People, stop the insanity!  Stop buying ebook after ebook; course after course; jumping from one to another and GETTING NOWHERE.  NO, that new, over-hyped, gotta-have-it-at-all-cost product is NOT the system that is finally going to make you rich.  You are chasing yet another quick little fish while the other fish you had an opportunity to eat are getting away, and as a result you are still STARVING (not making any money).

People who tend to be more analytical, more impulsive, or lazy (want to get rich quick with little effort) are the ones who suffer from this affliction the most.   If you find yourself frustrated after months or even years of tinkering in internet marketing because you only made enough money to buy a nice shirt, time to rehabilitate yourself.

Here’s the GOLDEN RULE to internet marketing success:

You are much more likely to have success working on just one internet marketing campaign at a time, and engaging in no more than three (3) different internet marketing vehicles.

What I mean here is  once you start on a particular campaign, FINISH it before you start on the next one.  In this context, “finish” means to the point where you are making steady income from the campaign.

Limit yourself to no more than three (3)  internet marketing vehicles.  This is huge.  A vehicle, or ”specialty” takes a lot of time to master, especially with the constantly changing nature of the internet.  Examples of internet marketing strategies:

• PPC-ClickBank
• PPC-CPA Offers
• Blogging
• Social Media Marketing
• List Building and Marketing
• Membership Sites
• Website Flipping

Now, if your thing is affiliate marketing using Wordpress blogs, pick one niche (like Persian rugs) and focus on that.  That one niche is enough to keep you busy all day:  setting up your blog(s), adding content, adding to directories, tweeting about it, FaceBooking about it, forum posting, finding good affiliate programs for it, contacting other sites to link to you, setting up your PPC campaigns and tweaking them… and so on. 

If you get tempted to start ANOTHER campaign at the same time, well, your chances of generating revenue just dropped 50%.   What winds up happening is both of these campaigns are done half-assed because you spread yourself too thin.  Your site’s content will suck because you won”t have time to write frequent, good content, and as a result your sites won’t make it to the first page of Google, and/or they won’t convert.

The only way around this is to leverage your time by OUTSOURCING the SEO.  There are content writers in India and the Philippines who can crank out content for you at reasonable prices, but you need to get over the urge of doing everything yourself. 

Example 1.  If your main strategy is selling ClickBank products, do ONE PRODUCT AT A TIME.  What I mean by this is, do everything you need to do to get your campaign producing a steady stream of income before you even think about starting a second one.  If you are driving traffic through PPC and direct linking, well, make sure your campaign is tweaked and making you money before you abandon it and jump to another product.  Otherwise you’ll be like a dog chasing its tail.

Example 2.  If you plan to create a comparison site for several Clickbank products and don’t plan to use PPC, then put all your energy in making the best site you can in terms of keyword targeting and search engine optimization.  Then, hit the off-site SEO hard.  Stay focused until you see the dollars rolling in.

A third guideline can be to limit yourself to no more than 2 or 3 niches; two preferably.  Remember, as you take on more niches, you are diluting yourself.  It’s like biting off more than you can chew, and you will LOSE.

Ok, here’s a simple task you can do as part of you rehabilitation.  When you are in the mood to take a stab making money online, write down your niche, campaign, and vehicle.  Turn off all other distractions (email, forums, blogs, web surfing) and implement the Golden Rule.  Examples below:

Niche:  Persian Rugs

Campaign: Persian Rug CPA Offers in CJ and PepperJam

Vehicle:  WordPress SEO optimized blog

————————-

Niche:  Weight Loss

Campaign:  ClickBank product FatLoss4 Idiots

Vehicle:  PPC

Remember, DO NOT change or start a new niche, campaign or vehicle until you FINISH what you started by seeing the MONEY rolling in.  Be disciplined!  Do whatever it takes to keep you focused.

Now, go for it.

The internet marketing community is very similar to a huge school of fish that can turn on a dime.  A handful of gurus (top dogs– the visionaries) create, or are able to see a new sub-niche in the internet marketing market (people in the make money online business) and push some kind of new product around this sub-niche.  All of a sudden, the email autoresponder messages that everyone is subscribed to pitch this new angle to make money (these are IMs who signed up for the affiliate programs of these gurus’ products).  Then, a couple of lower-tiered IMs ride the wave and come up with their own product.

