Andy Jenkins (a.k.a. The Video Boss) is releasing a set of videos showing us how we can use video to increase sales and conversions on our sites. I have to say, this video series is freaking awesome and well worth your time.

In the videos he shows us which camera to use, which programs he uses to create video slides, how the video’s message should be focused, and so much more.

If you sell products or services online, this is a must see video series. I definitely plan on following his advice and will be working on perfecting my video skills for our WordPress video tutorials site.

Andy does ask for your email address before you can watch the videos, f.y.i. But if you’re like me, you have a special email address for subscriptions so as to not clog up your primary email address.

Here’s the link to the tutorials (not an affiliate link): The Video Boss.

Related posts:

1. 1 Great Reason to Use blip.tv vs. YouTube for Videos
2. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention
3. 30.1 Web Tools For Online Success And To Make Your Life Easier At The Same Time

• made money
• lost money
• broke even
• posted articles regularly / not-so-regularly
• changed my blog design
• changed my blog’s web address

… you get the idea (been there done that).

Aside from being obnoxious and rude to people, here are my top 5 blogging mistakes new bloggers might make which can slow the growth of their blog and pocketbooks.

1. Domains and Hosting

After deciding you want to start a blog and choosing your topic, your next step is setting up your blog. Question is, do you go with a free blog, self hosted blog, get your own domain name, etc.?

There are a couple of ways to look at it, but for the most part a self hosted blog is your best bet. Here’s my criteria for whether or not you should go with a free blog.

A free blog is ok if: All you care about is your content. Free blogs are good if you want someone else to take care of all the security issues, upgrades, etc. If your only goal is to write and you don’t care much about making money and turning your blog into a business, a free blog is fine.

A free blog is not ok if: You want to turn your blog into a business; want full control of the design of your blog; your mind is telling you that you’ll upgrade to a self hosted blog one day down the road; etc.

Let’s face it, hosting and domain names are cheap. So don’t let me hear anyone say they don’t have the money right now.

The reason why I typically advise new bloggers to choose a self hosted blog and purchase their own domain name is because you never know where your blog will take you in the future and having to stop, bundle it all up, and transfer your blog to a new web host (and possibly a new domain name) will KILL your blog.

2. Insufficient Research

This could range from a wide array of topics which might include:

• Failure to do proper market research (is there anyone looking for what you have to offer?)
• Understanding the consequences I outlined in #1 above
• Research experts and their price point which could help boost your blog’s success
• Failure to watch, analyze, and understand what your statistics are telling you

Those are some of the basics. As with any venture, online or off, if you wish to be successful at what you do, you need to spend a little time researching. By researching, you can point your boat in the right direction.

3. Truly Understanding Niche Marketing

Understanding the ins and outs of niche marketing is an entire course all on its own. Something I’ve seen over the years as an entrepreneur, however, is that newbies to niche marketing think niche marketing mostly entails finding a small crowd or group from within a topic and sell their products / services to them.

The more focused your niche is and better your product or service can solve for them is what they’re told niche marketing is.

While that is true, most newbies don’t realize that it’s not just about finding a focused group to sell to, niche marketing is about positioning and perception.

If you’re new to blogging, finding a niche is great, but if you fail to position yourself as an expert or “go-to person” in your niche, you’ll fail.

Even if you’re not the real go-to person, make sure you are perceived that way. The power of perception is kind of like “the force” in Star Wars.

4. Improper Use or Lack of Scheduling

Ask any seasoned blogger about time management and you’re sure to get an earful. Unless their educated in time management, new bloggers I’ve talked to fail to realize just how much time and organization blogging requires.

Writing an ebook? Posting 3-5 times a week? Need to spend time with the kids? Gotta cook dinner? Want to read and comment on other blogs? Need to figure out how to get more clicks on that banner? Want to write a series of guest posts? Looking to start a newsletter?

… the list goes on and on.

In the beginning you might not think you need a time management schedule because you’re not doing all that yet, but you’re wrong. Time management is key to growing your blog, making more money, and generating traffic to your site.

