Hi,

I hate welcome posts… they are all cheesy… meant to build anticipation and excitement to the possibilities of what will unfold. But here goes

There’s a big wind of change that is occurring as a type this post -

- that change is called web2.0

Yes - it’s a buzzword.
Yes - it’s hype.
Yes - in reality all that’s been talked about could be done about 5 years ago.

But…

Yes - it WILL change the internet, and more importantly - It will change the face of online (and offline) marketing forever (well - until someone works out what web3.0 is!)

So, I’ll try to give you a dummies guide to what web 2.0 without stealing from the a wikipedia entry and ripping off what everyone else has said.

In short: web 1.0 was about taking businesses and business models that were possible offline, and simply moving them to the Internet.

web 2.0, conversely, is about creating websites and businesses, and new business models that can ONLY exist, or are unique to the Internet.

Very rough definition - so I’ll try to throw some more buzzwords in to give it some more structure:

Some of the key features of web 2.0 are as follows:

• User Generated Content - web 1.0 was all about editorial dictorship. I write - you listen. I’m the guru - you’re the follower. In web 2.0 editorial power over content is given to the people. Everyone can start a blog and publish, and syndicate their content all over the web. There are news sites where everyone gets to cast their votes on what the most popular stories are. No more politics and biases interfering with the editorial process. Stuff is popular because it legitimaly is voted to be popular in a generally democratic fashion. You are me - we’re all equal dude! Examples are Youtube (for user contributed video content) and digg (for a democratic news site)
• Social Networks - No man is an island. The fundamental need for 99% of all people is the need to “belong”. Social networks are simply web sites that allow you to stay in touch with your own group of friends and those who share the same interests and whacky passions that you do. Communicate, publish content to, run events within your community - meet the friends of your friends. Social networks all you to do all that - and have a lot of fun at the same time. The king in this field is myspace - which is popular with youth and all in the dating scene - but in less than a few years it has become one of the highest trafficed sites on the Internet. Do you think that might be of interest to all those Internet Marketers out there? Yup. We do too.
• Rich Media - In 2005 something amazing happened. 50% of all online uses in the US were on broadband. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re over the hump, and as a result the Internet has been transformed from being a textual medium to being a full audio and more importantly - VIDEO medium. If you’ve ever wished that you could own your own TV station - well - don’t laugh: YOU CAN! The implications of video for traffic and conversion and product creation are massive.
• Rich Interactive Experience - If you’ve ever used an online application like google mail and wonder how they cram an entire application into a web page - then you’ve just experienced AJAX - another undefinable buzzword for a way of building full-blown applications through your web browser. This kind of things was forecast about 10 years ago, but has taken this long to really reach critical mass. More than that, the ability to deliver web based services and rich user experiences to your web sites has really been untapped by online marketers and will lead to a whole new way of interacting with your prospects and customers. This is exciting stuff!

There’s a lot more to web 2.0 - and if you really must go ahead and read the wikipedia article. But for my vote, these are the most fundamental shifts, and if you ignore web 2.0 then you’re going to pay for it in spades?

Why? Because web 2.0 impacts fundamentally the fabric of business which is:

1. Market Research
2. Traffic
3. Conversion
4. Product

It’s no coincidence that youtube has been around for less than 18 months but has become ubiquitous - everyone has heard of it - and just sold out to google for $1.38 Billion (yes - read the “B”). And the same with myspace - even more so. If you’ve ever used myspace it is a usability nightmare! But it’s the highest traficked site on the Internet, and did it within 18 months!

Do you want to be king in niche? Do you want to be a household name in your business area? Then you need to harness these principals in your business and marketing.

And that’s what this blog is about.

Helping you to kick butt and gain the unfair advantage by applying web2.0 strategies to your online businesses.

Watch this space!!!

– euge