 Here are examples of past internet marketing crazes:

• Article marketing
• Pay per click/ Google AdWords
• List building
• Continuity programs
• CPA arbitrage
• Affiliate marketing
• Social Media/ Twitter  marketing

The latest craze to appear on my radar is content outsourcing.  And, for good reason.  Most aspects of internet marketing will require content creation.   Whether you’re trying to build a high PR (page rank) landing page for your PPC campaign, or trying to get your blog/affiliate website ranked high in natural search for your main keywords, you will need to create content:  blog posts, tweets, articles, viral ebooks, static pages to your silo website, free ebooks for opt in campaigns, and so on.  Well, this takes a huge amount of time.  And guess who has more time than you?  People in the Philippines and India.

The current trend is to outsource your content creation to the Philippines and India.  The special thing about these two countries is that many of their citizens speak, read  and write English.   The other thing is that their hourly rate is a fraction of what you would get if you were to hire a US-based content creator.

There are a couple of companies that specialize in outsourcing content creation to these two countries, and you can bet more will be coming.  Just Google “outsource article writing Philippines” and see what comes up.  I guarantee you that you will see more coming into existence in the coming months.

Outsourcing content creation is basically leveraging time:  let other people do the heavy lifting while you work on strategy implementation.   Plus, it’s a win-win situation because you are making life better for these foreign writers.  There are very few opportunities in the domestic job market for these people.   These people are thrilled when they are able to work for an American company.  The word is out that, if you find a very good foreign writer, treat him or her very well (pay bonuses).   He (or she) will remain fiercely loyal to you and will go out of his way to turn out great service.

So, if you want to dislodge yourself from the quicksand we know as internet marketing, take the plunge and try outsourcing your content creation.  The freedom will be exhilarating.  Finally, someone to shoulder all the heavy, time-sucking and tedious work!

Commission Blueprint is an affiliate marketing course comprised of video lessons, pdf files, and website templates.  It also includes the use of various keyword research tools.  At $497 it isn’t cheap, but at least it’s not one of those recurring monthly membership sites that can cost a lot more over time.

I’ll explain their approach, and inject my experience and analysis.  Here goes:

As an affiliate marketer, what you’re doing is promoting other people’s products/services online and getting a commission for all sales you are responsible for.   Your sales are tracked by specially coded links that identify you as the referrer, and the retailer or affiliate program intermediate cuts you a commission check every two weeks or every month for the sales your links generated.

Here’s the challenge.  Most of the affiliate offers are in high-demand, high competition consumer goods and services categories, such as car insurance, bags and accessories, online dating, kitchen appliances, and so on.  Google any one of these keywords and you’ll see over 10 million competing pages.  If that wasn’t enough, the retailer itself that has the affiliate program  is going full-throttle online, promoting its products.  So you basically are competing with the product owner, who owns an authority site that you are not going to be able to outrank because it has an aged domain and hundreds if not thousands of indexed pages.  Give up yet?

So, how can you be successful in affiliate marketing, given this scenario?  In the past, it was easier because the big companies didn’t know how to do SEO for their sites.  Now in 2009, with all the SEO consultants and in-house SEO experts, the WalMarts and small-to-medium sized retailers are on par and even better at SEO and IM than your average, solo internet marketer who has bought 50 courses and ebooks and is on multiple email lists.   Yes, the picture turns more gloomy– the retailers have the resources and know-how to bury you in the SEO game now.

BREAKING UPDATE:   The internet marketing community is abuzz about a recent FTC (Federal Trade Commission) rule that is going to make the affiliate marketing game even more difficult.  Basically, the FTC is going to crack down on false and misleading claims in advertising.  No longer can you cloak an affiliate link and leave it at that.  You are going to have to place a statement on your webpage that has the links that specifically mentions that you get commissions if the visitor buys something through your link.  And you can no longer state “results are not typical” if you promote any kind of money making product; you must state something more realistic.  However, since this is a new regulation, there is going to be a time lag on enforcement/ penalties.  We’ll have to see how this rule pans out in the next couple of months, and adjust our marketing accordingly.

But, alas, some persistent IMs have found windows of opportunity.  Like a small group of wildebeests finding a small pocket of water in a parched desert.  Here’s the angle:

It’s all about KEYWORD research.  Apparently, it is possible to outrank the big guys in natural search if you create your landing page/ website around a long-tail keyword that gets a decent amount of clicks (500 or so a month) and a smaller number of competing pages (6,000 -10,000).

