My friend and I were debating about this topic just a while ago. We were arguing if networking is essential to a website’s growth, or if it is just something that we can take advantage of. I personally chose the latter; networking is just a tool which we can use to help relieve our internet marketing hardships. I will state our points here, starting with “Networking is a necessity.”
After reading all the valid points, please, let me know what you think. Is networking a necessity to a website’s (or an online business’) growth, or is it just something that we can gain additional benefits from?
Please note that two persons wrote this single post. One wrote some things for networking being a necessity and one wrote some things for networking being an advantage. So it’s just like we’re debating with each other through a blog post.
Networking: A Necessity
Networking can be considered as a need in order for a website to grow. Consider this situation: A person who has a lot of contacts and friends launches a website. Right after the launch, he sends everyone in his address book (or IM list) a message saying that the website is now live. Most, if not all, of his contacts would then visit the website and if it’s really good, the word would spread like a virus and the site would develop rapidly.
Another thing that a person’s contacts can do is they can complement your deficiencies. For example, you own a blog and you can’t post for a month. Your friends could help you if they’re capable enough. If you didn’t have any contacts, then your blog would surely die. Imagine, one month of no updates. Your readers would be bored and eventually they would unsubscribe.
Finally, networking is really a necessity because without it, you will actually get little to no visitors. If you don’t tell anyone about your site, how would people find out about it (besides advertising of course)? Sheer luck? Typos? These reasons just prove that networking is indeed a requirement for a site to grow.
Networking: An Advantage
Networking is not a need, it is merely an advantage. Before I start with my arguments, let us define networking first.
From http://www.pricedrightllc.com/id90.htm:
Two or more devices (or people) that communicate with each other and share resources
A website with great content can tremendously grow within a month or so even without the use of networking. Creating ad campaigns, SEO campaigns, and building lots of backlinks can send in tons of traffic to a site — yes, WITH NO NETWORKING INVOLVED. This just proves one thing: networking is not a prerequisite for a website’s growth.
Now let me talk about why networking are just advantages. Allow me to share some things that networking can do to give an online business or a website an edge (take note, just advantages) over others.
Let us create a sample scenario wherein a new webmaster is searching for a great web designer, and he knows no one yet since he is just a newbie. He would search high and low for web designers and probably, he would end up with someone who offers services for a high price, yet the quality is just so-so. Now, let’s recreate the situation. Suppose the new webmaster had contacts. He could just ask these people if they know great web designers. Surely, one or two (or even more) of his contacts would respond, especially if the people in his list are all webmasters! Who knows, he might even get a discount by simply being a referral. So now his website gets a great design for a great price. He may use his remaining budget for advertising or other purposes. He’s got an EDGE.
I hope you get what the situation was trying to explain. Networking only gives us benefits and other advantages; it is not a requirement for one website to grow. It is merely something which aids our businesses, but not something that needs to be there in order for us to attain success.
What Do You Think?
We have delivered our points, and I strongly believe that each side had a firm stand. Now, what do you think about this issue? Is networking really a requirement in order for an online business to succeed, or is it just an advantage to further increase the development and growth of a certain website?