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Second Life 1: Does Second Life Hold "Real" Marketing Value?
I finally did it. Tried Second Life that is.
After reading all the hype about Sears launching a virtual store in Second Life, as well as all the negative and positive opinions from the business world, I didn't have a choice.
So, is this a real and serious opportunity for marketers, or the next internet bubble?
Read this 1st article in the Second Life series to see what big marketers are doing in Second Life today.
First, the Personal View and Social Dissapointment
Now, I won't use this space to ramble about how I don't understand ..
a) the real-life attitudes and seriousness of people in the game (oops, "virtual world");
b) how people can actually spend money on virtual beer, virtual clothes and virtual sex;
c) and actually worry about their PR image in the virtual world.
As a person, I'm deeply worried about how our world is evolving if people start leading real lives in a virtual environment. Anyway, Darren Barefoot already expressed this sentiment much better with his GetAFirstLife.com parody website.
How About The Marketing Value?
But, as a marketer, I am starting to see a scent of what might become a viable marketing tool in the future.
The first companies in (IBM, Sears, Circuit City, Nike, Toyota, Nissan, Sony and many others) are certainly getting their share of free publicity supporting Second Life with in-world presences. But besides the media attention, can they really expect much more right now?
Besides getting the upper edge by testing new marketing approaches early, I somehow doubt that the 1,037,804 users that logged-in in the last 60 Days will have an impact on their bottom line, altough these people have spent $1,357,490 of real money in the virtual world just in the last 24 hours. But not on buying physical products in the real world through the Second Life interface ...
The economies of scale just aren't here yet to support creating real marketing value yet. And with the difficult-to-use user interface certainly won't be in anytime soon.
What Are Companies Doing in Second Life Right Now?
Regardless of the lack of economies of scale, some companies are pushing hard to make Second Life a real life marketing venue
a) IBM
IBM owns about 24 virtual islands in Second Life, using this virtual land to help companies like Circuit City build their own virtual retail stores, as well as hold IBM's own internal conferences.
b) Sears
Sears launched a "Sears Virtual Home" showroom prototype, where potential customers can browse Sears products, play with product colors and even create a whole garage.
Their eventual plan is to allow users to re-create their living rooms and such and furnish them with Sears products, seeing how they would look in real life. Steve Rubel speculates that the next logical step for Sears is actually allowing customers to order directly from Second Life and have the delivery done in the real world.
c) Nissan
Nissan is giving away virtual models of their cars and allowing the virtual world's users to drive them on a virtual race track.
GM and Toyota on the other hand are selling virtual models of their cars for a few $, of course in the Second Life currency Linden Dollars.
d) Ogilvy
Ogilvy, a full service marketing agency, and many others, are using Second Life to recruit employees --> people with real-life experience in Second Life, to work on client projects for the virtual world.
e) Music artists
A folk singer Suzanne Vega performed live in Second Life, to a virtual audience, with a virtual avatar.
And here's an even better one from myadsl.co.za:
"On February 3, comedian Jimmy Carr will perform a live show simultaneously in real life in London and in the virtual world of Second Life. His onstage movements will be replicated in near real-time through his avatar."
f) CNET
... and other media are conducting interviews within Second Life.
g) Starwood Hotels
The owner of the Westin, Sheraton, and W chains set-up a new hotel in Second Life, prior to doing it in the real-world. Their aim is to observe how people use the hotel, and then try to use that knowledge when building the real thing.
[source: BusinessWeek]
They are actually hoping that the virtual world residents will be able to save them money, by preventing them from making mistakes when building the real thing.
h) American Apparel
This real-life clothes company is selling virtual clothes to the residents of Second Life, for about $1 or less per item. They're hoping this will boost their sales in their real retail stores.
[source: BusinessWeek]
i) Philips Design
Philips wants to get feedback from Second Life users on new innovative projects and involve them in creating new products.
[source: Shaping Thoughts]
j) ABN AMRO
This Dutch financial services company will use Second Life to offer information on financial products, allow their customers to interact with each other and even host virtual seminars for their target audiences.
[source: Shaping Thoughts]
l) Cisco Systems
Cisco is using Second Life for both their customers and their employees, even offering virtual classes to the virtual community. Their goal is to use Second Life as communications tool for their customers, answering their questions and feedback about their various products. Yes, they are paying their tech-support staff to work in the virtual world.
