Brain Swell Media spends a great deal of time re-designing Web sites. You will note that I said RE-designing, meaning, the business has a Web site and we are fixing it or starting over from scratch. From these ventures have emerged a constant theme that might surprise you; assumptions driven by internal arrogance.
I hear on a weekly basis how a publisher has great content online but no Web traffic. Most editorial teams and publishers assume they know what the readers want online and design their sites based on these assumptions. As an outsider I often sit across the table and see the sharp stares like daggers from editors when I question their assumptions about their readers. When designing a Web site, this arrogance will often yield less than desirable results. Rupert Murdoch recently spoke about this very point when he said, “There is an arrogance that comes from pre-Web years of being the god of the written word. The condescension that many show their readers is an even bigger problem. It takes no special genius to point out that if you are contemptuous of your customers, you are going to have a hard time getting them to buy your product.*”
I often advise clients that when you assume you loose! When you let your assumptions drive your site design you often get a reincarnation of the magazine online with extra content. While this seems a solid approach, it is the reason that Brain Swell Media is acquiring clients at such a fast rate. Magazines are not using the power of the internet and they are not seeing success online because readers are finding other sources that offer what they “really” want online.
Categorically users want more from the Web than what can be found in the magazine. This takes planning, resources and commitment to the cause. A very important part of the planning process is to take the time to ask readers or users what they want from your Web site. There is no one better to ask this question to the reader than the editorial team. I always advise that a reader advisory board be formed and maintained. So, where to begin?
• Run an ad in your magazine or ask for volunteers via the editorial column.
• Assemble a list of 20 readers that are willing to serve as your online advisory board.
• Reward them with a t-shirt or a free subscription.
• Create a simple e-mail and begin by asking this one question to the group. If we could offer one thing on our Web site what would you like to see?
• Use this information to begin to form your offerings online.
• Use an online forum to ask questions of your readers and let them debate amongst themselves a bit too.
Do not assume that you know what your readers want online. Ask. Do not let your editorial team determine what is needed online without asking the readers. When you offer what someone “really” wants, you will soon see quick rewards online.
This is just one step in an exhaustive list of items that must be accomplished to have a successful Web site. Again, assume and you will loose online.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
*Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=95397
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Presenting Your Web Stats to Dummies
Lets face it, all to often the advertisers we sell to know only one thing, the business they run. So, expecting them to understand your Web statistics and how they apply to their business is like asking a fifth grader to grasp the importance of personal hygiene. First, they don’t really care and second they really don’t see why it is important to them personally. (The rest of us sure know.) For these two reasons alone you need to carefully consider your strategy when building your online media kit.
I often hear business owners and publishers say, I don’t have enough Web traffic to sell anything. This could not be further from the truth. Give me one page impression and I’ll sell it! It’s all in the presentation. How do you think some guy got rich off the Ronco Onion Chopper. Was it because it was the best onion chopper in the world? Nope, it was all in the presentation.
Web statistics are boring to most, unless you’re a geek like me, then these numbers get you excited. Why, because I know what they mean and how they can be used to make money. But, all to often, that excitement can get lost in gorgeous graphs and lists of numbers. Unique visitors versus total pages viewed and on and on and on. Unless your advertiser pool is mostly agencies, then you need an approach that is kindergarten in nature. Meaning, simple beyond simple.
There are truly only three things I want to know from a Web site manager. How many unique visitors are coming to your site each month? How many total pages are viewed in any given month? How many ads are on each page? This is not all the data I need, but it is the important meat to present in your buffet of offerings to the public.
The presentation of this data needs to be done in such a way that the end user will understand it without analysis. For example… You are the publisher of Auto Mechanics Monthly. Your Web stats are the following; 20,000 pages viewed, 1,000 unique visitors and you have 3 ads on each page. Excellent, a very good start. Now, how can we present this in such a way that it makes our numbers seem big and our traffic seem vibrant. First, consider your advertiser audience. Let’s assume they are mostly tool manufacturers. Rather than present these numbers in a graph, I would use a more visual approach. Each month more people come to AutoMechanicsMonthly.com than you could fit in 10 Greyhound buses! These users are captive on the site and look at over 60,000 ads. Just imagine if you were the driver of that bus? Then, show the buses lined up for visual effect. Another example. Each month more people come to AutoMechanicsMonthly.com than you could fit in 500 full size SUV’s! These users come to the site for a reason, to read our rich content and while there they look at over 60,000 ads online. Are you running an ad with us? Then, show them 500 SUV’s in a huge parking lot to further enhance your point.
These examples show you how you can present your data in ways that the end user, your advertiser, will understand. It is a fact that 9 out of 10 people need visual stimulation to fully grasp your point. A four star chef once told me that presentation is half the score in winning a guests affection for your food.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
I often hear business owners and publishers say, I don’t have enough Web traffic to sell anything. This could not be further from the truth. Give me one page impression and I’ll sell it! It’s all in the presentation. How do you think some guy got rich off the Ronco Onion Chopper. Was it because it was the best onion chopper in the world? Nope, it was all in the presentation.
Web statistics are boring to most, unless you’re a geek like me, then these numbers get you excited. Why, because I know what they mean and how they can be used to make money. But, all to often, that excitement can get lost in gorgeous graphs and lists of numbers. Unique visitors versus total pages viewed and on and on and on. Unless your advertiser pool is mostly agencies, then you need an approach that is kindergarten in nature. Meaning, simple beyond simple.
There are truly only three things I want to know from a Web site manager. How many unique visitors are coming to your site each month? How many total pages are viewed in any given month? How many ads are on each page? This is not all the data I need, but it is the important meat to present in your buffet of offerings to the public.
The presentation of this data needs to be done in such a way that the end user will understand it without analysis. For example… You are the publisher of Auto Mechanics Monthly. Your Web stats are the following; 20,000 pages viewed, 1,000 unique visitors and you have 3 ads on each page. Excellent, a very good start. Now, how can we present this in such a way that it makes our numbers seem big and our traffic seem vibrant. First, consider your advertiser audience. Let’s assume they are mostly tool manufacturers. Rather than present these numbers in a graph, I would use a more visual approach. Each month more people come to AutoMechanicsMonthly.com than you could fit in 10 Greyhound buses! These users are captive on the site and look at over 60,000 ads. Just imagine if you were the driver of that bus? Then, show the buses lined up for visual effect. Another example. Each month more people come to AutoMechanicsMonthly.com than you could fit in 500 full size SUV’s! These users come to the site for a reason, to read our rich content and while there they look at over 60,000 ads online. Are you running an ad with us? Then, show them 500 SUV’s in a huge parking lot to further enhance your point.
