People let you down on-line regularly, it’s why no one trusts anyone in the on-line world and why this whole internet bizzo is a little difficult, it’s tough to first gain trust, then build a relationship, maintain credibility then maybe make a buck at the end of the day. But on-line it’s almost expected. In real life when someone lets you down it’s harder to regain the trust and the more often you say your going to do something only to fall short of delivery, the less the people around you trust you or your judgment. Maybe I’ll get the guest post for my birthday. That might be nice.

These are all very important questions and each need to be addressed. The thing about new media and the on-line world is that we have to think laterally. Once you think you have come up with a solution, go through it again and add to it. Chances are in the initial design of the content you missed possible links in the body text, possible outbound links to associated businesses, and other interactivities that could be implemented on a page. The web is a big place and you should be sure that you’re site is utilising as many tools as feasible.

Make sure you are utilising at least some basic SEO techniques, a large percentage of sites don’t. By simply choosing some effective keywords and adding them into the code of your site where ever possible (meta tags, HTML Comments, Headers image descriptions etc.) you automatically increase your relevance to search engines, in turn giving you a better position in the search results.

The possibilities on-line are endless and this is where thinking laterally comes into play. You need to ensure that every possible connection that can be made with the minimum of fuss and maximum benefit to your client (be it to an applications, a website, a database). If you have a lot of technical jargon, do you have a glossary? Don’t have time to do a glossary? Why not link to WikiPedia?

As designers, businesses and marketers in this new age of information pollution it is our duty to cut through the clutter. The first step to any web marketing campaign should ensure that visitors to your site are directed to the information they require with minimal navigation on their behalf. Without this first step your on-line marketing will ultimately fail.

All too often I find that business owners and marketing managers are quick to throw money at the internet without actually understanding how it works. Unfortunately certain businesses (who shall remain nameless… for now) are taking advantage of this naivety and returning little to no results, by utilising techniques (such as AdWords and SEO) that show some growth and minor financial return for the marketing budget.

Understandably business owners and marketing managers have grown wary of all things web based. This means that those businesses who are trying to build proper campaigns are being seen as door to door salesmen selling nothing more than snake oil.

On the flip side we see that many business owners and marketing managers have cottoned on to the concept that on-line marketing is the way forward and is returning something (unlike many sites developed prior to the .com boom). They hear all of the “experts” running around talking about buzzwords like “SEO” and “Social Media” and trendy products like “Google AdWords” and they want a piece of the pie.

So what does this contradictory combination mean to the legitimate on-line marketers of the world? It means that these businesses end up trying to feel out the water and gauge results using small budgets, in a conservative effort to see if these forms of marketing can work for them. They know it needs to happen NOW as the competition is on the same tip, but they can’t afford to trust legitimate on-line marketing businesses because they’ve been burnt before.

This in turn places both businesses in a bad position from the start. A Google AdWords campaign needs to be well researched for a start and secondly it takes money to get results. Many businesses utilising the AdWords system have spent thousands of dollars on pay-per-click with on-going analysis of what is and isn’t working for them. This means that the business paying for the advertising will not see the results they want despite the best efforts of the company providing the service.

Before it gets to this point it is up to the on-line marketer to ensure that they have informed the client to the best of their ability. A strong web campaign should not start with AdWords, first and foremost the business needs to have a strong site with easily accessible information. If a visitor to the site cannot find what they want in less than ten seconds they will navigate away. As you can see if this happens the money spent on a campaign that gets them to click through to the site is wasted.

Like any campaign an on-line campaign needs to be worked on from the ground up. If the company doing your web marketing has not taken the time to develop your on-line campaign in sync with your off-line campaign then it is likely they are spending your money on advertising without having planned out a strategy that works for your business.

For on-line marketers don’t try to sell the buzz word or product of the moment, it may bring you money straight away but you will lose clients when the bubble bursts. Be sure to review what your clients business actually needs rather than jumping on the latest web bandwagon. We have seen on-line marketing crash before (we all still shudder at the ramifications of the .com bust) let’s not let this happen again or businesses will lose faith in the web all together.

These rankings are allocated depending on the amount of people who use the Alexa Toolbar that visit your site. Now I don’t know about you but until I started working in this On-Line Marketing space I had never heard of Alexa. The only people who I know who actually have the Alexa Toolbar installed are Search Market Professionals.

So yes this does provide accurate statistics regarding people using the Alexa toolbar who visit your site but in reality they have no real relevance to Page Ranking or volume statistics at all. Other sites like Compete have a go as well but their estimations are dubious to say the least. These tools can be used to give a general idea of how your site is performing but they are in no way shape or form an accurate representation.

To get a real understanding of how your site is performing requires actual code to be written into your sites HTML and the site to be monitored over at least a period of a year. Then you can see the ebb and flow of traffic over seasons, what changes and updates work and what really resonates with your audience. Anyone who tells you any different is selling you nothing more than snake oil repackaged in an exciting new electronic way (now with AdWords)!

