How to Analyze, Optimize, Publicize, Monetize and Troubleshotize the Ideal Web 2.0 Site in a Nutshel
Recently I have been talking a lot about Web 2.0 and the far reaching effects it is had through the whole social media phenomenon. Hugely popular sites and services like (Digg, Blogger and YouTube) attract enormous amounts of audiences by delivering the once impossible, now inevitable opportunity to rant to anyone clear across the world or, discuss your special expertise in a particular niche with those who share a similar interests.
In this series of articles I will explain how to apply these new trends and new technologies using very inexpensive techniques and services that do not involve tinkering with the HTML code of your pages themselves so you too can be well informed and able to make every effort to take full advantage of the social media era.
First and foremost, stay fresh! Having just a simple digital brochure (e.g. an online bulletin board of your services, contact page etc) simply doesn't work anymore. Your site has to have regularly updated content. Nobody likes stale news; similarly, your sites content needs to stay fresh in order to continually hook and delight your primary audience. Moreover as a publisher of information people will want to do business with you if they trust you and one of the best ways to build that trust is to provide the users with relevant clear authoritative content.
This involves coming up with a strategy to keep people coming back for the latest and greatest. For example, you could plan to keep up with the latest trends in the home load industry, such as mortgage rate trends, refinancing etcetera. Or you could feature relevant news articles, special promos, tips or tutorials that draw attention to your particular niche. In addition, your plan should provide a checklist with specifics "to do" items essentially saying that you are going to do this many blogs this week, this many podcasts this month, this many videos and keep a regular publishing schedule (remember we're talking long-term strategy here) so your subscribers will become used to hearing from you and, you'll be able to gain their trust. So again, your site has to have regularly updated content.
Secondly your content should be made available through RSS (formally "RDF Site Summary", commonly known as "Really Simple Syndication") or RSS feed. You don't need to understand the ins and outs of the RSS protocol (I promised you no tinkering, didn't I? Though if you want to know more, here is a good place to start), all you need to know is why RSS is becoming so popular and how important it is to make your content available through RSS. Basically, what's so attractive about RSS (versus bookmarks or even email) is it allows the subscriber to control the delivery of information. In other words, unlike with email, subscribers can limit what they receive to exactly what they want.
If you've ever opened your inbox and seen something that looked like spam, walked like spam or quacked like spam I think you can certainly appreciate this. Since users can be counted on to be a little lazy (or would most likely prefer avoiding going all over the place for new information), they'll just use sites and services like myYahoo or Google Reader that can constantly checks their favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Consequently, as the web becomes more and more decentralized placing media control in users' hands and allowing them to experience what they want, when they want, your site needs to adjust to this decentralize nature and be present wherever your target market is looking. So, whether you are posting up article regularly, video blogging or podcasting, whatever the case maybe, you need to be positioned to allow syndication on your site and that means making your content available through an RSS feed.
In the upcoming weeks I will be talking more about these new Web 2.0 trends and also show you the easiest way to launch your own ready-built web 2.0 site. Likewise, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments and make sure to check back for more updates
In this series of articles I will explain how to apply these new trends and new technologies using very inexpensive techniques and services that do not involve tinkering with the HTML code of your pages themselves so you too can be well informed and able to make every effort to take full advantage of the social media era.
First and foremost, stay fresh! Having just a simple digital brochure (e.g. an online bulletin board of your services, contact page etc) simply doesn't work anymore. Your site has to have regularly updated content. Nobody likes stale news; similarly, your sites content needs to stay fresh in order to continually hook and delight your primary audience. Moreover as a publisher of information people will want to do business with you if they trust you and one of the best ways to build that trust is to provide the users with relevant clear authoritative content.
This involves coming up with a strategy to keep people coming back for the latest and greatest. For example, you could plan to keep up with the latest trends in the home load industry, such as mortgage rate trends, refinancing etcetera. Or you could feature relevant news articles, special promos, tips or tutorials that draw attention to your particular niche. In addition, your plan should provide a checklist with specifics "to do" items essentially saying that you are going to do this many blogs this week, this many podcasts this month, this many videos and keep a regular publishing schedule (remember we're talking long-term strategy here) so your subscribers will become used to hearing from you and, you'll be able to gain their trust. So again, your site has to have regularly updated content.
Secondly your content should be made available through RSS (formally "RDF Site Summary", commonly known as "Really Simple Syndication") or RSS feed. You don't need to understand the ins and outs of the RSS protocol (I promised you no tinkering, didn't I? Though if you want to know more, here is a good place to start), all you need to know is why RSS is becoming so popular and how important it is to make your content available through RSS. Basically, what's so attractive about RSS (versus bookmarks or even email) is it allows the subscriber to control the delivery of information. In other words, unlike with email, subscribers can limit what they receive to exactly what they want.
If you've ever opened your inbox and seen something that looked like spam, walked like spam or quacked like spam I think you can certainly appreciate this. Since users can be counted on to be a little lazy (or would most likely prefer avoiding going all over the place for new information), they'll just use sites and services like myYahoo or Google Reader that can constantly checks their favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Consequently, as the web becomes more and more decentralized placing media control in users' hands and allowing them to experience what they want, when they want, your site needs to adjust to this decentralize nature and be present wherever your target market is looking. So, whether you are posting up article regularly, video blogging or podcasting, whatever the case maybe, you need to be positioned to allow syndication on your site and that means making your content available through an RSS feed.
In the upcoming weeks I will be talking more about these new Web 2.0 trends and also show you the easiest way to launch your own ready-built web 2.0 site. Likewise, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments and make sure to check back for more updates
