A lot of online promotion experts are finally awake to the fact that Web 2.0 sites are now the high traffic hot spots.

These experts have been thinking of, testing, and tracking their ideas and results – and as a result are now teaching their proven techniques. It’s about time, and there’s still plenty of time to promote your site through these channels so don’t buy into any hype about ‘the window of opportunity closing’.

The options wide open to a small business owner are many – the hardest part is pre-determining where your promotion energy is best spent for best results.

Find your target market and get your offer in their path.

Telling you where your target market is, generically, is impossible. That is if I truly want to help (and not hinder) your success. Every market differs. You need to know your market, their interests and passions, and then ‘best guess’ what Web 2.0 website they’ll be hanging out on. Because if you believe me and the research that’s taken me to this point, they’re hanging out somewhere. (More users spending more time online – but not necessarily showing up on our websites to coincide with the research numbers.)

Here is a very simplistic example…you sell a relationship-related product, your market is lonely hearts, they’re hanging out at the dating or singles sites – network (on a free web 2.0 social network site) with your message and gain traffic.

Another simplistic example…you sell truck parts, your market is the young, rural male. When they’re not working on their trucks, they might just be watching online videos (on a web 2.0 video sharing site) – post a few fun clips of 4×4 trucks and gain traffic.

Website Promotion Using Video Sites – YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video…

I’ve been doing this with video for the past year and it works in spades! From one of my online marketing websites (which I’m happy to disclose to the masses, but my niche markets I keep very hidden from prying eyes) I created a 3 minute clip that led to my website and has made me a top affiliate (and now one of only a few partners) for a very popular website building script. That little video has also increased my visitor traffic by about 30% and holding – even after 11 months (March 9, 2006) and even though I only posted that video clip on Google Video. Just last night I uploaded it to YouTube to experiment, test and track the viability of that Web 2.0 site.

At the end of this article I’ll post some of the hottest Web 2.0 video sharing sites today for you to consider.

The question still remains however…is this Web 2.0 traffic technique right for your market?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “I don’t care what market you’re in, this should drag them in.” Read the rest of this entry »

Search by: Web 2.0, online videos, Google Video, YouTube, Web 2.0 traffic

People are flocking to Web 2.0 sites where the focus is on socializing.

As a known recluse, I’ll tell you my initial thoughts (last year) on this phenomena were a little sad for the state of our world.

“How terribly lonely and unsatisfied people must be in our heartless world that they have to interact with an unknown via a keyboard just to feed their hearts and souls…”

I realize a year later how skewed that knee-jerk reaction was.

People are not socializing just for the sake of socializing!

They’re flocking to those Web 2.0 sites for a purpose other than to connect. Which explains why the market is both male and female.

Sure, some are looking for love on dating sites, but even more are networking for career goals, interacting over hobbies and interests, connecting for intellectual advancement.

I’ve talked about ‘like minds’ before so I won’t get into it again…

We really should be discussing the build of a Web 2.0 site with a socializing focus. The big question is, “Should social networks be primary in their focus or employ other features where the social networking aspect is just one of many attractants?” Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s talk about the main reason social networking and bookmarking Web 2.0 sites have grown in popularity and capitalized on visitor traffic and time. (If you don’t think Web 2.0 sites are capitalizing on the average user’s online time – social networking sites or other Web 2.0 styled sites – you need to see some of the usage reseach reports I’ve been reading! Those stats will blow your mind!)

Why Social Web 2.0 Sites Are So Hot – And Why the Trend Isn’t Going Anywhere, Anytime Soon

You and I are likely very much the same. We look at online time as a time for learning, expanding our marketing reach, and creating new income opportunities. You might, like I, have dismissed the idea of openly sharing contacts, desires, ambitions and favorites online as a passing fad – surely the only thing really worth sharing is research and information!

But you and I are only a small percentage of internet users – a miniscule representation. The rest of the world is finding that creating lists, sharing stories and photos, personal achievements and goals for the future is satisfying their need to connect to the world on a more personal level – and the web is just the place to do so.

I invite you to take a step back from the time you spend online and look to the average internet surfer. Why are they spending more time online now than they are sitting in front of the television? Reading books? Or for that matter frequenting bars, theaters, and the like?

It’s all about the human need to connect, the need to share, and the need for acceptance.

Finding like minds. Read the rest of this entry »

In my online research during the past 6 months – assessing, visiting and watching the traffic trends of Web 2.0 sites – I’ve noticed many aspects that either give or distract from the success of those sites. I’ll be sharing these observations over the coming weeks – bit by bit.