Simply writing down goals with no mechanism or direction to get you there ain’t going to cut it!

Want a time scheduling outline for bloggers? Alex Fayle has a really cool time management sheet he uses to keep himself on track (I use it, too).

5. Blog Security

I suppose blog security may or may not keep you poor, depending on if you get hacked or not. Nevertheless, it’s so important I feel it deserves to be on this list.

Let’s face it, when you’re new to blogging, you’ve got a lot to think about and a lot to set up. The problem is, since you’re new you don’t even know which questions to ask yet.

Blog security seems to always take a back seat. New bloggers don’t realize though just how important this is. It’s kind of like that movie where you see someone gets sent to jail for the first time and doesn’t yet have the experience to know how to protect themselves or just how bad it is to bend over to pick up that soap.

Newbie bloggers in a similar way are prey.

They set up their blog and start thinking about making money and writing articles, not the fact that their blog is or very soon can become easily hackable, removed from Google, and worst of all… destroyed.

If you’re new to blogging, blog security should most definitely be high on your priority list. And if you’re not sure how to better secure your blog, just hire me and I’ll get you hooked up.

Bonus Tip For New Bloggers

Blog your passion and be real. Don’t try to make money from your blog, but rather let your blog make money for you.

Be yourself, find your own voice, and don’t force it. In time, you’ll find that’s a much better route to take.

There are of course a ton more tips I could hand out to help start your blog off on the right foot, but I’ll leave that for my upcoming newsletter. Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when my newsletter with tips like these is released.

In the meantime, here are a few other “blogging mistakes / tips” articles you might want to read (links open in a new tab):

• 5 Blogging Mistakes Beginners Make
• 7 Blogging Beginner Mistakes And How to Avoid Them
• Top 7 blog mistakes to avoid
• Beginner Basics for Making Money Online Using Blogs
• The Winnie the Pooh Guide to Blogging

Question: If you could go back to when you first started a blog and change something to help boost how long it took to get you to where you are today, what would you tell yourself?

Related posts:

1. The Top 7 Mistakes eBook Authors Make!
2. Aside From A Blogger, What Are You Really?
3. Where's John Been?

What is a blogger?

Well I could visit Wikipedia and look it up, but there’s no need for that; we all know what a blogger is, right?

But what are you, really?

Yeah yeah, I know – you’re a human being… ha ha; ok, no what I’m really talking about is have you ever stopped to think about why you’re a blogger and what your blogging purpose is?

Many of us know why we started a blog. My blog, for example, was started to:

A) Drive traffic to the WP Blog Host domain and generate brand awareness

B) Teach bloggers things I’ve learned as a blogger myself all along the way

But what does that make me? A blogger?

To me it sounds more like an online marketer.

So then I might own and run my own blog, and yes that makes me a blogger, but if I had to put a title to what I do, I’d say I’m an online marketer.

And if that’s the case, then maybe… just maybe I have gained a little more insight into what more I need to learn in order to help make my “job” a success.

True you might be an entrepreneur, but what exactly is it you do?

I once asked Darren Rowse this question: “So what exactly aside from a blogger do you consider yourself?”

His answer was “Web publisher”.

What About You?

So what’s that next level deep and more focused idea of what you are?

Because once you figure that out, you can then sail the ship in the right direction.

Related posts:

1. John’s Top 5 Crash and Burn Blogger Mistakes Which Keep You Poor
2. Choosing The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing For Your Website

Noticed I put the word new in quotes; that’s because as Mr. Cleland puts it, these are not “new” regulations at all, but rather clarification on existing ones.

If you’re a blogger and you advertise banners in your sidebar, do paid book and product reviews, use testimonials as an advertising tool, and make money in any other way related to affiliate commissions, you need to provide adequate disclosures and testimonial follow-ups.