Secondly, it’s about analyzing your competition.  After you find a decent keyword that meets these requirements, you analyze the top natural ranking websites for this keyword.  You try to spot weaknesses in these websites that you can exploit, which will make it easier for you to outrank them.  Things like having the keyword in the URL, the Title, and in h1 tags; the number of inbound links, whether it’s in Yahoo Directory, and so on.   If you find a long tail keyword that matches the search and competition criteria, and find that three or more of the top websites have weaknesses that you can exploit, you’ve found your window to success.

The next step is to create a website around the keyword, find relevant affiliate offers (ClickBank, Commission Junction, Pepperjam, Shareasale, Hydra, AzoogleAds, etc.) and employ relentless SEO into it.  Watch it climb in natural search, and you’ll start seeing clicks on your affiliate links.

You will also need to work on your site’s conversion rate.  Do A/B split testing on its headlines, fine tune your copy, experiment with graphics and position of graphics, and so on.  Check your server logs to see where your traffic is coming from, and use this info to “work it” more.

That’s basically it.  To recap, CB2.0 says to focus on long-tail keywords associated with a monetizeable sector (one that has a decent number of potential affiliate offers) that have low competition and decent amount of searches each month.  Create a website/blog around said keyword; preferably using it in your URL.  Embed it with affiliate offers.  Then, pour on the SEO– article marketing, blog posting, getting inbound links, etc.  Play around with headlines, graphics, and copy to get the highest conversion rate possible.  Rinse and Repeat– create one of these sites a month, and wind up with an empire of sites that collectively bring in $thousands a month for you on autopilot.  Best thing about it– NO PAY PER CLICK COSTS.  Just the cost of your time.

By the way, the software the CB2.0 system highly recommends is Market Samurai.  It does all the keyword analysis I mentioned here.

So, what are you waiting for– get to work!

I canceled my Affiliate Classroom 2.0 membership because I felt that I already knew most of what its courses teach.  They are really into “over delivering” at AC2.0 (Lurn, Inc.) but for seasoned internet marketers like me, who get blasted with free reports, free courses, webinars, free software, free trials, etc. every day of the week it becomes more of a distraction than a benefit.   My opinion is that the AC2.0 format doesn’t have enough direction.  It’s got a lot of great content scattered throughout the site (self-paced courses, previously recorded webinars featuring successful IMs, videos, etc.) but it’s so voluminous that it’s easy for one to get “paralysis from analysis.”  At $97 a month, I couldn’t see myself sticking with it.

I may still get Commission Blueprint 2.0.  This course is a one time payment of $497, but in reading their website, it seems very structured and directional.  It has video lessons, pdf files, and resources to help you create a professional looking website.  It’s affiliate marketing all under one roof.  I like that.  The free report they gave out prior to the launch encapsulates the CB2.0 strategy.   It’s one of those “keeper” free reports.  The guys at CB2.0 are known for bypassing the hype and getting down to business, so this free report contains some real, “actionable” information to help you make money in affiliate marketing.  Send me a Reply if you want a copy.

I’ll post the CB2.0 method next (just finishing 10 straight hours of IM today… very tired).

Here are the major launches in recent weeks.  All except the last are being promoted as re-vamped versions of current courses:

• Affiliate Classroom 2.0
• Commission Blueprint 2.0
• StomperNet
• Jeff Johnson’s Underground Training Lab
• Internet Marketing Masterminds

As I keep mentioning on this blog, internet marketing can be like getting caught in a spiderweb:  you’re hit with so many professionally copyrighted sales pages (mind you, from internet marketing experts) and emails that offer hard to resist incentives to purchase the product.  As if this weren’t enough, you get hit with a slew of emails from joint venture partners offering juicy bribes to get you to order through their link.*

*the gurus usually have contests for their affiliates/JV partners to see who can get the most sales and commissions, and pay handsome rewards.

Here’s an email from StomperNet announcing their launch:

We have what we think is the coolest launch ever starting today.

And you should be here, not because it’s cool, but because of
what it’s going to mean for you.

If you’ve wanted to join StomperNet, today’s the day
you’ve been waiting for.

And it’s going to cost you a LOT less to be a part of the
MotherShip of Internet Marketing.

Online Success for Less.

It’s got a nice ring to it.

But that’s not all: when you join, you’ll get more than
10 World Class internet marketing tools – some of
which have never even been introduced to the public
- for Free as part of your membership.