These examples show you how you can present your data in ways that the end user, your advertiser, will understand. It is a fact that 9 out of 10 people need visual stimulation to fully grasp your point. A four star chef once told me that presentation is half the score in winning a guests affection for your food.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The Importance of A Mobile Strategy?
According to In-Stat, blogging, photo and video sharing, location-based socialization services, games and messaging will all converge to deliver a complete social networking experience on the handset, but the pieces of the puzzle are still fitting into place.*
Wikipedia's latest global mobile phone stats as of December, 2007 is 3.3 BILLION SUBSCRIBERS. This huge growth in human communication channels is historically unprecedented. It is this reason alone that business owners need to pay attention to the mobile society growing around them. Only 34% of business owners have taken the first step toward this mobile emergence by registering the .mobi version of their companies domain name. It may be too late to get the .mobi domain name extension registered for your business entity. I advise clients to look into this issue immediately because mobile extensions are a very important part of your future business success.
The U.S. market for ad-funded mobile entertainment will grow to $336.35 million by 2013, expanding the total mobile media market by 4.6 percent, according to a new forecast released by the Mobile Entertainment Forum global trade association. The MEF says brand-subsidized content will yield the majority of revenues at $262.7 million, with the remainder generated by premium content up selling. Mobile video and TV are expected to account for 41.4 percent of ad-funded revenues within five years, followed by music at 34.5 percent and gaming at 24.1 percent.**
One important part of the previous statistic is that publishers are content creators. This means that mobile content operators will be looking for and paying for content. In addition, publishers that are content creators are in a great position to be the host of excellent content within the mobi ecosystem. Publishers that plan in advance can be the place where mobi users come for information. Most internet users find their information and related Web sites by searching. The world of mobi, most users simply type in the .com address of a web site they know serves that information online. So, making mobi a part of your plan now is very important.
So what can you do now to take advantage of this mobile revolution with no budget, no staff and no clue? It has been proven over and over again that mobi users are looking for fast information like movie listings, business listings and phone numbers. Thus, I would suggest that your business look into an online business directory that serves your niche. Then, point or build your .mobi address to harness the power of this online directory. Business directories are easy to build and sell to advertisers. In this tight economy smaller ad buys like online directories are very appealing to budget worried advertisers.
When it comes to creating content for mobile devices, mobile writing guru Lynn Walford*** offers The Ten Commandments (RULES) of Mobile Content Writing:
1. Content shall be designed for mobile users first and foremost.
2. Thou shall be creative and find new solutions.
3. Thou shalt not worship fancy media and high bandwidth.
4. Thou shalt not make wrongful use of copyrights.
5. Remember your users and make their lives better
6. Honor thy carriers, handsets, and screen size.
7. Thou shalt not steal ideas from other media unless it works.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness to viral marketing.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s screen size.
10. Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s iPhone.
A really neat mobile content creation site is Mobilemo.com. Mobilemo lets you instantly create and manage your own mobile site without the need for programming skills. Its full-featured control panel enables you to create interactive pages, add friends, make comments, and publish reviews with ease.
The essence of this blog entry is to encourage business owners to start paying attention to the mobi world and the mobi ecosystem. All to often business owners and magazine publishers play catch up when it comes to technology. My challenge and my mission is to keep you ahead of the technology curve. Keep reading and keep up.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
SOURCES:
*http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/five-mobile-social-networking-services-you-should-get-know
** http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/mef-ad-funded-entertainment-to-336m-by-2013/2008-05-29
***http://www.mobilecontentwriters.com/Mobile%20Content%20Articles%20from%20Mobile%20Content%20Writer.htm
Wikipedia's latest global mobile phone stats as of December, 2007 is 3.3 BILLION SUBSCRIBERS. This huge growth in human communication channels is historically unprecedented. It is this reason alone that business owners need to pay attention to the mobile society growing around them. Only 34% of business owners have taken the first step toward this mobile emergence by registering the .mobi version of their companies domain name. It may be too late to get the .mobi domain name extension registered for your business entity. I advise clients to look into this issue immediately because mobile extensions are a very important part of your future business success.
The U.S. market for ad-funded mobile entertainment will grow to $336.35 million by 2013, expanding the total mobile media market by 4.6 percent, according to a new forecast released by the Mobile Entertainment Forum global trade association. The MEF says brand-subsidized content will yield the majority of revenues at $262.7 million, with the remainder generated by premium content up selling. Mobile video and TV are expected to account for 41.4 percent of ad-funded revenues within five years, followed by music at 34.5 percent and gaming at 24.1 percent.**
One important part of the previous statistic is that publishers are content creators. This means that mobile content operators will be looking for and paying for content. In addition, publishers that are content creators are in a great position to be the host of excellent content within the mobi ecosystem. Publishers that plan in advance can be the place where mobi users come for information. Most internet users find their information and related Web sites by searching. The world of mobi, most users simply type in the .com address of a web site they know serves that information online. So, making mobi a part of your plan now is very important.
So what can you do now to take advantage of this mobile revolution with no budget, no staff and no clue? It has been proven over and over again that mobi users are looking for fast information like movie listings, business listings and phone numbers. Thus, I would suggest that your business look into an online business directory that serves your niche. Then, point or build your .mobi address to harness the power of this online directory. Business directories are easy to build and sell to advertisers. In this tight economy smaller ad buys like online directories are very appealing to budget worried advertisers.
When it comes to creating content for mobile devices, mobile writing guru Lynn Walford*** offers The Ten Commandments (RULES) of Mobile Content Writing:
1. Content shall be designed for mobile users first and foremost.
2. Thou shall be creative and find new solutions.
3. Thou shalt not worship fancy media and high bandwidth.
4. Thou shalt not make wrongful use of copyrights.
5. Remember your users and make their lives better
6. Honor thy carriers, handsets, and screen size.
7. Thou shalt not steal ideas from other media unless it works.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness to viral marketing.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s screen size.
10. Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s iPhone.
A really neat mobile content creation site is Mobilemo.com. Mobilemo lets you instantly create and manage your own mobile site without the need for programming skills. Its full-featured control panel enables you to create interactive pages, add friends, make comments, and publish reviews with ease.
The essence of this blog entry is to encourage business owners to start paying attention to the mobi world and the mobi ecosystem. All to often business owners and magazine publishers play catch up when it comes to technology. My challenge and my mission is to keep you ahead of the technology curve. Keep reading and keep up.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
SOURCES:
*http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/special-reports/five-mobile-social-networking-services-you-should-get-know
** http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/mef-ad-funded-entertainment-to-336m-by-2013/2008-05-29
***http://www.mobilecontentwriters.com/Mobile%20Content%20Articles%20from%20Mobile%20Content%20Writer.htm
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Online Revenue Potential
To expand your presence online will require time, money and proof that revenue will be forthcoming. After all, why would you spend time and money to expand your web presence if there is no revenue to come from the venture. So, how do you predict the revenue to come online? It is more than a mathematical equation. There are three critical components to the calculation; circulation, potential advertiser pool and internal sales staff commitment.