You can watch a replay of the webinar by visiting Jim’s I Gotta Tell You blog. The webinar is a bit long and I know most bloggers probably won’t sit through the entire interview. But maybe its for reasons like those that problogger David Risley wrote his article, Are Bloggers Just Crappy Business People?

Blogging is not always fun, nor is it only about writing articles and signing up for affiliate programs. It takes work and if you’re serious about making money with your blog, you also need to know a few rules and regulations you should abide by. In my opinion, anyone serious about making money in their industry needs to spend at least a little time keeping themselves educated in their trade.

Ok, enough pep talk. Go watch the video now and feel free to come back here and leave a comment for discussion.

Related posts:

1. New Regulations For USA Bloggers May Be Around The Corner
2. Blogging For Money: What's The Best Way To Make A Profit?
3. John’s Top 5 Crash and Burn Blogger Mistakes Which Keep You Poor

He sent me his username and password and noted that he was hosted with Host Gator.

Ok, no problem.

So I headed over to Host Gator’s site only to get frustrated as hell. They are suppose to be a web hosting company. I assume that means people will be logging in and out of their accounts often, not to mention needing access to their webmail accounts whenever they’re away from home and don’t have access to their normal email program.

But I couldn’t find a login / out link anywhere. Now when the person signs up for web hosting they will be sent a link to the login page in an email, but what if you want to login from your parent’s house? Or an Internet cafe? How are you suppose to get into your webmail? Do they have webmail?

Confused, I clicked on their Support link and typed in my question. The returned response made it sound like logging is was such a hassle I had to watch a movie on how to do it.

Ok, I’m not meaning to bash on a competitor’s website. Sorry Host Gator, I don’t have anything against you, I swear.

The point here I’m trying to make is this.

You need to make things easy for people online. If you own a membership based website, make it easy for them to get into their account. If you sell a product, make sure navigation to that product is laid out easily.

The worst thing you can do is create confusion on your blog, because I have a saying I’ve always stuck with and has served me well.

“A confused mind always says, no“.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. Marketing In A Crowded Market

Basically, the Federal Trade Commission is trying to protect US consumers by introducing new legislation which will require all us United States bloggers to disclose when and how we make money on our blogs. So for example, if you place an affiliate link in your article or use Google AdSense, you need to tell your site visitors that if they click on those links, you make money.

This also goes for any kind of paid reviews or reviews done by you in exchange for gifts from a company.

My Take On The FTC’s Plan

For a few seconds I thought this could be a good thing. In my article How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company, I mention how I can’t stand these dumb “Top 10 Hosting Companies” review sites you see all over the Web. They in fact are not true review sites, they are just affiliate links designed to make the website owner money.

Sites like these get my blood boiling. Not even my coffee tastes the same when I come across sites like those. There’s no real value for the site visitor and I feel they are misled.

But then I quickly realized how the FTC really isn’t solving anything. My buddy Steve said it best in an email discussion we had about this:

One of the big problems here is that the FTC can’t do anything about a blog in Canada, for example. Just creating more government for very little to no gain, in my opinion. What will happen in the long run is that our government will put so many controls on the Internet, that server companies will start relocating to Mexico and bloggers (among others) will simply start hiding their identity…then, of course, only the honest people who don’t try to hide will be penalized for violating some silly government reg.

That about sums up my opinion on the subject.

What do you think? Do you think your government (wherever you live) should impose such regulations?

UPDATE: Here’s the actual FTC Proposal. Be warned, it was definitely written by a lawyer.

Stay up to date on stories like these and other blogging / WordPress tips by subscribing to our blog.

Related posts:

1. FTC Blogging Regulations, A Webinar You Need To See
2. A-List Bloggers & Everyday Bloggers, They Do Things Differently
3. My Rant On Someone Else’s Rant About Bloggers

The other day my wife emailed me a link to a “What’s Your Personality Type?” quiz (PersonalityType.com).

