17 May 10 Tips to Beat the Internet Grim Reaper If You Died Tonight | REPRINT

If you passed away tonight, who would know how to run your internet business?

My website, BlackAtlanta.com, was sparked as an idea some years ago.  Many of you know the story… and if you don’t, I promise to blog about it soon.  However, it was basically a site to feature African American lifestyles in Atlanta, GA.

In doing SEO research for the site, I kept seeing a website for the keywords “Black Atlanta” in Google. I kept coming across this site:  http://blackatlanta.tripod.com/

Now, during the late 90s and early 2000’s, web hosting was Expensive.  There were a few big hosts that offered free hosting, in exchange for ads being all over your page.  They made money, just like social networking sites do today!  You drove them a lot of traffic to your pages and they advertised on it and made money.  What a model!

Back to the Story.  I tried like crazy to find the “owner” of the Tripod site.  I traced it back to a gentleman who was a Civil Engineer…. Ronald Smith, PE  He was SO before his time.  Images of Structures and complex cement foundations were all over some of his other sites… Keep in mind, this was the late 90s!

Ronald F Smith, P.E.

I tried emailing him.  I tried calling him.  Nothing.  The BEST that I can presume is that he won the lottery and then moved to the Amazon Jungles.  Why else would a guy as progressive as that leave the face of the earth? Perhaps I just have not found him yet….   Maybe… Just maybe, he lost the love that we all have of the internet and decided to call his ideas quits.  I still look so we can share ideas of his early pioneering.

The reason why this guy’s concept was special to me, was that he was a pioneer of what I was trying to do:  Index the business, entertainment, and people of Black Atlanta.  Furthermore, he did more cities.  He was a true internet pioneer and one whom we honor on BlackInternetMarketing.com. Guys like Shoe over at ShoeMoney.com have BOLDLY asked where are all the Black Techies online… Well, this guy is the epitome!

Now, the original question… What would happen if you died tonight?  In a case like the tripod above, your site would be abandoned and would only be up as long as your hosting was paid.  If tripod was not that free service that was being kept alive by a ton of google ads, it would not be up today.

If you died tonight….

• Would your internet business run itself?
• Would your relatives and/or heirs have the logins to your registrar for your domain renewals?
• Would your whole business crumble and die around YOU?  Have you branded your business correctly to continue in the case of your death?
• Could your business be sold or would a potential buyer shy away because your site Died with YOU?

I have had this discussion with my cousin Kelvin of KelvinBrown.com.  IF something were to happen, we have mutually shared logins for registrars, web hosts and more.  I am sure that maybe, my wife and family, will be in Cancun relaxing if I were to go LOL  Just kidding.

10 Steps to Beat The Internet Grim Reaper.

In the case you were to become disabled or die, here are some steps to protect your hard work. Internet bloggers and marketers like Yaro Starak report $10K a month and more revenues per their sites.  Is he prepared?    Here you go…

1. Prepare a will. Make sure your internet holdings are documented in your will.
2. Have the hard talks. Talk with family about your internet wishes in case you were to pass.
3. Find a Techie Partner. My cousin acts as my techie partner.  I can trust him with my information and he would understand next steps in case something would happen.
4. Domain Logins: Give your Techie Partner your logins for your Domain Registrar.
5. Web Hosting: Keep your Techie Partner informed about where you host your sites.
6. Share backups: I am guilty.  But you should put your sites on a CD every once in a while and mail them to your techie partner.  OR, let them know where to find them in the case a site needed to be restored.
7. Share Merchant Acct and paypal information: If your site continues to make money, you need to make sure that your family or heirs will know how and where to get to your money!
8. Keep a customer/client/contact list: Add a client list to your backup.  Backup all email lists.  Give access to autoresponders and Outlook accounts and/or Gmail type accounts!
9. Have an exit plan for Your web site: If you were to leave, and this site revolved solely around you, then you should plan to inform your family that the income would stop!
10. Get life insurance: As entrepreneurs, we all too often overlook good medical care and life insurance.  If your business makes great money, replace that income with life insurance.  If it does not… replace that nothing spot with life insurance.

Here is an 11th as a bonus. If you are like me, you spend hours in front of the PC.  Put the twinkies down and take a walk outside.  Don’t magnify health issues such as obesity… which also influences how fast the reaper visits you.

I hope that this post is THOUGHT invoking…. My grandmother used to say…

“The Young MAY die… The OLD MUST die.”

Get with the program, and do not let your site become an ORPHAN.  Comment below on your plans to keep your site going!

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For my original blog posting, you can check one of my legacy blogs by clicking here:  http://www.digitalbpj.com/if-you-died-tonight-10-steps-to-beat-the-internet-grim-reaper/-/Black-Internet-Marketing/2008/11/25/