| LED Digest 1950: Special Issue - Blogs and RSS |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 25, 2005 Issue #1950 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Blogging ==-- ~ Martha Retallick "I'm hearing is 'Blog this!' and 'Blog that!' hype blowing at gale force." ~ Michael Linehan "...all of us here are (I think) concerned with commerce." ~ Ervin Hoath "I think blogging is here to stay." ~ George Oliver "[Blogs] do have value for the small business." --== RSS ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "XML content has been a highly specialized field since Netscape became an AOL subsidiary." ~ Kathryn Martyn "So, how does RSS help or solve the problem?" ~ Tom Aman "Until there are some real standards, I don't believe that RSS will really fly with most netizens." ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Martha Retallick Subject: Blog hype vs. reality Thanks to Ronni Rhodes for introducing reality into this discussion. I'm still looking for someone to say, "Since I added a blog to my site, my profits have increased by at least 50 percent." Or something like that. Instead, all I'm hearing is "Blog this!" and "Blog that!" hype blowing at gale force. That doesn't tell me that it's worth the time and expense to add a blog to my site. Martha Retallick http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Blogging Anything can exist on the Web --- what I ate for lunch today type postings; browsercam of my school locker, etc. But all of us here are (I think) concerned with commerce. From my point of view as a marketer, more contact with clients and potential clients equals more sales --- as long as the contact has enormous value in and of itself for those people. Who's on blogs and who will be on them? Will my particular target market use that medium? Or can they be persuaded / educated to? Being crystal clear on the target market, what THEY want, and how to speak effectively to them is the thing --- and exactly where I see small business fall down over and over again. It's not about us and the features of what we're doing --- it's all about the client and the benefit to them. Blinking marquees had no value. They were just intrusive and annoying. When value is given, the effect can be dramatic. In a pre-publication sale of our own book to clients, the email newsletter group out-bought the non-email group by a factor of 20 to 1! If a blog gives real value, it can have a similar effect. Michael Linehan www.marketing-alchemy.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Ervin Hoath Subject: blogging Hi Ronni I think blogging is here to stay. I also think that if used properly it could be a great way of some free advertising. If you use the blog for more than just a way of blowing off steam. Example: if you were to really show your human side, and blend your ad within the post like some do in forums. If you made it full of ads you would end up driving people away instead of attracting them. I know that if I sign up to a news letter and all it turns out to be is a bunch of ads, I am not long deleting it. If you write in a way that really shows your personality and who you really are, they would most likely click on your sig. at the bottom. Much like you would in a forum. I think people will look at that and say hey, this is a person I can relate to. I guess it would be like developing a relationship with people through emails on your list, only it would not be spam and there would be a lot more interaction between people. Great post by the way. Excellent topic to open for discussion. Ervin Hoath ------- new post - same topic -------- From: George Oliver Subject: Blogging Hello everyone, Regarding blogs and their commercial possibilities for small businesses...I'd have to say YES, they do have value for the small business. Take for example my use of a personal blog ( http://www.i8bozo.com/mopman/mopman.html ) where I not only share my personal travel experiences with family and friends who are scattered around the world, but also make mention of my online business from time to time. That sole ability, to be able to put the company name in front of a completely different set of eyeballs surely increases my traffic flow and awareness, which in turn translates into an influx in business. This is my experience and how I use my blog to benefit my online endeavor; others may have different views. I'm looking forward to hearing the other responses. Kind regards, George Oliver http://www.naturelibrary.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: RSS and more > We are still in early-adopter stage and most publishers > have not done a good job of educating their audience of > the benefits. Heck, until about 3 weeks ago I had no idea > what that little RSS icon meant. - Steve Pronger, LED 1941 XML content has been a highly specialized field since Netscape became an AOL subsidiary. They had actually created a huge market for RSS content, and then MyNetscape was redesigned and custom feeds were removed from the process. Nearly all the aggregator sites I used to get traffic from have since vanished. A couple of have managed to hang on, and I have been updating my RSS feeds on an occasional basis for the past couple of years. Ever since I started adding XML "channels" (what we used to call RSS feeds) to Xenite, I have maintained a "What are XML Channels?" page that all my channel homepages link to. There are actually some blog sites which allow their users to subscribe to XML channels. I am getting traffic from them. Yahoo! and MSN are picking up where Netscape left off, but the core audience has never really died out. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: RSS and more I guess I'm one of those, "don't need to know how the engine works, just want to drive" types because I don't care for the details, just give me the "how to" and I'm good to go. Most people's eyes will glaze over reading all about RSS, no matter how interested they may be. LOL I disagree that "RSS is a solution looking for a problem." E-mail spam and the like is not just a problem it's a multi-million dollar concern, and isn't going away. Without a workable solution to allow the exchange of information simultaneously with the ability to weed out the undesirable, we're doomed to need an employee who does nothing but sort good mail from the bad just to save us from ourselves. I can't tell you how many times I've said, "Don't click on attachments," and yet they still keep trusting that innocent e-mail greeting card or whatnot, and send each other jokes and other crap; it's just unbelievable what people are doing on the company dime. So, how does RSS help or solve the problem? It completely removes the undesirable element. You aren't going to subscribe to a feed that sends you crap, or if you do, you'll just delete it, and that's the end of it. No one can subscribe themselves to you without your permission. I don't know that RSS will replace e-mail, but it certainly can help insofar as newsletters and the like, and it's been my experience that participating in online discussions, or signing up for information to be sent via e-mail is where your e-mail address can become exploited. > ... the reader I have been testing will let me > import my IE favorites and at the click of one > button, check them all for updates - Tom Aman, LED 1941 Would you share which reader that was? I'd be interested in all opinions on all RSS Reader software. Kathryn Martyn http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: RSS and more > Interesting comments from Tom and Ronni, and > they do illustrate the fact that not everyone will have > the same user experience with RSS. - Steve Pronger, LED 1943 Steve was commenting on the fact that both Ronni and I removed our RSS readers after giving them a reasonable trial. Let's be VERY clear. The reader worked flawlessly - never had any problem with that. What did not work flawlessly was the feed content. I had subscribed to 12 feeds that would contain info in which I had a real interest. The reader checked for updates every hour. Some of the feeds reported updates only when there had been an actual change. If they were all like that, it would be great. But at 6 of the feeds reported updates every time they were checked, in spite of the fact that the most recent update was anywhere from a week to a month old. Until there are some real standards, I don't believe that RSS will really fly with most netizens. Tom Aman http://www.cyberspyder.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Solitude vivifies; isolation kills." - Joseph Roux |
