Everyone Should Take More Risk

Matt over at Take More Risk wanted me to review his blog and took advantage of the 50% coupon ReviewMe has running this month. Matt is an interesting character. A 23 year old who enjoys web design, alcohol and buffets. He makes about $5,000 a year from the Net and says he is going to be a millionaire soon.

I have visited Take More Risk long before Matt ordered the ReviewMe review. Matt has been a frequent visitor and commentator at John Chow dot Com and many of you already know him. The first time I visited Matt’s blog, my initial thought was, “Damn! How the hell did he grab such a premium domain name?”

Take More Risk has been online since August of last year and Matt has done a good job keeping it updated with at least one new post per day. The posts are mostly webmaster, blogging and online income related. I have to admit, he has some creative stuff on there. I really enjoy reading the Ten Tell-Tale Signs of a Webmaster/Designer on Acid. I will have to keep an eye on those signs the next time I talk to my web designer. Some other posts that are worth checking out on Take More Risk include:

Matt’s blog has a simple, clean three-column design. I would like to see the left column used more. Right now, most of the blog listings are on the right column. The blog has some formatting problems with Internet Explorer 6, but looks fine in IE7 and FireFox. Most people won’t care about this but Matt, being a web designer, will want to fix this issue.

Like my last few ReviewMe blog reviews, Take More Risk is not monetized at this time. I am not sure if Matt plans to monetize the blog or leave it as is. The theme he is using can be very easily modified to take on banner advertising. However, I feel the blog would need to do a branding shift before it can become a moneymaker.

Take More Risk seems to be a mishmash of ideas without a cohesive center. Too many categories overlap each other. Many of the categories have only one or two posts in them and one category produced a page not found error. The more I read the blog, the more the picture of Matt (I assume that is his picture) starts to make sense.

Like Matt, Take More Risk needs some direction and guidance, as well as refinement of its goals. On December 4, Matt made a post about creating 100 websites in 50 days and earning $1 on each of them within three months. After that post, I couldn’t find any updates on what happen to that plan until today, when Matt posted The 10 Greatest Mistakes I’ve Made Since Starting My Blog.

The lack of proper planning was highlighted in the post, Establishing A Plan for The Next Few Years.

Where the hell will I be in a year from now? Will I still be struggling to create successful websites and complaining about my lack of creativity on this journal. How will my family be? How will I be? Awww **** I’ll take a leaf out of Eckhart Tolle’s Book ‘The Power of Now’ and quit with the fearing of the future and actually focus on where I am now. Hmmmmm.

Take More Risk is a great reflection of a man trying to make his mark on the Internet. Matt is very honest in his postings, and he seems to know the limits of his abilities and tries to improve on them. I can offer Matt the following piece of advice.

You say you are going to be a millionaire soon. The “soon” part I don’t like. To me, soon is the same as someday. I recommend you put a date on when you will achieve millionaire status. Saying soon just makes it a dream. Putting a date on it makes it a goal. I challenge you to change your “I’m going to be a millionaire soon” to “I’m going to be a millionaire on [enter date]” and put that on your blog. It will be a daily reminder on how little time you have left and help drive you forward.