At first I wasn’t too interested but after hearing the results from her test I was intrigued and headed over to the site to take the quiz. It asked me a few questions about what type of person I am, such as do I often say whatever comes to my mind or do I hold things back? It also asked me questions about how organized I am and orderly I like my universe; I prefer orderly, however, with 2 young children running around all day . . . you get the picture

So you’re probably curious as to what personality type I am, aren’t you?

I was awarded with the INTJ personality type. “Yes thank you, I accept this award and I’d like to thank my mother, father, beautiful wife . . .”

Ok seriously though, here’s what that means and how it all ties into understanding the psychology of your website visitors.

Where This Test Came From

After doing a little research, I found that the test PersonalityType.com puts you through is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

In short, it is a test to classify a person’s personality type which might aid in helping you figure out how you might act in a given situation as well as provide people of different types as a means to understand one another.

The box below shows the comparisons you are asked and classified into. For example, are you an Extraversion or Introversion? Do you gather information via Sensory or Intuition? etc.

I don’t think the test on PersonalityType.com gives you an answer key as to what your combination classifies you as, however, here is what I’ve discovered:

How This Ties Into Web Design

After taking the test I made a connection between how I craft everything on my website for my target audience and how this tool helps me to better understand them.

As a webmaster, web designer, copywriter, entrepreneur, marketer, etc., part of being successful is getting into the heads of your target customers and understanding how they will respond to certain pieces of text, ads, banners, and so on that you create.

Inevitably, it is somewhat of a lost cause as you can never really get into the heads of your potential customers. However, with tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperament Sorter, we can work off something.

As an example, let’s say you’ve discovered that your primary website visitors are ENFJs. You could then find out behavioral patterns they exhibit and tailor your offer to satisfy their needs – oh what’s that I’m saying again . . . you need to solve problems to succeed in business

So the question is, what type of people do you think your target audience is? In all honesty, unless you’ve put a lot of money into polling and personal interaction statistics, it’s probably not who you think they are.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

Blogging long ago stopped being just the way to share news and / or personal thoughts. Today it has become a common fashion already to create a blog supporting your main website. Several reasons for that include:

• you can update it regularly with useful relevant information (and thus improve your chances to rank well in Google);
• you can get closer to your customers or readers (by starting a real communication with them);
• you can build business relationships with influential bloggers in your niche (by linking to them and referencing their posts).

Let’s look how these aims are achieved by reviewing just a few examples:

FreeShipping.org

FreeShipping.org, a valuable resource that helps shoppers save money by showing them what stores offer free shipping and provides the necessary coupon codes to get it, has a coupon codes blog where exclusive and time-limited offers are posted regularly. The blog also reviews other similar resources that might be useful for their readers. The blog is thus meant for several aims:

• provide their readers with more useful information;
• build friendly relationships with related resources.

Best Western

Best Western, a huge hotel chain, maintains a bright blog On the Go with Amy, providing funny and helpful travel tips and allowing their readers to share their experience. By this they:

• create a friendly community around their service (by entertaining and educating their customers);
• connect closer to their customers by encouraging them to share their thoughts and experiences.

BearingPoint

BearingPoint , a global management and technology consulting company, has launched an educating blog encouraging their readers to share “new thinking” concepts and ideas. The blog helps them:

• establish their brand positive associations by “sharing ideas from some of our own best thinkers.”
• get closer to their customers by “fostering a dialogue on the issues that matter most to today’s organizations.”

So how actually can a blog help a business; let’s summarize:

• a blog is a great way to establish long-term relationships with your customers and visitors (by entertaining them and communicating with them);
• a blog can help you find new customers (by improving your site search engine rankings and via social networking and bookmarking services);
• a blog can be one of the methods to show your expertise;
• a blog is the place to host viral marketing and advertising campaigns;
• a blog can help you to build business relationships in the same or neighbouring niches.

Ann Smarty is a SEO consultant, online entrepreneur and social media power user. With more than 5 years of experience in SEO and affiliate marketing she started her own business only less than a year ago. You can also find her blogging regularly at Search Engine Journal and also follow her at Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Building A Business Through Social Media Vs. The Old-Timer's Way To Business Success
2. Fear Can Ruin Your Business From Within
3. Using Social Media To Market Your Business

Is simply building a community of bloggers enough to make you a nice profit from blogging?

