I meant to do this a long time ago and I finally did it. I started an electronic journal that I want to use to keep track of any business related action. Why is this important? Have you ever found yourself struggling to remember what you did at a certain date back in time? Did you forget a conversation you had with a client or business partner? Did you make a PayPal payment without being specific enough about the details? When did you sell a specific website again? It’s stuff like that, that I want to use the journal for. It’s supposed to be like a small diary where I post 2 or 3 sentences about my business actions. Then I can go back in time when needed and check on things as needed. This is especially important when doing SEO work or PPC stuff where timing can be an issue. Another good reason to keep a business journal is for tax purposes. I hope not to be audited by the IRS, but you never know. It’s a good thing to have a good accounting system in place and quick access to all the receipts. But it is even better have a journal that allows you to go back and associate a financial transaction with certain details and to present this to the IRS.
So, how do you keep this journal thing under control and manageable? I use a new WordPress blog for this. A blog is some sort of online diary already. WordPress has a great feature called “post by email” which allows you to post to your blog by sending an email to a specified email account. I installed WordPress into a password protected directory on one of my websites and configured it to accept postings via email. The directory is also excluded from search engine spider activities via Robots.txt. All I have to do now is to send myself an email to my secret email address and the messages get automatically posted to the blog or journal. No need for maintenance. No need to login and write posting. It is so easy nowadays to write a quick email. All I got to do is to pick a good subject line and then write 2 or 3 sentences in the email body. The only time I will ever need to login into my blog is to review an item.
A few things to keep in mind. Make sure your blog does not ping technorati or any other site that a blog usually notifies about updated content. Check on your blog occasionly to make sure your messages get properly posted. Check for SPAM (ASKIMET is your friend). Make sure to activate the postings. Find all necessary instructions here.
Overall I think running a small journal is a great way to work more efficient and to run a better business. If you are not very organized this type of journal does not require much effort or work. There is no SEO or much customization of the blog necessary. Give it a try and let me know what you think.