VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3
Dr. Neutrality, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Telcos
- Josh Yeager
If you're not familiar with the concept of Net Neutrality, drop your Blackberry or Treo for a minute, pull over to the side of the road and NOW HEAR THIS: Net Neutrality is a simplified way of saying that if you use the Internet in any way, shape or form, you should find the proposal to regulate content appalling. Decisions about what you see or read on the Internet are currently being made for you by the U.S. House & Senate. This could affect the way you do business, check your webmail, bank online or shop for your mother's last minute birthday present -- the way you've become accustomed to living in the 21st century.
There is a raging debate going on between basically two camps:
- Network telecom mega-conglomerates who've invested millions of dollars into developing hi-speed access/content delivery "pipelines" (read AT&T, Verizon, Comcast & TimeWarner)
- Open Internet proponents, like consumers demanding unbiased access to websites without eco-political manipulation, free-speech proponents and entrepreneurs like Amazon, eBay, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Yahoo - even , the inventor of the Internet, who've built their businesses around unregulated access.
The pipeline builders would like to see government regulation enacted that secures their right to charge companies to serve one website faster or more reliably than another. As they've invested in the infrastructure that supports Google's search site and market share, why shouldn't Google have to pay for allowing visitors to have an optimal experience, they ask. told Business Week Online, "What [Google, Vonage, and others] would like to do is to use my pipes free. But I ain't going to let them do that." ....
Open Internet proponents, like myself, would like to see the serving of websites remain neutral and unbiased for a multitude of reasons. The open network precedent has allowed for all sorts of Internet based businesses to flourish over the last 15 years. It has also driven online innovation and a renewed sense of enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit that invigorated the common woman. My livelihood (www.sitewire.net), and most likely yours as well, is dependant upon the core principle of unregulated access to a website.
To further educate yourself on this topic, visit your favorite news search engine or check out these links:
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Blogs - So funky…and yet so fresh!
- Kyle Williams
As my co-workers have written in previous months, blogs are indeed extremely hot. However, before going out and setting the world afire one post at a time, here are some things to consider.
Keep it casual
One of the most annoying things when reading a blog is feeling like I am reading a sales pitch. Yes, blogs can be a great marketing tool, but the key is to make them something the consumer wants to read. Feel free to talk about your products, but do it in a manner that keeps the reader involved. Talk about things from a personal perspective - why do YOU like the product. Keep it professional, keep it informative, but most importantly, keep it fun!
Avoid a security snafu
Because of the simplistic nature of blogs, it is incredibly easy to hype an upcoming event or product. But be careful! A lot of major companies have had serious security issues because of blogs, both corporate and employee generated. While it may be easy to just post and go, make sure to have someone screen your entries just like any other release. In other words, keep it casual, but not TOO casual.
Update early and often
There is no limit to the amount of times you should post a week. In fact, as long as your posts remain relevant, the more the better! It is fairly obvious, but one of the easiest ways to lose readership of your blog is to not post in it. As a rule of thumb, try and post something at least once a week. Even if it's not completely pertinent to your product itself, having something new keeps the readers engaged.
Link, link, link
The more you link to other relevant sites, pictures, and videos, the better. This is a very easy way to increase organic search rankings, as well as provide additional context for your articles. It's also always good to have remote sites link to your blog, boosting your page rank even more. Most blog sites do tremendously well when it comes to Google page ranks. Livejournal.com, one popular blog site, scores at 9 out of 10.
Blogs are great in many ways. They are inexpensive, easily maintainable, and with a little effort, they can be an essential part of your marketing campaign.
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Pink Panther
- Kimberly LaVasseur
Either I just completely gave away my age, or most of you who read the title of this article immediately "heard" the theme for the sneaky Pink Panther start playing in your head. Maybe it's time you got a little sneaky when it comes to sleuthing around online to check out what your competition is up to. Like solving any great mystery, it takes time; but I suspect you'll be surprised by how much opportunity still exists for you to beat your competition to the punch when it comes to finding new customers online!
So here's how. First, make a list of those companies you believe to be your top 5 competitors in the non-virtual world. Next, go to Google and Yahoo! (these two search engines account for 65%+ of search volume) and type in the name of each of your competitors. Do you see the company you searched for ranked on the first page in the or results?
Now start searching on keyword phrases you would want your customers to use if they were looking for your business online but didn't know your name. TIP: don't use the most broad phrases, whether they are relevant or not. While these phrases generally get a TON of traffic, they are also EXTREMELY competitive, making it more unlikely that you could ever rank for them. Do you see any of your competitors in the ranking results? Is your company's Web site listed in the rankings?
Use whatever tool works best for you to start documenting your findings in regards to whether or not those you think of as your day-to-day competitors are ranked for any of the terms you might want to target. Also document those companies you do not typically think of as your competitors, because guess what? If they are ranking for phrases relevant to your business, in the online world they are your competitors. Include your own Web site in your documentation.
Once you have gone through this process, you can see the opportunity that exists for your company/business to beat your competitors by optimizing your Web site.
I have a sneaking suspicion you will be surprised by how few of your competitors are taking advantage of the power of search engine optimization. Turn the thousands of people searching for your products or services every month into your loyal customers before the competition starts sneaking up on you!
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