There are just as many ways to integrate Web 2.0 interaction - and therefore reap the traffic benefits - into an existing website, as there are to launch a new site with Web 2.0 elements.

Below is a quick table I’ve drafted up (in no particular order) of types of sites or applications (types/apps), brief descriptions of each (what), benefits (why), as well as measurements of success to consider after integration (measurement). Consider the measurement challenges before you integrate however as all Web 2.0 applications are not created equal.

Small and large, business and corporations, are contemplating the need to integrate Web 2.0 technologies or utilize ad channels on existing Web 2.0 properties for business.

This post is the beginning of a series created for the slow-to-adapt. We’ll begin with questions that can only be answered by companies that know and understand their target market.

Consider first, whether or not Web 2.0 technologies are being adopted by your target market.

Are your customers or potential customers likely to participate in user-generated content? Will your site visitors read, comment on and be affected by content found online? Will they share their views publicly? If your target market is known to be passionate about the products you sell or service, providing them a venue to share their views can be extremely valuable for obvious reasons.
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If you’re late on the bandwagon for Web 2.0 - and it seems that you’re not alone - and you plan on running your business online into the future, now is the time to crack down and fully understand the pulse of the internet.

Don’t worry if you are late to listen to the message. It seems hundreds of internet marketing trainers are just jumping in now as well - a full year since I published Stampede 2.0. And sadly, one of my favorite marketing authors is still taking the stance that Web 2.0 doesn’t exist. I do hope he’ll come around soon before his business slips into red.

If you don’t believe me (and the words I’ve been writing to you since last January), then who would you believe?

Would you listen to Bill Gates?

After all, so much of how we run our businesses, so much of what we’ve accomplished online for the last 10 years can be attributed back to Bill. There’s absolutely no denying today that the web is big, is here, is integrated into our lives - just as Bill predicted.

• comScore reported that $22 billion has been spent online during the first 44 days of the Holiday season (November 1-December 14)
• Online spending for the year (2007) is project to be over $200 billion. An increase of 20%+- every year, for the last 4 years.

Not just commerce and business. The net also has a hold on our youth.

• Future Laboratory reports that 18-24 year-olds would rather spend 15 minutes visiting social networking sites than watching the idiot box, or playing video games, or talking on their cells.

So back to big Bill.

If you’d seen the future as he saw it 12 years ago you’d be a rich man or woman today.

Perhaps as rich as Bill himself.

Who, by the way, is only months away from retirement.

Follow a leader. Heed a visionary’s words and advice.

In Bill’s January speech he shared his vision for the future, stating that advances in connectivity, high-definition video and audio will be the top driving forces for the next 10 years.

What does that mean to you if you’re not a tech company? What does that mean to a company with an online presence?

This. Give your user what they’ve come to expect from so many other online properties. No, you don’t have to be the next FaceBook to succeed, but you do need to incorporate Web 2.0 principles and strategies into your marketing.

A lot of people email me asking how to build a Web 2.0 site from the ground up. (Answers vary based on target market, site mandates, etc.)

One area I haven’t had requests for the past year however, are queries on how to build a .mobi site. Even though anyone on their game here would see the huge opportunity based on how fast we’ve come to rely on the world wide web and cell phones - just in the last 5 years!

Take a few minutes out of your day and check out this new service Jagango. Integration into larger networks soon, this is a mobile-internet interface stored on Jagango’s servers. In just a few steps you can create a personal mobile website. Wait till the ‘hip’ crowd gets a hold of this!

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More information on Jagango is available through the press release on PRweb. Don’t forget to check PRweb weekly for news related to your industry. For that matter, be sure to leave your own press releases on PRweb whenever you want to get the word out.

Now I’m not poking fun at non-geeks - au contraire - but I do want to talk about those of us who have innovative ideas but no way to put them into website programming. Especially when it comes to Web 2.0 programming!

This started with a reader’s comments and questions on http://www.stampedesecret.com/web20/contact/. I don’t usually post the comments left on that page (it exists purely for contact purposes), except in situations where I believe others need the same answers as those who write in.

As an aside, when you comment on that page please understand that if I do post it as public access, I will strip any particulars from it that will disclose your ideas, target markets, or full name. I have had enough profit-producing niche markets lost to competitors in the last 6 years due to being far too open about my online activities. I will do my utmost to protect yours when you take the intiative to confide in me.

“I would like to create a bespoke web 2.0 site…Could you give me any recommendation on where to go to research how this can be acheived? The only place I have to go for information and advice is the internet, as I have no geek (in a nice way:)) friends…”

editor’s note: “In the U.S., bespoke software is often called custom or custom-designed software.” (source: http://searchsmb.techtarget.com)

What’s A Non-Geek to Do?

Reports are in from Silicon Valley.

Programmers and Web 2.0 investors spending entire days at the local coffee shops. Brainstorming and making offers. Laying their ideas and innovations out on the table. Many want to be the ‘next big thing’. Other’s just want to copy what YouTube’s got, or digg, or MySpace. (That’s not smart marketing or business, but it’s the way of the get rich quick set.) Read the rest of this entry »