Circulation is not only a measurement of your magazines reach, but a great way to gauge potential Web users to your existing or new Web site. A Web site without a magazine is just a Web site. A magazine without a Web site is just a magazine. Together, you have a very powerful force that is hard to stop. Industry experts agree that the best way to promote your Web site is through your magazine. The ability to push users from the fiber environment to the cyber world is mission critical and it is not hard to accomplish. Whether you choose to run contests or you choose to enhance your fiber articles with digital side bars, you must make a commitment to grow your cyber/fiber relationship. Your reader base as calculated through your circulation gives you a very accurate view of potential Web users that may come to your web site. In most cases, 45% of your Web users will be subscribers. This means that if your circulation is 10,000 you can comfortable count on being able to bring over 5,000 users to your Web site. Since our experience tells us that most users will view 4.7 web pages per visit, this means you can comfortably count on 23,500 potential page views per month. This is an important figure to your revenue planning. In addition, if you are not getting this traffic and currently have a Web site you may be doing something wrong.
Identifying your potential advertiser pool is also critical to your online revenue exercise. You can identify those that may run on your Web site by looking at advertisers that are running on the Web sites of your competitors. Another great way to find out if advertisers will embrace your online plan is to simply ask them. Tell each of your sales reps to ask their top 10 clients how much they plan to spend online in the next ad season and then follow that question up by asking how much they will spend with you online if your Web site is up to par with the competition. A big mistake I see often is that a magazine publisher assumes that there is a potential advertiser pool when there is not one. Another great strategy is to share your online business plan with your advertisers. Get them excited about what you are doing online and what you will be doing online to benefit them. All successful strategic Web site plans have the advertisers in the plan from the first word that is written.
People are most passionate about projects when they are asked to participate in the plan. This is a management technique that I have been preaching for many years. It very much applies to the online revenue exercise because when sales people are told what they have to sell rather than being asked to develop the sales opportunity they are less effective due to their nature of rebellion against being told what to do. Type A sales people are very easy to predict. Their attitudes, natural tendencies and performance are easy to manage if you recognize the obvious. If your sales team does not embrace your Web site plan, why would you expect them to be effective in selling the Web site? You can not sit back and say that they have too sell because it is their job. Sure, they will sell because they are good soldiers, but they will never soar because they do not believe in the plan. Many times management will create the wrong selling situation and then become frustrated when sales goals are not met. Most often these situations can be avoided by putting a representative on the strategic planning team for the new Web site. While I am not advocating a democracy, I am advocating that you get your sales team involved in the project from day one. They are in the field each day and only they know what advertisers are asking about. If your sales team is not 90% on board, you can have the best Web site in the industry, but your revenue potential will suffer.
Now that you have these three pieces of data, you can begin to develop your revenue potential. Based on the circulation example above you will have 5,000 potential web users per month. They will then look on average at 4.7 pages per visit. That means you should or will have the potential to serve nearly 25,000 page views each month. Take the number of ads you have on each page times your potential page views to determine how much ad inventory you have to sell. If 25% of your 70 advertisers are ready to get online that is 17 potential advertisers. You have determined that 50% of your sales staff is excited about selling the Web. That means you have 8 potential sales. In most cases it has been my experience that you can charge 25% of your full page rate as a price base online.
The math and philosophy to make this scenario complete is a bit more complex and requires some further questions and answers. However, if you have no idea where to start this overview should give you a place to begin your journey toward online revenue potential.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
Circulation is not only a measurement of your magazines reach, but a great way to gauge potential Web users to your existing or new Web site. A Web site without a magazine is just a Web site. A magazine without a Web site is just a magazine. Together, you have a very powerful force that is hard to stop. Industry experts agree that the best way to promote your Web site is through your magazine. The ability to push users from the fiber environment to the cyber world is mission critical and it is not hard to accomplish. Whether you choose to run contests or you choose to enhance your fiber articles with digital side bars, you must make a commitment to grow your cyber/fiber relationship. Your reader base as calculated through your circulation gives you a very accurate view of potential Web users that may come to your web site. In most cases, 45% of your Web users will be subscribers. This means that if your circulation is 10,000 you can comfortable count on being able to bring over 5,000 users to your Web site. Since our experience tells us that most users will view 4.7 web pages per visit, this means you can comfortably count on 23,500 potential page views per month. This is an important figure to your revenue planning. In addition, if you are not getting this traffic and currently have a Web site you may be doing something wrong.
Identifying your potential advertiser pool is also critical to your online revenue exercise. You can identify those that may run on your Web site by looking at advertisers that are running on the Web sites of your competitors. Another great way to find out if advertisers will embrace your online plan is to simply ask them. Tell each of your sales reps to ask their top 10 clients how much they plan to spend online in the next ad season and then follow that question up by asking how much they will spend with you online if your Web site is up to par with the competition. A big mistake I see often is that a magazine publisher assumes that there is a potential advertiser pool when there is not one. Another great strategy is to share your online business plan with your advertisers. Get them excited about what you are doing online and what you will be doing online to benefit them. All successful strategic Web site plans have the advertisers in the plan from the first word that is written.
People are most passionate about projects when they are asked to participate in the plan. This is a management technique that I have been preaching for many years. It very much applies to the online revenue exercise because when sales people are told what they have to sell rather than being asked to develop the sales opportunity they are less effective due to their nature of rebellion against being told what to do. Type A sales people are very easy to predict. Their attitudes, natural tendencies and performance are easy to manage if you recognize the obvious. If your sales team does not embrace your Web site plan, why would you expect them to be effective in selling the Web site? You can not sit back and say that they have too sell because it is their job. Sure, they will sell because they are good soldiers, but they will never soar because they do not believe in the plan. Many times management will create the wrong selling situation and then become frustrated when sales goals are not met. Most often these situations can be avoided by putting a representative on the strategic planning team for the new Web site. While I am not advocating a democracy, I am advocating that you get your sales team involved in the project from day one. They are in the field each day and only they know what advertisers are asking about. If your sales team is not 90% on board, you can have the best Web site in the industry, but your revenue potential will suffer.
Now that you have these three pieces of data, you can begin to develop your revenue potential. Based on the circulation example above you will have 5,000 potential web users per month. They will then look on average at 4.7 pages per visit. That means you should or will have the potential to serve nearly 25,000 page views each month. Take the number of ads you have on each page times your potential page views to determine how much ad inventory you have to sell. If 25% of your 70 advertisers are ready to get online that is 17 potential advertisers. You have determined that 50% of your sales staff is excited about selling the Web. That means you have 8 potential sales. In most cases it has been my experience that you can charge 25% of your full page rate as a price base online.
The math and philosophy to make this scenario complete is a bit more complex and requires some further questions and answers. However, if you have no idea where to start this overview should give you a place to begin your journey toward online revenue potential.
Need some help with your online strategy? Want to make money from your Web site? Contact Ryan Dohrn and the Brain Swell Media team today. ryan@brainswellmedia.com or 803-634-3886.
http://www.RyanDohrn.com or http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com
About this blogger: Ryan Dohrn ( http://www.ryandohrn.com ) is President and founder of Brain Swell Media, an internet consulting firm that helps business owners and publishers make money online. http://www.BrainSwellMedia.com or FreeAdvice@brainswellmedia.com
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Community is key, but Control is Critical.
Guiding discussions is the key to online community success. I have been teaching for many years that there are three key components to successful Web sites; content, community and commerce. There are two things that often happen when I consult with a business owner or publisher as they contemplate the launching of a community section of their web site. (When I say “community section”, I mean an area on the Web site where users can chat, post, share with other users, upload personal photos, etc. See my blog entry, Online Communities and the Law of Nature for more info. ) These two choices are either, (A) no we do not want the users to contribute for fear that they will post something that is inappropriate or will affect our advertisers or (b) lets allow users to share and see where it goes. All too often these quick choices will yield the wrong results. In brief, both of these thought patterns are wrong.
Creating a fraternal environment on your site is very important. You want users to come back often. This does not mean that they expect you to open up your site and allow them to trash each other, your advertisers or your business/magazine. Since birth humans are looking for leadership. They are looking to be guided. But, just like raising kids, you can go too far and then your users will rebel. Guiding or leading the discussions online is the first secret to success. Editing or censoring posts is also a recipe for disaster.
Create discussion forums that drive around your “theme”. If your “theme” is graphic design, create forum subject topics like, Software, Classes or Design Tips. If you are in a business or your magazine covers a “how to” driven theme, you are in the perfect business for success online. An Ask The Experts forum will allow your staff to been seen as the experts and allows you to tailor the discussion forums toward a simple yet thoughtful discussion on specific topics. In addition, it allows you to welcome your advertisers into the discussion as they are also experts in their respective fields. Remember users do three main things online; e-mail, research and seek entertainment. Your specific theme driven forums answer two of these calls to the Internet. For example, House and Home Magazine, a client of mine, is in the home décor, renovation and high end remodeling business. Their Ask the Experts forum found at www.HouseMagazine.com have been broken down into four areas that they feel will complement their magazine and four areas they know they can cover from a staff perspective. Just 24 hours after launch they had their first question from a user. Let the fun begin. Another parenting magazine I found online broke their forums into three sections; infants/toddlers, k-8 and teens.
Being specific with your topics will not eliminate the problems that come from disgruntled users or “negative Nancy’s”, but it will give direction and allow you to control the direction of the conversation. Allowing users to create the main subject headings is a sure way to open up your site to topic categories like “I hate Hillary Clinton, do you?”.
IMPORTANT TIPS TO REMEMBER: Never have a forum topic like Miscellaneous or Other. This is one of the worst things to do in the community space. Ask your forum/community provider to provide each user that is signing up with a “terms of service agreement” that they must agree to before they can post on your site. Never allow your site to be used against you. Deleting negative posts in not censorship, it is smart. But, if an advertiser is getting bashed online, invite the advertiser to defend themselves before you simply delete the post. Often, the advertiser can make themselves look very good online.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature.
Creating a fraternal environment on your site is very important. You want users to come back often. This does not mean that they expect you to open up your site and allow them to trash each other, your advertisers or your business/magazine. Since birth humans are looking for leadership. They are looking to be guided. But, just like raising kids, you can go too far and then your users will rebel. Guiding or leading the discussions online is the first secret to success. Editing or censoring posts is also a recipe for disaster.
Create discussion forums that drive around your “theme”. If your “theme” is graphic design, create forum subject topics like, Software, Classes or Design Tips. If you are in a business or your magazine covers a “how to” driven theme, you are in the perfect business for success online. An Ask The Experts forum will allow your staff to been seen as the experts and allows you to tailor the discussion forums toward a simple yet thoughtful discussion on specific topics. In addition, it allows you to welcome your advertisers into the discussion as they are also experts in their respective fields. Remember users do three main things online; e-mail, research and seek entertainment. Your specific theme driven forums answer two of these calls to the Internet. For example, House and Home Magazine, a client of mine, is in the home décor, renovation and high end remodeling business. Their Ask the Experts forum found at www.HouseMagazine.com have been broken down into four areas that they feel will complement their magazine and four areas they know they can cover from a staff perspective. Just 24 hours after launch they had their first question from a user. Let the fun begin. Another parenting magazine I found online broke their forums into three sections; infants/toddlers, k-8 and teens.
Being specific with your topics will not eliminate the problems that come from disgruntled users or “negative Nancy’s”, but it will give direction and allow you to control the direction of the conversation. Allowing users to create the main subject headings is a sure way to open up your site to topic categories like “I hate Hillary Clinton, do you?”.
IMPORTANT TIPS TO REMEMBER: Never have a forum topic like Miscellaneous or Other. This is one of the worst things to do in the community space. Ask your forum/community provider to provide each user that is signing up with a “terms of service agreement” that they must agree to before they can post on your site. Never allow your site to be used against you. Deleting negative posts in not censorship, it is smart. But, if an advertiser is getting bashed online, invite the advertiser to defend themselves before you simply delete the post. Often, the advertiser can make themselves look very good online.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Banner Ads Work in the World of Niche
Banner ads are not created equal. Some are meant to be effective in conveying your message, while some are meant to be clicked! Low click rates experienced by some online advertisers are not necessarily the result of the medium but rather, the effectiveness of your banner ads in building brand awareness, generating click-throughs, and boosting sales depends on how it was created. Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.
In the niche magazine space banners work. Unlike bigger sites, users coming to niche sites are not just “surfing the web”. The days when people said they found your site by “just surfing around” are over. Users are more educated to the online experience that ever before. They are coming to a site for a reason. They are looking for something specific. Maybe it is a hobby they are looking to explore, or an article about knitting. In any event, most users do not just happen upon a rock climbing site or ATV web site for example. Sales people take note, niche users come to niche sites for a reason. So, this makes that niche user a prime target for niche banner advertising. Advertising a car supermarket on www.carsupermarkets.co.uk or car leasing company on www.contracthireandleasing.com will work very well because these are very busy, industry specific websites. Advertising car leasing on a website listing used cars for sale or vans on a car website will not deliver the same level of response or reach the target audience.
100% of all internet users surveyed have used Google. 49% of all online searches are done through Google each day. These users are searching for something specific. This means that banner ads on niche sites are very important. If they were not, Google’s multi-million dollar ad words business would go belly up. It is interesting to note that even Google is recognizing the resurgence of banner ads as they have now begun to serve banner ads into the spots previously reserved for those little text ads on the right and top of every search results page.
In the end you will still come across advertisers that simply do not believe that banner ads work. My research and experience report that banner ads on niche oriented site tend to earn a .15% greater click thru rate than banners on bigger non-niche sites. The biggest click thru rates I have ever seen were reported in a study by Nielsen/NetRatings that showed the right approach to creating banner ads can entice viewers to actually click on a banner. The banners of Harry and David, a gourmet food gifts store, yield a very impressive click rate of 67.21% among at-home viewers; while iWon/PaceFoods' banners generated 40% click rate among the at-work viewers. These figures refute the myth that banner ads will always have a low click-through rate.
Well designed banner ads on niche specific sites where the ad matches the potential user are unstoppable. All advertising works best when a customer wants to see it. One of the major factors influencing the effectiveness of banner advertising will be the quality, popularity, and specific target audience of the website carrying your banner advert.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please visit Ryan’s online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com or e-mail him at ryan@ryandohrn.com
In the niche magazine space banners work. Unlike bigger sites, users coming to niche sites are not just “surfing the web”. The days when people said they found your site by “just surfing around” are over. Users are more educated to the online experience that ever before. They are coming to a site for a reason. They are looking for something specific. Maybe it is a hobby they are looking to explore, or an article about knitting. In any event, most users do not just happen upon a rock climbing site or ATV web site for example. Sales people take note, niche users come to niche sites for a reason. So, this makes that niche user a prime target for niche banner advertising. Advertising a car supermarket on www.carsupermarkets.co.uk or car leasing company on www.contracthireandleasing.com will work very well because these are very busy, industry specific websites. Advertising car leasing on a website listing used cars for sale or vans on a car website will not deliver the same level of response or reach the target audience.
100% of all internet users surveyed have used Google. 49% of all online searches are done through Google each day. These users are searching for something specific. This means that banner ads on niche sites are very important. If they were not, Google’s multi-million dollar ad words business would go belly up. It is interesting to note that even Google is recognizing the resurgence of banner ads as they have now begun to serve banner ads into the spots previously reserved for those little text ads on the right and top of every search results page.
In the end you will still come across advertisers that simply do not believe that banner ads work. My research and experience report that banner ads on niche oriented site tend to earn a .15% greater click thru rate than banners on bigger non-niche sites. The biggest click thru rates I have ever seen were reported in a study by Nielsen/NetRatings that showed the right approach to creating banner ads can entice viewers to actually click on a banner. The banners of Harry and David, a gourmet food gifts store, yield a very impressive click rate of 67.21% among at-home viewers; while iWon/PaceFoods' banners generated 40% click rate among the at-work viewers. These figures refute the myth that banner ads will always have a low click-through rate.
Well designed banner ads on niche specific sites where the ad matches the potential user are unstoppable. All advertising works best when a customer wants to see it. One of the major factors influencing the effectiveness of banner advertising will be the quality, popularity, and specific target audience of the website carrying your banner advert.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please visit Ryan’s online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com or e-mail him at ryan@ryandohrn.com
Monday, March 03, 2008
Let the “Big Dogs” Fight. Niche Magazines Shine Bright
While the big publishers fight for their share of the netscape, its time for niche publishers to show why being agile is often better than being big.
My wife and I raise AKC Pembroke Welsh Corgi dogs. Small feisty little critters, but loving none the less. We also have an English Jack Russell Terrier. For those that do not know the breed, they weigh less than 15lbs, but think they are a Doberman on steroids. They are agile, quick and often very quick to the punch. They will often loose to a bigger dog in a fight for table scrapes, but the big dog will know that they have met their match. Thus the tale of big dog publishers and the rest of us ensues. We fight for what is left, but can we even make a meal of the left-over’s? Can we beat them at their own game? Perhaps we need to jump while they are distracted with bigger issues. While the top consumer mags are fighting for space online, you as niche publishers can shine bright with specialized content and specialized media that the big dogs only wish they had time to focus on.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com, March 3, 2008) -- When the magazine industry turned out for its latest digital conference last week, no one doubted the importance of the web. But now that they've moved online, many major magazine publishers are finding themselves nobodies in the new neighborhood, overshadowed by digital brands like Yahoo, MySpace and Huffington Post. So how much of the internet's growth can magazine brands snare for themselves?
What makes self owned and small publishers different is your ability to be agile and makes changes in a moments notice. All too often, I see niche publishers miss this opportunity to out shine the big players. Corporate owned pubs have many checks and balances in place that stop them from make snap decisions and putting up content fast. They have big fish to fry and there are about twenty chefs in the kitchen. I often teach that perfect preparation makes for perfect plans. But, when it comes to competitive strategy, often the more agile ship will win the battle.
Bigger magazines have their minds focused on the bigger issues. This gives niche publishers a chance to slip and steal the prize. What is the prize? Users.
Using very specific key words, key phrases and creating relevant contextual content, niche publishers can place content online that will be search engine friendly and thus will get you better results. Better results equals more users.
Contextual content is simply content that is relevant to your subject matter and that is presented in text on your page. For example, if you are a knitting magazine, you will want to have knitting in your title tag, knitting in your meta data and knitting in your most prominent main page content items. While bigger pubs might cover knitting, their sites will be laden with larger corporate issues and not fine tuned like yours. You have the ability to be simple, straight forward and proactive. You can add knitting video without getting corporate approval or having your video screened by a lawyer. Grab a camera and ask a friend to shoot you teaching a new knot or a new pattern. Do not wait for it to be perfect. We all have to start somewhere. Have an idea, put it up and ask users to take a poll. Want to share a user letter, place it in your blog. No blog yet? Come on now, catch up.
