A company senior executive readily proclaimed that he didn’t know anything about Internet marketing and then he discovered that his company had an unauthorized company blog.

How could that be? He didn’t know, but his company had no Internet policy for his employees.

The unauthorized blog was not on the company’s Web site, but instead was a hosted WordPress.com blog with his company’s name. The blog itself couldn’t actually be read because it was password protected, which means whoever was writing it was only allowing specific people to read the contents.

It’s important to realize that anyone can choose any name for a blog on a hosted site. There’s no gatekeeper saying: Do you have a legitimate right to call your blog by your employer’s company name?

RED LIGHT FLASHING: Let this be a warning for all senior company execs who have chosen not to know about social media and blogging. Your employees may be writing about you in your company name without your knowledge.

IMMEDIATE SOLUTION: One, start learning about social media and blogging ASAP. Either read everything you can on the subject right now, or hire a company to get you up to speed quickly.

Two, immediately set in place a company Internet policy. This does NOT take months to write. It’s really rather simple – once you yourself understand how such social networks as Twitter Facebook, and YouTube as well as blogging work on the Internet.

A basic company Internet policy should make it very clear what an employee is and is not allowed to do online — both on and off company time.

The purpose of the company Internet policy is to protect the reputation of the company and control use of the Internet on company time.

This is an area of law that is still being developed, so it’s a good idea to consult with an attorney as to how to treat these issues in your employee manual:

- What limitations on accessing the Internet for personal reasons during work hours can you set on employees?

- Do you have the right to stop employees talking about their jobs online?

- What obligations to alert you to negative publicity found online about the company can you impose on employees?

Although these areas of law are not yet well-defined, this is no reason to not have any policy. Better to have a basic policy rather than give your employees no standards and then be surprised when someone’s online behavior bites into your company’s reputation.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant whose power marketing website is http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com . If you liked this article, you’ll love her free report on “Power Marketing’s Top 3 Internet Marketing Tips” ‘ grab your report now from http://www.TeachMeInternetBusiness.com

Stop wasting your time on trial and error. Its OK to learn what works and what does not work from others. Make sure you have a success mindset which is open to learning from others who have achieved success.

There is a right way and a wrong way to develop and grow an online business. Mirroring and learning from others is ok in business – unlike when you where at school. Its called leverage.

You must not copy what they are doing word for word but you must firstly:

1. Adopt their mindset – what do they focus on, who do they focus on? how much time do they invest in their business? who are they in business with? what are the names of the people that you associate with and who can really challenge you and help you?

2. Work on your own mindset – Be focused on achieving your success and you must be specific in order to do this,. Make sure you have committed yourself to the success of the business. You must be committed to working on your online business every day for an extended period of time – Are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. Make sure you understand the time it will take.

Many of the online scam businesses claim that you can make thousands of dollars from your first day in business by working only 1-2 hours per day. Most of the truly successful online entrepreneurs who have built sustainable, ethical, online businesses for themselves will have invested their time, their efforts and 100% of their focus to ensure success in their online venture.

If you are serious you will treat your business seriously.

On each of the Online Business Training courses that I have given and attended over the past few years, Mindset features on each and every one of them.

You must be able to explain to people that you are involved in marketing online and leave it at that – Their lack of knowledge or understanding must not influence your commitment to success. They will however be experts in online scamming and will have heard all the stories!

Its important for both you and your own mindset to be very clear to these people that you are working on a serious business and that you are committed to its success and that you are working on yourself all the time.

There is a saying where I come from “If you want to soar with the eagles, do not scratch with the turkeys” or as Tony Robbins say “You are the average of the six people that you spend most time with” Look around you – Have you got to make some tough decisions and are you prepared to do this,. This works if you want it to work.

Watching the news and TV and reading the daily newspapers will not help you to become successful online. Cut the time you spend on these activities to a minimum.

3. Find a proven system that works online and that has worked online for for many people. Speak to these people and understand what they have done to make it a success. Its the quickest way to becoming successful online.

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Derek O’Dwyer is a business growth specialist who has worked with hundreds of business owners over the past 8 years helping them to be successful both on line and off line. Visit http://www.havingthebestday.com for a proven system that has worked for a number of years for thousands of online business owners