Don’t be fooled by these people. They will take your money and you will see little in return. We don’t mind if you use another company for your SEO and Search Marketing we just ask that you make sure that you know that they really know what they are saying and they are not just pulling stats and figures out of thin air to get a sale.

Why is it so amazing?

Why are people struggling to understand it?

Why can’t people figure out how to make money out of it?

Why are so many experts pontificating and ultimately failing in this new market space?

Why are the next generation doing so well at it?

Who is going to ultimately rise above all of this?

There are new streams of study being created to cope with understanding this new world.

There are whole groups of bloggers who think they have the answer.

I know the answer.

I have been thinking about this for a long time and if you think 2.0 is the be all and end all , you’ve missed the point. This blog will continue to answer these questions.

In the meantime, here’s a video that will give you the basics of it real quick:

The evolution of the internet has had some very interesting social implications. What many people forget about the internet is that it is, at it’s core, a source of information (and porn, but that’s a whole different ball game.) It is a massive database of millions of computers constantly collecting, recording and storing data at an unprecedented, ever increasing rate. Having said that let’s look at the implications:

Information has become not only free but readily available. Gone are the days of our Parents and Grandparents who passed information down generation to generation by teaching and example. In today’s post-war, baby-boomer, capitalist society, we see parents being necessarily caught up in the dog eat dog corporate world. It’s hard enough finding the hours in the day to put food on the table and eat it, let alone help your son or daughter fix their rusted out first car.

So how do the kids get by? As you know a large percentage of the young population in the modern world have grown up with computers and, in the last eleven years, the internet. The new “Generation-Y” kids, that marketers were once so baffled by, were not raised on Television like their older “Gen-X” siblings. They were raised in a rapidly evolving realm of information. They participated in the forums, looked at all the porn sites, laughed at the dot com boom and giggled at the apparent ineptitude of the older generation.

What eventually grew out of this environment of precocious young up-starts in a world of information is nothing short of phenomenal. If there is something to be done and you don’t have the answers, it can be found on the internet. The internet has become the Zeitgeist, the Hive Mind, the Collective Unconscious, and where dad can’t teach you how to fix the spark plugs in your clapped out bomb, the internet can, hence the birth of the “Google Expert”.

People now have the ability to do anything they wish. If it is a simple task, or even an affordable complex task, a growing percentage of the population can now perform it simply by hunting down the information on-line. This makes it difficult for businesses that are providing base level services. These businesses survive because of convenience rather than lack of knowledge. When dealing with a more educated client you may find yourself over charging as the monetary expense may outweigh the time saved by paying for the job to be done.

So what does all this mean? How does that mildly depressing, relatively confusing, seriously nut-shell bit of writing help you to bring people to your business? The answer is there, it’s hidden between the lines: Give your audience the information for free.

GASP!

Yes you read that line correctly; “But why!?” I hear you cry “If I provide potential clients with all of the information they need they may just go and do the job themselves.” That’s true and my answer is relatively simple: Even if they have the time to do the job themselves chances are they will run into a problem that will require a level of expertise that they do not have. Now my question to you is “Where are they going to go at that point?”

The information that you give them for free is already available. In fact there is probably even more information than you are willing to give somewhere on the web. If your potential client did not get their information from you they will go straight to the service provider that gave it to them first and I doubt that service provider will recommend you (being their competition and all).

So you see, even if you can’t have the greatest flash app or viral video on your site to entice your potential clients or generate word of mouth marketing, you can still use the internet to your benefit by providing key information. At it’s very core this is what the internet provides. Don’t try and change it like so many other businesses have tried, and failed, to do. Utilise it. Give your target market the respect they deserve and you will get their respect, and business, in return. Do not insult their intelligence, encourage their growth, and your business will grow with them.

“So what is the internet all about?” I hear you ask. That’s a very good question with a few very obvious answers. First and foremost the internet is about information (and porn but that’s a whole different ball game). Having said that; what started out as an amazing resource for information has evolved into a whole world of entertainment.

A large percentage of the population of people using the internet are surfing the tubes looking for nothing more than a good laugh and something to take their minds off of their boring day to day activities. These people are sick of the constant barrage of commercials in everyday life and are really just looking to get away from all of that.

How can I say this? The proof is in the punch when it comes to the backlash of users against Facebook introducing commercials and then against applications that force you to invite users. Facebook was the place to socialise without being bombarded by banner advertising and although it didn’t stop them, they copped a lot of flack over the addition of advertising. Then when applications started requiring you add people to use them it all got a bit nasty with dozens of groups opening up to speak out against them. Have you noticed how most apps don’t require you to invite people now? Coincidence? I think not!

