Welcome to Web 2.0

It’s a brave new world and they call it Web 2.0 ? which is really nothing more than an official acknowledgement that the web is no longer static. The web is now dynamic, which means you and your users can give as much as you can receive. Social Networking, streaming media, blogs, all these things contribute to the interactivity of the internet and they can all be used to your advantage. Here are a few hints:

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RSS

One of the biggest game-changers of the last few years is the RSS feed. In a nutshell, the RSS is nothing more than a standardization, like VHS or when they finally settled on DVDs ? everyone uses them and they?ll all work in your VCR. RSS takes content and formats it in such a way that it can be sucked into almost any database and displayed in a coherent manner. This means that your blog, website, article or term paper can all be broadcast automatically to hundreds or thousands of people who can in turn insert your information in a nicely formatted way directly into their CMS or readers.

There are many different ways to send your well-crafted content out into the world ? here are a few of the sites that will help you not only gain traffic through people who actually read what you?ve written, but also from the excellent back-links that these will provide.

• hubpages.com
• squidoo.com
• tumblr.com
• blogger.com
• xanga.com
• yahoo360.com
• wordpress.com (Be careful here ? they do NOT like anything commercial-ish)
• zimbio.com
• feedbite.com
• bumpzee.com
• ezinearticles.com
• twitter.com (fantastic for quick indexing)
• ping.in (for pinging your new content)

Interaction

Part of what makes Web 2.0 into Web 2.0 is the level of interaction ? this is critical to remember. Gone are the days when you can throw up a post, gain a link and never think twice about that site again. You?ve got to be sure that you’re actually interacting with these sites ? they can tell how involved you are with taking quizzes, voting, posting comments and following up on those comments with others ? being engaged matters! There is a reason that MySpace, Youtube and Facebook are the largest websites in the world following the big three search engines! Social networking extends far beyond tracking down your old college roommate ? forums and blogs as well as the big social pages are a critical part of your websites success.

Promote your Promotional Content

This comes back to putting out good quality content ? more so than just sticking a cheap article out there. What would you do if you wrote a killer article that was correctly keyword targeted and IT ranked on Google and it still pointed people back to your main site? What would you do if you owned four or five of the top returns for some niche keywords? Social networking can help you do this ? promote the promotions that you have running to your main site. You’re winning all the way around; your promotional sites are driving traffic to your site at the same time they’re building back links.

Fresh Content

We can’t stress this one enough ? in the world of Web 2.0, content is king. Not just content, but TODAY?S content. We mentioned a high level of interaction earlier, this is even more true about your own website. The search engines pay attention to how frequently you’re updating and adding. Your customers and users pay attention to how frequently you’re updating. Even your own mother knows when you?ve been slacking off for a few days ? you?ve GOT to update your content and you?ve got to do it all the time. Here’s the real kicker ?it’s got to be real. There isn’t any way to fake this ? even the search engine algorithms are wise to your auto-rotate codes that change up the header every other day. Frankly, don’t even try to fake this ? either treat your website like it’s the real deal and take care of it, nurture it and feed it, or call it for what it is ? a static sales page that you got out of a cereal box.

Don’t Forget The Comments

Once again, this will require work ? leaving comments on blogs and forums is an unbelievably good way to gain some major search engine points as well as drive some significant direct traffic and help cultivate the buzz about your site. A word of caution; people can smell your fake-y ?hey, this relates to the product that I just happen to be selling? from about 20,000 miles away, and it will lose you points faster than you can even believe. You?ve got to take your time, frequent the places that your customers like, speak their language and enhance their lives with helpful and constructive comments that are actually meaningful. Sounds almost like selling, doesn’t it? That’s the difference between selling to someone and spamming them ? selling is helpful even if they don’t wind up buying their product. Spamming makes them feel like they’re nothing to you but an opportunity ? and a cheap one at that.

Web 2.0 has unbelievable marketing potential that has never existed on this planet before ? but it has done something that nobody thought could happen ? it’s made everything more personal again ? and you?ve got to be careful that your campaigns and marketing techniques are attracting your customers and not repelling them.

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