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Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard cold definition – the truth; it means different things to different people. So let’s start out historically for a second.

Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard cold definition – the truth; it means different things to different people. So let’s start out historically for a second.

Tim O’Reilly, the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, and an activist for open standards, wrote in a October 2005 article, “The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web.  Many people concluded that the web was over hyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts (a major change in an organization or system resulting in some streamlining) appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions.  Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage.  The pretenders are given the bum’s rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other.”

Tim continues, “The concept of ‘Web 2.0’ began with a conference brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International.  Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having ‘crashed’, the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity.  What’s more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common.  Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as ‘Web 2.0’ might make sense?  We agreed that id did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.”

According to O’Reilly and many others, they agree there are eight core Web 2.0 design patterns to evaluate if a site is worthy of the Web 2.0 name.  But keep in mind that each example they have investigated exhibits one or more of the key principles.  So in other words, one site may have six out of eight of the core patterns, or three out of eight, etc. but still is worthy enough to carry the Web 2.0 name.

When people talk about Web 2.0 they may think it is a just about social networking and others look at Web 2.0 from a technological aspect (but according to Scott Prager, an IBM Engineer - He comments that one of the common mistakes people make, is if they use this technology then it’s Web 2.0, be Scott thinks it’s more about what enables rather than what technology it’s built with).  Either way you look at it; there is a set core of characteristics build into a Web 2.0 pattern.  So in other words, it’s just not about social networking or technology – it’s really about that and more.

Technologies important to Web 2.0: Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), XML and HTML, REST (Representational State Transfer), RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Atom, Tagging, also playing a large role in Web 2.0 companies are, API (least used, but important to know), Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby … etc.

Let’s go over the eight characteristics:

• The Long Tail (first coined by Chris Anderson):  Is a niche strategy used to implement a series of new marketing techniques, such as (Wikipedia source examples):

New Media Marketing: a term to describe the building and managing of social networks and online or virtual communities, and extend the reach of marketing to the low-frequency, low-intensity consumer in a cost effective way.

Buzz Marketing: The strategic use of word of mouth, the transmission of commercial information from person to person in an online or real-world environment.

Viral Marketing: The intentional spreading of marketing messages using social networks, with an emphasis of the casual, non-intentional and low cost.

• Harnessing Collective Intelligence:  Rich “interactive” user experience and Web as a platform rather than once specific aspect.  Essentially what this means is that “users” contributions greatly help build and make the foundation stronger and more popular by adding their content, such as links, comments, forum posts, reviews, rating others, an aggregation of the best work of thousands, then millions of web users (example: YouTube – more comments, more “thumbs-up” the more popularity), and any content contribution really.  Without the end “user” the sites popularity goes down – if there is no interactivity for the end user, it’s not collective “anything.”  So in short – the site grows organically in response to user activity.

• Users Add Value:  The architecture of your software development relies on “public” users to add their own data thus adding more value to your application.   Some examples of this are Joomla and WordPress.

• Network Effects by Default:  Only a small percentage of the public will go to the trouble to add value to your application and as a result, set broad scope of defaults formed by the collection of user data as a side-effect of their use of the application.

• “Some” Rights Reserved:  Expanding the range of creative works accessible for others to legally build upon and share.  The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to just that. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one selected, restrict only particular rights (or none) of the work instead of customary copyright, which is more restraining.

• Beta:  Sites like, Frappr, CafePress, Flickr, FeedBurner…etc., don’t package up new features into massive releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience.  In other words, if you “package” up new features and connect them to the Internet – they are no longer ongoing services, it’s a one time deal.

• Rich User Experience:  According to O’Reilly’s interpretation, “Cooperate, don’t control.”  He wrote that Web 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services.  In a more similar explanation, applets (Small programs that run in Web browsers; usually written in Java) initially used as early as 1992, are programs that you write, and put inside your web page.   Examples of a couple of “applets” are a smiley and calculator embedded in a web page.

• Software above One Single Device:  The application should be designed to integrate with hand-held devices, PCs and Internet services – not just the PC.  It becomes more valuable if your application can be used on both he PC and an iPod for example. 

As you can see Web 2.0 isn’t as simple as social networking or just about the technical side.  It’s a broad range of characteristics that build a Web 2.0 site.

At first I thought of Twitter (like many others) as a teenage playground and I wondered what value Twitter offers for those who market online. It’s free and that’s a nice feature, but my time is worth a lot to me, so I wanted to find out what use Twitter’s micro-blogging offered.

Here’s what I found out.

As I was gaining “followers” to my own Twitter page, I didn’t really pay much attention at first tof why that should be important to me. I just let it ride so to speak and worked on other areas of social marketing, not giving Twitter too much of my attention.

As soon as I updated my profile and 140 character posts, the more relevant followers I’d gain. What I mean by “relevant” are that the followers I received were important to my very own site. They have the same interest in mind as I do, and because of that – become members of my site’s community.

I think Twitter completes a basic human need to express one’s self and allows for that spontaneity second by second if need be! Among those expressions on the site, Twitter makes available for group communication and to also cultivate relationships.