Let’s face it: for 3 years, at StomperNet we have given
our Members a pretty serious leg up on their competitors.
Now, with everything we have to offer in the New StomperNet,
you’ll CRUSH your competitors.

It’s more for less – we call it a Mafia Offer.

And today – at 9:09 am – we’re making you an offer you can’t refuse.

See you then.
Brad Fallon
CEO
StomperNet

And one from Commission Blueprint:

Hi Dan,

There has been so much buzz about this over the past
week or so, the likelihood is that you will have heard
about the imminent launch of our ‘Commission Blueprint 2.0′
this coming Wednesday…

When it goes live, you are going to have to act FAST
and we will let you know as soon as the doors open in
a couple of days time.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out
the videos that have been posted up on the site so far.

There’s an introduction to the course which also
includes two AMAZING free reports you can get your
hands on, which are already making people money as
you can see on our forum:

http://www.blueprintcentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=5925.msg46278#new

Then there’s the ‘exposee’ revealing our brand new
keyword tool, ‘Keyword Blueprint’ in action.
(this is guaranteed to blow you away)

…and now we have literally just uploaded a third
and final video answering ALL the questions that
they’ve been received about Commission Blueprint 2.0
over the past 7 days… Plus we give you a sneak
peak inside the course so you can see what you’re
going to get and how everything is laid out to help
you create a massively successful affiliate marketing
business in as short a time as possible.

I highly recommend you watch everything right now
and as I say, as soon at the doors open, we will let
you know. Here’s the link:

==> http://www.CommissionBlueprintTwo.com/video.html

Remember, we go live at 9am Eastern Time on Wednesday
9th September

thanks!

Tim & Steve

And here’s an email from a Commission Blueprint Joint Venture partner, Kabita Kalita (she’s pretty good):

Hi Dan ,

Here I have got another good IM product which i will recommend to you guys with confidence. Tim Godfrey and Steven Clayton have launched 5 products till now and none have even a single negative feedback.These two guys have launched commission blueprint 2.0 the 2nd version of their successful past product commission blueprint.

I was invited and authorized access to the product and I was thrilled to see the softwares and contents inside. These guys are well equipped and over smart. I can ensure you that your money will not be wasted and you will be in really good hands.

* SPECIAL ‘SHORTCUT SUPER AFFILIATE’ BONUS.WILL BE DELIVERED WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF YOUR PURCHASE*

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from CJ: Every product they promote, every keyword they spend money on, what their PPC ads say, how much they spend, every URL they advertise – as well as the organic competition level for each keyword.

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from ClickBank: (Same data as CJ…)

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from LinkShare: Ditto above

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from ShareASale: Ditto

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from MaxBounty: Ditto

In total, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of keywords – and thousands of different products – that the TOP GUNS on every major network are actively promoting.

And in addition to this, EACH keyword in every affiliate’s marketing campaign displays its organic competition level (keyword or keyphrase searched in quotations) – which is a gold mine for article marketers, conduit affiliates, SEOers, etc.

So, here is the bonus details.

[1] 5 Affiliate networks clickbank, shareasale, Maxbounty, commission junction and linkshare.

[2] 50 top affiliates of all the 5 above networks.

[3] Over 400 niches these affiliates are promoting successfully for more than 6 months.

[4] Their landing pages and keywords and yes…

[5] Ads and ad groups as well as traffic sources [mainly PPC]

[6] Plug and play.

[7] No more niche research.

[8] No more keyword brainstorming and PPC testing spending thousands of dollars.

[9] Great time saver and reverse engineering of profitable PPC campaigns at its best.

Read details here: http://commissionblueprint2-review.com

Thanking you,

To your success,

Kabita Kalita

If you’re new to this and are interested in signing up for formal training in affiliate marketing, you’re going to have to do your homework on these course offerings. Each has its own approach; most of them include having access to cool tools like keyword mining, spying, and testing tools. I believe that all of them offer a good product, as long as you actually put it to use.

Good Luck!

Internet marketers are fully aware of the constantly evolving nature of the business and are therefore compelled to learn  (or at least check out) everything new that comes out, or risk missing out on a key discovery/technique that competitors will use to their advantage.  Before you have a chance to test out a new technique, another one comes along, and the cycle repeats.  So it’s very easy to find yourself spending 80% of your time studying internet marketing and 20% of your time actually DOING the actual internet marketing activities that MAKE YOU MONEY.  Most people justify this by telling themselves that the studying is an investment that will pay off later… but later may never come if you keep getting bombarded with an endless supply of material.

