Online publishing has all sorts of advantages. You become your own boss, you have your own schedule, you get paid to produce content and bring in users. It\’s all great fun… and you can do it without leaving your house or having to cope with office politics.
It\’s those last benefits that can look so appealing and be a little dangerous too.
Social networking sites have made it so easy to chat with other people across the Web that you might wonder why you ever need to actually speak to anyone outside your social circle.
With Twitter, you can tell the world what you\’re doing every five minutes with a few quick keystrokes.
With Facebook, you can swap tips in specialist groups, identify likely customers and announce updates to your websites.
And with email, you can put all your communications in writing and do it whenever you want.
I can\’t deny that\’s all fantastically useful. I don\’t know where I\’d be today without all of those things.
But however helpful online networking might be, I can\’t deny that it\’s much slower and much less deep than old, traditional face-to-face chats. That\’s why people come to conferences and that\’s why the vast majority of my joint ventures are formed with people I\’ve actually met rather than with people who just send me an email.
When you meet someone in the flesh, shake their hand and talk with them over a coffee, you build the sort of bond with them that no amount of emailing can ever replace.
When you\’re looking for partners to help grow your business then, it\’s important to use more tools than your keyboard.
Pick up the phone and call them.
Turn on your webcam and video conference with them.
And best of all, buy a plane ticket or climb into your car and visit them. You could take a trip to their office – plenty of top marketers have visited me here in Loveland – or you could get the most out of your trip and attend a conference where you can meet lots of people at the same time.
The Internet is a fantastic thing and a great way to talk to lots of people at the same time. But never forget that there\’s a world beyond the Web too, and you\’re going to need it to make your online business a success.