[source: Technology Review]
k) Sun Microsystems
Sun held a press conference within Second Life, followed by the launch of an interactive pavilion where consumers can watch videos of Sun technology.
[source: NetworkWorld]
m) Adidas
Adidas jumped on the bandwagon by doing a store featuring their latest shoe. But, they went beyond just offering the product as a simple virtual item, actually adding features that demonstrate the product to the consumers --> when wearing the shoes, users can jump and even use a test trampoline within the store.
[source: Future Lab]
n) Autodesk
The software maker is building a virtual place to interact with a community of architects, designers, engineers and others. [see their invitation]
o) Vodafone
This European mobile operator started out the same way as most other companies, with an island, offering various information. But now they're planning to expand that with virtual handsets that will enable users to better communicate with eachother in the virtual world, as well as an SMS service.
[source: BusinessWeek]
p) Richard Minsky
Richard Minsky, the real-life founder of Center for Book Arts, is launching a Second Life magazine, to discuss various art issues.
[source: artnet]
To find out more about these various examples, just click on the source links below them.
Certainly, many companies are exploring practically unlimited opportunities within the virtual world, hoping it may pay off some day.
But, Is There a Real Marketing Model NOW?
There certainly is ... for ad agencies and the PR industry.
For marketers, the opportunity right now seems more related to getting free publicity and testing the grounds for the future.
But of course, let's not forget about the real winners of the "game" --> hundreds of virtual entrepreneurs, even a "new world" millionaire, who are making their living running businesses within Second Life.
But this is still a little far from real world marketing ...
In the 2nd article of the series read about the burst of the Second Life bubble and the prospect of 3D virtual worlds replacing the 2D internet.
Additional Sources
Reuters/Second Life
The Reuters news center for latest Second Life business news. Not the virtual news, the real life news.
Valleywag
While most have a positive attitude towards Second Life, this website brings you all the latest negative business related news on the virtual world.
It's Not a Game
A comprehensive CNNMoney.com article on why the tech thought-leaders believe that Second Life is the internet model of the future.
Finding life (or not) in Second Life
An article discussing why Second Life may not be the real thing yet, but that there certainly are implications of an internet future to be found here, especially in terms of online collaboration and communications.
I got my job through Second Life
An article with examples of how companies are recruiting from within Second Life.
Interview with BMW About Their Second Life Plans
A summary would be better, but even the transcript provides some food for thought.
Real cars drive into Second Life
CNN article about automobile companies stepping into this virtual world.
Top IT companies embracing virtual reality
The title about says it all.
Second Life Backlash Continues
All is not well in Second Life for companies. This blog post discusses how some residents voted all the agencies and marketers out.
Second Life Strategies for Companies and Future Uses
A video interview with tips for companies wanting to use Second Life.
Big Media Gets a Second Life
A BusinessWeek article covering the media outlets set-up by real-world media companie in Second Life.
Tune in for more soon.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
What Happened to the Site?
Since I started receiving e-mail about what happened to this site and why it hasn't been updated since my trip to Chicago, here goes:)
1. Two days after I came back from Chicago I held a 5 day workshop for my internet team from Central and Eastern Europe. Doing lectures half of the day, and providing entertainment the other half.
2. Right after the workshop I had to fly to Poland to find a new internet manager for our operation there.
3. My grandfather was recently hospitilized due to heart failiure, which is near fatal at his age, so things have been pretty hecting on the family side of life as well.
4. I'm working on finishing three RSS books and need to finish up all of them shortly. Long-time visitors will remember that when I was finishing "Unleash RSS" back in the end of 2004 I had to take a short break from the site, since it's difficult to write a book and write for a website at the same time.
5. I'm running on a tight deadline to finish a large webstore that is going to be launched accross 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe this month and promoted with more than 100 hours of daily DRTV airtime.
So, to make a long story short, life and other RSS related and unrelated projects got the better of me.
But not to worry, I promise to get started again in full force early next month:
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Starting 2007 With a Duct Tape Marketing Primer
End of the year everyone does "Top 10" lists for the current year and the next one.
Beginning of the year everyone does a "Top 10" goals list for the year.
If you're doing one for your marketing in 2007 (hey, if you're doing it now, you're already at least two months late), here's one read that will give your marketing a boost for the entire year and beyond.
John Jantsch is considered the #1 small-business marketing expert in the world, helping companies make alot from little.
And his pure-action tips work. Without question, his new book is the one thing you need to make 2007 a marketing success. Well, in addition to actually following the tips:)
Plus, John put together a great bonus package to provide even more value for the low price. Click here to check it out.
This of course isn't blatant promotion, but a marketing tip within itself.
John clearly demonstrates how to sweeten the pot with high-value bonuses, which could be sold (and many probably are) on their own. Great lesson, works every time, and doesn't cost you a dime.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Direct Marketers Not Getting Direct Marketing
There's a very good comment on my yesterday's article on marketers not getting RSS marketing at the Jeff Barr blog:
"problem with rod s argument. the direct marketing world didn t adopt its own lessons. at least RSS is permission based."
Comment by james governor
James, as I responded on Jeff's blog, there are several answers to your comment:
1. Smart e-mailers have learned permission marketing long ago. The same goes for direct mail. The age-old paradigm in direct marketing still stands > your list is your most valuable asset. Permission based of course.
2. But you are correct, there are many many rotten apples out there that do not adhere to DM best practices and hurt both the market, the consumer and the DM industry.
3. Of course, several DM tools, such as DRTV, are still intrussive. But so is every form of advertising, more or less. The simple problem is you can't grow your business quickly without a first point of contact with the consumer, and that's what advertising does for you. Not true for all businesses, but not every business in the world can be a "Purple Cow", as Seth Godin would put it.
But in essence, permission marketing has been a DM best practice for decades, perhaps even centuries. It's just that some people always like to cut corners. But that's not a DM issue, but a people issue.
Another good comment at the Search Engine Guide.
Jennifer is right. Applying DM best practices to RSS marketing is common sense. One just has to wonder why this is so often forgoten when new channels are being established as marketing tools.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Please Share the RSS Marketing Survey
Please help us make the RSS Marketing Survey as comprehensive as possible. All participants get the full survey report, and all the key data will be shared publicly.
1. Please take a few minutes and participate by clicking here.
2. Please share this URL (http://rsspoll.marketingstudies.net) with as many people as you can. Post it on your blog, send it out in your newsletter, mention it to your RSS peers ... :)
Really, the more data we get, the better results we'll be able to provide to you.
The goal of the survey is to research the RSS marketing landscape, collect top RSS marketing case studies and best practices, and find which key factors make successful RSS strategies successful.
BTW - the survey is getting alot of support from many marketers, such as Christopher Knight, RSS Ray, Lee Odden and may others (full list will be published after I return from Chicago).
And today we've just been covered by MarketingSherpa as well:
"If you've tested offering RSS and have any results to share, author/researcher Rok Hrastnik is seeking your input for the second edition of his report on the topic. We like Rok -- he's a genuine and enthusiastic researcher on the topic and worth supporting so the whole community can learn together."
Great thanks to everyone that's helping make the survey a success!
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
MarketingStudies.net Back in 2007
Happy 2007 and all the success to you!
If anyone of course still comes back to read this blog after more than a half-year break:)
Well, in 2007 MarketingStudies.net is making a come-back. After months of 18 hour work days, while at the same time resolving some family issues, things are finally falling back into place.
1. What Happened?
Life. And work.
In my post as the International Internet Director for Studio Moderna, the largest direct-response network in Central & Eastern Europe (20 countries), I started 2006 with 5 people on my international team ... and finished with 35. And more coming in 2007 ...
And hey, we just manage around 130 webstores:)
The high growth in new hires and other developments put quite a management strain on me. The good news is that with the most recent hires I am now finally able to devote some of my 19 hours per day to MarketingStudies.net ... and on the Studio Moderna side focus on achieving our overall goal of dominating e-commerce in CEE.
2. In Search of Personal Identity
When I started thinking of the MarketingStudies.net come-back the first question was that of my personal identity and that of MarketingStudies.net as a business.
While most of the internet world in the US recognizes me from the RSS industry, the largest part of my professional life revolves around e-commerce management and channel integration. Don't want to go overboard with my ego here, but I probably know more about (and have experience with) e-commerce and online direct marketing in CEE (overall, not all the individual countries of course:) than anyone else in the world.
Yeah, talking about an overblown ego:)
Anyway, B2C e-commerce is in my blood, a passion, just like RSS, and starting with 2007 this will be much more apparent in the directions that MarketingStudies.net takes.
The essence however still stays the same --- how to use online in integration with other channels to directly increase B2C sales and profitability. Simple as that.
3. First Things First
Before we go back to a regular publishing schedule some house-cleaning will need to be made. Starting with all the comment spam that so nicely accumulated here over the past few months. Sorry guys, it will have to go.
Following that ...
a) Business Case for RSS 2007 Whitepaper [hopefully in January]
b) RSS for PR e-book, with Sally Falkow [soon]
c) Unleash RSS 2007 [this was supposed to be the promised 2006 edition ... well, at least you will be getting all the latest data and info]
d) The new MarketingStudies.net [should have been launched in Q1 2006, will be launched in Q1 - Q2 2007, you'll love it]
And more ...
4. How About the Blog Posts?
This is the hard one.
What happens when you want to do too much at the same time?
Life.
Keeping a blog is naturally part of that. But all the writing and communication that comes along with it is usually enough to help you stray away from your other priorities. I'll need to find some balance, but the blog is here to stay.
But, content wise expect three distinct directions:
a) The RSS Marketing Diary
This one is here to stay, but it won't revolve only around RSS, but also about taking marketing advantage of other new online media.
b) B2C Interactive
A direct marketer's/e-commerce manager's spin on online marketing and channel integration, including models, processes, case studies, analytics and other essential stuff.
c) Marketing Rants
The name says it all, right? Commentary and opinion. No prisoners.
More to follow shortly ...
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Second Life 2: How Can Marketers Take Advantage?
In part 1 we discussed how big marketers are using the virtual world of Second Life to interact with their audiences, spending millions of Dollars doing so.
More than 65 companies have already launched their Second Life presence, turning out to be more interested into Second Life than actual users.
Many have learned from previous bad marketing experiences of reaching out into new terriorities without adequate experience and are now hiring people from within Second Life to support their activities, rather than entering with their old bags of tricks.
A Marketing Disaster Waiting to Happen?
But while the virtual world seems to offer endless marketing opportunities, some data would suggest that Second Life is a marketing disaster just waiting to happen.
The virtual world currently has a total of 2,965,539 residents, but only 1,037,804 of these have logged-in in the last 60 days. When writing this article, only 25,845 of them are online this minute.
While the audience the size of a small country might be worth marketing to on a small scale to make a decent profit, anecdotal evidence shows that:
a) these people are not really interested in, as an example, the retail stores set-up by real-world companies in the virtual setting, rendering them empty most of the time, and
b) many of these resent the presence of marketers so much that some residents of Second Life are fighting against their practices in the virtual world.
With the kind of money going into Second Life right now, this might be a disaster waiting to happen once the results don't come through.
Even companies looking to use Second Life just for market research may run into problems trying to apply their findings to the real world, where the psychographics and behavioral patterns are different.
Migrating Traditional Models into Virtual Worlds
The biggest problem is migrating traditional models into virtual worlds, such as in the case of retailers opening retail stores in Second Life. If you're doing it for branding, that's fine. Give away everything for free and then try to make the sale in the real world (although again, to do this, you would need much scale).
But for e-commerce, migrating the traditional retail model into the virtual world smells of disaster.
While we love browsing products in real stores, Second Life cannot come even close to that experience with its rather difficult user interface and inadequate graphics that would motivate you to grab an item from the store shelf and pay real money for it.
It is somehow difficult to see someone browsing through Amazon's thousands of books by moving left and forth from shelf to shelf.
There's a better method, and it's called online search, and it gives you results without lag and in a manner that's easy to use. Sorry, but the usability just isn't here.
What Will Work Then?
Nissan seems to be just on the right track, offering Second Life residents free test drives of the virtual copies of their real life models.
Simple logic would say that marketers entering this virtual world would have to go up and beyond to create added value for the residents, giving them the tools and items to make their virtual experience better.
Free items that duplicate the real products might be a good start, allowing the residents to have a full demo of the product before buying it in the real world, as Nissan is doing, but even more towards enriching the user experience by adding new functionality.
The iPhone for example could be a perfect fit, with Apple making a fully functional virtual copy available to every user, with the ability to listen to iTunes music, watch videos and communicate with their friends.
Or Nike giving you running shoes that increase your gamespeed.
Or Sears giving you a free internal decorator to furnish your virtual house with their furniture, hoping you would perhaps then want to do the same in real life.
Or universities offering in-game courses on how to improve your gameplay. For example Harward offering a free course on making money in the game, and then hoping to enroll these students later on.
The opportunities seem quite endless.
Getting From Service to Purchase
But the challenge is getting from offering an in-game service to actually making the sale in the real world.
In this case, companies could try to mimic direct marketing 101 tactics, but of course not forgeting the added value requirements of Second Life.
a) When doing your furnishings in Second Life, Sears could allow you to print out your settings, take them to the nears physical store, get the same selection there and make a purchase with a small discount ... or even get additional free interior decoration consulting prior to making the purchase.
b) An upgrade to this would of course be making the purchase available directly from the virtual world, with the ability to pay with your virtual Dollars or your credit card, and have the products delivered to your home. And as some are speculating, Sears might already be going into this direction.
c) Retailers could make use of real world coupons, distributed within the game. You try a pair of running shoes and then order them online with a discount coupon.
d) If you're already getting a free car ride in the virtual world, why not use the same interface for your users to reserve a test drive in real life, perhaps even delivering the car to their front door?
e) The university, which first offers you Second Life training, could then go on to sell you some virtual in-game classes on real life business, or even have an in-game consultant help you apply for real life courses ... helping your choose the right courses, discussing financial options and so on.
Common sense tells me that the success of marketing initiatives will depend mostly on how marketers will be able to relate the virtual experience with the real world and facilitate action on the side of the residents.
But even with all of this, the number of users is still far too small for these activities to really make much of an impact right now.
Even if the user base is growing, only 1 of 6 people that try Second Life persist for more than about a month. So people that try it are mostly running away after experiencing the troublesome user interface and user experience.
Will the User Experience Kill the Possiblities?
Either way you look at it, the user experience right now is not even close to what would be needed to reach mass penetration.
OK, let's say that the next version fixes this, the user experience vastly improves, people come and stay in hoards and the sheer mass makes Second Life or an alternative virtual world a strong branding & communications tool.
Certainly this would make in-game companies, if they behave of course, a hit with the up-and-coming younger demographic that almost seems to be forgeting about the real world, and a future smaller number of older adults.
Actually, this might become the best way to reach the younger demographics that are turning away from television and blatant advertising as it is.
But even with excellent user interface and much more realistic graphics, can a 3D model even really work online when it comes to sales?
Can such a 3D model be made to really support direct sales?
Browsing a webstore, if usability standards are obeyed, is easy, actually much easier than browsing a traditional store, if you know what you're looking for. And when more webstores start offering 3D models of their products, this will only enhance the power of e-commerce ... but still within the same browser-based 2D model.
Well, the one thing that the 3D virtual world model has going is a more personal experience. When browsing a 3D retail store, a real life virtual assistant can easily give you advice, suggest purchase options and even work out a payment plan for you.
You can of course do that in a webstore as well, but moving around with your 3D virtual character in a virtual setting with a virtual live assistant does seem more personal.
So perhaps, in the future of a couple of years we will start seeing integrated e-commerce models that combine the ease of use of the 2D internet with the personal impact of the 3D virtual world.
Right now the virtual worlds seem mostly good for branding, although lacking the appropriate scale. But in the future we might see them getting more into e-commerce, customer management and communications, and more. Time will tell.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
RSS Really Starting to Move Towards E-mail Marketers
Email Reaction is another e-mail vendor following the certain trend of RSS going the way of e-mail marketing ... in terms of direct marketing capabilities of course.
Although they're just entering beta testing with their solution, they promise RSS feed personalization, the holy grail for direct marketers, as well as full RSS integration in their software, to make the move towards RSS easier for e-mail marketers.
The first to offer this type of integration and personalization were SilverPop, although it still remain to be seen how Email Reaction will compete with their feature set.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Getting Visitor Ownership in a Cluttered Internet World
While customer and visitor ownership may still be a target for online media and marketers, achieving this goal is getting near to impossible.
Some years ago internet users would select a couple of favorite media sites, set-up their base there and primarily use these sites to get their daily fix of news and other relevant content.
Who wants to surf dozens of sites every day, if you can get all you need from a few favorites?
