Did Your Buiness Go Down Today?

In case you didn't notice, Google Hot Trends went down for about 7 hours today. Well, to be more accurate, for about 7 hours the trends weren't updated. I know that for a lot of people, that's a business model blown to hell and with it a lot of their income.

Were you one of them?

If not, don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet.

You're not quite out of the woods.

One thing I learned, a very long time ago, is that nothing in life is certain other than one day we're all going to leave this rock for, hopefully, a better place. But as far as business goes...forget it. I've seen solid business models wiped out overnight.

Or have you forgotten MFA sites?

(MFA stands for Made For Adsense)

I remember when they were all the rage and people were making tons of cash off of these pages that were, quite honestly, worthless to anybody but the people running them.

And then Google stepped in one day and said ENOUGH.

And these pages got de-indexed faster than you can say "Bob's your uncle."

That's just one example. Trust me, there are plenty more.

The graveyards are littered with the dead of IM years long gone.

But let's get back to today's day and age.

I hear so many people say how the only way to promote your site is with Google Adwords. It's the most targeted traffic and it's cost effective and yada, yada, yada.

Two things.

1. Google only reaches 50% of the Internet population.

What are you doing to get the other 50%

2. Google can slap your campaign silly and put you out of business.

Think I'm kidding? The recent crackdown on sloppy landing pages has put a hurt on tons of people.

Right now, they're scrambling to try to find a replacement for their income.

Same thing with people who used to sell digital products on eBay.

Same thing with people who are living in states that Amazon.com won't support.

And we haven't seen the end of it.

Truth is, I laugh at the smugness of marketers who swear to me that THEIR business model is rock solid and that they have NOTHING to worry about.

Please refer back to what I said about nothing being certain.

That doesn't mean that we just throw our arms up in the air and say "The heck with it, why should I worry if there's nothing I can do about it?"

Well, there is something you can do. Actually, there is a lot you can do.

I'm not going to go into the excruciating detail of a fail safe business model right here because it is beyond the scope of this article, but essentially, you want to do the following:

1. If your business is dependent on ONE product alone, you might want to start looking for other products to promote in case that one either becomes obsolete or for whatever reason, stops being available for you to sell.

2. If your business model is dependent on ONE form of promotion, such as Adwords, you might want to look for alternative methods to add to your arsenal.

3. If your business model is dependent on just ONE payment processor, you might want to start looking for alternatives just in case. It certainly can't hurt to give people more than one option to pay you with.

4. If your business model is dependent on just ONE outsourcer, you might want to start looking for replacements, just in case that one is no longer available.

I could keep going but I think you get the general drift. If you have anything in your business model where the elimination of that one thing would put a serious hurt on your income, then it's time to start looking for a fail safe.

Sure, you may never need it. But it's just like with everything else. You never need that home protection service until you decide to cancel it and then somebody breaks into your home.

Protect your business.

Especially if you need it to keep a roof over your head.

Sincerely,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels trying to make a buck online? Visit the products page of my blog at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/products and get a 6 figure education for pennies.