Growing A Virtual Garden

June 6th, 2009

by John R. Sedivy

While discussing the new garden with Amy and Fiona the topic of business came up. As I had mentioned, Fiona is also an entrepreneur and has had experience starting and growing businesses, as well as garden design. Refer to my article “The Container Gardener” for more on Fiona and our gardening and yard project. Anyway, we could not help but consider how growing a business, or website for that matter is very similar to growing a plant or a garden. Let’s consider the website comparison as that is most relevant here.

Growing A Garden
Like a garden, you really just start with a container (or patch) of dirt, or as I like to say, a sandbox. This container of dirt contains nothing at first, and may not appear to for some time. Initially some seeds are planted and care is taken to protect the new creation from the environment. The seedlings (or new plants) are then watered on a regular basis to provide nourishment which in turn provides fuel for growth.

At first nothing appears to be happening, as it is not visually obvious. But of course this is not the case – roots are growing due to the nourishment of the water and surrounding soil and care you are providing. As a result, over time the seedlings grow to become plants. Furthermore, as the plants grow, the look of the garden changes and may require further design or optimization.

Growing A Website
Now let’s consider the website. Like the seedlings, or plants, you will start with a blank sandbox. In the very beginning the sandbox is bare and may appear to be so for some time. As a blogger, or website designer, you will plant a few seedlings such as content (articles) and a nice design (website or blog layout). You take steps to protect your creation from the environment such as setting up a secure login and managing your web presence and reputation. You provide your website with nourishment, such as, the regular creation of content, new design elements, and additional functional capabilities which serve to fuel growth over time.

At first nothing appears to happen, as your website seems vacant, with little or no activity. However, if the proper, consistent steps were taken to establish a solid foundation, virtual roots will grow and take hold within the Web. These roots are a result of the content you had developed, design activities, SEO, monetization strategies, and other activities that take time to blossom. As this occurs you may not even recognize the website from the initial creation. New growth patters will allow for new directions in content, design, SEO, monetization – each of which will require further optimization as your virtual garden grows.

Common Threads
Let’s now consider the commonality between growing a plant or website. Regardless of what you’re growing, it’s the same:

1. Start with nothing – or very little
2. Perceived fruitless effort is required up front, will anything ever happen? This is the tough part.
3. Establish foundation and protect from environment
4. Provide continuous fuel for growth and care – watch with excitement as periodic growth occurs

In my experience this is how the course of this blog has taken, but with a solid foundation, continuous quality content and care – strong roots will take hold and serve as a solid foundation for which to build future growth, which can occur rapidly.

Consider growing a virtual garden of your own!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding