Archive for September 24th, 2009
How Did Blogs Come About?
Blogging as a phenomenon grew from the connectivity of the internet, and with internet access almost as common in homes and businesses as the phone, people are finding that it is a very beneficial tool. In fact, the internet is having the same type of impact on people’s lives as the introduction of the telephone once did, broadening connections around the globe, allowing them to keep in touch, do business, and store data. And creating a blog sets up one of the most useful of the new internet tools.
Blog entries are more like a personal journal than anything else, even when used for business purposes. The word “blog” is a shortened form of “weblog,” which is itself a combination of “web” and “log.” So the blog is like a log of someone’s thoughts on particular topics. The writer posts a blog entry, perhaps once a day, discussing everything from what the cat did that morning, to book reviews, to business information.
Blogging came from dissatisfaction with how the first internet websites worked. Initially, individuals and businesses created sites that were more like encyclopedia or dictionary pages than anything else. All the pages did was to provide information that viewers were to sit and absorb. Eventually, however, designers and viewers recognized that this did nothing to build relationships or to convey that the website owner cared what they thought. Something more personal and even interactive was needed. So the blog phenomenon began as an electronic diary, where people recorded their daily thoughts. Each blog post included a spot for readers to add comments, and eventually communities formed, comprised of people interested in the topics discussed in the blog.
Companies started to make blogs the place where customers would read the latest business news. Blogging presented the information in a much more conversational way, making the presentation more like a chat than a lecture with facts and figures. Those are still on websites, and if someone is interested, he or she can find them as needed. But business is no longer the authority on high, telling customers what is good for them.
Businesses also soon discovered that the other benefit of blogs was the Comments section, where customers could finally give concrete feedback. Through the response to bloggers, companies began learning what their customers actually wanted from them, possibly for the first time. They could eliminate or modify products, improve service, and add services that were in high demand. Customers, in turn, were impressed that they could influence the direction the company took.
Now most companies have recognized how useful and important blogging is to their public relations and prosperity. Whether it’s a small business or a larger firm, learning from and responding to customers’ comments on the company blog helps build loyalty and improve services. Individuals are also relating in new ways, sharing interests with people halfway around the world. If people really want to have an impact on the internet, then this is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that end.
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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/how-did-blogs-come-about-1259995.html
The Most Important Part of Internet Marketing
When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?
For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.
At its core, internet marketing is about these things:
* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads
Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.
My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.
My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.
However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.
Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.
While there are many more aspects to internet marketing than just permission-based email marketing, email has definitely been the cornerstone on which our business is built.
