"I have a small e-retailing business and want to make sure I'm attracting the most traffic I can on the Web. I've got about a dozen books on how to market your business online, and I admit, I'm pretty confused. It seems like every month there's a new place you can advertise your business — a new social networking site, virtual communities like www.secondlife.com, and so forth. Are any of these worthwhile?"

Marketing your business on the Web can be extremely time consuming. If you have a website for your business, you have to keep creating and posting new content to it so the search engine "spiders" will find your site and launch it to the top of the natural search rankings. If you have a blog, you have to keep the bloody thing up to date even when you're on vacation or traveling on business.

But the new social networking websites, precisely because they're so interactive and (let's face it) fun, can be an even bigger "time vampire." It seems like every day I'm receiving e-mails from people who want to be my "friend" online or "link in" with me. In many cases I have a vague recollection of actually meeting these folks once upon a time, and I feel compelled to respond to avoid alienating them. But should I respond? Do I really need a Facebook profile in my world?

Back in 1998, I had the most successful Internet radio program in the country. Called "Succeeding in Your Business" (just like this column), it was launched by a startup company that was affiliated with a national chain of small business publications. Three or four times a year, this company flew me across the country to their studios in Malibu, Calif., and paid me some fairly decent cash to record a one-hour weekly talk show with call-in guests, advice from experts and the like.

I don't know how they rate Internet radio programs, but I was told that my show was the No.-1-ranked Internet radio program in the United States at that time. I had about 350 individual, unique listeners . . . nationwide. Six months later, the show ended because the company couldn't attract enough advertisers to keep it going.

Now, the show was fabulous (if I do say so myself), the broadcast quality was terrific, and the company went to great lengths to advertise the program. So what went wrong?

The answer is clear to anyone who remembers what surfing the Internet was like in 1998. The vast majority of Internet users then used dial-up connections, and you couldn't listen to Internet radio via a dial-up connection. Broadband "streaming" connections to the Internet (such as cable modems and DSL) were in their infancy in 1998, and only a small handful of technophiles and "early adopters" had them. Many of them were listening to my show, but there weren't enough of them in 1998 to generate advertiser interest. Today, Internet radio is a big deal, attracting millions of listeners nationwide and generating huge advertising bucks. But it took almost 10 years for broadband Internet access to become widespread enough to make it commercially viable.

This happens a lot with emerging technologies and new media: Television was invented in the 1920s, but it didn't become a viable advertising medium until the 1950s; radio was invented in the 1890s, but it didn't become a viable medium until the 1920s. If you commit heavily to an early stage technology and your marketplace hasn't widely accepted it, you might find that you are so "ahead of the curve" that you have disappeared from view. As with all marketing, you go where your customers actually are, not where you want them to be. Is your marketplace actively participating in the emerging Web 2.0 technologies? If so, are they actually buying stuff there? If the answer to either question is "no," that's a good sign you shouldn't be spending much of your precious marketing time and money there . . . at least not yet.

If a presence on Web 2.0 will help your business grow, then go for it. If it won't, or if it's too early to tell, hold off a bit and see what develops. Spend your time and your money on the Web media that are actually reaching the marketplaces you want to target, and that are "pulling" people to buy stuff online based on hard analytic data.

And one more thing about social networking sites: Be careful who you allow to be your "friends" online or invite to join your online "network." One thing the Web hasn't changed — people still judge you by the company you keep, and if I think your Facebook friends are a bunch of weirdos, I will assume you are one as well and steer clear of you and your business, even if I like the stuff you're got for sale.

Cliff Ennico (cennico@legalcareer.com) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series "Money Hunt." This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO.

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