"You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy." Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) As I wrote this I was watching the PGA Golf Championship on my computer in a separate window. I find a lot of association with sports like golf and similar activities that require individual performance and online marketing. Aside from the physical aspects it comes down to a player competing against the course maximizing his own strengths and minimizing his weaknesses to accomplish his task. Then utilizing that knowledge in a tournament, the main determination of success isn't to do better than everyone else, but to employ the best strategy to produce the best performance from ones self and let the chips fall as they may. This requires coming up with a personal strategy to play the course before ever teeing off. Since all the players have different strengths and weaknesses the strategy and approach to playing the course is a little different for everyone. Preparation with thought of desired results is essential. As the day and the tournament progresses adjustment is necessary as weather conditions may change for example that may detemine if the pretournament strategy is actually producing as desired. With technology innovations, tools (clubs, balls), that change every year or 2 can also bring you to adjust ones style of play and strategies just as new marketing methods and tools must be given close examination and given serious consideration of how they best fit into your strategy, before actually adopting them. Each course played is different requiring a different strategy, while keeping the basic methods intact. This is similar to the different marketing choices like blogs, forums, social networking sites, email marketing and others. It's also a key consideration when entering different niches or kinds of business since one size does not fit all. Change is not only inevitable it is a sure thing especially in web marketing. Calling for the vision to see the passing of a strategy that used to work but who's results are waning while transitioning towards the use of new tools and methods may be the only course of action to continue on successfully. Keep what works, learn from experience and always look forward and adjust your marketing to new ways of doing business. John