To win online you need to look for ways that you can be more agile and shine bright. You have the ability to throw stuff on the wall and see what sticks. This will make your magazine better and your presence online better.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com
© 2007 Ryan R. Dohrn
My wife and I raise AKC Pembroke Welsh Corgi dogs. Small feisty little critters, but loving none the less. We also have an English Jack Russell Terrier. For those that do not know the breed, they weigh less than 15lbs, but think they are a Doberman on steroids. They are agile, quick and often very quick to the punch. They will often loose to a bigger dog in a fight for table scrapes, but the big dog will know that they have met their match. Thus the tale of big dog publishers and the rest of us ensues. We fight for what is left, but can we even make a meal of the left-over’s? Can we beat them at their own game? Perhaps we need to jump while they are distracted with bigger issues. While the top consumer mags are fighting for space online, you as niche publishers can shine bright with specialized content and specialized media that the big dogs only wish they had time to focus on.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com, March 3, 2008) -- When the magazine industry turned out for its latest digital conference last week, no one doubted the importance of the web. But now that they've moved online, many major magazine publishers are finding themselves nobodies in the new neighborhood, overshadowed by digital brands like Yahoo, MySpace and Huffington Post. So how much of the internet's growth can magazine brands snare for themselves?
What makes self owned and small publishers different is your ability to be agile and makes changes in a moments notice. All too often, I see niche publishers miss this opportunity to out shine the big players. Corporate owned pubs have many checks and balances in place that stop them from make snap decisions and putting up content fast. They have big fish to fry and there are about twenty chefs in the kitchen. I often teach that perfect preparation makes for perfect plans. But, when it comes to competitive strategy, often the more agile ship will win the battle.
Bigger magazines have their minds focused on the bigger issues. This gives niche publishers a chance to slip and steal the prize. What is the prize? Users.
Using very specific key words, key phrases and creating relevant contextual content, niche publishers can place content online that will be search engine friendly and thus will get you better results. Better results equals more users.
Contextual content is simply content that is relevant to your subject matter and that is presented in text on your page. For example, if you are a knitting magazine, you will want to have knitting in your title tag, knitting in your meta data and knitting in your most prominent main page content items. While bigger pubs might cover knitting, their sites will be laden with larger corporate issues and not fine tuned like yours. You have the ability to be simple, straight forward and proactive. You can add knitting video without getting corporate approval or having your video screened by a lawyer. Grab a camera and ask a friend to shoot you teaching a new knot or a new pattern. Do not wait for it to be perfect. We all have to start somewhere. Have an idea, put it up and ask users to take a poll. Want to share a user letter, place it in your blog. No blog yet? Come on now, catch up.
To win online you need to look for ways that you can be more agile and shine bright. You have the ability to throw stuff on the wall and see what sticks. This will make your magazine better and your presence online better.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com
© 2007 Ryan R. Dohrn
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Can Publishers be sued for user comments placed on their site?
This is a common question I get while speaking and consulting. Can Publishers be sued for user comments place on their site via forums and bulletin boards. The answer is Yes. Seek advice from a legal professional! My experience tells me this... you can be sued for anything. Period. Will you loose or win in court is the better question. The answer received a bit more clarity when the Middle District Court of Florida ruled this week that the federal Communications Decency Act protects site operators from liability for user comments. "The court finds that the mere fact that Xcentric provides categories from which a poster must make a selection in order to submit a report on the ... website is not sufficient to treat defendants as information content providers," wrote Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers division.”
Legal wins by publishers continue across the nation as site publishers embrace user generated content to drive traffic and give users a reason to return to their sites on a daily basis.
There is a quiet dance that must occur on magazine web sites between user generated content and publisher generated content. I talked about this a bit in a previous post about user generated video. Read that post here. http://ryandohrn.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=26
User generated content is critical to your sites success online, but “the mix” of this content and the content generated by your editorial team is the real point to focus upon. In some cases a sub site makes the most sense with some information that pulls back and forth between the sites. If your magazine deals with very exclusive and very expensive editorial content then user generated content will often take a back seat, but should not be forgotten. But, this is a bit of a different debate than if you should place user generated content online at all for fear of being sued. Consult a lawyer for legal advice, if you are asking for my opinion, from a internet perspective, user generated content is critical to your success online as it will drive traffic, increase revenue and give your site an overall fraternal feel that makes users feel comfortable on your site. When users feel comfortable on your site, they feel at ease with your magazine. This in turn, will drive them to subscribe to continue that “all in the family” feeling. Also, when users feel a part of your family, they are more open to receiving e-mail blasts and offers from you that also drive revenue.
Wendy Davis from Media Post posted the following online at Media Post that should set most publishers minds at ease to the end that in most cases the publishers win.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76849&Nid=39529&p=469455
THE PUBLISHER OF ONLINE COMPLAINT site Ripoff Report has won a lawsuit filed by a Colorado company that took issue with users' posts about it tagged with labels like "con artists," "corrupt companies" and "false TV advertisements."
In the case, a federal district court in Florida late last week dismissed a defamation and trademark infringement complaint brought by Whitney Information Network, a company billing itself as offering education in real estate investing, against Xcentric Ventures, the Arizona company that runs RipOffReport.com and BadBusinessBureau.com.
The court ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act protects site operators from liability for user comments--even when the company behind the sites has created tags for commenters to use to classify their posts. "The court finds that the mere fact that Xcentric provides categories from which a poster must make a selection in order to submit a report on the ... website is not sufficient to treat defendants as information content providers," wrote Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers division.”
Whitney Information Network's in-house lawyer declined to comment on the matter, or state whether the company planned to appeal.
Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law and a well-known advocate for online publishers, said the case seemed "entirely consistent with existing precedent," even though the result--that tags created by publishers are treated as if they were user-created--might seem counterintuitive.
He said the court's rationale stems from the concept that "the Web site wrote those terms, but really they're given effect only when the users choose them."
The case raises the same legal issue as another pending lawsuit against roommate-matching site Roommates.com. In that case, a fair housing group in California sued Roommates.com for civil rights violations on the theory that the site enabled discrimination by giving users questionnaires with choices like "I will not live with children," as well as options to indicate whether they're willing to live with straight roommates only, gay roommates only, and the like.
The 9th Circuit appellate court initially ruled last May that Roommates.com was not immune from liability under federal law on the theory that the site had collaborated with users to create the content. "By categorizing, channeling and limiting the distribution of users' profiles, Roommate provides an additional layer of information that it is 'responsible' at least 'in part' for creating or developing," a three-judge panel of the court wrote.
But the 9th Circuit later vacated that ruling and ordered re-argument, which it heard late last year. A host of other Web companies--including Amazon, Google and eBay--unsuccessfully attempted to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Roommates.com, but the court rejected it in December, apparently because accepting it would have created a conflict of interest for one or more judges deciding the case.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76849&Nid=39529&p=469455
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.ryandohrn.com/
By Ryan R. Dohrn ©2007
Legal wins by publishers continue across the nation as site publishers embrace user generated content to drive traffic and give users a reason to return to their sites on a daily basis.
There is a quiet dance that must occur on magazine web sites between user generated content and publisher generated content. I talked about this a bit in a previous post about user generated video. Read that post here. http://ryandohrn.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=26
User generated content is critical to your sites success online, but “the mix” of this content and the content generated by your editorial team is the real point to focus upon. In some cases a sub site makes the most sense with some information that pulls back and forth between the sites. If your magazine deals with very exclusive and very expensive editorial content then user generated content will often take a back seat, but should not be forgotten. But, this is a bit of a different debate than if you should place user generated content online at all for fear of being sued. Consult a lawyer for legal advice, if you are asking for my opinion, from a internet perspective, user generated content is critical to your success online as it will drive traffic, increase revenue and give your site an overall fraternal feel that makes users feel comfortable on your site. When users feel comfortable on your site, they feel at ease with your magazine. This in turn, will drive them to subscribe to continue that “all in the family” feeling. Also, when users feel a part of your family, they are more open to receiving e-mail blasts and offers from you that also drive revenue.
Wendy Davis from Media Post posted the following online at Media Post that should set most publishers minds at ease to the end that in most cases the publishers win.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76849&Nid=39529&p=469455
THE PUBLISHER OF ONLINE COMPLAINT site Ripoff Report has won a lawsuit filed by a Colorado company that took issue with users' posts about it tagged with labels like "con artists," "corrupt companies" and "false TV advertisements."
In the case, a federal district court in Florida late last week dismissed a defamation and trademark infringement complaint brought by Whitney Information Network, a company billing itself as offering education in real estate investing, against Xcentric Ventures, the Arizona company that runs RipOffReport.com and BadBusinessBureau.com.
The court ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act protects site operators from liability for user comments--even when the company behind the sites has created tags for commenters to use to classify their posts. "The court finds that the mere fact that Xcentric provides categories from which a poster must make a selection in order to submit a report on the ... website is not sufficient to treat defendants as information content providers," wrote Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers division.”
Whitney Information Network's in-house lawyer declined to comment on the matter, or state whether the company planned to appeal.
Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law and a well-known advocate for online publishers, said the case seemed "entirely consistent with existing precedent," even though the result--that tags created by publishers are treated as if they were user-created--might seem counterintuitive.
He said the court's rationale stems from the concept that "the Web site wrote those terms, but really they're given effect only when the users choose them."
The case raises the same legal issue as another pending lawsuit against roommate-matching site Roommates.com. In that case, a fair housing group in California sued Roommates.com for civil rights violations on the theory that the site enabled discrimination by giving users questionnaires with choices like "I will not live with children," as well as options to indicate whether they're willing to live with straight roommates only, gay roommates only, and the like.
The 9th Circuit appellate court initially ruled last May that Roommates.com was not immune from liability under federal law on the theory that the site had collaborated with users to create the content. "By categorizing, channeling and limiting the distribution of users' profiles, Roommate provides an additional layer of information that it is 'responsible' at least 'in part' for creating or developing," a three-judge panel of the court wrote.
But the 9th Circuit later vacated that ruling and ordered re-argument, which it heard late last year. A host of other Web companies--including Amazon, Google and eBay--unsuccessfully attempted to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Roommates.com, but the court rejected it in December, apparently because accepting it would have created a conflict of interest for one or more judges deciding the case.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76849&Nid=39529&p=469455
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.ryandohrn.com/
By Ryan R. Dohrn ©2007
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Which presidential candidates embrace the Internet in a big way?
Let me first begin by saying that I have been a Republican since birth. I have voted in nearly every presidential election and have always voted Republican. I will probably do the same this November. In my quest for clarity on the issues, I spent some time looking at the “Big 3” candidates from each party to see which of them spent some time and effort to devote a section of their Web site to technology and the Internet. (Huckabee, McCain, Romney, Clinton, Obama and Edwards)
After all, the Internet is my life, my business and OUR future.
On each web site I went to the tab marked “issues.” Funny thing, with the exception of Mike Huckabee, almost all the candidate sites look the same. Very similar in look and feel. This begs me to ask who copied whom? All the sites were well optimized, well laid out and you can tell that each candidate employed some people with excellent web knowledge. Why then did so many of my GOP faithful not even mention the Internet on their sites. If they did, it was buried so deep I could not find it. So, who is the net important enough too that they mentioned it in prime space on their sites… and the winners are…
Of all the candidates, the only candidate with “Technology” on the main issues tab was Barack Obama. From there he digs deep into the issues of technology, media and the internet. From his site, “Protect the Openness of the Internet: A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices.”
Oh my and Barack dares to even include technology in a speech, oh my aching heart….
From Barack Obama.com- Technology and Innovation for a New Generation
“Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”
— Barack Obama Presidential Announcement Speech in Springfield, IL 02/10/07
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/
Broadband to my farm in South Carolina… John Edwards where are you? You are from here.
John Edwards had the second best thoughts on the Internet. However, you had to dig a bit past the first issues tab, but it was easy to find. From his site, “Building a Universal, Affordable Internet: The country that developed the internet is now 16th in the world in broadband penetration. While half of urban and suburban households have broadband, less than a third of rural homes do. John Edwards will set a national broadband policy to help make the Internet more affordable and accessible to all Americans, regardless of where they live or how much money they have.”
http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/open-media/
Considering that the Internet drives more than 35% of all retail commerce and that 85% of Americans have daily access to the Internet and that nearly 55% off all political campaign money is raised online, you would think that the net would play a bigger role in the “issues” of the candidates running for President of the United States.
Good thing for the GOP is this… I am not a one issue kind of guy. I want to keep more of what I make and be sure that I get back all the money I have put into the system. I want my kids to be safe and I want to die knowing that I made decisions to the best of my ability. If there is one thing the winner of this presidential race can do for me is set up a call with Steve Jobs and ask him to bring down the price of Mac’s. Or, at least open up the market to the Dell’s of the world. Steve, come on, you need more money? Man that would save me some money.
Long live the net.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com
By Ryan R. Dohrn©2007
After all, the Internet is my life, my business and OUR future.
On each web site I went to the tab marked “issues.” Funny thing, with the exception of Mike Huckabee, almost all the candidate sites look the same. Very similar in look and feel. This begs me to ask who copied whom? All the sites were well optimized, well laid out and you can tell that each candidate employed some people with excellent web knowledge. Why then did so many of my GOP faithful not even mention the Internet on their sites. If they did, it was buried so deep I could not find it. So, who is the net important enough too that they mentioned it in prime space on their sites… and the winners are…
Of all the candidates, the only candidate with “Technology” on the main issues tab was Barack Obama. From there he digs deep into the issues of technology, media and the internet. From his site, “Protect the Openness of the Internet: A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices.”
