1) “Hi there. Thanx 4 following. If u want to get 1000 followers a day then  follow this simple foolproof method: http://spamsite.uk”

You have followers; so what’s wrong with selling them your product? Answer: They haven’t a clue about you other than the post/tweet that took their interest. What are the chances of a lead? About 1 in 1000; of which 5% maximum become a sale: if you spam 20,000 people like this you might get a sale; and lose around 10,000 of them as followers in the process.

Imagine if I approached you at your local pub or club and without introducing myself asked you to buy my product…

2) “Any girls wiv msn please contact me wiv ur msn email.”

That was never what social networking was intended for; nor is it what the majority of people want to see on social networking sites; except perhaps Habbo or bebo IM. Teens will be teens, and in their race for the highly prized goal of losing their virginity as soon as possible, they may abuse the rules.

3) “…Retweet this message or your house will burn down and you’ll have 7 years bad luck…”

Yeh, that’s just being a total asshole; say no more. As is: –

4) “Earn one million – yes ONE MILLION dollars – in a week: …”

Those are just four examples. Can you think of any more?

…Just resting, in the main, as far as new content goes: –

You see I spent a year and a half enslaved to this blog; during which time I produced hundreds of good-quality articles. – A reader-count of up to 130 visitors a day in the last 2 weeks bears witness to that fact. This year, 2010, having met some amazing people online and offline, I’m not enslaved to this blog anymore…

Herein lies a warning: Don’t allow your blog to become the centrepiece of your very existence, or you’ll end up with only a few friends and no social-life.

Added to that; your blog isn’t the be-all and end-all of your online business anyway… Well it shouldn’t be. If it is, and you run a commercialised blog, then I’m betting that you’re finding it rather hard to make a living from your marketing efforts. – People just aren’t buying; and, try as you might, using all the best techniques and marketing strategies out there, you’re simply not making enough income from your blogging efforts, despite working up to 24 hours a day on it.

Why is that? Well, in short, a blog is a lousy sales-platform.

”Now she tells us; after having encouraged many people to commit to online marketing and problogging. – Great…” You reply.

”But hang on. – Why are some bloggers making a lot of money from blogging then?”

That’s the big question. the answer is that they’re not relying on their blogs for their marketing. – Let me clarify this: Your blog is a hub; the hub of all your online operations. What happens if you try to run a car on its hubs? You get a short distance in a long time after a very bumpy ride. – And the same is true of online business: You need more than just the blog.

You have a good blog sitting there gathering dust with only a few readers. Why? Because nobody knows it exists. – It needs to be advertised. How do you do that? You get involved in social media, but without the intention of promoting your blog. – Your intention should be to sell yourself – Yes the commodity that sells best on social media is you.

Imagine going to a huge party and doing nothing but shouting out about how great your blog is. – You’ll return home after the party having peed a number of people off, having made no new friends, and having gained possibly 1 new reader who’s only keeping an eye out for freebies.

Social media sites are the huge parties; and you’re supposed to go there to enjoy yourself with other people, meet new friends, and add to  your popularity. Going there solely with the purpose of advertising your blog is, apart from spamming, also extremely antisocial. – Also nobody’s interested in your blog anyway. They can read any number of blogs on any number of topics anywhere online. Why should yours be any better than any other blog? Don’t flatter yourself; your blog is no more important to anyone else than any other of the millions of blogs out there. – And anyone who sees the antisocial performance described above will probably take steps to avoid reading your blog even if they do know about it.

So rather than going to social media to promote your blog, you go to social media to meet people and to form a relationship with others. When those other people start to know and to like you; you mention your blog to them in passing conversation when the opportunity arises, and you ask them if they’d mind having a look at it and commenting in some way as to what they think of it.

People who know and like you will be interested in knowing about your blog and in what you have to say. – But what if they’re not interested in the topic of your blog? Then you have a problem. To overcome this, mix in circles of people who are interested in the topic of your blog and make some friends there. Who knows; they might recommend you blog to their like-minded friends too, and suddenly you have many more readers, who know you through their friends who are also your friends… You’re suddenly in with a chance of joining a large social circle of people with an interest in what you have to say within your blog.

When it comes to marketing, you might mention in your new social circle inside social media, to those already reading your blog, that you’re running a promotion. – Would people mind taking a look when they get a spare minute or two? Word will soon get round, and people will start looking at the adverts in your blog which lead them on to a separate sales area; nota part of your blog, maybe even another small blog in itself, that is purpose-built for selling them the product.

This is all basic stuff; and I’ve only outlined the process herein, but notice: Your blog isn’t doing the selling; because it won’t do the selling anyway; even of you try to make it do so. Your blog is the hub, and the outposts such as social media, custom-designed sales-platforms, etc, are doing the job: These are the wheels and tyres attached to your hub. – The things on which you drive your online business by contact and relationship-building with other people.

People like people who are like they are; so the more like-minded people you befriend, the more of your friends are going to want to read your blog and buy your products.

OK let’s go through the main points we’ve discussed above: –

1) Blogs don’t sell product or drive your business: They are simple central-pivots around which the rest of your online business revolves.

2) Online marketing is relationship-driven: If nobody knows and likes you then nobody will bother with you.

- So do put time and effort into your blog; after all it’s the centre of all your operations – it needs to look nice, be easily readable, and packed with quality content which helps readers solve problems and shows the world that you know what you’re on about.

- But don’t allow your blog to become the be-all and end-all of everything as you exclusively dedicate your entire existence to it. If you do it’ll fail and your entire effort will be totally wasted.

- So why is this blog resting as far as new content goes?

Well I’m currently showing a few friends how they can make an income online; and in doing so I’m making friends with some of their friends, some of whom are also interested in what I’m doing. – It’s a kind of “social-media in the real-world” scenario. Those of them that are dedicated to their efforts will be living testament to the fact that I have been well trained myself, and I know what I’m on about. – That will be borne out in the results they produce. Also, they may buy any number of any training or training-related affiliate products that I advertise.

I am only one person though; I’m not a company or conglomerate of groups, not even a group . – Just me. I simply can’t continue to produce reams of daily content while at the same time doing as detailed above. therefore I’ve prioritised the practical real-world assistance I’m giving to a select few above the free-content-creation related to this blog for the time being. – But as you see from reading this; one thing this blog is not is dead.