Are you really Web 2.0 Worthy?

Everyone has been screaming about the benefits of Web 2.0.

And the benefits ARE REAL. Faster indexing, better search engine visibility, increased ranking, which equals the only thing that really matters to your online business - TRAFFIC. There are many Web 2.0 sites that you can use to promote your site(s), some are marketing friendly and some are not . . .

Here is a quick overview of the Web 2.0 market:

- Social networking: Myspace is the 900 lbs gorilla (Alexa ranking: #3), but is really "marketing unfriendly". They are trying to hunt down marketers and delete their profiles. But there are ways to market on Myspace, if you are agile! There are automated tools, such as Badder Adder, to help you "build friends". There are also Groups that you can join (tip: start your own group) and even Blogs (hint: Myspace blogs are not being hit hard by marketers so go for it).

*It is NOT all about Myspace - also see Friendster (Alexa ranking: #94), Facebook (Alexa ranking: #7), Orkut (Alexa ranking: #42).

- Social Bookmarking: del.icio.us (Alexa rank #159) was acquired by Yahoo and is the biggest player. Bookmarking sites are marketing friendly if you respect them . . . Add a few bookmarks to your own sites and add some variety by adding bookmarks to other related sites in your niche. This is one place where linking to competitors is GOOD, as it makes your account look more "natural.

Other bookmarking spots to pay attention to include: Furl.net (Alexa ranking: #3,166), Shadows (Alexa ranking: #21,180), and Reddit (Alexa ranking: #882)

- Online Video Sharing: YouTube (Alexa ranking: #6) is the big winner (Google paid $1.3 Billion for them!). You can start submitting videos today and add a link back to your site. Online video is all the rage and it really does build buzz and drive traffic. Remember to think about the landing page that you are linking to from your video submissions (get them to take action) (tip: avoid sending them to a generic home page).

In addition to YouTube you can also submit to Google Video, Dailymotion (Alexa rank #110),Veoh (Alexa rank #795) and a host of others.

As you can see Web 2.0 sites are capturing a TON of traffic and attention from YOUR customers.

So the question is - Are you really Web 2.0 worthy?

This is the question that I ask myself every time I create a new website. It is one thing for me, as the website owner, to add links to my site using the above sources. It is another thing for my site to be "worthy" of these links.

- Would a random user who visits your site be willing to add it to THEIR bookmark account?

- Is it worth blogging about?

- Is it worth writing a review about / or rating it" (which is the premise of Web 2.0)

If you really answer this question honestly, unfortunately the answer is probably NO!

So how do you fix this? It is actually not that hard, but it does require a little bit of work . . .

- Write or acquire decent content, it doesn't have to win a Pulitzer prize, but original content is KING in the search engines and also to your visitor (whom you really want to be your customers).

- Make the navigation and your ordering process EASY - so easy that your customers tell their friends.

- Have great customer service, as we live in a market where people love to complain and there are many Web 2.0 sites that encourage reviews of sites (which are often negative). So don't be caught with this "bad publicity".

- Add some interactivity to your website - let users submit content / reviews or let them rate your work. "Old" items like forums and blogs may not be the hype in Web 2.0 BUT they are at the core of user generated content / interaction, which is what you really want.

Summary: If you follow these above steps for improving your site and making it "Web 2.0 Worthy" and then focus on marketing your site with the above resources - you will be way ahead of your competition.

Article by: Howie Schwartz with Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. You can learn more about Web 2.0 marketing from their 6-week tele-seminar series - http://www.web2secrets.com