Of course these are nothing more than an outsider’s perspective and analysis. There is no way of knowing 100% the mandate, the growth pattern, or the strategies employed for any one site (unless publicly posted).

So with that, here are the first few ‘do nots’ for consideration if you want your 2.0 site to be successful.

Do Not Be A Web 2.0 Island

Do not believe your site can stand on it’s own if it’s a social (network or bookmark) style site. Do not ignore the fact that social network sites need a framework and traffic source outside of itself in order to thrive and grow. Although the users within your site might like to keep their new found corner of the online world their little secret, you will need to ensure that a consistent stream of traffic (through advertising or viral marketing) keeps your site fresh and exciting.

A Web 2.0 socially-minded site links freely to other networks and stand-alone sites, and as such is linked to just as freely. This is the premise of the blog, before WordPress and other CMS platforms incorporated the ‘nofollow’ tag within updated coding. Blogger’s trackbacks and commenting is one of the main reasons blogs hit the spotlight in the webmaster’s world and rose to fame on the dawn of the 2.0 scene.

New and consistent traffic isn’t the only way to keep things fresh. You might also integrate new tools, new sub-groups within the main group, or new sites that match the interests of your users. The options and strategies will vary greatly across target markets so I am unable to supply one grand example that showcases this strategy and will not distract from your own creativity.

Do Not Ignore Incentives

Once the novelty, or the initial purpose, of any social network Web 2.0 site has worn off, ask yourself this: “What’s Left?”

Ask that especially if the site is one of your own!

Do your users have an incentive of any sort to: Keep coming back? Refer more users? Add more content?

Other than the ‘popularity contests’ that are so vital to the insecure or immature (get as many friends on your list as possible and you are more loved, more accepted and therefore ‘win’), what is the incentive for your visitors to keep visiting?

Here’s where many sites drop the ball. After a while of collecting friends, making casual acquaintences, and grouping all their real world buddies hooked in – user’s lose interest, find the next cool site, and start all over again – on some other Web 2.0 site!

What I’m saying is don’t ignore incentives. A few ‘add content, social networking’ sites now share the advertising revenue with it’s users. A pittance for the most part, but an incentive nonetheless.

Other Web 2.0 sites have a career incentive (facebook), or find love incentives (like so many dating sites).

This is where strategy comes into play and again the answer to the incentives equation is different for every target market. I’ve got some of my own ideas I’ll be shooting for on my Web 2.0 sites – perhaps I’ll share them (and the results) in a few months time.

Until next time, when I discuss more of the integral components of successful Web 2.0 sites – What to do, and what not to do.

Search by: Web 2.0 site

A subscriber just wrote me from another site asking:

“Laura! What’s all this talk about traffic with Web 2.0? Is SEO dead?”

No, search engine optimization (the high-end webmastering techniques for preparing your site for high rankings in the search engines) is certainly not dead. However, not much is new in the SEO standpoint of building website traffic so I don’t write much about it anymore.

After all, once you understand the importance of backlinks, latent semantic indexing, theming, etc., and you’ve got those top ranks for your chosen keywords, what’s left to do for more traffic?

Well…you could pay for it. You could trade it. Or you could just get your ads, offers, self, in front of your customers more often.

Yes, I said ‘self’.

If you don’t have time for this, then put in the effort for strategizing and hire a student to do it for you.

One better is to set up a 2.0 web site that is so catchy and exciting your target customer is going to land on your site just for kicks.

I’m sure you’re scratching your head over that one. “Just for kicks? You want me to build a website just for kicks?”

That’s right, I said ‘just for kicks’.

And the reason why I said it is due largely to the current research I’ve done on 2005-2007 surfer activity trends for my Web 2.0 project. I’ll admit most of my research has been US and Canadian based but that is the lion’s share of my own target markets.

I know there are a lot of sharp business minded folks eager to scoff at Web 2.0 due to the fact that the profit model is seldom discussed in business plans for these sites. Unless of course you consider the buy-out option. Check out YouTube selling for $1.65 billion, or MySpace, or any of the other 2.0 styled websites that were once free for the user but now have their profit venues in plain sight.

Our sharp business-minded friends just haven’t looked closely enough. Just haven’t considered perhaps the variety of ways a Web 2.0 site’s traffic could be the first point of contact for a market that is impossible to reach by any other means. Read the rest of this entry »

Search by: Web 2.0, traffic

Clearly we’re well into 2007 now, the New Year has passed and most of our resolutions already fallen and forgotten.

