Introduction
First off I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year! We were fortunate to awake here on Cape Cod to a snow covered wonderland, the result of a whole day and evening’s snowfall which resulted in the closing of the bridges which are the sole method’s of leaving and entering The Cape. Interestingly enough we were trapped on Cape Cod which created a very productive New Year’s Eve!

2008 – A Fantastic Year!

In November 2008 Amy and I decided to start Cape Cod Branding, which was the culmination of our combined past business experiences as well as a MBA project that I was required to complete for graduation at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. At the time I was entrenched in an engineering business, and Amy, a wedding cake business. After developing a strong friendship and realizing our complimentary skills, then throw a recent relocation to Cape Cod into the mix – and Cape Cod Branding was born. Shortly thereafter in December we launched CCB Buzz which was intended to be a method of informing potential clients of Cape Cod Branding. However, at the time we had no idea that CCB Buzz would take on a life of it’s own; Amy had experience blogging to some extent personally and for business, and I had none. However, once I had started, I really enjoyed it!

In our one month of existence we had peaked at over 3,100 visitors in a single day, and over 22,600 for the entire month! To some this may not seem so extraordinary, however I ask that you consider this – our web traffic has not been driven by a single sensational event, but has been sustained and has continually increased over time. I have written about a wide array of topics, and have collected some meaningful metrics that I hope to discuss in an article in the near future. True, some days have been higher than others for driving web traffic to our blog, however on average we have been increasing significantly, which I believe is a result of a combination of partnering, content, and frequency as I had mentioned in my previous article entitled “How Do I Increase Web Traffic?“.

New Year, New Beginnings
Given our explosive growth with CCB Buzz in 2008 we are committed to sustaining our growth trend without sacrificing quality. Amy and I are not ones to rest on our laurels, we have implemented drastic improvements and have even changed our direction a bit, in hopes to offer our readership increased value. The beginnings of these changes were launched last night (New Year’s Eve) in time for the New Year. This launch was purposeful in that we wanted the changes to begin on 1/1/09, which occurs the evening prior at 7:00 PM (1900) for WordPress analytics as at least one change required the reset of our stat counter for visitors to our blog.

The implemented changes so far have included the following:

1. Change in Focus
2. Monetization
3. Migration

I will address each in greater detail.

Change In Focus
As I had discussed earlier, CCB Buzz was the evolution of several original business concepts that really grew and emerged to what we are today. That being said we have evolved yet again and will likely continue to do so in the future. The new direction of CCB Buzz will focus on “Personal Development for Entrepreneurs” as opposed to strictly branding and related subtopics. Why the change and what does this mean to you? There are several reasons.

First, we noticed as I began writing the blog that I would tend to go off on tangents occasionally. These were at least relevant tangents and were loosely related, but we found that all topics were in the realm of personal or business development. We decided on personal development as opposed to business development as we wanted a more personal angle and believe personal development could encompass both – as the improvement of the individual will ultimately improve a business and ultimately society as a whole. In addition, I have always contained more of an interest in maintaining breadth of knowledge, rather than depth and this direction gives me more flexibility to explore my varied interests and in turn offer you greater value.

Finally, one of the largest inspirations for this new focus is an individual named Steve Pavlina. For those of you who do not know of Steve Pavlina he authors a blog titled “Personal Development for Smart People.” I am a relative newcomer, but Amy has been a regular reader for years. From what I have read, his blog is straightforward, offers a tremendous amount of value, and is easy to read. Amy is a huge fan and is one of his largest cheerleaders. That being said, we hope to model ourselves after this approach but with an entrepreneurial edge.

Why entrepreneurs? Amy and I are entrepreneurs at heart and both have been down this path. We have experienced the trials and tribulations, both the positive and negative associated with entrepreneurship that many of you are undoubtedly familiar with. We hope to share these lessons learned with you and as we progress further down our entrepreneurial path and grow as individuals and as a collective company hope to share this information with our readers so you may benefit from our experience. Besides, we have found in our experience that as a business you are your clients, and who better to write about such things than someone who has been down the path?

Furthermore, we have an interest in further expanding our circle to those with an entrepreneurial mindset. That is not to say that you have to be a business owner to visit and participate in our blog, however we are most interested in attracting those with the entrepreneurial mindset. The mindset can exist either in a new business or someone acting within a traditional larger organization. Above all we are hoping to provide value to anyone interested in personal development from our perspective.

To Be Continued…
In the next article I will discuss our decisions to monetize and migrate our blog.

Wishing Everyone A Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding