Internet Marketing

After maintaining several blogs for a couple of years, learning about web publishing and observing different niches, I have come to the conclusion that success for web publishers mainly relies on how much passion you have for the topic you cover. Not exactly a ground-breaking insight, you might say. But let me explain how I personally came to realize this.

I’ve built quite a few sites throughout my life online and the only ones that remain or thrive are the ones covering topics, for which I have a very deep and strong interest. The other sites gradually slowed down and died because I only had a passing fancy for them.

Microsoft is teaming up with a charity foundation to deliver Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across America. Each of these kiosks will come with games, movies and access to a private nationwide network that’ll allow hospitalized children to play or chat with one another.

This is great news because I think it will really make a lot of kids happy, especially when some of them easily get bored or depressed within the dreary hospital environment. I can imagine the much-needed thrill of playing video games with new friends.

Yesterday, I visited my friend Tara’s place and noticed that she put a large piece of paper on her bedroom wall, next to where she slept.

On it was written some quotations and general life principles. Tara wanted to remind herself of these words when she woke up everyday and before she went to bed. It’s a self-improvement trick to overcome negativity and focus on the important things.

So I got curious and read what she wrote. After I came home, I tried recalling what I read but could only come up with two lines. The rest were a blur.

Villains are the perfect foil for heroes in movies. Their actions provide stark contrast and add depth to the hero’s character. This enemy usually takes the form of a human persona or a situation.

You cringe and fear for the heroine when the enemy hurts her. When she overcomes the enemy, you feel happy or relieved that order is restored. Hollywood movies usually end at this point: closure is secured by the elimination of the villain.

One way of attracting visitors to your website is to create content or webpages that are entertaining or filled with valuable information. If you own a blog and have been publishing for some time, you’ll have more than enough material to use as traffic or link magnets.

You might not even need to develop new content. You could simply collect articles or media you’ve produced and situate them in a frame which appeals to a specific audience profile.

The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be. - William Feather

Behind every recommendation or online purchase is a human being. One with emotions and personal likes or dislikes. This person pays more attention to certain things more than others because of his/her creed, feelings and belief-systems.

When we talk about marketing on the web, we’re talking about selling a perceived benefit/value by communicating in a way which suits and modifies your target market’s interests/needs. Some theorists will also suggest that marketing (and advertising) is in the business of creating new needs or wants.

If you’re blogging, you’re most likely publishing content and making it freely available for public consumption. Everyone is able to access and read your articles as long as they have an internet connection.

Time to stop and think a little about this. Why are you giving away content for free? What are trying to achieve by doing so?

It is important to keep in mind the reasons why you are publishing blog post after blog post, all full of ideas and information and giving them away.

A reader who didn’t want to named sent in an interesting question about how the web can be used to achieve specific goals offline.

Here’s her situation: She’s an art major in college and wanted to know how she could establish herself in the field as a power player, preferably in the vocation of an artist/expert critic.

She’s completely new to the art scene and wanted to know she could build a strong reputation through the use of online marketing and personal branding strategies. Basically she wants a game plan to use online on top of what she’s already doing offline, away from the computer.