Comments by Brandon Uttley

Corey, as you and I have discussed, social media and search do indeed have a lot in common–namely, the goal of increasing awareness and driving traffic to a primary destination (i.e., your website or a blog). The use of social media for marketing (and let’s face it, sales) is still relatively new. There are certainly faux pas to avoid, but now is a good time to learn and experiment. Adding social media to your overall marketing mix can accelerate thought leadership (as Darryl points out), connect like-minded audiences faster and entice people to take action. Ultimately, as Lisa says, sales are really driven by relationships. Keeping that in mind hopefully will help people avoid polluting social media with one-way spam.

Nice job with the post.

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Robin, I love the picture of your in your PJs, working with your dog. :)

When I started with first home-based business, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get a dog. I was single at the time and figured I'd have plenty of time to raise a puppy--how hard could it be? Boy, was I wrong! So in addition to stressing out over making money, suddenly I had a yapping, peeing Lab puppy biting my ankles all day. She was wonderful, but high maintenance.

So I recommend to others that they think twice before trying to launch a home-based business and also get a new pet, or in my case have a new baby, at the same time. :) If you can plan your life better than I have, get the babies out of diapers and the pets potty trained first!

And I also confess to finishing my initial article in shorts and a t-shirt, supposedly on a "day off." So much for being able to "turn it off" when you work from home!

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Donna,

I love your distinction of evolving from "kinda working" to a "real and profitable" business from home! :) As I mentioned to Nathan, I think many businesses evolve from making a profit at home to expanding to a separate office. However, I really admire and respect those who are able to both work from home and earn not just a decent living but sustainable, increasing profits

I guess it really depends on the nature of your business, and for the more "virtual" services then it's entirely possible to work from home for a long time and be quite successful. Otherwise, it is a great problem when you get to a certain point and "outgrow" your home office. Then you can reclaim it as a guest or bonus room! :)

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Nathan, thanks for mentioning the idea of using Twitter and tweetups, etc. to get out of the home office and connect with others in the "real world." That's vital. I'm personally out of the house a great deal as well.

And as much as it's nice to save some money working from home, I'm a big believer in eventually getting a "real" office. Maybe that's just me. But I've rarely met really successful entrepreneurs who work from home, though of course it's more conceivable and possible thanks to the plethora of inexpensive web tools now!

Yet when you get to the point where you need employees or a credible place to meet with clientele, the home office loses its appeal. And for me, the physical separation of "home" and "work" can be significant boosts to productivity and long-term happiness.

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Micah, thanks for adding Fanurio to the list--I was not aware of it. For the feature set, it looks extremely affordable.

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I have not used Joomla so I don\\\\'t have an opinion on it.

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David, as far as I know there is no software for creating accounts on social media sites (you mentioned bookmarking sites, but I'm being more general here). Right now, there are just too many different variables depending on the site, that I'm not sure how one tool could tie into them all. But with the growth of services like Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect, we'll probably start seeing tools like this come along in the not-too-distant future.

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Kris, thanks for the kind words. One of the greatest things about Twitter is "meeting" intelligent, funny and helpful people like you who are halfway across the country or around the world. There are of course other tools that facilitate these chance encounters, but none I've found as powerful as Twitter. You're a fantastic role model for others to watch and learn from.

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Excellent commentary, Jason. Gary Vee is the man! You need to shave your head and start a video blog. :)

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Dorne, good luck with the newest DVD in the Flower Child series!

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Charles, this site design is based on one of the excellent premium Wordpress themes from WooThemes. If you click on the advertising in the upper right column, you can check out all their offerings. Of course, if you do click through and purchase a theme, I will get a small commission, for which I will be most grateful! Good luck with your new site.

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Chris,

I was excited to run across this post while doing some research. But then I was saddened to learn that Simply Gourmet fell victim to the economy and shut its doors in February (also saw this in a comment on your previous post about them0. Apparently, they will continue with a catering business. I wish them well. Simply Gourmet

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Scott, this is great advice. I especially liked the statement, "Simply following/friending someone isn’t enough." You can't join sit there and expect anything good to happen--you need to be actively engaged in whatever networks you are part of. And as you said, don't expect instant referrals; they must be earned. Otherwise, you're just a desperate spammer. Relationships are built on trust.

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Thanks, David.

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Jason, this is true (about the ubiquitous use of AOL, Gmail or Yahoo accounts by people). They are fine for PERSONAL use, but don't look good for professional purposes.

I should have been a bit more clear, however, that for social media it helps to have these accounts as a means to an end (like getting a Flickr account with a Yahoo ID). I did not mean to imply that anyone actually publicly use these new email addresses for business or personal use per se; they can just be set up and used for administrative use with the services I mentioned.

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