The last few posts I wrote dealt with some concerns I have and misconceptions out there about what it takes to generate income being a web entrepreneur. Those posts were:

1. Building A Business Through Social Media Vs. The Old-Timer’s Way To Business Success – A post expressing my concerns that with the idea of social media marketing entrepreneurs might become lazy.
2. The Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing and Does It Teach Us Bad Habits As Entrepreneurs? – It takes more than sitting at home everyday in your PJs authoring a blog to become highly successful.
3. The Unplugged Entrepreneur – Taking yourself offline and building your business.

To be successful in generating profits in business, you need to create something that solves a BIG PROBLEM for your potential customers (which might be your blog readers). Let’s look at an analogy.

Let’s say one day you decided to set up a lemonade stand at the end of your street and sell lemonade to people who pass by. You figure this will be great, it’s 110 degrees (F) out and everyone must be hot.

Even if you only charged $.10 per cup, you’ll probably still make a lousy profit. Why? Because the people passing by can get what you offer anywhere and they don’t need what you’re selling.

Now let’s say you set up a lemonade stand near a busy construction site with lots of hot thirsty workers who would gladly spend a couple bucks through the course of their shift to down an ice cold cup of thirst quenching lemonade.

Yes part of the problem you’re solving for them is providing them something cold to drink during the course of their hot day at work, but the added benefit you’re providing them is a mini break. A break from work and the hot day. It’s that mental rejuvenation you are providing them. That’s what you’re selling to, not just lemonade to a thirsty worker.

The First Thing You Need To Do

The first thing you need to do if you want to generate any real kind of income from blogging is figure out who your target customer will be. Then you may want to consider writing a business plan.

Are they other bloggers? If so, go back to our lemonade stand analogy. Are you going to offer them something they can get anywhere and offered at nearly every other blog out there?

Or are your potential customers average Joe’s looking for a website that will solve their problem?

You need to make a plan. Remember, people searching for something online all have one thing in common: They have a really big problem they want solved – now, or at the very least find a place they can get it solved when they wish.

So the first thing you need to do is figure out who your target customers are and how you are going to solve their problem better than the next guy.

AdSense, Affiliate Links, & Some Feedback

Many of us focus our efforts on generating income through blogging. Google’s AdSense, affiliate links, and ad hosting seem to be the favorite among bloggers because they are easy to set up. But again, let’s go back to our analogy above.

If you plan to generate income through blogging solely through affiliate ads, content links, and AdSense, realize you’ll be setting up your lemonade stand next door to another lemonade stand whose next door to another lemonade stand, whose next door to . . .

This is not to say you can’t make a profit through using such services – it just means you’re going to have to get a little creative and you probably won’t generate tons of cash.

Barbara Swafford had an interesting discussion on her blog this last weekend, Just A Click Away – Open Mic, where she opens up the comment section of her blog for feedback and questions. She had asked how ads on blogs affect you? Keep in mind that most of her commentators are bloggers.

If you’re curious what bloggers think about ads on blogs and if they click them or not, I highly recommend you read through her comment section. From what I gathered, it seems most bloggers skip ads most of the time.

Keep in mind why bloggers come to your blog.

Do you think they are looking for a problem to be solved or do you think they’re there to read your content and what you have to say?

These days even the Internet itself seems to be fighting ads and working to block them from your view (ok, maybe not the Internet itself). FireFox, for example, has a browser add-on which you can use to block many ads from displaying in your web browser. Sheesh! The playing field is getting rough!

Other Ways Bloggers Make Money

Ok, so nearly everyone is using AdSense, content links, and affiliates to put a few extra pennies in their pockets, but how do you really make any money blogging?

The key, I believe, is in creating something that people want and/or need. If your goal is to make money through blogging, you need to use it as a tool as a means to get what you want – and yes, you can still create a community around it. It does not have to be a cold business entity where nothing matters but profits, far from it!

