And I really enjoyed your article here gave me a couple perspective I need to think more about.

I agree that I am not either a big fan of pop-ups but it did not distract me to much. But I agree with Chuck that your pop-up came up rather fast. I will have to look into what Burnman mentioned here about 'WP Greet Box' not familiar with that.

But I see your point here as building several various Social Media Pillars around your blog. I guess here it can vary on what you like and what fits your niche best.

Since I took a break while I was on vacation it gives me a great opportunity to redefine some of my approach now. Just has to get out of this jet lag..

Amen, Amen, AMEN!

This should be required reading for anyone doing business online. I am constantly amazed at the number of people who say that they bought this or that course that says they don't need a web site. So they don't even own a domain.

They just send traffic from Adwords directly to some affiliate offer and hope and pray it works.

You're doing Internet Marketing but you don't have a web site? You don't even have a place to practice and see what MIGHT work?

That's just not a smart way to go (or grow).

GREAT Post Michelle!

Warmest,

Jonathan

“This week, Twitter was hammered by a DOS (denial of service) attack. I have no idea what that means, other than it’s some kind of server attack that’ll make your site go down.”

End Michelle Sez…

Put this in the news – you probably won't ever use department – but – a DOS attack – basically is when someone sends massive amounts of hits to a site or server with the intention of rendering “said” site useless – or temporarily out of commission.

The server/site gets so much traffic – that the network infrastructure cannot handle so many requests at one time – thus crashing the server. Sort of like getting a lot of “Digg” hits all at once..

This is a very simplistic – if not an entirely accurate portrayal of a DOS. There are many variations of DOS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_...
and to explain each one in detail would obviously be useless – and mind numbingly boring..

Anyway, I am surprised by the fact that Twitter did succumb to such an attack. Just about every web hosting service or high profile website should know that at some point a DOS is inevitable. Especially Twitter. Must have been very sophisticated.

But, to your point about SM. I hope, as you mentioned that people are not creating “money sites” from Squidoo, Hubpages, or any form of Social Media as a mainstay of their existence. Same goes with using is as their ultimate or main means of communication with their customers..

Social Media, at least in my small world view of thinking – has never been good in terms of converting customers to buy my specialized niche Ebooks. If I had to depend on “Twitter' to do the selling for me – I would not make all that much – or nothing at all.

To me, if people are looking for products to buy, or a problem to solve, they are not turning to Twitter or Facebook to find the solution. It is still a search engine world – despite the great Web 2.0 revolution. Organic web traffic from SE's, like content, is still King..

Yes, Social Media has it's place. But as part of your overall marketing plan. HubPages, Squidoo, for instance, should be used to build niche keywords anchor text or links to your “money sites” and not as the stand alone bread winner. To your point – that is what owning your own website and domain are for.

As far as using Social Media as a communication tool, ok. However, I never understood – nor do I still – why people need venues like Facebook, Myspace, etc. Isn't that what we have Blogs, Cell Phones, IM's, Skype, Websites, for?

I'm just sayin…(LOL!)…

Robert C The Wholesale Products Guy

I don't think any business should consider “social media” as optional anymore, assuming you attempting to brand yourself and/or your website with your potential audience. The benefits are too huge.

Too many people in the IM space, in particular, are attempting to build an entire biz and/or communications model on Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook, Craigslist, etc. individually. That's where the mistake is.

Social networking is, well, just networking and networking is not an aim in itself, but a means to an end. There has to be an end goal to you connecting with hundreds of people or you're wasting your time.

Social media followers are, to my mind, worth more than website clicks because you know who the people are and can have dialogue with them over and over. But dialogue doesn't pay bills.

I fully agree that it's essential to pick up those contacts elsewhere so you can develop a relationship that takes you to your ultimate goal. I think Social CRM will help with this. We debut ours next month and I'd love to have you take it for a spin Michelle.

DM me on Twitter to arrange something (I just followed you).

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

I only continued reading the article in the hope you would have a comment box, because I hate subscription pop up boxes. Any site that has them, whether I am a potential new customer, or returning to a site I like that has installed one, I leave immediately.

I want to read the text, not have some box pop up and cover the entire screen and not let me continue reading without clicking on it. I can't be the only one out there that feels this way.

Ban the pop up box!