Sucses Internet Marketing

Offline Networking VS Online Networking



Online networking provides a complement to, and enhancement of, offline networking; in many cases, it also takes its place. Those in business who truly understand and appreciate the fundamental nature of networks and their core position as the glue of human relations; also understand that it is in networks that an individual expands themselves, their opportunities and their knowledge. How many times have you heard a successful business person explain their success with the words "I'm just a good networker"?

While the skill of networking can provide an average individual with resources, advice, knowledge and opportunities; the lack of those skills can severely impair even the greatest business person. When you come to understand how basic and fundamental the concept of networks is to understanding societies and their success or failure - then you begin to understand how this core skill can make the difference between your success, your mediocrity, and even your failure as a business person.

It always used to surprise me when I met business people who had so many interests and were members of so many clubs outside of their work; in fact, everything they did seemed to have a club associated with it. What I hadn't realized at that time was that all these people were 'networking'; yes, they probably enjoyed their squash club, their cycling club, their running club, and all the other clubs they were members of - but was it really entirely for the sake of leisure that they joined? No. It was to meet other like minded individuals and share thoughts, ideas, contacts, resources - the more people you know the more opportunities and information come your way. In the offline 'real world' this can be tiring. Online is a different matter.

Online marketing takes all those elements of networking and multiplies them by the whole world: scrap the worldwide web: it's the world wide network! Imagine that badminton club after work was actually in a building that was mysteriously connected to every other badminton club in the world and all you had to do was walk through a door and meet all its members. Welcome to that badminton club, welcome to online networking. The true beauty of it is, though, that you don't actually have to work up a sweat to get in.

The networks of greatest value, in any situation, are the largest and those with members who are also members of many other networks. What this means is that the network as a whole has access to a wider range of information; not only from its members directly, but also via those connections to other networks and their information. On the simplest level the more members, the more connections each member has and the easier it is for you to communicate with those members then the greater value a network has for you. Internet networks provide just this scenario; both for you as an individual and for your business.

There are very many online networking websites which cater to very many different social groups. Famously, MySpace serves all groups and is used by many business people simply because of its massive user base and, therefore, vast number of members who are also connected to other networks. If you are serious about networking then you should have a presence on MySpace. Figures in 2006 showed it to be the world's sixth most popular website, the third most popular in the United States, with over a hundred million individual user accounts; as such, MySpace comes the closest to being the internet's overall 'network of networks'.

There are a wide range of networking services online, some competing directly with MySpace and others targeting more specific interest groups or activities. With its massive user base MySpace is worth getting involved in but as a business person there are other services which target you specifically and create an environment custom designed for your needs.

LinkedIn is one such networking service, targeting business professionals. By mid 2007 it was reported to have over eleven million registered members, covering one hundred and fifty industries and over four hundred economic regions. It targets three core networking activities: staying in touch or getting in touch with colleagues and friends, past and present; assistance is finding or advertising career opportunities; and finding information related to your industry or business. Between the LinkedIn staff and resources, and the eleven million members, this must be the internet's business network of networks!

With many negative new stories based on the internet, and the frivolous nature of much reporting about MySpace and social networking sites, it is easy to dismiss them as a fad or something not to take seriously; but when you consider the real benefits of networking a 'club' like MySpace of over a hundred million members, and LinkedIn with more than eleven million, it is difficult to dismiss these sites or their obvious potential benefits. Five minutes on one of these sites could, potentially, gain you a great deal more than hours at the squash courts.





Blogging - Why Marketers Should Use Blogs



This article was written as part of our case study to attempt to bring in 5,000 visitors in 30 days. You can read more about our other case studies below.

Don't let the popular name of blogging misrepresent its usefulness or effectiveness for you, as a business person. Like social network sites, traditional news media seem to love characterizing blogs as 'lowbrow', highly personal, often mad, frequently prurient, mostly partisan displays of highly subjective and often wrong comments and opinion. That may or may not be a fair generalization, but either way it shouldn't concern you. Bogging is first and foremost a technology.

The term 'blog' really means two things; it is a verb and a noun - it is in the use of 'blog' as a verb where the characterizations lie; 'to blog' is to write and publish a blog and this activity is what attracts a perceived scorn. But the word 'blog' is also a noun and refers to the technology itself, and when talking or reading about blogs, bloggers and blogging we should all keep our attention upon that use of the word since it is in the technology that the power lies, not in the perceived worth of 'some' of the output. Any truly democratic medium will have a wide variance of quality and use, but to characterize all output and all users of the medium as worthy of equal scorn because of the perceived low level of some users is unbalanced.

Blog technology allows instant publication in a simple fashion of all and any content, and facilitates its swift circulation to search engines and syndications. Purely and simply, this is a technology for the masses and the specialists alike. There is nothing about the technology itself which makes its output 'lowbrow' partisan, prurient, or anything else, and characterizations of blogs as such are no different to those characterizations of the internet as nothing more than pornography highways. There is far more to it than that.

Unfortunately, the use to which something is put will often end up characterizing something more conclusively than the real potential within it. Blogs are a case of this injustice; but serious and successful business people use blogs in increasing numbers because they see the power in the technology and don't care what it's called.

From a marketer's point of view, blogs and blog platforms can provide excellent product sites, marketing sites, sales pages and reviews. With the expansion of blog functionality, especially with the Open Source Word press platform, blogs have taken on more and more of what was traditionally the functionality of a fully fledged html or php custom coded site. It has become possible to have all the functionality of a traditional website but with all the ease of use, speed of publishing, and search engine benefits of a blog.

What's more, you can get much of this for free with any one of the very many blog network hosting services which are run, and hosted, by the developer, like: Blogger, LiveJournal and Xanga, or even MySpace or Windows Live Spaces. Word press itself even has a hosting service where their software is pre installed for you. All these services require no installation at all, and cost nothing, and merely ask that you create a simple membership with minimal details.

From a marketer's perspective there are clear and obvious advantages to having access to a variety of networks which allow the free creation of multiple sites; especially where these sites require little more than a few choices regarding look and feel and then allow the user to fill them with content and leverage the power of a large blogging network to pull in visitors and alert the search engines to your presence.

Typically, an entire online marketing campaign might make use of blogging solutions. Especially in the case of an affiliate marketing campaign, the blog network is becoming part of the core affiliate marketing standard model. An affiliate marketer will create a domain name based upon the affiliate program they are promoting, and then do a simple install of the free Word press Open Source blogging platform software. They will choose from many thousands of free Word press 'templates' a layout and graphics which suit their promotion and install that then create a sales page for their product on the Word press site.

Next, they will create accounts on a variety of the free blog networks and create blogs reviewing and discussing the affiliate product, with links to the sales page. This they will multiply again and again producing more and more visitors to the sales page from the high volume of traffic which consistently passes through each of the blog networks. Cost so far? From one to ten dollars for a domain name, and a few dollars to host the Word press sales page. It is a solid model entirely based upon the blogging platforms and very effective. Don't let bad publicity put you off - blogs are a marketer's dream.