In my previous post, Web 2.0 marketing opportunities, I offered to be your tour guide for some of the major features offered by this marvelous technology. I listed six features represented by the acronym SLATES: Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions and Signals. Let’s start in reverse order with Signals – The use of syndication technology such as RSS to notify users of content changes.” RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. When I first heard the term I liked the sound of “really simple” but the syndication part? Not so much!…

Remember “Dear Abby”?…

As a freelance writer for the print media, I understand “old school” syndication. Consider “Dear Abby”, written by Abigail Van Buren, whose common sense advice column was syndicated in numerous, perhaps hundreds of newspapers across North America, becoming a household name. Abby wrote only one column, but she received compensation from many newspapers. A pretty good gig, if you ask me. Abby’s column, founded in 1959, is a still a good gig, carried on today by her daughter.

Back to the future…

Once upon a time, newspapers were delivered by subscription to your front door by your neighbourhood newspaper boy/girl. Today, Wikipedia tells us:

“An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata (I’ll cover this in a future blog post on Tags) such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers (bloggers) by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers (followers) who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using (free) software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.

You got all that, right? What it really means is that RSS delivers, by subscription, blog posts into your email reader, in real time.

But, what’s in this for me?…

Just like newspapers, blogs can include advertising targeted to their readership. This is where the Web 2.0 marketing opportunities come in. You were beginning to wonder about that, weren’t you? As the Chief Marketing Officer of your business, you can profit from these advertising opportunities in several ways:

1) You can make an arrangement with an existing blogger, one who has a substantial following, to purchase advertising space on his/her site. As the blogger distributes his/her valued content, your advertising messages tag along on your behalf. Kinda like “old school” newspapers did!

2) You can start your own blog, build a substantial following, and include your own marketing messages in each of your blog posts. However, you need to be subtle about this, as blogs are not well received when used as electronic substitutes for direct mailers – blogs are expected to provide useful information to readers.

3) If you have your own blog, you can sell advertising space on your site to another (usually complimentary) business. Google AdSense is a free program that empowers online publishers to earn revenue by displaying relevant ads on a wide variety of online content, including: site search results, websites, and mobile web pages. AdSense provides targeted text and image ads on your blog. Google automatically chooses which ads to show, based on your blog content, and takes care of any ad updates on your behalf. You earn money each time one of your site visitors view or click on these ads.

4) If you have your own blog, and a substantial following, you can join Google’s Affiliate Network. With this program, you choose which advertiser’s links, images and/or ad copy appear on your blog or website. However, you are required to do the updating of text and ads, perhaps on a daily basis. Affiliate marketers receive a commission or percentage of the sale of items purchased by means of a “click through link” activated by visitors to your site. For example, your blog post contains a review of a recently published book which has a click through link to Amazon.com back to that book. At that point, if your site visitors buy that book  you will receive a commission or percentage of sales. Neat, huh? (It is recommended that your blog contains a disclosure of your Affiliate marketing relationship, as opposed to letting your blog followers assume you are an independent book reviewer. It’s just the right thing to do!)

Don’t be intimidated by Web 2.0. It’s providing new and better marketing opportunities for those brave souls not hung up on “The good old days”. The good old days were never this good!

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