There is one however that I’m adamant about and that is to do my part to put an end to the bad advice given by the internet marketers to the struggling entrepreneur in the form of $27-$97 ebooks.

This is a tough one. Ebooks or training courses that are just right for one, is completely old hat and useless for another. It all depends on your current level of understanding and experience, how much you value knowledge and new techniques, and if the writer or trainer connects with you on a personal level. (Remember your high school teacher that you couldn’t stand or understand but others in your class loved and florished under?)

I quickly learned this lesson in the first version of The Stampede Secret back in 2004.

For every customer that wrote in and said “I don’t understand this aspect. It’s too hard,” there would be another that would write in and say “Okay, I’ve got that. Now what’s the next step? Give me the advanced stuff…” That’s one of the reasons I ended up putting all the strategy lessons in the Member’s Area. Customers landed there when they were ready for the next level of marketing with blogs and rss feeds.

Choosing Information That’s Right For You

What was needed in our internet marketing industry was a venue for people to get the inside scoop on a product – without the sales pitch. Real reviews from real people with no affiliate link attached makes it much easier to determine if a course or ebook is right for you or a waste of your time and money.

A 2.0 Website Launch – Real People Writing Honest Reviews

When Dave Vallieres offered to involve me in a new website project, I jumped at the opportunity to get involved. It fit my 2007 mandate and resolution (to put the right products in the right people’s hands) perfectly!

Not only that, but it is clearly a 2.0 site, another of my mandates for 2007 site creation. Read the rest of this entry »

Search by: 2.0 site

I’ve had a few emails this month from people who want to know more about marketing via social networking on myspace. I’ve been asked to write a review on the ebooks that are selling now, or provide an instructional piece on how you can do this.

Friends, it isn’t going to happen.

Not only that but every marketer’s list that I’m on that is promoting such rubbish and waste of time has seen my finger on the unsubscribe key. I suggest you do the same because your best interest is not the heart of their emails – selling you short term rewards for their own gain, is!

I know the stats in for the final quarter of 2006 and that MySpace was kicking statistical butt for traffic (some say double google’s traffic).

But…

There’s are a huge host of reasons why you don’t want to market your wares or run a social networking campaign there.

I hope you find some of these shocking and disturbing. Disturbing enough to stop taking traffic advice from people who just want to sell you something…anything…just to earn a buck.

Marketing on MySpace

First off, creating profiles on MySpace isn’t a sound investment of your time regarading the future of your business.

Taking time or expending energy to build content and links from websites you don’t own or control is a serious mis-use of your work day. Unless you can accomplish this with a click of a button (such as posting a new link on del.icio.us or quick cut and paste of one of your pre-written classified advert on craigslist, etc.).

Don’t ever work hard to create a presence or space on a free resource without reading the fine print.

This is precisely the reason why I’ve been telling people for years to get serious about their business and get their content off blogspot (google’s free blog accounts). So many have been misled into thinking that because google owns blogspot that their content will receive more traffic and higher PR if they host their blog there. Read the rest of this entry »

Search by: social networking

Years ago I remember reading a well known guru’s words that went something like this:

“If a geek ever picked up some marketing skills we’ll all be in trouble…”

If you know who wrote that, or something similar please post a note below. I’d like to give credit for this insight where it is due.

Now you’re probably wondering why this rings so true to my ears and why I’m calling 2007 the Year of the Geek.

Let’s Talk About Geeks and Marketers

Long before Web 2.0, far back into the early days of the internet, you had to be a bit of a geek if you wanted to do anything more than send email. Web pages were generated from raw html code, people were ‘telneting’ into other’s computers and server networks, bulletin boards were clunky, and getting on (or off) someone’s mailing list required some weird majordomo commands. (Even I didn’t touch that one!)

Enter the marketers who had a vision of what people would want to see, read about and buy. Software programs to create pages easily, scripts to make email management easier, automated tools to shrink image sizes, and so on.

Marketers Innovate, Geeks Create

Marketers find out what people want. Geeks make the tools to make it a reality. Website designers are locked someplace in the middle – geeky enough to tweak existing applications to suit the ‘boss’, marketer enough to understand color and placement to appeal to various markets, but not skilled enough in either area to create applications or envision innovations. Read the rest of this entry »

Search by: marketing, Web 2.0