RSS turned this upside down.
Today you select an RSS Reader, desktop or online, subscribe to a few dozen feeds, and then get your latest content from multiple sources through a single interface, without having to surf at all.
At least in theory.
In reality the RSS adoption curve is still not where we would like it to be. But there is still no doubt that visitor ownership is slowly deteriorating. In part because of RSS, in part because smart players like Yahoo! started making it easy for their users to subscribe to feeds and in part of course also because there are millions of places to go for content today.
Years ago we proposed that online media and marketers capitalize on low RSS adoption by offering their users branded RSS Readers.
Some did it, but very few achieved much success. Why?
My theory is that they didn't provide enough added value.
In a March 05, 2005 article titled Branded RSS Aggregator Strategies and New Customizable RSS Aggregator I gave 11 tips on how to make branded RSS Readers work for you.
And no, it wasn't just taking a low-end Reader and branding it with your brand visuals.
Haven't seen any developments along those lines yet.
But that's not really the point.
It seems that LA Times is one of the companies that gets the concept of added value.
According to psfk.com, their strategy in offering a braded online RSS Reader through MyLATimes isn't about offering "yet another RSS Reader", but rather about adding editorial to the mix.
Their reasoning in short:
(a) Users still don't care to learn what RSS is. They want a simple solution they don't have to learn about.
(b) Offer them a simple RSS Reader that takes the RSS word out of the equation.
(c) Get them to stick by helping them access most relevant feeds quickly and easily ... by providing them with editorially selected feeds. Top external content for no work, such as having to search for it.
(d) Still allow users to subscribe to any RSS feed, if they wish to do so.
What's the added value?
Little work, top content.
Of course, the question remains, does it still make sense to do your own branded RSS Reader? Especially now, with IE entering the game and making RSS even easier and accessible to millions more?
Coupled with editorially selected RSS feeds and NewsMastering (not part of the MyLATimes story), yes.
Especially for niche players, this might be the answer to at least getting visitor ownership in your niche category. Whether you're a media site or a traditional marketer.
(a) Create an easy-to-use branded RSS Reader.
(b) Select top content sources in your industry. Create automatic RSS Radars for hot topics and make them available from the start page.
(c) Provide your visitors with hand-picked RSS feed suggestions, which they can easily add to your branded RSS Reader.
(d) Create a NewsMaster RSS feed, where you provide "the best of the best" news and commentary from other sources in your industry.
(e) And if you really want to get crazy, add a blog, some social networking and a rich content database of your own.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Where is Bo?
First of all, I’d like to say happy new year to you. I know I haven’t shared anything with you for a while. I hope you are still reading this blog, because I’m going to share even more niche marketing stuff with you in 2007. I was struggling with coming up with [...]
WordPress 2.1 is Ready
Just read from Teli’s WordPress Niche Blog that WordPress 2.1 is out for download. One of the important changes is in this version is that now it requires MySQL 4. Which means I have to upgrade my servers in order to test drive it. Download WordPress 2.1.
Leaving for Chicago, ACCM
I'm leaving for Chicago in about 3 hours for a week, where I'll be speaking on RSS and direct marketing at the ACCM conference.
If you're in Chicago and want to grab a coffee, drop me a note.
And I might be a little slow in responding to e-mail messages during this week:)
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Million Dollar Product Creation Secrets just released!
Expedia Takes the Lead in Travel RSS Feeds
My greatest gripe against RSS marketing initiatives is that they're just poorly done.
You have a great company with an amazing product database that just calls for customized feeds ... and all you get from their RSS feeds are one-size-fits-all packages.
Really a waste. No one wants to receive updates on all US flights ... they just want to receive updates on the flights that really interest them. And here's the real power of RSS: bringing the most relevant content.
Expedia seems to understand that, at least based on their new RSS offering.
They allow you to customize your feed with Trip Type, your originating city, your destination and your package type.
Well, they could still do alot more, such as providing the option of selecting a price range, but it's a good beginning.
| How Can RSS Power Your Internet Marketing and Publishing? Find out more in the most comprehensive and best guide on RSS for marketers, as acclaimed by leading RSS experts, developers, marketers and publishers. Click here and get the step-by-step guide to taking full marketing advantage of RSS. |
Internet Audiences Growing: How Will You Respond?
When Works Pass Into The Public Domain

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