A survey of 741 small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) by Breeding Business Information (BBI) revealed that SMBs prefer print over the Internet as a source of product information.

Of the B2B prospects surveyed, 43% said they rely most on magazine articles and direct mail to learn about products.

Only 27.8% prefer social networking as a source of product information, and just 19.2% like podcasts.

The lesson?

Don’t believe the new media evangelists and techno hipsters who say that, for B2B marketing, print is dead and all your marketing should be online.

They might believe every B2B prospect on the planet Twitters and uses Facebook.

But your serious prospects are reading trade journals, the BBI survey found.

So you ignore print at your peril.

Right?

Source: DM News, 4/6/01, p. 1.

As I see it, the potential of blogging as a negative force hurting your product sales is actually greater than its potential as a positive force spurring sales.

A case in point: In 2006, Dell determined that 48% of the comments posted about the company online were negative.

To combat this bad blogosphere PR, Dell started a corporate blog, set up a blog monitoring program, and began to do outreach to bloggers.

Two years later, the percentage of blog posts that were negative about Dell had dropped to a little over 20%.

If I were a major consumer brand, I would have someone in the organization monitor what bloggers are saying about the products — and reach out to them to correct any factual errors or misconceptions.

Do you think that would work?

Or would it fail because (a) some bloggers have a chip on their shoulder while others (b) would view it as manipulative and violating netiquette?

Yes, according to a March 2009 survey of 2,005 U.S. adults (DM News, 3/30/09, p. 7).

Of those surveyed, 84% said they are concerned abou the economic recession and have cut back their spending.

Only 14% of consumers said they are not concerned about the economy (and 1% said they didn’t know).

In my little online publishing business, we hear our customers voicing similar concerns.

These days they overwhelmingly favor our low-priced (under $100) information products, although we still sell respectable amounts of mid and even high-priced items.

Customers also demand that our products deliver the value they paid for. While our refund rates on mid and high-priced products are still low (less than 5%), they are triple what they were a year ago (1.5% then vs. 4.5% today).

Instead of keeping the audio or DVD album, the customer now considers that he has already listened to or watched the program once and may not ever again. By returning the item, he can save $100 or more. And in today’s economy, that’s more tempting than when folks were flush.

Tell me how the recession is affecting your business, and I’ll give you a free copy of my special report “15 Recession-Proof Business Strategies” (value: $29). Just click here to get started:

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2hnqgubfsoaur48/a0111ft1syupc/questions

I saw in e-mail exchange today between a famous sales trainer and a successful information markter and copywriter.

In it, the sales trainer arrogantly proclaimed: “Marketing is for people who can’t sell.”

I’ve heard this many times before.

When I was in the corporate world, the sales force and the marcom department often had an adversarial relationship.

It was mainly based on salespeople not believing that marketing has value — and the marketing people resenting that snobby attitude.

The sales trainer who said “marketing is for people that can’t sell,” by the way, is a guy who actively teaches cold calling.

In essence, he advocates calling people who do not know you, interrupting them at work or at home, and pressing them into buying from a total stranger (you).

I much prefer marketing, in which I follow The Silver Rule, a principle first articulated to me by consultant Pete Silver.

The Silver Rule says that it is better for prospects to come to you than for you to go to them.

Cold-calling selling completely violates this rule.

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather spend my time talking to potential clients who call me or e-mail me because, thanks to a referral or my reputation, they are interested in hiring me.

I mean, if you just pick up the phone and cold call strangers, these strangers must certainly wonder how busy and successful you really are. After all, aren’t you spending your day dialing numbers in a prospecting directory? I can’t imagine Tom Peters or Seth Godin doing that.

Wouldn’t prospects rather buy from someone they consider a busy and successful expert and authority than a salesman calling them cold over the phone?

Wouldn’t YOU, Mr. Famous Sales Trainer, who says marketing is for people that can’t sell?

Wouldn’t you, Gentle Reader?

We constantly hear about this blogger or that blogger getting paid big bucks to blog or landing a lucrative book deal based on their blog (I actually did the latter myself).

But these lucky rich bloggers are decidedly the exception, not the rule.

According to an article in the Daily News (3/30/09, p. 35), the median income of bloggers who seek to monetize their blogs is $200 a year.

As a rule, you can make serious money blogging only if you have a lot of subscribers to your blog via RSS feed.

The article notes that for bloggers who have 100,000 subscribers or more, the median income soars to $75,000 a year — pretty darn good for an activity you do only a few hours a week.

Of course, the really smart thing is to get other people to write your blog for you, pay them nothing, and get rich on the advertising,

An article in Time noted that Huffington Post has 3,000 unpaid bloggers — and that the site, filled with content created largely by those bloggers and other sources Huffington does not pay, is worth a staggering $90 million.

