Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most exciting and controversial applications of technology that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs tends to be more current than the news in the paper, oron television. Unlike news delivered by these othermedia, news that appears on blogs does not have totravel through a series of editors and administrators before it reaches the public eye. This has some advantages, and some distinct disadvantages.
One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog before appearing in other media took place when terrorism struck London. As passengers wereevacuated from a subway car near an explosion, oneman took several photographs of the scene with hiscellular phone, and within an hour these images wereposted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophebegan appearing on blogs soon after these photosappeared, and people all over the world learned aboutthe events in London by reading the words and seeingthe photos posted by bloggers.
The fact that these stories and images were being spreaddirectly by individuals operating without the addedfilter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel veryimmediate to people across the globe. When it comes toblogging, news often appears in a very personal context.This has the potential to be the beginning of an excitingnew era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"to it's logical next step by putting the power to shapehow the news is written and read directly into the handsof the public.
Many bloggers and cultural commentators who arechampions of the weblog movement feel that thisgrowing trend of individuals who getting their newsfrom blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow ofinformation more democratic. By decentralizing thecontrol of news, blogs allow more voices to enter thefield of debate about important current events.However, many people are adamantly opposed to theuse of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty ofgood arguments on this side of the debate.
Unlikenewspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalisticaccountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapidspread of misinformation, and more than one falsehoodhas taken the blogosphere by storm. The questionsabout whether blogging news as it happens is ethical ornot are very complicated, but no matter where you standon the topic of current events blogs you are almost sureto agree that this movement has the potential torevolutionize how modern people get their news.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Building Your Mailing List with Downloads
A mailing list is the lifeblood of your online business. The old adage "the money is in the list" cannot be true enough -- if you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects.
You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example -- apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes!
In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes. You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. The important thing is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away his/her own email address to get it.
However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your website won't be enough to attract qualified prospects. You will have to do some homework in order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you.
First of all, you must place your download form prominently on your website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and link to that page from every other page of your website. That way, there is no way your visitors cannot find the download page, and when they do, you'll get some of them converted into your prospects!
Also, you have to put a little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why your visitors should download it. You might think why would anyone want to pass on a freebie, but most of your visitors would be too lazy to take the effort to download it because most of their downloads just sit on the hard disk collecting virtual dust. It is hence important to show your visitors why they should download your freebie.
[ The Money making of a Niche :: Free Data Entry Work :: Imtiaztips Weblog :: Free Webmaster Articles :: Imtiaztips Freeware ]
You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example -- apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes!
In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes. You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. The important thing is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away his/her own email address to get it.
However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your website won't be enough to attract qualified prospects. You will have to do some homework in order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you.
First of all, you must place your download form prominently on your website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and link to that page from every other page of your website. That way, there is no way your visitors cannot find the download page, and when they do, you'll get some of them converted into your prospects!
Also, you have to put a little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why your visitors should download it. You might think why would anyone want to pass on a freebie, but most of your visitors would be too lazy to take the effort to download it because most of their downloads just sit on the hard disk collecting virtual dust. It is hence important to show your visitors why they should download your freebie.
[ The Money making of a Niche :: Free Data Entry Work :: Imtiaztips Weblog :: Free Webmaster Articles :: Imtiaztips Freeware ]
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