A very important topic today, one that means everything to how you build the foundation of your online business.
When you start out online it is tempting to build your business using 3rd party social networking, blogging or content directory sites like…
- Google Blogger
- WordPress.com (NOT wordpress.org which allows you to use the WP platform on your own domain)
- Squidoo
- Hubpages
- Facebook Fan Pages
- Twitter Profile
- Tumblr
- Ustream
Don’t get me wrong, these platforms have their place in online marketing, should not be ignored, but here is what they ARE NOT!
These platforms are NOT designed to make money specifically by hosting your business websites (commercial websites) and in fact, make more money based on pure content so there is absolutely no motivation for them to support your commercial efforts online.Â
On the other hand, webhosting companies like HostGator (as our preferred example), make their money via website hosting…most of which are commercial sites or sites that are dependent on operating commercial activity to sustain their web hosting account.Â
It should come as no surprise then when we advise strongly NOT to ever build your web business based on 3rd party platforms other than high quality web hosts.Â
HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS:
1. If you are serious at all about business online, host your content with those who’s specialty it is to keep YOU in business…in other words, quality hosting providers. You control your own pages, content and scripts/tools, etc…
2. Start with the fundamentals of building traffic by generating content hosting articles and blog content on your own domains with reliable web hosts…having great content is what people want so you will attract traffic and it will be meaningful to your visitors which means they will come back, trust and buy things from you
3. Once you have your base site and content program in place along with pages that are strongly converting your visitors into customers – look at additional methods to attract traffic and leads. Operating our own affiliate program and actively pursuing/supporting affiliates is still one of the best ways to pull in traffic (if you have your own products), guest blogging can be extremely powerful, posting on relevant forums with a strong call to action in the resource box, etc…
4. After doing all of this, you can then branch out onto 3rd party platforms and strategically bring traffic in from those platforms – of course here you want to pick the platforms that are most aligned to your market. If you are a musician, then Myspace is still good, business or politics – then Twitter may work for you, etc… These platforms though should be used with the expectation that the TOS will change and that they may disappear tomorrow (in terms of how we use them today). So they are purely ways to bring in additional traffic, build relationshps over and above what your own websites are already setup to do.Â
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that hosting your website on Google Blogger or Squidoo, etc…means they will look out for your best interest…thsi type of thinking has caused many online marketers to lose tens of thousands of dollars in business overnight…you’ve been warned!
Wow! This post is soooo instructive. I appreciate the clarity re “3rd party platforms.†Jeff, in terms of marketing eBooks, what is your view of “eBook launches†… where would they fit in the scenario you lay out above? Also, are “eBook tours” an effective marketing strategy? If so, where would you plug them in? Thanks so much. Shalom!
Sheila – I am a big fan of ebook launches and frankly prefer online to offline, though if speaking is your thing, offline can work well too.
If you think about it, a launch really means leveraging either your list or partner lists to bring an announcement to your audience.
So, hand-in-hand with your launch must be either/and a list building campaign and/or an affiliate launch.
If you don’t have a list, then consider creating great content and attracting some top affiliates to promote your launch, give them an attractive offer because what you will really be asking is that they add their hard-earned subscriber trust to your customer and email list – so that customer/subscriber will be worth a significant amount to you in the months/years to come.
Every successful product launch starts with a good product that is positioned to attract both customres and partners, then leverages relationships with key partners and ends with a strong result.
Jeff