Obviously I am doing something wrong.

Anybody out there making a LOT of money from your blog?

Care to share with the rest of us how you did it?

I have always contended that social networking is not a cost-effective use of the solopreneur’s time.

Now data from a new survey by Michael Stelzner confirms it.

According to the survey, people who have been using social media for a long time spend on average more than 20 hours a week on social networks.

Now, if you are a solopreneur working 40 hours a week, that means you’d spend half your working time on social networks — clearly impractical for self-employed people who valuable their billable time and productivity.

No wonder the survey notes that those working for a company are twice as likely as business owners to spend 20+ hours a week on social networks.

My conclusion: while social networking requires a minimal investment of money, the low ROTI (return on time invested) limits its desirability as a marketing activity for self-employed professionals.

How much time do YOU spend a week with social media?

Do you measure the ROTI — and find it worth the time invested?

Which social networking sites and activities account for the bulk of your time spend with these media?

Get the survey report here:

http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

For more than 4 decades, one of my favorite activities and greatest pleasures has been reading the newspaper.

Yet according to an article on cnn.com today, at least 120 U.S. newspapers have shut down since January 2008.

“Newspapers are losing their relevance in the lives of a majority of Americans,” cnn.com — an online news service — smugly proclaims.

My own kids get their info online and on TV. They don’t read the newspaper, even with daily deliver of a newspaper on our front lawn.

I read news every day online at cnn.com, the page on which my web browser is set to open — and I love it.

But I also love reading the newspaper at the lunch counter where I have my tuna sandwich each day … or at the kitchen table on weekend mornings over scrambled eggs and coffee.

This is a singular experience — peaceful, comforting, and entertaining — which seems to be lost on young people today.

I am wondering: if you are under 50, do you read news online only … and are newspapers not part of your information mix?

If you are 50 or older, like I am, do you still cling to your newspaper habit — or have you given it up for lent?

In the movie ?Armageddon,? a giant asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and when it hits, the impact will annihilate everything on the planet.

The government?s solution?

Send a team of drilling experts up into outer space to land on the asteroid.

Their mission: drill a deep hole into its core, drop an atom bomb down the hole, and detonate it, blowing the asteroid to smithereens.

Only problem is, Bruce Willis, the leader of the drill team, thinks the chances of success are slim.

?What?s your back-up plan?? he asks Billy Bob Thorton, his NASA liaison.

?Back-up plan?? Thorton. ?There?s no back-up plan. This is the only plan we have.?

Most of us are like Billy Bob, in that ? in business, career, and life ? we have no back up plan.

But we should.

None of these guys had a back-up plan:

** AH went into computer programming in the 1980s when it was a booming profession, and was quickly earning a six-figure salary. Within a few years, his job got outsourced to India, and the salary he was offered for another IT job was less than half his current pay.

** PM worked as a manager for a local family-owned business. One day the boss called him in and said: ?Times are tough, and to keep you, I have to reduce your salary by 40%. I know you?ll understand.? PM quit the next day.

** HR had a comfortable job as a hospital administrator until he was downsized. To his amazement, he found himself unqualified for any other work ? and after months of fruitless job searching, had to raise cash to live on by selling off his prized collection of antiquarian books.

** DM earned a decent living as a woodworker. But the constant exposure to sawdust and varnish was making him sick, to the point where he could not continue to earn a living in the only profession he was trained for.

** BD spent months developing a piece of software that was going to revolutionize the Internet marketing world and make him rich in the process. Last month, Google announced they were offering virtually the same software ? for free.

Most of us think bad things can never happen ? or that they only happen to ?the other guy.?

But what happens when we become ? ?the other guy??

You ? and I ? need a ?back-up plan.?

This could be:

1. Buying income-producing real-estate and other appreciating assets. Invest prudently and build your net worth to the point where you can live off your real estate and other investments.

2. Learn a second skill or profession. DM learned copywriting and today earns $400,000 a year as a freelance copywriter.

3. Create and sell a line of products ? anything from candles and perfume to exercise videos and how-to books.

4. Collecting a sizeable inheritance that will enable you to live the life of a gentleman or lady of leisure.

5. Marrying a spouse with a good income who will support you in the style to which you have become accustomed.

Of these options, my own back-up plan is #3 (mainly because #4 and #5 didn?t pan out).

A few years ago, I began to think, ?What if something happens to me so that I am unable to continue making a living as a freelance writer??

So I started my own Internet marketing business creating and selling information products ? e-books, audios, and videos ? online.

Today, my little Internet marketing business generates a six-figure income for me ? and yet I spend only an hour or two a day on it!

Do you have a back-up plan? If not, do you intend to put one into place soon?