Welcome to Web Marketing Today, Issue 55, e-mailed to 61,991 subscribers around the world. Now Web Marketing Today is published twice a month, an article issue early in the month, and a links issue late in the month. To advertise in WMT, read the details at http://www.wilsonweb.com/ads/
Sometimes it pays to re-examine our understanding of the foundations. This issue features three such articles. PLEASE: WHILE YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT IT, send the URL of this issue right now to two of your business friends. They'll thank you. So will I.
Yours, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor
The Five Mutable Laws of Web Marketing
Are these five Laws the last word on Web marketing? No, but they provide a first look at the foundational principals that underlie any Web marketing strategy. Break these laws at your own risk. Read the Article.
Cultural Clues: Tips to Tailor Your Business to Internet Culture
When you're new you can step into some cultural faux pas without even knowing you're doing it. Here we discuss three key cultural elements on the Internet that should guide the way you market online. Read the Article.
Understanding the Opportunities for Doing Business on the Web
Just what specific opportunities does the Web offer business? Here are six kinds of small business opportunities that ought to change the way you think about Internet business. Read the Article
Letters to the Editor
"Over the last several months, as I've been busy with other things, certain details of RVClub have slipped. One of them is position in search engines.
But do you know what has saved us, and why our traffic continues to go up? Reciprocal links. We have more than 100 (I think 150). I wanted to report that to you to bolster the statement in your newsletter about not obsessing over search engine placement. I've become a big believer in reciprocal links. One reason is that Yahoo! has become just too big. There are too many choices there for people. There was at time when a listing in Yahoo! would generate 100s of visitors per month; now it's down to about 100 on most sites I manage. People are more likely to find you by following a trail that might start in Yahoo! and go from one links page to another." -- Howard Owens, President, the RVClub http://www.rvclub.com/
Advertising in Web Marketing Today
If you have a product or service needed by companies seeking to promote their business on the Web, there's no better place to advertise than Web Marketing Today e-mail newsletter. We offer two sponsorships per issue, one before and one after the first article. You can find full information and demographic information on our readers online. We have a few spots still open in the next few months, though spaces are filling up fast. http://wilsonweb.com/ads/
Telephone Consulting
When you're stuck, it's sometimes helpful to talk it through with someone who has had some experience. One of the services I provide is telephone consulting. Before I start the "clock" for my one hour minimum fee, I spend a few minutes with you to make sure I'll be able to help with your particular need. Perhaps I could help critique an online business plan or walk through a website with you making constructive suggestions.
Business Strategy Book
HyperWars:
11 Strategies for Survival and Profit in the Era of Online Business
by Bruce Judson with Kate Kelly
Scribner, 1999
Hardcover, 240 pages
Bruce Judson, co-founder of Time Warner's Pathfinder site, discusses eleven essential strategies, especially important for larger businesses finding their way on the Web. Strategy considerations include speed, efficiency and cost cutting, personalization, Web-enhancement of product sales and experience, providing a complete solution for customers, using free come-ons, flexibility, and the understanding the nature of Web competition. This is not primarily a book on marketing, though it includes a couple of chapters on marketing. Instead it helps business executives develop and refine winning business models that can compete in super-charged, fast-moving environment of the Internet.
You may purchase HyperWars at a discount from Amazon.com using this link
Mentions and Honors
Our article "The Web Marketing Checklist" recently appeared in the print edition of Construction Equipment Distribution, March 1999. While we don't allow other websites to host our articles (though links to articles on our site are very welcome), we often allow reprinting by print and e-mail periodicals for modest reprint fees. E-mail your reprint request.
We're honored to have five of our articles featured on IBM's Small Business information sites worldwide.
WMT Dinner at Spring Internet World 99 in LA
I'd like to meet you at a no-host dinner for Web Marketing Today readers on April 14 in conjunction with Spring Internet World LA. Why don't you make plans to come.
