Long-time readers know that I am no fan of webcams for business presentations in public webinars. It’s almost impossible to create a professional video image that matches audience expectations created by our collective exposure to commercial productions such as television programs and high end studio webcasts.

But my antipathy does not apply to webcams used in collaborative sessions with people you already know. Why not invoke a little more personal interaction in your virtual meeting? Goodness knows, video is a hot selling commodity today in the web collaboration space.

One of the many problems with setting up a good space for video is getting rid of distractions in the background. I remember watching a professional presentation instructor give a webcast from his office. His webcam broadcast not only his image, but the desk of a fellow worker behind him, who came and went during the course of the webinar. It was immensely distracting and I found myself concentrating on my attempts to see what was on the other guy’s computer screen!

When I work from my home office, I am plagued by the same problem. I have bookcases against the wall behind my chair that are filled with knickknacks and paperwork. They don’t look very good as a backdrop to my video meetings.

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Whether your business sells business-to-business or business-to-consumer products or services, it is important to create and nurture diverse communication channels. Why? For multiple reasons, all of which help expedite the timely and targeted distribution of information.

For example, if your business launches a new product, how are you going to get it in front of consumers? Without fresh, existing channels, you would have to rely on expensive advertising via pay-per-click or be forced to wait months for a search engine optimization effort to take shape. A lack of existing channels creates time and cost barriers that can prolong the dissemination of information and push out the time to realize revenue. Yet, if you created and continually nurtured various communication channels (each with a specific purpose) you can drastically reduce time to revenue by gaining speed and lowering cost.

What are some communication channels worth creating and nurturing? Some of the best involve:

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1. Make your site more search engine-friendly.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a must, not a ‘maybe,’ if you want your business site to be found in Google. If you have a great-looking site that no one can find, it’s not doing its job.

2. Add a blog or podcast to your site.

If you like to talk (or write) about your business and you’re good at what you do, a blog or podcast may be just the thing. Both of them do one thing very well – they encourage visitors to come back to your site again and again. And they’re so easy to use! (I’m a huge fan of Wordpress). Blogs give you the advantage of adding a new page of fresh content to your site every time you post, while a podcast is like having your very own radio show.

3. Remove a blog from your site.

That might sound odd – but if you have a business blog and haven’t committed the time and effort to post fairly regularly, it’s probably better *not* to have one at all. If your last post was in 2005, consider removing the link to the blog for the time being. It reflects poorly on your company and makes it look like you don’t keep up with things.

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Jared Diamond’s new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, provides a simple framework of five forces that lead to collapse: environmental damage and population growth, climate change, hostile neighbors, weakened trade partners and failure to solve societal problems. I thought I would mash it up with the Techcrunch Deadpool:

The NY Times has a great piece on Dr. Diamond’s theory and the academic debate amongst anthropologists. The above mashup is based on their infographic about the model and collapsed civilizations like the Maya, and it serves as an excuse to discuss the risks facing startups.

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Google AdWords have today released a new feature which allows My Client Centre account managers to create campaign templates and share them with managed accounts.

The Google help centre has some information about the campaign templates, I’ve only created a very basic template but this does look like a very useful feature to speed up the setup process for new client accounts or similar campaigns.

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It’s been said that only the most egotistical of people could ever run for U.S. President. I believe that.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing either. It takes thick skin and a very strong desire to succeed to run a legitimate presidential campaign. There has to be something truly special about a presidential candidate. Not so much in doing what it takes to get enough votes to win, but simply in thinking one has the strength to succeed in run the country effectively.

Running a successful presidential campaign and running a successful company and running a successful personal life are all very much the same. They all take someone with great personal strength. Weak people need not apply to a successful, satisfying life.

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As I’m working with PPC Super Affiliate Amit Mehta on our Super Affiliate Accelerator project, I’ve stumbled on a number of challenges that new PPC marketers are going to face, and have developed some workarounds for them.

Plus new PPC marketers can get free AdWords traffic too.

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