Another Web 2.0 characteristic hard at work!

I don’t think of Twitter.com as a teenage playground so much anymore, but as a sophisticated micro-blog to start some pretty solid business relationships if worked on properly.

It’s not a site you want to focus your attention on 100% for gathering potential customers, or building business relationships, as I see many other places you should be spending your time more wisely.

But for Twitter.com they do seem to be attracting many online marketers from all over the globe, who use this free service, and that’s what got me thinking about the question I’m about to ask you.

Before I get to my question for you, let’s look at one of the questions asked to me pertaining to Twitter (keep in mind I’m no Twitter Guru, but I felt this to be a safe enough answer to the question): “How to go about growing your community?”

* Some of the actions you should be practicing while you’re there, is checking out who follows you. If you like their profile and you feel it’s appropriate to your site, follow them back.

* Find other people to follow who share your same interest in mind.

* Post some updates a few times a week and comment back on others in your community.

It’s really about participation. This is the same with BlogCatelog.com and many other social networking sites.

The key factor I’ve found personally is to participate actively. If you do not interact with your community, you’ll gain little to no attention.

You may not find big corporations on Twitter just yet, but there may come a day when they’ll utilize this service just to make sure they aren’t missing the boat on “popular” social marketing.

So here’s a question for you:

Do you think Big Corporations will start using Twitter anytime soon if ever?

One of the most important steps you can take “before” writing your sales letter (whether that be for an email campaign, capture page sales letter, or direct mail) you need to do your homework so you can make sure you are targeting your right prospects. For most in the MLM field, it’s fairly easy if all you do is recruit others into your business. But that will be in another post …

The goal of your sales letter is to offer a solutions that speak “directly” to your prospects problems and/or challenges. To do this the right way, you need to harness the power of a few things first.

1) Make certain that your message matches the needs of your prospects: Check yourself at the door before you write your letter. Does your offer match the needs of the recipient?

2) Build that trust! Some say that “testimonials” are over-done, but the truth of the matter to keep on the top of your mind, and especially if you’re writing to those who don’t know you all that well, is testimonials do provide an initial trust based relationship offer. Let’s put it his way, by adding “high-profile” endorsements from former or current associates - heck even those you have worked with in the same industry that are recognized and popular, will provide trust. So for this example, your sales letter could read at the top and “after” the short and to the point testimonial, “says, Mike Dillard, a Guru Internet Marketer who trains others to become the hunted instead of the hunter.”

3) Get to the point and don’t give out a bunch of hazy information: It’s important to make your point in the first few lines of the sales letter. If you provide information that is going in circles, or straying off the point, you will risk a high chance of losing your readers interest right off the bat. So make sure to be very clear and concise about what you are saying. You don’t have to speak to your prospect as if they are a 2 year old, but you might want to consider keeping is at a grade-school level. This doesn’t mean your prospects are stupid adults! But studies have shown that the majority of society do read at an 8th grade level. Just avoid BIG words and keep the language simple and easily understood.

4) Its IMPORTANT to sell the “benefits” and NOT what you think the great features are: This goes back to leaving your opinion out of it. Your prospect wants to know how they will benefit from what you are selling. Feature listing is “ok” but only if you list the benefits to the prospect “just” after each feature listing.

5) Stand out and become memorable! Your goal is to end up on the prospects refrigerator! You need to provide some “staying-power” to your letter, so your prospect prints this out and slaps it up for later consideration. Provide 5 tips on lead generation, or whatever your niche is. Make sure those tips are something they can implement right away. Make sure those “tips” are something that are worth trying out because they are proven to get results fast.

6) Stay away from the “form letter” style - it’s NOT for a sales letter! Simply, write like you talk and this will provide a “warm” feeling for your prospects. You will create a genuine appeal to your reader on the other end.

7) White Spaces! Short paragraphs, indents, bullets or numbered lists will give readers a break from gobbled up text. Keep them short and to the point. One of my favorite books has two to three page chapters with short paragraphs. Don’t bore your prospect with too much clutter and big paragraphs. You’ll lose them every time. With that said, also try and keep this within one page.

8 ) The CALL TO ACTION, deadline and incentive: Tell the prospect what to do next and emphasize a real deadline. This will increase the rate of responses. You have created a “limited” time to act and “why” to act now! The “why” should be explained as the benefit they’ll receive for acting. Then provide the way to action with your telephone number, email, or sign up form.

9) The “No Risk” or Guarantee offer: Offer something to the prospect free, like industry tips in form of an article, eBook, or a “how to” tutorial, or even a product sample. Include that guarantee, whether it’s 100% money back, 24/7 customer service support, the follow-up, free delivery or whatever you feel is right for your product and time.

10) Lastly, don’t get stuck trying to “sell” your prospects: I know this feels like a contradiction, but by “pushing” your service or product will only result in a dead sale and maybe lost lead. Develop that long-term relationship with your prospect by “solving” their problems and meet their needs. Again, nobody wants to be “sold” to, they just want a simple solution to their issues and to be the one who makes the decision based on the information you’ve provided to them, to buy or not.