KevinNewcomb.com

Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide, a site focusing on online marketing for small businesses, pointed me toward a BusinessWeek column today called “Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use.” I had to read it twice to be sure that the author, Gene Marks, was serious.

The ignorance behind an article like this is staggering. He equates 10 technologies to vitamins, teeth-whitening products, and hair-restoring shampoo. Since none of those things have worked for him, he assumes they will not work for anyone.

He advises small businesses to avoid at all costs ten very useful technologies. There are just so many things wrong with his advice that I felt compelled to refute his article immediately. I’ll go through each topic one at a time, since almost every one is misguided, if not irresponsible.

1. RSS Feeds

Marks writes about Bob, an electrical contractor, who “was ‘fed’ an endless stream of meaningless items displayed in an overly large browser window that winds up distracting more than informing. Like Bob, most of the business owners I know have abandoned RSS and gone back to controlling when they get their information.”

RSS feeds do allow users to control the way they get their information. Bob can choose which feeds to follow, and using a feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader can easily decide when to read those feeds. If he finds the feeds to be irrelevant to him, he can easily unsubscribe.

2. Spam Filters

Marks writes: “I get this question at just about every presentation I give to business owners: ‘What spam filters do you recommend?’ My answer: ‘None.’ They all suck.”

I would agree that some spam filters do suck, but to advise against using them at all is ridiculous. Granted, if you only get a few e-mails a day, you may not need to spend big bucks on a spam filter. But if you’re doing any business online, you’re likely getting hundreds, if not thousands of spam messages a day. Why waste your time wading through a pile that big when there is technology readily available to deal with it?

3. Antivirus Software

Marks’ argument: AV software slows down your machine and makes it hard to install software, so you shouldn’t use any.

Yes, the chances are slim that a small business owner will get a major virus that destroys important files. So is the chance that a tree will fall on a customer’s car in their parking lot, but I’ll bet they carry insurance to cover that.

4. Blogs

Marks is very condescending about blogs. I don’t even know where to start, other than to say that thousands of people do see the benefit of blogging for their business. No, they should not spend 17 hours a day to keep it fresh. Small business owners should not be misled to think blogging is an all-or-nothing exercise.

5. Search Engine Optimization

This one touches a nerve, since I spend my days writing about the benefits of SEO at Search Engine Watch.

We’ve all heard the argument that SEO is BS, and the SEO as snake-oil argument has been done and overdone. Yes, there are unethical SEO practitioners out there promising top results and under-delivering. For every one of those worthless shady criminals, there are hundreds of ethical practitioners who can help a small business get exposure online for a reasonable price.

6. Mobile Applications

Marks is not so far off on this one: “Mobile applications will be a great thing…someday. Just like hovercrafts, telepods, and renewable energy. But for a small business on a limited budget, it’s still science fiction.”

Had he been a bit less condescending, I’d have less of a problem. He’s right that mobile applications are still not ready for prime time, but that’s changing. With the advances in mobile devices and networks, they’re not as far off as he’d have you believe.

7. Customer Relationship Management Software

Marks writes: “A CRM system can be a good thing, but it takes more than paying for the software and training. Without a substantial internal investment, CRM won’t work.”

I agree with that wholeheartedly, but to go from there to saying that small businesses should not use it is a bit of a jump.

8. AdWords

Another sore spot here. This one and the SEO one are probably what led me to drop everything and write this post.

He writes: “Don’t you know how much to budget for ‘clicks’ on your ad? Are you just a little suspicious as to who exactly is counting these ‘clicks’ that conveniently turn into revenue for these companies? Like John, you’ve just entered the alternate universe of Internet advertising!”

I don’t even know where to begin. For a business selling online, or conducting lead-gen online, tracking the profitability of AdWords is simple. It’s a bit more complicated for companies that complete a sale offline, but not impossible by any means.

And saying that clicks “conveniently turn into revenue” is an obvious attempt to raise the specter of click fraud, another topic that’s been done and overdone. He’s missing the fact that AdWords is a pay-for-performance model. If it doesn’t perform, advertisers can lower their bids until it does.

Marks also writes: “Here’s a word of wisdom: Leave the mass-market advertising to Coke and Pepsi. Small business owners should stick to less mystifying forms of promotion.”

AdWords, and other forms of search advertising, can be targeted in many ways, including geographically, to reduce a “mass-market” to the advertisers actual market.

9. Online Video

Another one where Marks isn’t too far off. He writes: “Ron, a reseller of computer software, thought his business would be perfect for online video, what with the amount of Web-based training and support he provides. Ron figured he could post some videos on YouTube to help his clients. He soon learned that the cost and complexity was just too high.”

True, online video can be expensive and complex, but there are more and more companies that are making the process simpler. It’s clearly not the right answer for every small business, but it should not be dismissed because it didn’t work for one person, who may or may not have chosen the best way to use it.

10. Web 2.0

This one comes from ignorance, but it’s widespread ignorance. Marks writes: “Want to make a room of small business owners go completely silent? Ask them to define Web 2.0.”

Clearly, “Web 2.0″ is a buzzword, and like any buzzword it’s been overused and abused. That doesn’t mean the underlying principles are invalid. There are many ways to define it, but Web 2.0 is basically about using the Web as a platform, it’s about a two-way dialog instead of one-way broadcasting messages, and it’s about a change in the way people are using the Web.

Whether small business owners, or anyone else, chooses to ignore it or not, the Web is changing, and the way a business’ customers use it is changing too. Ignoring that would be foolish.