Keith Goodrum

Ed Dale twittered about an article titled The Growing Frustration Of Ebay Sellers at Business Week online. It looks like Ebay is shutting down seller’s accounts for falling below a 4.3 on their new rating system.

Business Week profiled a couple of folks who are relying on Ebay as the overwhelming majority of their business, and in some their only source of business. The story went on to explain what these people had to do to get back into favor with Ebay.

However, this points out a major flaw in their business model.

It’s sad to see these folks getting shut down, and have their sales grind to a halt. However their fatal flaw was getting comfortable with the huge amount of business Ebay was driving to their business. They found out how vulnerable this position can be after one policy change. The old all your eggs in one basket came back & bit them hard.

Back in March I talked a little bit about the danger of relying on a single source for your traffic, business, customers. eBay’s Latest Policy Is An Important Marketing Lesson

Relying on 3rd Party’s for traffic generation is a risky strategy.

This is especially dangerous when a 3rd party like Ebay, Google or even the latest traffic darling Entrecard controls the method. When you rely on a 3rd party you are one policy change from being locked out.

It is fun and exciting to see a bull rush of traffic coming from one place like StumbleUpon, Twitter or Entrecard. It’s so easy to pour all your efforts into this traffic source, while ignoring others… But, that is a huge mistake.

Think of traffic tactics or strategies like investing.

You have to spread your risk. You don’t want your portfolio concentrated in one industry, stock or even in a single type of investment. The meltdown from this past September is an example of not spreading your investment risk. To many people thought the real estate market would always boom, and got burned when it collapsed.

The same can be said for traffic sources. One can work like gangbusters producing a large number of visitors. But, eventually something will happen. Either the traffic source will fall out of favor… Myspace comes to mind. Or, the traffic source will make a policy change, and possibly lock you out… can anyone say Google slap!

The solution is simple; make sure you have many traffic sources going at once. Not one or two… but 7, 10 or more. Having this many going at once spreads your risk. The more you have the better protected you will be when one source hits a snag, and stops producing.

It’s always better to have 100 ways to send you 1 visitor vs. 1 way to send you 100 visitors.

Got an email from Ed Dale a couple days ago, and got around to reading it today. He sent a link to his blog about a video he wanted folks to watch.

Here’s a cut from Ed’s blog over at the 30 Day Challenge…

I WISH I WAS A GOOD ENOUGH HEADLINE WRITER SO I COULD BE SURE YOU WOULD WATCH THIS

Hi Gang

Usually I just stick to Internet Marketing, Guitars and, of course Fashion…

today – I need you to watch something REALLY important. You NEED to understand what is really going on in the economic world. Make no mistake – there are issues – BUT- The same technology that we use to market our wares can be used to create fear and panic like we have never seen in history. I have a lot to say on this – but that will have to wait.

He encourages everyone to watch the video, and help spread it around so others will watch it.

I found it very informative, and learned a great deal about the current economic situation. Warren Buffet makes a very strong argument why the bail out package is so important. He also talks about the things that led up to this mess, and why many different parties are responsible.

I also like the fact that Warren gives many reasons why our economic system will prevail. Not all is lost. Check out the video below…

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4537231419795681197&ei=08LySOeEAYfA-wGYsrzlDg&q=warren+buffet+charlie+rose&hl=en&emb=1[/googlevideo]

Last month I went into New York City for a 30 Day Challenge meet-up. It was a fun way to get together with other 30DCers to network and get to know each other. One of the drawbacks to working online is the solitary aspect of it. You are usually the only one doing you know marketing online, and it can be tough finding anyone to talk to about this thing we do.

It was fun & I had a great time. One of the benefits of this meet-up was Ed Dale was going to be there. It was an added benefit. This was my 2nd year with the 30DC and getting the opportunity to meet the founder of the challenge was too much to pass up.

Ed of course can found at the Thirty Day Challenge. He also has a blog, which is a great study in brand marketing at Tubby Nerd.

Now, the big surprise was Ed had arrange for a special guest to show up to the meet-up. He happen to be traveling in the US, and was in New York City that night. It was none other than Yaro Starak.

This was exciting for me because Yaro was the 1st blogger I started following. I used his Blog Profits Blueprint to set up my 1st blog. So, it was cool to get to meet who was so instrumental in my blogging. You can find Yaro at his blog Entrepreneurs Journey, and if you opt-in to his email list you can get a copy of the Blog Profits Blueprint.

Two things to take away from this post…

1. Get out to these networking meetings – It’s fun to be around like minded people, and to socialize. You would be surprised who you might meet.

2. Make sure to bring your camera – I use to not take my camera, and missed out on some opportunities to get my picture taken with some of these folks.

Hope to see you around at some future seminars or meet-ups.