Drew - 03/05/06 - Web Karma - Give to the Web and the Web will give to you.
If you're not being hacked or phished or spammed or flamed, there's viruses and spyware and those annoying animated smiley pop-ups to contend with. Yes, the web is a cut-throat world where certain people are just out to make a buck and to get exposure by any means. Hit the browser icon and suddenly you're swimming with sharks. But although there are many pitfalls on the Net, you don't have to have an integrity bypass to build your business online. In fact, like everything in the cosmos, what goes around comes around...
5 quick tips to improve your Web Karma
1. Get social. Social bookmarking tools like delicious (http://del.icio.us) and wink (www.wink.com) act like votes on the web. Sign up and start voting - you'll come to understand new trends and see what people genuinely like.
On the web, what goes around comes around... Now's the time to show your integrity, give something back and build up your Web Karma.
2. Be generous with praise. If you enjoy a site, spend a minute to write an email. Comment on a blog well done. Who knows, they might even link you? And if you're feeling too cynical and world weary to be nice to people, spend half an hour here (http://cuteoverload.com)
3. Give things away. When Hugh Macleod wanted a new way to promote a South African wine, he decided to give away 100 bottles of wine to 100 top bloggers. The result? Lots of link love and priceless word of mouth advertising - so successful in fact that he's doing it again in the US. (http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/002236.html).
4. Be ethical. Don't use underhand, black hat, illegal or immoral methods if you care about your reputation. Or your business. Or your business's reputation. If you approach the web with honesty and transparency, you'll never get caught out (the Cillit Bang, Ipod Nano, and BMW incidents have been well documented). Don't click on competitors' Adwords, or create negative online reviews negging a rival's products unless you want to be tarred by the same brush.
5. Donate to an online charity. It only takes a few seconds and it will help cleanse your web soul. Trust us, a cleansed web soul rocks - a great place to start is the good people at UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org.uk/donate/index.asp) or Barnardo's (https://www.barnardos.org.uk/support_us/online_donation.htm).
Dan - 03/05/06 - Podcasting - By now you have probably heard the term, and a lot of the buzz about, Podcasting. The Internet being the fluid place it is, some technologies stick to the wall, others fade away. Podcasting looks set to stay around for a while.
True, the first part of the term (pod) is part of the name of a certain ubiquitous portable music device we all know and love, but that zeitgeist wouldn't be enough for the longevity of podcasting if it weren't a genuinely applicable technique.
No, podcasting is more than an iPod (or other A.N.Other player) media, although the iPod has doubtless popularised uptake. One reason for this is Podcasting's similarities with, and distinctions from, simple streaming audio.
Zeitgeist is not enough for the longevity of podcasting if it weren't a genuinely applicable technique. If you already produce audio content, and are seeing success with it, then podcasts are for you.
Streaming audio, both in its live and pre-recorded form, has been well used on many websites, notably the BBC with its radio player and catalogue of previously broadcast radio shows. This means that much of concept behind podcasting (i.e. online audio) is well understood already, which I'm sure has helped its emergence.
The distinguishing feature that identifies podcasting as more than just streaming audio is in the methods of adoption and delivery. And this is a real winning quality. Podcasts can be aggregated based on people's preferences, in the same way as RSS, giving the unique ability to easily mix and match audio content. Like broadcast media, they can be regularly updated, but better than broadcast media they can be automatically downloaded to Internet-connected devices, so as presenting a seamless freshness.
The natural extension of this is an Internet-enabled iPod, which can't be far away given the progress of WiMax and 3G mobile networks. That would give a combination of portability, on-demand personalised content from anywhere on the Internet, and regular broadcasting. Imagine your own personal radio station that plays what you want, when you want it, wherever you are. All you have to do is tell the device what you like. Pretty neat eh?
So back to the present. Is podcasting something worth looking at right now? It depends to a certain extent on your business and your audience. One thing is certain - if you already produce audio content, and are seeing success with it, then podcasts are more than likely for you. Your audience is effectively primed and ready, you just need to show them a more flexible way to get hold of your content. Equally, if you've never tried online audio, but think it would work for you, maybe now's the time to ride the wave a little and test the water.
Podcasting links: