Bitch-slapped!

A cautionary tale….

I just learned something the hard way. Which should be a cautionary tale for any internet marketer out there (yes, you qualify as a marketer if you have a website that you want people to go to and you want them to ‘do stuff’ (join your list, buy stuff etc) .)

If you are posting your content on a hosted site (think Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or any site owned by someone who’s not you) – then you have to remember that they own the site, not you, right?

There’s a reason that Facebook is #2 most popular site in Alexa.com and my site is #2.5 mill (and rising, not bad eh still!) – it’s because a hell of a lot of people are using that site on a daily basis, so it gets heeeeaps of content, heeeaps of backlinks, and heeeaps of traffic. (geddit?) – and then they sell ads and make a fortune.

but the Facebooks/Myspaces/Twitters/Squidoos etc-  are getting a little slice of you, by leveraging
a) your addiction to the site, and
b) your quality content that you give them for FREE,

and willingly.

So what if – instead of concentrating all your efforts on your hosted site (which could bitch-slap you/change the rules at any time) – what say instead of that, you concentrated posting your content FIRST on your own site, and THEN, and only then, posting a link to your content on the hosted site?

Do you get why that could be a good idea?

Sometimes when you get bitch-slapped by a hosted site you think, ‘oh okay, I see their business model and how they are trying to get me to give them my money’ and it’s not even unfair or anything, because the thing about hosted sites is the owner controls them- but still you might think, ‘now that the rules have changed, am I in or am I out?’

Just that, what if you got yourself addicted to facebook and they changed the rules – i.e. started to charge $4.95 a month for some sort of ‘premium’ service, or even $495 a month – or forebade you to post any non-facebook links on your profile unless you were a ‘premium member’ –  and let’s say you were operating your business from there with your fan page or whatever – it would suck that they changed the rules, right?

So, I’m just sayin’, if you post on your own site first and then post a link and a teaser to your social networking or hosted sites, then they’re YOUR bitch.

Geddit?

And if you get bitch-slapped by one of the sites that you have hosted content on, then you won’t care. Right?

Yesterday I got bitch-slapped by a site I was a member of who changed the rules, and made me re-evaluate whether I was going to like the new rules and prices, or perhaps had been putting too much time into my hosted site and not enough time to my own site.

Lesson out of all of this?

CONTROL YOUR CONTENT! OWN IT. It’s yours! Your intellectual property. Be the first publisher. Use your hosted sites as your bitches, not the other way around.

PS if you want internet marketing coaching or wordpress training, go here.

For the rest of you, this post is finished. Nothing more to see.
Now clear orf!

PPS Just kidding. Love youze!

Tagged as: bitch slap, bitch slapped, control your content, facebook, hosted sites, intellectual property, internet marketer, internet marketing coaching, myspace, squidoo, twitter, wordpress coaching