Oh my and Barack dares to even include technology in a speech, oh my aching heart….
From Barack Obama.com- Technology and Innovation for a New Generation
“Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”
— Barack Obama Presidential Announcement Speech in Springfield, IL 02/10/07
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/
Broadband to my farm in South Carolina… John Edwards where are you? You are from here.
John Edwards had the second best thoughts on the Internet. However, you had to dig a bit past the first issues tab, but it was easy to find. From his site, “Building a Universal, Affordable Internet: The country that developed the internet is now 16th in the world in broadband penetration. While half of urban and suburban households have broadband, less than a third of rural homes do. John Edwards will set a national broadband policy to help make the Internet more affordable and accessible to all Americans, regardless of where they live or how much money they have.”
http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/open-media/
Considering that the Internet drives more than 35% of all retail commerce and that 85% of Americans have daily access to the Internet and that nearly 55% off all political campaign money is raised online, you would think that the net would play a bigger role in the “issues” of the candidates running for President of the United States.
Good thing for the GOP is this… I am not a one issue kind of guy. I want to keep more of what I make and be sure that I get back all the money I have put into the system. I want my kids to be safe and I want to die knowing that I made decisions to the best of my ability. If there is one thing the winner of this presidential race can do for me is set up a call with Steve Jobs and ask him to bring down the price of Mac’s. Or, at least open up the market to the Dell’s of the world. Steve, come on, you need more money? Man that would save me some money.
Long live the net.
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com
By Ryan R. Dohrn©2007
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
My Web 2.0 for 2008
As publishers and sales executives in the magazine business of 2008, it is critical that you know the meaning behind the term Web 2.0. After all, it is one of the only gauges we have for determining if your Web strategy, web site and other related digital plan are “up to snuff”.
I can think of no better place to help us learn about this term than Wikipedia. Why? Because Wikipedia is the collective thoughts, definitions and the like from a group of smart or informed people. There collective definition is much better than my single explanation.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Web 2) On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2.0. The mind-map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier [1] on November 11, 2005) sums up some of the memes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached.In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly,"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." [4]Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.[5][6]An IBM social networking analyst, Dario de Judicibus, has proposed a different definition which is more focused on social interactions and architectural implementation:"Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture." [7]
More from Wikipedia on this subject online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
Now, for my thoughts. I would encourage all publishers and editors to review my top ten for Web success in 2008. I feel the following components are critical to your success and your quest for life beyond Web 2.0.
1. Unrestricted access to main site stories without registration. Only keep valuable data, like archives, behind a registration system.
2. Archives. Archives are critical to a magazines success online.
3. Easy to find search box that allows users the ability to search all pages of the site and return results that can either be narrowed down or expanded upon once the search is returned.
4. Web extras and web only content. There are additional sidebars that drive readers from the magazine to the web for more. And, the same goes for the web, the web extras should drive them back to the magazine.
5. Online subscription pages. Your readers should be able to do all their circulation fulfillment and management online.
6. Video. There should be 2 sections, publisher created videos and users created videos.
7. Blogs or editorial only sections. It is critical that magazine staff get involved online and write. It is perfectly ok to keep the public and staff blogs separate.
8. Community components. Special sections that have some similar components to MySpace.com or Facebook.com where readers can share, discuss and become a part of your online property.
9. Searchable advertiser index or searchable pages of your actual magazine. This is not to say every page of your magazine is online. Give readers the ability to find advertisers and/or more from your magazine. Digital editions can help solve this problem. As well, digital editions will help prepare you for the day when digital readers will become more prevalent within the public sector.
10. Dedicated insertion of advertisers into the online content. Ads that are outside the content in the stark white exile of your site not only tell the advertisers that you want them as far away as possible, but tells the readers that too. In addition you reduce ROI for your advertise by as much as 35%. Use Interactive Advertising Bureau standards and integrate ads in a rich way into your site.
Web 2.0 goes far beyond site structure and goes deep into content management technology as well. So, do not think that the above list is complete as it is not and it is my opinion. Read, read and then read some more. Also, listen to my new Digital Media OZ radio show as I ask experts about this very topic.
Blessings for a great 2008.
RRD
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com © 2007 Ryan R. Dohrn
I can think of no better place to help us learn about this term than Wikipedia. Why? Because Wikipedia is the collective thoughts, definitions and the like from a group of smart or informed people. There collective definition is much better than my single explanation.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Web 2) On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2.0. The mind-map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier [1] on November 11, 2005) sums up some of the memes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached.In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly,"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." [4]Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.[5][6]An IBM social networking analyst, Dario de Judicibus, has proposed a different definition which is more focused on social interactions and architectural implementation:"Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture." [7]
More from Wikipedia on this subject online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
Now, for my thoughts. I would encourage all publishers and editors to review my top ten for Web success in 2008. I feel the following components are critical to your success and your quest for life beyond Web 2.0.
1. Unrestricted access to main site stories without registration. Only keep valuable data, like archives, behind a registration system.
2. Archives. Archives are critical to a magazines success online.
3. Easy to find search box that allows users the ability to search all pages of the site and return results that can either be narrowed down or expanded upon once the search is returned.
4. Web extras and web only content. There are additional sidebars that drive readers from the magazine to the web for more. And, the same goes for the web, the web extras should drive them back to the magazine.
5. Online subscription pages. Your readers should be able to do all their circulation fulfillment and management online.
6. Video. There should be 2 sections, publisher created videos and users created videos.
7. Blogs or editorial only sections. It is critical that magazine staff get involved online and write. It is perfectly ok to keep the public and staff blogs separate.
8. Community components. Special sections that have some similar components to MySpace.com or Facebook.com where readers can share, discuss and become a part of your online property.
9. Searchable advertiser index or searchable pages of your actual magazine. This is not to say every page of your magazine is online. Give readers the ability to find advertisers and/or more from your magazine. Digital editions can help solve this problem. As well, digital editions will help prepare you for the day when digital readers will become more prevalent within the public sector.
10. Dedicated insertion of advertisers into the online content. Ads that are outside the content in the stark white exile of your site not only tell the advertisers that you want them as far away as possible, but tells the readers that too. In addition you reduce ROI for your advertise by as much as 35%. Use Interactive Advertising Bureau standards and integrate ads in a rich way into your site.
Web 2.0 goes far beyond site structure and goes deep into content management technology as well. So, do not think that the above list is complete as it is not and it is my opinion. Read, read and then read some more. Also, listen to my new Digital Media OZ radio show as I ask experts about this very topic.
Blessings for a great 2008.
RRD
The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.RyanDohrn.com © 2007 Ryan R. Dohrn
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