Biz Tips Blog: Internet Marketing Tips

Scary Business Scenarios

What's the scariest thing that could happen to your business?

I think about the scariest thing that could happen to us would be losing all the creative content and programs we've developed over the last 4 years.

Since we've poured our hearts and brains into learning and teaching with information products, blogging and ezines, well, it's just frightening to think how much would be involved to re-create everything.

Patsi had to deal with this when she had to evacuate last week due to the fires in San Diego. It wasn't the  material things she worried about, they can easily be replaced. (Kitties and hubby, well, of course they're irreplaceable!). She grabbed her external backup hard drive before she left the house.

But intellectual property and creative assets are priceless and can't be replaced or re-created easily, if at all.

Here are our top tips on how to protect your intellectual property from theft and loss:

Ken McCarthy's System Intensive

Anyone planning to attend Ken McCarthy's System Intensive this Saturday in Los Angeles? I'll be there and would love to meet up if you'll be there too. I've been following McCarthy for many years and since he's going to be in L.A. I figured I couldn't and shouldn't pass up the opportunity to experience his training in person. The one day System Intensive is limited to 50 people so it will undoubtedly be an excellent high-level learning experience.

Coincidentally, Patsi will be at Mark Victor Hansen's 3 day Mega Speaking Event at the same hotel at the same time. The Blog Squad is splitting up to soak up as much professional development as possible.

Let us know if you'll be at either event.

Prepare today to avoid business disaster in the future

Not all disasters are natural. Some are intentional, such as content theft on the Web, and trademark infringements.

Do you have a website?

Do you publish a blog?

Do you write articles and submit them to article syndication directories?

Do you post your white paper, book chapters, or special reports on the web?

You work hard to write content, design programs and market on the Web. Then one day, you find the exact same copy on somebody else's website or blog!

What do you do? How do you protect your intellectual property and your creative assets?

Internet Law on the Web

You know when you are focused on a topic, everything seems to be about that topic? Well, here's another example of how and why you need to know how to protect your business on the web...an article on Practical Ecommerce talks about The Future of Law on the Web and how it's getting more complicated. To quote a small passage:

But by far the biggest issue for all web companies to face will be the coming international legislation affecting the web and the application of international laws to businesses with customers in foreign countries. A company located in Europe but with paying customers in the United States is likely subject to our laws. As other countries pass new laws and begin to enforce their own existing laws on websites located exclusively in the United States it is not hard to see that the risks associated with international ecommerce increase almost without bounds. The high level rule of thumb today is to follow U. S. law, and if you can afford to do so then follow the Canada, E. U. and U. K. laws.

This is precisely why we are hosting a teleseminar with intellectual property attorney Jay Hollander next week. After our recent interview with Hollander on Blogging and Beyond, we realized there was a heck of a lot we did not know about how to protect our online business and our intellectual property. And since announcing the teleseminar, we've received several emails from readers who have shared their personal horror stories.

Have you experienced copyright infringement or intellectual property theft? Tell your story here by clicking on the comment link.

Teaching Sells is Scheduled to Launch Today

Today is the highly anticipated launch day for Brian Clark's Teaching Sells program which looks like it's going to a terrific content development and delivery program. It's been designed with bloggers in mind and to help you make money with your content.

If you haven't downloaded Clark's free report, I highly recommend it. He is a writing guru -- to us at least -- and we pay attention and try to learn as much as we can about copywriting from Brian.

You can get the Teaching Sells Free Report now and watch for Brian's announcement later today.