Look at Dave Navarro of Rock Your Day. He maintains a blog which helps him generate profit not through affiliate links and AdSense, but through products and services he provides to help people get “unstuck”.

James Chartrand of Men with Pens said in his article Do Blogs Really Earn Business?

But we didn’t get a break – we made our breaks, and that’s the difference. We used our blog as our gateway to building a business, and we seized every opportunity we could to make it work.

I love that quote because it sums up the point of my last few articles. Among other things, James uses his blog to:

1. Promote his services of copywriting and web development
2. Build a community

*While writing this article up to this point I decided to do a search for other bloggers who make money aside from ads and affiliate links when I ran across the article 10 Innovative Blog Business Models on Problogger. There, Skellie highlights 10 blogs where the authors generate an income from blogging aside from affiliate and AdSense links. Therefore, I’ll just provide the link and let you explore other examples from there.

The takeaway here is this: To make money through a blog, it’s wise to have a cornerstone product. In essence, have a product or service to sell.

So Is Building A Community Enough?

The cold hard fact to generating money in any platform, blogging or otherwise, is you have to build some kind of product or service that is going to either make someone’s life a lot easier or you’re going to solve some kind of problem they have.

Starting a blog, slapping up some ads and affiliate links, and swapping comments with other bloggers most likely is not a great path to wealth. Not even the big time A-List bloggers rely on that alone (see the article on Problogger).

I admit, I’m not a full time blogger. I typically only post 1 or 2 times per week and don’t comment on many blogs out there, though I read through many. I currently own two businesses and at times flip houses.

But I know a thing or two about how the Web works and my business ventures have taught me a thing or two about marketing and customer behaviors (oh yeah, I suppose 6 years in college might have helped, too! LOL).

For me, the best way I can see to make a profit in blogging is you have to think of it as a real business, otherwise it’s just a hobby and a place to go for discussion among like-minded individuals. Your blog then needs to be a tool used to help promote a product or service which will help people get what they are looking for.

And if the only way you plan to generate income through your blog is by use of AdSense, affiliate links, etc., then it might be helpful to realize your target audience probably isn’t your fellow bloggers, but average Internet users who probably don’t even know what a blog is and are looking for something.

Hopefully through your marketing efforts then (probably Pay-Per-Click), they will stumble over to your site and find it filled with useful links to information and products they believe is the link that will solve their problem.

Here at WP Blog Host, we solve problems by helping people get online, providing a little extra help for our customers which larger companies don’t typically do, and structuring their business. My blog is a tool I use to generate traffic to our website as well as build a community of like-minded individuals who want to explore ideas and grow their business and blog.

If you’re looking to make money from blogging, what problems does your website or blog solve for people?

Do you have a plan?

Related posts:

1. How Thinking Like A Real Estate Investor Can Help Business Owners Think Creatively and Profit
2. Choosing The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing For Your Website
3. New Regulations For USA Bloggers May Be Around The Corner

Image by AP/Stephen Chernin
source Wired

So much has already been written on how powerful of a marketing tool social media can be that I don’t want to spell it all out again here. Visit Problogger, Dosh Dosh, and sites like those to learn more.

The major downside I see with social media is how much time and effort it can take to create a profit.

For example, I’ve been seeing a lot lately on how to grow your blog. One of the more popular ways is to comment on other people’s blog in order to get those bloggers to in turn visit your blog and read and comment, in other words, return the favor. This is probably one of the best ways to quickly build your comment section and community.

But as an entrepreneur trying to succeed in business and needing to make money, you have to ask yourself, “so this is a community of what exactly?”

The interesting thing about this is that I’ve noticed when I comment on other’s blogs, many of them will come over and comment on mine ( much appreciated! ). However, if I stop commenting on their blog it seems they stop commenting on mine.

