Are you interested in selling something? Products, services, ideas, brands, charities, organizations, even yourself are all things that as entrepreneurs we focus on selling. In fact the very essence of being an entrepreneur is selling.  If you want to take something and turn it into a business then at some point you will need to sell. Sales is as old as time and while there are certainly timeless truths and techniques to being successful at making a sale, one thing that has changed over the centuries are the methods and tools. 1995 Seems Like Another Lifetime When I started my business career full time over 15 years ago the tools we had at our disposal for making sales were, TV, the phone, fax machine, direct mail, print media and trade shows.  There really wasn't any Internet to speak of.  Sure it existed but it hadn't made its way into the average household. Fast forward to 2010 and the sea of Internet tools available to small businesses is deep and wide.

We've heard the sayings, "There's no time like the present" or "Why put off tomorrow what you can do today?".   These can be true in so many different aspects of business. However when it comes to your digital marketing there couldn't be a more accurate way of putting it. Here's the little known secret when it comes to using online tools for your business. It takes time! I don't mean time in the sense of each day sitting behind the computer working at it. I mean time as in days, months, years to establish yourself and create an online presence. Think Like a Farmer The problem is most people aren't willing to farm they want to manufacture. They want to launch that website, throw up a video, post something on a blog and start seeing immediate results. Sorry it won't work that way. You need to approach your online strategy as if you were a farmer. The ground needs to be tilled, seeds planted, crops cared for and fields harvested in order to reach success. Oh and in between each of those stages, insert time. Look at any successful small business utilizing all of the online tools and I guarantee they have been at it for awhile. That's just the nature of how all this online stuff works. The days are coming to an end where you can manufacture a product, run some advertising and done - the orders start to pile up. These days it's what you do the other 364 plus days a year that will lead up to that event which will make you successful. You need to be putting in the time now, today, in order that you may secure your companies success in the future.

What happens  when your customers stop reading your advertising, stop watching your 30 sec spots and you're so hard to find online that according to Google you basically don't exist? Online Advertising is not the Answer Ahha, I know the answer!  We'll run online ads, banner adds, pay per click and what not.  You know you don't even have to pay unless they click through! Yes I actually had someone say that to me the other day. Well here is the problem with that.  Its' effectiveness continues the same downward spiral as the other mediums mentioned above.  Here's a quote from a recent article Recently, the results of an update to comScore's highly publicized "Natural Born Clickers" research, conducted two years ago with Starcom USA and Tacoda, showed that the number of people who click on display ads in a month has fallen from 32 percent of Internet users in July 2007 to only 16 percent in March 2009. Also, an even smaller core of people (representing 8 percent of the Internet user base) accounted for 85 percent of all clicks.

Here's another one of those good video's that tout all the latest stats and trends as it relates to digital marketing and new media. Why do I show this? As a reminder. If you read this blog your way ahead of the average person. Most entrepreneurs and executives don't read blogs. That will change and I'm going to push every little piece of information I can to help in that process. Hope you enjoy. If your going to this event please let me know, I wont be there and would love to hear some feedback. var so = new FlashObject ("http://economistevents.pb.feedroom.com/economist/economistevents/oneclipblue/player.swf", "Player", "633", "337", "8", "#FFFFFF"); so.addVariable ("Environment", ""); so.addVariable ("SkinName", "showcaseblue"); so.addVariable ("SiteID", "economistevents"); so.addVariable ("SiteName", "The Economist"); so.addVariable ("ChannelID", ""); so.addVariable ("StoryID", "6f8e6e0db2901a2e221c67e6e065c2bc37b5ccfa"); so.addVariable ("Volume", ".5"); so.addVariable ("HostURL", document.location.href); so.addVariable ("MoreVideoURL", ""); so.addVariable ("Org", "economist"); so.addVariable ("OneClipEmbedCodeHeight", "337"); so.addVariable ("AutoPlay", "false"); so.addVariable ("OverridingOperatingMode", "OneSpecificStory"); so.addVariable ("quality", "high"); so.addVariable ("VideoPlayer.VideoPlayer1.StoryLinkURL", "http://economistevents.pb.feedroom.com/economist/economistevents/oneclipblue/player.html?fr_story=6f8e6e0db2901a2e221c67e6e065c2bc37b5ccfa"); so.addVariable ("VideoPlayer.VideoPlayer1.SendEMailURL", "http://frgallery.feedroom.com/custom/playerbuilder/feedroom/sendMail.jsp"); so.addVariable ("VideoPlayer.VideoPlayer1.OperatingMode", "OneSpecificStory"); so.addVariable ("OneClipEmbedCodeWidth", "633"); so.addVariable ("OneClipEmbedCodeURL", "http://economistevents.pb.feedroom.com/economist/economistevents/oneclipblue/player.swf"); so.addVariable ("VideoPlayer.VideoPlayer1.JavascriptFolderURL", "http://static.feedroom.com/affiliate/_common/js"); so.addParam ("quality", "high"); so.addParam ("allowFullScreen", "true"); so.addParam ("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addParam ("menu", "false"); so.write ("flashcontent");

This week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) passed regulations for advertisers doing endorsements or testimonials on blogs. The FTC can now fine bloggers up to $11,000 for doing paid product reviews without full disclosure.  You can read several good opinions about why this is a bad idea from TechCrunch, David Risley and Frank Kern.  I happen to agree that the FTC has gone way to far. I mean if we're gonna regulate full disclosure lets attack all mediums equally, TV anyone?  How about product placement that litters every show on TV these days. That's an argument for another time, what I'm interested in as that the FTC has targeted bloggers and the blogging world. Good News for All The FTC's targeting of bloggers really speaks to the power that blogging is having on the market place and business.  Blogging has transformed from as an online diary of years ago to a very trusted source of all information. In fact blogs are quickly becoming the go to source for the latest news, reviews and information on just about anything.  Not only are they the go to source but they are trusted as well.  That's what this is all about, trust.  In general the public trusts blogs.  Do you hear that executives?  Are you listening entrepreneurs?  Blogs are such a trusted source of information that the FTC, which hasn't enacted a new law in 29 years, sees fit to implement an all out attack bloggers and disclosure.  Talk about an endorsement to the power of blogs! Find the Bloggers If the FTC puts that much credibility into blogs then your company better as well. In fact if your company has completely ignored the entire social media wave then you're on the verge of getting crushed by it, instead of riding it.  As a business what do you need to be doing? Reach out to bloggers in your industry, engage them, do paid testimonials Listen to the conversations on the blogoshpere Participate in the conversations Allow for honest reviews and feedback. Ensure that any paid reviews meet the new FTC guidelines Regulated Industry As a blogger and a business owner I recognize that these new guidelines are a complete joke and ultimately a waist of time.  Most of your good bloggers are practicing full disclosure now anyways.  The good bloggers are the ones that have the attention of the people.  So in the end not much will change. However I'm  most cognizant of the shift in public perception of blogging.  As a blogger that is something you already know, but when you start becoming a "regulated industry" you're moving into new territory.  Yeah its seemingly negative at first glance, but the way I see it, it's one more validation of why blogging and social media are the future of marketing. photo credit