I am subscribed to several lists (which was pared down from a much bigger list) and therefore get notified of upcoming product launches; usually a course of some type or a software application.  And when one is about to get released, I receive a torrent of emails from the product creator’s JVs (joint venture partners; super affiliates) .  You see, if you buy the product through their link, they get a commission; usually 50% or more.  And these JVers know that they share a lot of the same people on their lists, but have no shame sending out the emails, offering something free if you access the product through their link.  It’s like a bunch of fishermen angling for a big prize.

Check this one out from StomperNet regarding Brad Callen’s Keyword Minute report (great stuff, by the way):

From:  StomperNet

Subject:  3 Money-Making Strategies in Under a Minute (free report)

Many of you reading this will already know Brad Callen – if not, chances are you thought we were the same guy.   (That happens a lot.)

Brad CALLEN is well-known as the maker of one of the BEST (and one of my favorite) SEO toolsets out there.  Particularly, SEO Elite and Keyword Elite have been incredibly useful in my businesses.

So he knows a thing or two when it comes to making money online, and that’s why I want you to check out this free report called “The Keyword Minute” [I removed their affiliate link].

In it, he takes 3 strategies that beginners and veterans alike often find confusing:

- Integration Marketing
- AdWords
- Article Marketing

…And boils them all down to strategies that you can use to immediately start making money today.  I’m telling you, at 36 pages, this is massive for a free report, but it’s amazing how thoroughly these THREE powerful tactics are explained.

And best of all, it’s step-by-step, so you can begin using what you learn before you even finish reading the report if you do them as you follow along.

This is definitely worth your time, so don’t miss it while you can get it for free.

Talk again soon,
Brad Fallon
CEO
StomperNet

The solution to this conundrum is to read fast; take the good stuff, and put it to use.  Set metered goals each week, and don’t jump to a new strategy until you complete each goal (build a website, create a product, set up a PPC campaign, etc.).  Otherwise, you’ll be the most knowledgeable yet poorest internet marketer on the planet!

P.S.  I’ll talk about Brad Callen’s three techniques in the next post; they are quite good.

Affiliate Classroom is the premier, all-in-one “learning platform” on affiliate marketing.  Members enjoy access to a comprehensive library of training modules, case studies, special tools, videos, and webinars that cover every aspect of affiliate marketing.  You’ll learn things like:

• how to do research to find a good niche
• how to build a website optimized for affiliate marketing
• how to drive traffic to your website:  free and paid (PPC)
• how to get into CPA networks
• monetization models
• and much, much more

Affiliate Classroom has three levels of courses, designated Level 100, Level 200 and Level 300.  As of the writing of this post, Levels 100 and 200 have 29 courses each on various topics; and Level 300 has seven (7) courses.    Members are free to go through as many as they like.  Since Affiliate Classroom members have varying levels of expertise in affiliate marketing, some may choose to skip certain lessons that they are already proficient in.  The most basic beginners should go through all the courses.  As members go through the training, they attain an affiliate marketing proficiency rating between 1 – 10.

The Affiliate Classroom Rating is based on successfully completing courses and reaching set milestones.  You move from one class to the next by completing three courses for each level (Levels 100, 200, and 300) and achieving certain success milestones as an affiliate:

AC members can reference their Affiliate Classroom rating on applications to affiliate programs, with a link to the AC site.  This tells the affiliate manager that you are serious about your business as you are undertaking formal training in affiliate marketing, and may be helpful in getting accepted into the program.

There are other online affiliate marketing courses out there, but I believe that this is the one you want to go with.   The material is well written, it is presented in a logical sequence; “learning reinforcement” elements such as quizzes, case studies, and related articles are available to ensure students master the concepts; members can participate in a user forum to get more insight into affiliate marketing from their peers, and the customer support is great.

One word of caution; though:  when you sign up for the free trial, be prepared for a series of upsells during the checkout process.  Live bootcamps and mentorships are offered at extra cost.  It’s up to you if you want to buy in; they do seem like great value.

Since using it, my opt-in rate has increased by over 100%! What’s ingenious about this “pop-under” is that it loads at the bottom border of the screen, so as not to annoy your visitor by blocking his view. He can continue to browse your site with the Ultimate Footer Ad at the bottom; finish reading your great content, and THEN decide to opt in.