Which brings me back to my opening statement: Web Marketers who don’t understand the term passive marketing are fail. We see them all the time pushing their wares and targeting people after putting them all into little boxes. Like the late great Bill Hicks says: “Oh your in Marketing? Kill Yourself!” People do not want to be put into boxes. A recent article from the Wired Magazine Website shows that 59% of Americans take exception to being monitored by big Web Media businesses studying their habits and targeting them.

This leads me to ask the question: why? Targeted advertising is better isn’t it? It means that you only get to see commercials that are related to you and your interests isn’t that a good thing? Well it is, if it’s not in your face and interrupting your time on-line. People don’t like the Hard Sell. They hate the “BUY BUY BUY!” mentality of commercials that pop up over their news articles. They don’t want to be sold on the latest pair of Hemp Pants while looking up solar energy. They want to read information, they want to play games, they want to forget about the fact they only have enough money to sit at home and enjoy the web rather than go out and drink beer with their mates.

So if you’re an on-line marketer please hear what I say. Inform people. Don’t sell to them. Entertain People. Don’t Bombard them with repetitive marketing strategies. If you write an article or make a game that people enjoy the next time they go looking for the product you are trying to sell they might think of you. Wouldn’t you prefer them to say “Oh yeah I remember a product like that from a game?” not “Oh I don’t want to buy that product, their ads annoy me every time I go to a website!”?

Think about it. Oh and please feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. But please do not do it if your URL is www.sexypantslickers.com or some other such pornographic site. We don’t want your spam here so sod off!

The funny thing is… we all know this. We tell our clients this. We tell our friends this. We preach it until the cows come home. But do you think for the life of us we can find the time to do it? Heck No!

The thing is, our site has been optimised and we have been getting enough traffic through word of mouth marketing combined with our SEO techniques (even though Google still hasn’t given us a Page Ranking yet). So we have been busy just trying to keep up with the influx of new business (off-line marketing is still the most important aspect of any campaign). But all of this is about to change.

Our numbers have remained at an average of ten unique visitors a day. This is not bad as far as we are concerned but we know, and have experienced, that there are a lot more hits out there. There are thousands of people just waiting to be introduced to new material, new ideas and new content. So we are about to embark on an experiment and we would like to invite you to come on the journey with us.

From this day forward we will update this blog at least once a week. We will cover topics related to Web Design. We will review sites of the many submissions we have had from designers looking for work (thankyou fellow web junkies for your interest, we will give you work when we require your services). We will keep you up to date with the latest social networking tools. We will pontificate and make ourselves sound self important like every other successful Blogger in the Blogosphere.

BUT…. (dramatic pause)

We will do it with a sense of humour. One thing that people forget about the web is that it is an ever evolving platform. It changes and fluctuates at a rate that is unlike any other medium we have seen before it. The rules (as they stand) will change as soon as you blink, and if you blink, you damn well missed it. So we won’t pretend to be experts. We are learning constantly, just like you, and we will do our best to apply our life long infatuation with all things technological to help you utilise this constantly morphing animal to your benefit.

Best of all though, as we update this blog, as we evolve our site, we will share with you our experiences, we will divulge our analytics, we will tell you what has worked for us and how it can work for you. We are taking it beyond the academic now and making it experimental. If it fails, you will know. Look out Evil Knievel, this is balls to the wall web development as you have never seen it. Welcome to Wise Orange. The new era (and we’ve only been in business for three months….)

Adding competitions or giveaways to your website encourages a higher level of traffic and should be incorporated into your offline marketing strategy to increase awareness. On-line Auctions generate interest as well as other forms of standard marketing tools transferred to an online format. The list of possibilities in this area is endless.

On the surface Facebook is a social site that people visit and catch up with old friends on. But if you look a little deeper Facebook can help your business in a multitude of ways. The most obvious way is by setting up a Group that invites lovers of your businesss around the globe to join and discuss their passion. There is always space for more Facebook groups and if marketed correctly this could give you a strong foundation of regular internet users.

The other aspect to Facebook that would benefit your business is the use of Applications. Facebook Applications are basically small programs that people add to their Facebook homepage and it is the predominant way that people interact in this space. Applications usually have a hook that allows users to interact with their friends. An example of one popular application is the ‘Vampire Application’ which allows you to ‘bite’ your friends. The more friends you ‘bite’ the stronger your Vampire becomes. These novelty applications provide advertising and links to you site and if designed with the right hook can increase your traffic exponentially.

An even newer development in Social Media is the News Aggregation and Social Bookmarking. These sites allow users to post articles of interest to them and the rest of the community votes on the quality of the content. High Quality articles are voted to the front page which results in a massive influx of people visiting your site. To get to this stage does take time and only with the help of the members of respective communities (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon etc.) will you achieve this.

Social Media is a passive form of marketing and needs to look as far from Marketing as possible. This may sound strange in a marketing report but people who use these sites are more about choosing what is right for them, not being told. As a result this type of marketing can be a little touch and go, but with the right content your site has the potential to become a serious player in the on-line world.