The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts

It's true, and it's one of the biggest mistakes most people in this industry make.

For example - If you don't own your website completely, meaning you haven't registered a domain and have your own hosting, don't complain when you make a mistake and lose all of your hard work because you wanted to take a "shortcut" and went after the free alternatives that are out there (BlogSpot, Squidoo, HubPages, etc).

If you're serious about getting somewhere in this business, you need to take action and take the necessary precautions to secure yourself. It's just so much better in the long run when you have complete ownership, so why take the risk?

To be fair though the majority of business do not have the option of buying their properties outright as the costs are just too high. Especially when they start out and cannot truly know if their venture will succeed. Once they do know the business model works so too does the landlord who is very unlikely to sell.

I have no argument with that article.

However people just starting out in Internet Marketing should not let fear of using third party services stop them from using them to get started.

Also remember, there are always work arounds in emergencies and you can pull your marketing endeavors out of the fire much easier than a brick and mortar biz usually can. (Case in point, the book store in the article)

Long story short (too late) Use what you need to make your seed money then invest in your own to keep going and growing.

For IMers the key is back up everything as you go so if your third party free or low cost providers go south on you you can move on without that many problems.

Also, I really appreciated PioneeringProfits comment on Google. It illustrates both the OP point and my point profoundly.

George Wright

They should come up with some new idea following a Kindle approach, where you can purchase books by scanning digital displays of the book in store, check out the summary then purchase it on their e-readers and the store gets commission for any books sold whilst providing customer service.

Access to all the books available on e-readers without having to worry about purchasing in bulk or however the system runs and just focus on the other areas

Be Right Back... I'm going to Dragons Den :p

"The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts"

I thought Google was the biggest threat to online marketing efforts :p

This is a good post to share here and a wake-up call for those who doesn't realize ye that these things can happen to anyone. I am seeing (in the future to come) that strategies to get direct traffic will become more relevant and important, especially with the changes G is making these days.

That post is bang on

A website, auto-responder and providing value in the form or free info and products

I did a blog post a couple of months back about kindle and why so many people were putting their income at huge risk by putting so much time into creating and uploading kindle books

It didn`t go down very well with a lot of people because they don`t like to hear the truth

But amazon are like facebook, once you put it on their website they own it and you have no rights at all

Paul

Exactly so. And yet another fine thread, here, to which to refer people, when they ask about basing their business on pages owned by Blogger, Squidoo and/or HubPages.

Mahlon: of course there's no 100% reliable solution, but that's not the point of this otherwise enlightening thread. What the OP is trying to do is to warn people not to build a business around something that positions itself above you, something that has been proven in the past to cornhole innocent people, such as Google. Google owns your traffic, and you can't do anything about it. When they roll out a new algorithm update, you risk to lose some traffic, if not all - and all you can do is sit and assist, with your hands cuffed together to your bed, while Google begins its immersion into your... SERPs.

On the other hand, owning your own website and getting traffic from other sources than search engines, sources you can control to some extent, makes you less vulnerable. Of course there still is a chance to flop, but as that great article linked from the OP stated: "it's in your control to repair the damage done" - and that's what this is all about: having some degree of control over your business.

And another thought: you mentioned hosting companies. Even if HostGator (or any other company for that matter) starts to mess with their clients, there are other great hosting companies you can switch to in heartbeat. But you can't say the same about Google or Facebook, can you?

Agree with the above and Diversify! Learn, to monetize within all areas. Articles, you tube, CPA, PPV, WSO's, etc.

Well, a lot of people here depend on sad sense. They do pay. Also, setting up an account is easy. However, sob stories are many. People forget that one little complaint can get you kicked out into the cold and your dreams turn into vapor. Best that you do not depend on one company. Yeah, even if it is a big name firm such as amazon. I try to make sure to use several different approaches in making money.

Yes, dependence is always very bad. However, it is unavoidable. You always depend on many things to work. It’s hard to control and do everything.

I saw the same thing mentioned in this article happening into practice with this low economy. Ready businesses that were making money suddenly stopped having customers because everyone stopped spending money with what was not more than indispensable.

We all do it though in one form of another. Whether you use an external web hosting provider, a free blogging provider, use Paypal, rely on Amazon, rely on Kindle, or even selling on ebay. So in some way or another, we all fall victim to this possibility.

Hi

There is a mall near me that I visit on a regular basis. In that mall is a food court. In the food court is a McDonald's.

McDonald's does not own the mall. They rent a space in the food court.

Malls do go out of business or are sold or torn down for redevelopment all the time.

Should McDonald's avoid mall food courts and only build stand-alone McDonald's that they own and control?

Of course not. The TRAFFIC in the mall justifies the risk.

McDonald's also has stand alone stores that they own and control (through franchise) . They also have small "drive through only" locations at gas stations.

Diversifying your business is always good. But to avoid potential profits because you are afraid of a theoretical risk doesn't always make sense.

Rather than avoid "3rd party platforms" altogether, better to use them as intended and as a part of a diversified business strategy.

It comes down to "don't put all your eggs in one basket", rather than "don't put your eggs in that basket".

Mahlon