My husband's creating a family room in our basement. And he's doing it all himself except, of course, for the things I've deemed essential to life support upstairs like electricity, heat and water.

He hand-selected every element going into the project from cement to wood. He's doing a great job, too. We expect it to be completed sometime in 2012 -- late 2012.

Now, you might think with an opening like that along with the headline of this article, I'm going to try to convince you doing-it-yourself is not the way to go for anything, much less online marketing, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

If you've been reading any emails at all from Precision, you'd know we're very much on board with helping you bring these kinds of services in-house.

The fact is, no one knows your business or has more invested in doing things right, than you do. At the same time - it is important to recognize that there are trade-offs.

In a 2004 report from Jupiter Research, it was pointed out that while two-thirds of search engine services were performed in-house, most in-house search personnel actually had up to 5 other job functions to contend with.

That means in most cases, there's no "expert" on duty to answer the big questions that fall outside the everyday analysis and account management duties associated with these services.

Which brings me back to my basement (because it's all about me). I don't know how many times I've thought to myself as I've heard my husband slaving away downstairs, "Honey, can you bring me another coke -- the Lifetime Channel's Romance-a-thon is starting!" (Hey, I didn't claim I actually said it out loud ; )

However, in my defense, right AFTER that initial thought is, "If only there was someone who could come in and check out what we were doing and make sure its ok but not really be part of the project and not feel bad when we sent them away to continue on our own again."

That's what Precision's Learning Center is all about. Helping companies become stronger online, whether that is through educational classes, part-time consulting or full-service marketing.

The point is whichever avenue you choose - whether in-house, outsource or somewhere in-between, it is essential to the health of any business to market online in some fashion.