Reflections on 10 Years of Web Marketing Today
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson,
Wilson Internet Rocklin, CA
Nov 2, 2005, 21:06
Web Marketing Today was first published November 3, 1995 to about 200 subscribers, primarily as a vehicle to nurture potential customers. It gradually took on a life of its own and now reaches over 108,000 weekly subscribers in nearly 200 countries.
My heart and passion over these years has been to help small businesses succeed on the Internet. Yes, WMT is read by marketing executives in many of the Fortune 500 companies, but my heart is for your business, your dream, your hope of an Internet success for your employees, for your family.
I've often wondered about God's curious sense of humor in placing me as he has. Perhaps to sound a theme of integrity and value in an industry known for hype and hardsell. Perhaps to offer big company value for a small business price to help you compete with the best. Perhaps to be an encouragement to the small siteowner, the hard-pressed marketing manager, the consultant on a wild learning curve. I know I have you in my heart as I write.
These have been years of intense learning for me, too, of pedaling hard to stay abreast in a burgeoning industry. Ten years ago I was an Internet expert. While I'm still an expert in one or two areas, I'm now a generalist charged with interpreting a dozen separate Internet marketing disciplines to my readers.
But this has scarcely been a lonely journey. Isaac Newton once said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." I have learned from many, many of you. I owe much to colleagues like Ken Evoy and Larry Chase, Jim Sterne and Mike Grehan, and dozens of other experts, writers, and practitioners. I also owe a lot to my staff. My annotated link editors -- Kevin Elliott of Banff, Canada and Joanne Gucwa of Chicago, Illinois -- have scoured the Internet for thousands of gems to share with my readers and to file in the Research Room (www.wilsonweb.com/research/). Thank you! My assistant editor, Ann Wilson, has been invaluable in helping me publish weekly -- and often several times a week. My wife has been oh, so patient.
And I thank you, my readers. Your questions have made me dig. Your encouragement and feedback have kept me going. I feel that I know many of you though we've never met in person. Finally, I thank God for a truly wild ride.
If you'd like to offer a 10th anniversary present to Web Marketing Today, could you make a one-way link from your website to mine? Use the URL http://www.wilsonweb.com (or another webpage on my site) and linked text including any of the following phrases: "Web Marketing Today," "E-mail Marketing," "Internet Marketing," or "E-Commerce." I'll appreciate it, and I hope your site visitors will be delighted with the site they find beyond your link. For my part, I'll do my best to maintain it for them and you as the premier Internet marketing resource it has become.
God bless you,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor
Web Marketing Today
