Patrick Shaw’s Weblog

I just finished running the Seattle Half Marathon. It’s my third half marathon, and my 10th overall –and for grins, I thought I’d review my running log to see if different training patterns impact my speed.

Turns out –they do – by a LOT!

In both 1996, and 1998 I ran my speediest times.

And in 2006 and 2007 – a pair of my slowest.

I took a look at my total mileage for each of those years – and – no real surprise – here’s what I found:

• In 1996, I ran 1,487 miles.
• In 1998, I ran 1,215 miles
• In 2006, I ran 708 miles
• And in 2007, I ran 558 miles

Sure – I’m older – but I also trained at about half as much – and half of the effort resulted in a slower time.

So – what does this have to do with websites and databases? I think it means that you need to apply your effort to your outcomes. Here are some questions you might ask yourself:

• How much time have you devoted to fresh content on your website?
• How many new contacts have you entered in your database?
• Have you asked those new contacts to support your work?
• Have you reviewed your website traffic to see if you are attracting new visitors?

And – after each question – ask yourself how your results have turned out. I bet (just like my running) – if you didn’t add contacts, fresh content and so on – you didn’t do as well as you hoped.

In 2009, with a tightening economy – I think the smartest thing each of us can do is to tie concrete efforts to the results we want to achieve:

• If you are a fundraising professional – write more grants and ask more individuals for gifts. (Actually – ask for those individual gifts FIRST – studies show that corporate and grant funding is harder to get in a recession)
• If you manage communications or messaging or outreach at your agency – ensure that your website has fresh content, that you link to relevant sites (and ask them to do the same) and regularly review your site traffic to figure out how to do better. In short – write and publish great content more often!