The problem with a lot of the other pop under/ hover ads out there is that they drop in and block the visitor from reading, forcing him to look at the intrusive opt in box that just slid down from the top. Well, this is not a good strategy because it may annoy your visitor causing him to leave your site; plus, if the delay is too short it doesn’t give him enough time to evaluate your “worth”. If he doesn’t know you well enough, he is not going to opt in.

Ultimate footer ad solves this by loading at the bottom and not blocking the view, but having just enough motion in the visitor’s field of vision to get his attention.

UFA can also be used for CPA offers and links to some of your products. It comes with pre-made templates, and instructions on how to create your own– awesome if you know how to create graphics in Fireworks, Photoshop or other image editing software. At a one-time price of $47, Ultimate Footer Ads is a steal. Check it out!

For those not in the know, a Google slap is when Google dramatically raises the cost per click of all your keywords, essentially destroying your PPC campaign.  For example, let’s say you put up a website about golf, and embedded it with affiliate links to golf products.  You use one of the site’s pages as a landing page (where the visitor is taken to after he clicks the AdWords ad link).  You have great content, and the visitor clicks your affiliate link for a set of golf clubs and buys it.  Your commission is $30.00, but the cost of the click was $5.00 for the keyword “golf clubs” due to the Google slap, and 49 other people clicked it before that one person actually purchased something.  So your profit is $30 – $250 (50 x $5) = -$220.

Affiliate sites are easy to identify.  Most of them are there to generate referrals, so they are embedded with links coded with affiliate IDs.  So Google is targeting them and is making it difficult if not impossible for these site owners to continue doing business through PPC.  And, it doesn’t matter how good your campaign is set up:  the word is that the best laid out AdWords ads (great landing pages, highly researched keyword lists containing only the highly converting words, high page rank landing pages) are getting slapped with unsustainable keyword bids.

Google is making a statement that it is not interested in having a bunch of affiliate marketing sites dominate its pay per click network.  This is amazing, because I’m sure Google gets tens of millions of dollars a month in PPC fees from affiliate marketers.  But the Big G is looking out for its reputation and long term growth.  It believes that if the user experience is trashy, it will lose money in the long run as people abandon using it.

I have said for some time that PPC marketing in most cases is a big waste of money.  This event proves it further.  You have to be crazy to think you can outwit Google.

Even though I’m not a big PPC marketing fan, I’m still worried about this news.    If Google doesn’t like affiliate sites in its PPC network, then what about its organic listings?  If the same “penalty” is applied to all indexed sites, there’s a good chance that affiliate sites may drop off the face of the Google earth in search results.  If this happens, it could devastate affiliate marketing.  The only other option is to have a large email list of prospects, and market to them directly, sending them content embedded with your affiliate links.

My advice is to not rely on one internet marketing business model.  Diversify; consider returning to the basics and investing in a “niche” ecommerce website.

Bill Gates, the uber tech figure of this era says he recently quit FaceBook because, according to him, “too many people wanted to be my friends.”  Gates,  who was honoured Saturday by India for his charity work, told an audience in New Delhi he had tried out Facebook but ended up with “10,000 people wanting to be my friends”.  He complained that he had difficulty figuring out if he really knew these people who wanted to “friend” him, and it got out of hand, so he quit.

Coming from any other person, this wouldn’t have registered a blip on the world wide web.  But Bill Gates?  The guy who practically invented personal computing, and has a natural gift for evaluating anything tech?  It’s fair to say this is an omen for FaceBook.

Right now, my FaceBook account is a mess.  I have to admit I was resistant when I signed up for it a couple of years ago, as part of a StomperNet course I took on Web 2.0.  The course required us to sign up on FaceBook and “friend” all other course members (several hundred).  Well, I really haven’t met these people; I have not developed a “real life, person-to-person” relationship with them, so therefore don’t really care to talk to them.  Since then, my “real” friends found me on FB, and I friended their requests, so now my FB account is a mish-mash of real friends and not-real friends.  I log on about once a week to see what some people are saying, but I must say, for me at least, FaceBook doesn’t inspire me to participate.  It’s just another thing to check besides my four email accounts, which take up a significant amount of time.

Gates, who sought to drive a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home, said the information technology revolution had been “hugely beneficial” but added: “All these tools of tech waste our time if we’re not careful.” (my bold).

This is something to take seriously.  I wrote previously that internet marketing can be like getting caught in a spiderweb.  Make sure to stick to one thing, and don’t spread yourself too thin.  Get away from the computer every day and spend time with your loved ones.