Sean D'Souza: The forum fix for efficient time management

People often ask: "Where do you get the time?"

Or they'll say: "I can't be bothered to go into forums etc, because then I never get any work done."

And they're right. If all you ever do is go into forums to waste time, or to just hang around, then you'll end up doing very little of your regular work. And, of course, instead of blaming yourself, you'll blame forums.

But forums are an exceedingly good way to spend time. Take it from someone who has well over 16,000 forum posts in less than five years. That's a whopping 10 posts or more a day (including weekends). And I'm usually on vacation for three months a year. So suddenly it seems more like 13-15 posts a day. So then I'm spending about two hours a day in forums. And heck, you don't have two hours a day.

Well, neither do I. What I do is maximise time. So if I'm going to spend time in the forums (and I do) then I'm making sure that I segregate the forum time into two segments:

* One where I give a short, important comment.

* Another where I give a detailed, over the top comment that leads to an article.

The short comment is like speed chess. It forces me to answer 30-40 posts every single day and bounce between various topics. This is good for my brain. Good for the person reading the comment too.

This answer is usually meant to fix ONE thing on the page. So if the person has posted about 20 different things, I don't focus on 20. I look at ONE. I comment on that one, and then I expect them to fix it. Then I comment again.

The detailed comment is almost involuntary. It's like I'm trying to give a short comment, but then I feel the need to expand and explain, and before I know it, boof ... we're already into a sort of blog post.

Of course that blog post can balloon. And it can become an 800-1000 word article. I've even seen a single question become a series of articles and then a book. Again, it's good for me, and good for the person who needs the answer.

In almost every case, I'll cut and paste the answer right into my dropbox (www.getdropbox.com). I'm hopelessly disorganised, so I have to post the articles into folders, or I'll almost always lose the articles forever.

I have a great respect for the ruthless nature of time. I have to be smarter, or time ploughs over me. And while there are times when I look like a well-ploughed field, in most cases I win. Or at least we come to a truce.

Make your truce with time. Use it well. And most importantly, stop making excuses.

Long footnote: At the start, we had no clients. Or very few. The chunk of my clients came from forums. Why? Because I used the system I just told you about. And so on any given day, the forum members would see me post both long/short posts.

This did two things:

* It didn't make me a know-it-all.

* It gave me enormous branding and created a doorway to our site.

About the know-it-all: if all your posts are lengthy, then people almost avoid you. You know this feeling because you know someone like this in real life.

This "someone" won't ever give a short answer to a question. They'll give the longest answer ever, and even though it's a very smart answer, you feel like you're trapped, listening to this long-winded person. This, of course, causes you to avoid that person, even when you know that they probably have a solution to your problem.

On forums, if all you do is just provide super-duper-long answers, then by looking at your name alone, people won't open up your post.

Short and long answers do one more thing. They give you a factor of branding.

Let's say you've got just 20 minutes to spare in a forum. In 20 minutes you may be able to give one long answer and about three to five short answers.

This puts your face, name and expertise (not to speak of email signature) in front of quite a few people. If you answer several topics, then people will recognise your name/face and a brand is created.

People work very hard to create credibility by advertising, yet you can create enormous credibility by simply giving information.

And this information creates a doorway. Clients read your comments and advice. They not only realise you're smart, but they can see you're not a bore. And that entices them to visit your site and check your products and services.

But even if they don't buy anything from you, it doesn't matter. The information you've created has created goodwill. And someday when you need the help, you can be sure that the others will be first to pitch in.

Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and an international author and trainer. He is the author of The Brain Audit - Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't).

www.psychotactics.com