Don’t Worry - The Internet Isn’t Going Anywhere

Forums are abuzz with people worried about the possible coming web toll that ISPs want to charge companies for fast-loading of their websites. There would basically be a fast lane for companies that could afford it and a slow lane (and even a no-go lane!), says the article on CNN.com:

Coming Soon: The Web Toll

Personally, I think this story been sensationalized. I am not defending the proposed toll at all, but I think online busines owners are getting pretty freaked out by the exaggerations. Rightly or wrongly, ISPs are doing this to save on resources. I’m guessing the difference in load times on each website would be negligible, but on the whole would save them plenty of money and company resources. I highly doubt that ISPs would keep their customers from viewing sites or causing them any huge delays in getting to their sites. Yes, I know that Save the Internet gives isolated examples on it’s FAQ page and we know that ISPs prevent their customers from reading some of their email in the hopes of eliminating spam, but I’m looking at the big picture here.

I just don’t think we should be spreading the doomsday message that our businesses will be dead if we can’t afford the toll. Email isn’t dead. I don’t think our websites will be either.

I definitely think this is a cause worth fighting and you can go to Save The Internet to find out what you can do about it. Sign the petition, send letters and don’t forget to watch the video from Ask a Ninja…but try not to freak out.

Internet Marketing News Resource

I’ve been watching this site for a little while, and since they’ve been sending readers my way, I think it’s about time that I return the favor!

I’m talking about Internet Marketing News Watch, created by Mike Mograbi and Stephen Boutelle. It’s a portal for Internet marketing-related news. They keep tabs on a variety of blogs and newsletters. There’s a lot of great information provided and I’ve even found the blogs of people I admire and respect - I just didn’t know they had blogs.

It will also satisfy the “product hungry” IM’ers as many of the posts on Internet Marketing News Watch are about the latest and greatest product launches. Just don’t lose your shirt picking them all up!

Is it Worth It? Tagging & Social Bookmarking?

I’m still on the fence on this one, but may give it a shot…just so I’m not talking out my rear end (since I haven’t tried it). Still, in my few years online, I’ve come to value my instinct and experience when it comes to assessing new online opportunities.

I’m talking about tagging on your blogs. You know those keyword links you see on blogs to Technorati or wherever. Here’s an example from my techy friend Lynette Chandler’s blog:

Personally, I think these links are a distraction…particularly to your non-tech savvy readers. For Lynette’s market, it may be appropriate, but if you don’t reach blogging geeks, you’ll likely send your readers clicking through to all these places and they won’t really know why.

I note that my friend Lynn Terry says we should stop the fear about linking out when it comes to blogs. I agree, but I believe in linking with a true purpose that is useful to your visitor.

Plus, a tag is just a temporary measure to get some traffic from a blog search site. From what I can see, if you keep these links on your site for a long time, they’ll be helping Technorati (or whomever you’re linking to) and not likely doing you much good - especially for popular topics.

From reports of other people using the tags, the extra short-term traffic doesn’t seem to be worth cluttering up my blog for. And besides, it’s tough to measure if the extra traffic came from the tag or just because you pinged the web logs…and pinging doesn’t create any reader distractions.

A word of caution, though…and again, this is purely my speculation…is that I expect that this method will lose it’s effectiveness. People are gearing up to teach people about tagging and you can expect plenty of hyped up products. And just like any traffic generation method that gets pumped up, it will be abused by people who don’t believe in adding value to the blogosphere, but prefer to produce garbage for a quick buck. And when it’s abused, the people who created the technology have to make changes and the original method will no longer be so effective.

But back to the topic…

Through a discussion on the private Reese Report forum, Charles, posted a little video about using tagging, if you’re not familiar with it. I asked Charles if he was going to perhaps show a more meaningful example because I believe the same results could have been achieved without tagging Technorati. A simple, automated ping would have been sufficient with his fictional topic. I’ll let you know what he says. He does also have a free newsletter that I’ve taken him up on (the link as the bottom of the video page)…and we’ll see what other information he can provide us with.

Along the same lines of tagging, my friend Lynette also has an interesting article on social bookmarking. Near the end of the article, you’ll see that Lynette has requested some help for an experiment. I’m willing to help her on this experiment, but I’m waiting for more results before I move ahead on my own.

I’m also interested in learning more and hearing your experiences…so share them please.
Edited to Add:
I thought I should post this from the Technorati site:

So you don’t really have to link to Technorati, but that still doesn’t seem to eliminate the excessive links on a blog. Or if you’re blog supports categories, then you can use your categories as your tags. But how many categories does a focused blog really need?

*Source: http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html

Have a Good Weekend And…

…Take some time off, okay?

The Million Pixel Body - Now That’s Fun!

I don’t know if remember the kid that set up the pixel advertising site with a million pixels of advertising available at $1 a pop. It was a unique idea at the time, especially since the kid was getting plenty of publicity, so if you bought an ad from him, it might get seen.

Then a bunch of copycat sites came, but they just didn’t offer any spin on the idea to make it unique and exciting. It seems like a bunch of people were making pixel ad scripts and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and trying to create the same sites.

But here’s a unique twist from some people in Germany. It’s called Million Crystal Body and it’s a photo of a German model covered in a million Swarovski Crystals. Buy one for a Euro and the crystal is removed from the photo and a crytal actually comes you in the mail.

Apparently, the model herself will be personally delivering the pixel to the person to buy the last one. I assume she’ll be wearing clothing, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, ideas are everywhere and we’re smart to get our ideas from other businesses (As John Reese says when it comes to online business,”Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.”). But try to take those ideas and make them better and more unique. Not saying you have to strip down and have crystals virtual placed on your body, but you get the picture.

How Do I Get Traffic to My Blog?

Q: How do I get traffic to my blog?

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It’s Wear Your Bare Feet to Work Day - Every Day

This morning I was listening to the radio and the DJ claimed that this was the first official day that you can wear open-toed shoes to work. Not sure exactly where he got the idea, but I’m guessing that this is the time of year when the weather in rainy Vancouver starts to turn warmer (but not always drier).

I giggled because I wear open-toed shoes outside all year and, of course, I wear bare feet at work all the time! I guess it’s easy when you’re not trudging off to the bus stop to get to work.

What do you wear on your feet, while you work?

Yes…this Thursday.

As you may know, we’ve been talking a lot about information products - a bit on this blog, on my FAQ and I also have the free information products tips list.

A few people have asked me if this means I’ll be releasing a course on the topic soon. The answer is yes.

I’ve also been asked when it’s ready. It will be ready for the general public on Thursday. However, if you want to get it before everyone else AND get a discount, sign up for the free information products tips list.

And then, the most important question - “Is this going to be one of those over-priced home-study courses?” Nah…not at all. If you get on that tips list, you’ll get a nice discount and even if you don’t…you can still expect to pay less than most marketing ebooks cost.

Of course, it doesn’t matter too much how much it costs if you don’t know what’s in the course, right? Well, it’s not just an “ebook”…I’ve got plenty more goodies included. I will save some details for Thursday, but I’ll be giving you ideas on how to get started without spending a lot of cash, showing you how you can position yourself as an expert (and it’s way easier than you think) and how to position yourself in a competitive market. I’ll even give you 53 pages out of my own business manual that shows you how I easily complete many information product creation tasks.

Have more questions, feel free to ask in the comments area. Here’s to getting started with your first (or second or third) information product!

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