There’s an old school marketing guru (let’s call him “DonKey”) who says Internet businesses do not exist. As a Web lawyer and entrepreneur, I know that’s nonsense. However, according to DonKey, the Web is only a marketing and distribution channel.
To support this view, DonKey likes to point to the time when the government wiped out the TV info-mercial “business” for years by enacting new regulations to protect consumers.
Although the government has been cracking down on false and deceptive Internet marketing practices (talk with your Web lawyer about this), you won’t see the government outlawing the Internet.
Before putting DonKey out to pasture or shipping him off to the glue factory, let’s give him credit for being half right.
You don’t have a business built on a solid foundation if your only source of marketing and distribution is online.
For example, Amazon.com hasn’t put all its eggs in one basket even though it is now worth 50 times its largest competitor in the real world. In addition to diversifying far beyond books in its product line (even its competitors pay to use its software!), the company is using alternative marketing channels, such as making offers offline and even having electronics store Best Buy sell Amazon’s Kindle eBook readers.
Like a free lance soldier, be a mercenary about your Internet business instead of remaining loyal to just one method of growing your company. Look for alternative marketing and distribution sources that work whether or not they’re online or offline.
To your online success!
-Mike the Web lawyer