What does this tell us? Just how targeted is this means of marketing? How long does it take to read 30 blog articles, write your own, comment on your articles and elsewhere, etc.? What is the return on investment? If you’ve put in 5 hours a day blogging only to see you’ve made $20 for the month, that comes out to $0.13 per hour of work working 5 hours a day for 30 days.

OUCH!

If, however, your primary reason for blogging is to create a community and your business path is to simply market your blog and generate some income from there, the above strategy is definitely something you want to do.

The positive side of things is the longer you do this, you’ll end up making more than just $20/month, hopefully.

Other sites like Digg and Stumble Upon are great for getting your blog articles traffic and linked to, but just how targeted is that traffic? Sure the traffic might be targeted for your article, but 9 times out of 10 your blog articles aren’t pushing your product or advertising your services. In fact, authority sites like Problogger show us how we’re not suppose to market directly in social media.

The instant a blogger feels like you’re trying to push your product on them too heavily you risk losing them. When you run a Stumble Upon campaign, for example, the advice is not to push your actual product’s landing page (e.g. web hosting), but rather an article that provides information.

Most people using social media sites are looking for information and news, not a new tea cup.

Investing Time In Social Media Marketing Business-wise

Pros & Cons

By social media marketing, I’m referring to:

• Spending time creating and marketing a MySpace and Facebook profile
• Working at getting your articles popular on sites like Digg and Stumble Upon
• Participating in online forums
• Guest Blogging
• Commenting on other blogs to get more comments on yours

As I see it, these are some of the pros and cons of social media marketing. Can you add any?

You can work from home You can be a bit lazy Not expensive to do Eventually you can make a name for yourself You gain permission marketing Google gets to know your website better (SEO) Ease to connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime Can build relationship marketing Forces you to keep learning

Consumes A LOT of your time You can be a bit lazy (yes, that was a pro, too) Business and product growth is typically slow at first Not a direct marketing method Can easily become non-targeted (e.g. you write a great article, unfortunately it has nothing to do with you making money) Not great if you’re anti-social Your community might not buy from you but still require a large portion of your time Need of staying interesting and appearing fresh Your communication skills online could severely hurt you At times can be very non-personable

As I mentioned at the top of this article, the main problem I have with social media marketing is time. It takes SO much time to write articles, read blogs, comment, respond, network on social sites, visit forums, etc. I actually like doing those things (to a point), but as the owner of a web development company and a father of two, it’s very difficult for me to justify spending too much time in social media.

I by no means am putting down social media. Heck, when starting our company our primary focus was to not be corporate and to be more social. I took a hint from Craig Newmark over at Craigslist.org. He’s the “band leader” of Craigslist, so to speak. That’s exactly what I’m doing here at WP Blog Host. I give a face and voice to our company just as he does his.

There are of course success stories out there where entrepreneurs invest most, if not all, of their time in social media marketing. The technology is here to stay and I look forward to see where it goes. I think every entrepreneur needs to be a web entrepreneur to some extent.

The Reason For This Article Is This

I don’t want new younger entrepreneurs thinking they can sit at home in their PJs, build a website, and socialize a little on the Internet and expect to become highly successful.

Can it happen?

Sure, anything’s possible.

T Edwards from Poverty101.net said something that made me think in his comment on my last post:

Getting out and pounding the pavement may not fit the internet business plan but there is definitely a need for a lot of behind the scenes marketing, development, programming, monitoring, revising, etc to build a successful online business.

I do agree that this seems to be the “idea” of social media marketing – the idea that you don’t have to go out and pound the pavement. And you can be successful by not doing so. But for me, Craig Newmark is the ideal web entrepreneur.

He socializes online AND pounds the pavement. That’s how you become highly successful. That’s the difference between $150,000 per year profit and $5 million.

In my next article, we’ll take a look at the way old school entrepreneurs did things and what lessons we can learn from them and how it might apply to building a successful business online.

Related posts:

1. Building A Business Through Social Media Vs. The Old-Timer's Way To Business Success
2. What Is Social Media and Why You Need To Know About It?
3. Using Social Media To Market Your Business