Ken Evoy and Sitesell announce the release of Content 2.0

September 11, 2007 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting

Ken Evoy and Sitesell recently announced the release of Content 2.0, an optional add-on module for Site Build It!

Here is a copy of their press release:

Montreal, Quebec, Canada (PRWEB) August 30 2007 — Sitesell.com, the originator of Site Build It! and champion of using quality content to drive small business sites, today takes Web 2.0 to new heights. For the first time, small businesses can make it easy for their visitors to craft original Web pages including photos and captions. Other visitors comment upon and rate those Web pages. The process is optimized for search engine results driving long tail keyword traffic and viral spread.

“Up until now,” says Ken Evoy, president of SiteSell.com, “Web 2.0 has been the playground of large companies which basically aggregate individuals and small businesses. Today, small business owners have the simple, powerful ability to increase content through others and use it to grow traffic and ‘buzz’ tremendously.”

Web 2.0 is a catchall term for user-generated content and interaction with viral spread. It has created legendary business success stories such as MySpace, flickr, and YouTube. But they are all ‘big company’ stories.

“Small business has been shut out of Web 2.0,” states Evoy. “They are limited to blogging and using YouTube and MySpace to increase traffic and revenues in small ways. Now they become ‘aggregators’ instead of ‘aggregatees.’ Blogging pales because the site owner still has to create all that content. With C2, visitors create original, high-value content, a tremendous leveraging of time and results.”

The depth and breadth of user-created content yields surprising results. At Wikipedia, contributors do the work, building new pages of keyword-rich material. Wikipedia gets the benefits of content and inbound links. Millions of Page 1 rankings at Google have pushed it to the 9th most visited site in the world (according to Alexa.com).

Evoy contends that what he calls “the rest of us” do not have the resources to create Web 2.0 platforms. Over one year in the making, Content 2.0 is that platform. SiteSell clients are already using it to create their own mini-MySpaces or to turn sites into super-blogs, inviting recipe submissions, beer reviews, etc. A ghost story site has even created BooTube, which invites video submissions. In SiteSell’s forums, users are already showing traffic stats that have doubled.

Web 2.0 and so-called “user-generated” content has its detractors. They cite everything from the unreliability of Wikipedia and uncontrolled “splogging” (spam blogs) to widely publicized issues on MySpace. Evoy says that all those problems stem from the lack of reasonable forms of control. “We studied all the major Web 2.0 companies, took the best, eliminated the worst, and then made it all simple to use.”

“You need an authority to maintain quality. Users of Content 2.0 cannot continuously overwrite each other like at Wikipedia. They don’t create ‘Profiles’ and gossip like at MySpace. And they do much more than just upload photos. They build real value, content which an owner can easily control and monetize. That control is key.”

Just like the large Web 2.0 successes, visitors who participate are notified when theirs page have been published and when comments are posted about their pages. They comment back and forth on the site and are encouraged to spread the word through e-mail. Repeat visits, community and viral spread are the hallmarks of Web 2.0.

“Content 2.0 is automated, regulated, high-quality Web 2.0,” continues the passionate Evoy. “Like our flagship, Site Build It!, the complexity under the hood is intense. And ‘under the hood’ is where it belongs. Our small business customers never have to look there. They just focus on doing business.”

Evoy sums up “Small businesses have been the aggegatees for years. The money is in being the aggregator. Now they can do it, in their niches, with quality and ease.”

Content 2.0 is available at SiteSell.com for the annual subscription price of $99 as an add-on module to Site Build It! (SBI!), SiteSell’s flagship business-building product.

(End of the press release)

Not every website that is built using SBI will need or be able to use Content 2.0 effectively, but many sites are already using it with success.

If you would like more information on Sitesell and SBI!, please visit Sitesell.com.

Act on your dream!

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Act On Your Dream! — Issue #6 — Getting back on track, is available online

September 9, 2007 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Musings

After a very long hiatus, while I was trying to decide on a new approach, I have published the latest issue of the Act On Your Dream! newsletter.

It is archived at Act On Your Dream! — Issue #6 — Getting back on track

If you would like, you can subscribe to Act On Your Dream to get the next issues when they are published.

I intend to publish the newsletter on a regular basis, probably twice a month, and I want to feature you and what you are doing to act on your dream.

What can we do to help each other find the success and freedom we all want?

Act on your dream!

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Are you wasting your time and money when you advertise?

September 2, 2007 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing, Affiliate Marketing

There are two approaches to advertising:

1. Put your ads everywhere you can and hope for the best.

2. Carefully plan where you will advertise, track all clicks each ad produces, and test each ad to make it even more effective.

There are several ad tracking services available, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

I’ve been unsatisfied with what was available until recently, when Dan Moses introduced ProTrackerPlus, which offers full tracking features at an excellent price, starting at free.

Dan Moses offers other quality services, including PageSwirl, which I use to control the advertising I put on dozens of traffic exchanges.

Without PageSwirl, when I wanted to promote something new or discontinue promoting something, I had to go to every traffic exchange and change the websites I wanted to show. This could take hours of work.

With PageSwirl, I simply login, go to a page showing all the websites I’m promoting and add or delete from the list. This takes only a few minutes and automatically updates all the sites I promote on all the traffic exchanges where I’m a member. Yes, it took some time to set it all up, but now I save hours of work every month and it only costs me $10 per month to upgrade to Pro membership in PageSwirl.

But, that’s only part of managing my advertising. I promote products and services on quite a few websites, blogs, Squidoo lenses, social networking sites, and advertisements. Without tracking those links, I have no way of knowing where my prospects and customers are coming from.

ProTrackerPlus provides the ability to track every link I place. I can see in a few minutes where my prospects are coming from and that allows me to more effectively advertise the products and services I choose to promote.

It even emails me a daily update, if I want.

By tracking your links, you can learn where your advertising is effective so you can invest more time and money advertising there. You can see in a short time where you are wasting your time and money and stop doing it.

As with PageSwirl, you can track up to 5 links with ProTrackerPlus with a free account. Learn to use the system and prove to yourself how valuable the service can be for you. Then, at your convenience, you can update to a pro membership and track the full range of your advertising and promotions.

I’m in the process of transferring most of my advertising to using ProTrackerPlus tracking. It will take some time, but, as with PageSwirl, I’m sure it will pay off over time. If I can identify just one ad that is working well and use it more effectively, ProTrackerPlus will more than pay for itself.

The same is true if I can find just one ad that isn’t paying its way.

Plus, if something happens and a product or service is discontinued, or if I choose to stop promoting it, I will no longer have to find everywhere I’m promoting it and change or delete the ad. With ProTrackerPlus, I’ll be able to change the destination for the ad to a similar product, or I can point it to a page that explains why the product is no longer available or why I no longer promote it. Then, I can recommend a substitute, if one is available.

All of this is much easier to do if you are just starting out with your online marketing. If you join PageSwirl as a free member, you can use the page rotator on the free traffic exchanges you join. Then, as your marketing efforts bear fruit, you can easily upgrade your membership in PageSwirl and a few of the traffic exchanges you like best. This will leverage your marketing efforts for only a few dollars every month.

If you use custom splash pages on the traffic exchanges, it would be worth your time and effort to use tracking links through ProTrackerPlus. Then, over time, you’ll be able to find the ads and traffic exchanges that are producing paying customers. Those are the ones to promote more heavily.

Or, if you want, you can continue to just throw up ads here and there and hope for the best.

The choice is yours.

Act on your dream!

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