutely no one noticed. Or maybe some of them noticed but none of them cared.

Even though I know it well I had briefly forgotten the correct thought principle of web content, good enough. I felt a sense of panic like I had just discovered a typo on my new brochure when there were 10,000 copies in boxes. I was being silly.

Then I got an feedback email that was really striking, here it is:

Ross,

I thought this was a great one. Loved the story (glad I had the chance to lunch with the Geek and the Geezer act myself, if only once) and the connection with the point of the article was dead on. Really well written.

Penguin man

This email came from Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development , and it was more than a little ironic.

That half formed screwed up fun link? It was pointing to Michael's website and encouraging people to subscribe to his e-newsletter on e-newsletters. That was the link in the March 11th issue that I had edited from.

So here we have a guy who should surely be looking at the fun link box, the last one had his name in it, and he didn't even see the error there. Or he saw it and considered it so minor that he didn't bother to mention it.

So after I calmed down, had a cup of mint tea, and laughed at myself a little bit I decided to do something sort of weird in the web world. I didn't correct the problem and left my error fully intact for all the world to see.

I whipped open my text document called "Web Enlightenment Topics List" (an awesome thing to have and a Blue Penguin best practice) and wrote down:

don't let perfect ruin good enough, Goof's and the “consequence” - 3/25/08 WE

The only real consequence was that I got upset for no reason because I briefly forgot the thought principles of web content - it is very easy to do that.

So instead of a disaster I ended up with a topic for this newsletter and a way to show that even geeks make mistakes when they should know better.

Take some time and think about your own web content efforts - are you focused on getting it out there and being genuine? I really know how hard it is when you are working on adding content but try as best you can to not let perfect ruin good enough.

Speaking of speaking...
Places to be if you want to get enlightened

Right now, or anytime you'd like

As a result of your feedback on video content I decided to go ahead and put one of my seminars up online. Thirty minutes of video and all the handouts that accompany the presentation.

This seminar is great for the true beginners as it reviews in detail the three things needed to make a website - a domain name, hosting, and the site itself. In addition to a review of how each of "the three things" works, specific advice will be provided for the person looking to establish a new site for the first time.

Click here to check out the online seminar