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I don't know about you but the weeks just seem to be whizzing by and the weekends are going even faster. I think I would have liked at least another two days this weekend just so we could go on enjoying a bit of a rest. For once Steve and I actually got out and did things that normal people do on weekends and it was great.

I certainly hope the weekend was good for you because this coming week might have some nasty moments in store ... especially if you live along the east coast of the United States. If you're in the path of one of the storms you're in our thoughts and we sure hope that you've still got power when the wind dies down.

When you think about it our connection to the Net is so fragile and can be broken so easily at so many different points that it's a wonder we do manage to have so much uptime. The phone company's lines could go down, the power company lines could be cut and the power generation system could get overloaded or break due to equipment failures.

There are switches and routers, cables and data centers and so many weak spots in between that could all cause problems. If you make your living online all those things that I've mentioned are the stuff of nightmares. When you look at it like that our business relies on so many things that we have absolutely no control over and that really does bug me.

If it's my business then I like to have as much control over it as I possibly can and to have my future resting in the hands of some fisherman off the coast of China or a termite chomping its way through a tree or power pole that I can't even see bothers me greatly.

It also bothers me that my future success can be influenced by a change in the way Google ranks my websites. Link list owners can have an impact on my business too if they suddenly change their rules. One moment I could be making plenty of money and the next I could be making almost nothing.

If those are the sorts of things that bother you too then perhaps it's time to start taking control of your own future. Obviously many of the factors that impact on your connection to the Net are beyond your control ... but not all of them

Of course if you're business does rely on link lists and Google then, once again, there are factors beyond your control ...but, as I said a moment ago, not all of them are beyond your control.

So if you want to ensure that your business has the best chance of survival you need to identify those factors where you do have some control and work to ensure that you can exercise the control if something happens.

For example, if the power does go out for an extended period of time do you have a generator you could use to generate your own power? Yes ... generators can be expensive to buy but if you were living along the coast near New Orleans right now you would be wishing you did have a generator. Some places down there are going to be without power for weeks.

While it might be hard to avoid downtime if your phone lines go down you can improve your chances of surviving if your Internet Service Provider goes down by having accounts with two different providers. We use one provider at home and another down at the office and it has saved us some serious downtime over the last 12 months.

Ending your reliance on traffic sources like Google and link lists etc. can be a little more tricky but it's something you really need to work on. Developing your own traffic sources through bookmarkers is something everyone should be working towards almost from the time they first enter the adult online industry.

Developing your traffic sources in mainstream can be even harder ... and take longer ... but it's not impossible and it really is something that you should be working hard at right now if you want to succeed over there in mainstream.

Just how you go about it is entirely up to you ... there are plenty of examples out there for you to choose from. All you have to do is find one that will work for you and then go at it ... and don't give up.

Succeeding in business is all about controlling your own destiny and not letting others set the rules and gain a hold over you. So what are you doing today to gain that control?