Future for Internet marketersWritten by Jakob Jelling
Have you ever attended a class where instructor followed Socratic method of teaching? You remember, only questions, no direct answers. Some discussions lend themselves best to that format, and this look at some possible future trends in Internet marketing is one of them. Mainly because there are no answers at this point, only questions we pose!Internet marketers by and large are used to creating products for, and selling to, a predominantly western audience. Whether inside marketing niche or not, today's web sites, autoresponder sequences, mailing lists, payment processing systems, and overall way of doing business have evolved around needs and wants of target markets in western world. And any experienced marketer knows it can be difficult. Despite popular notions that you can start an Internet business and watch money roll in, reality is that there is a lot of competition from other webmasters, regardless of market or type of products you promote. Looking ahead, have you considered impact of even more competition - lots more? In Asia, in particular China and India, large, well-educated populations, a lower cost of living with much-improved standards, and more widely available Internet access may combine in near future to create a lot more Internet marketers. Many are well-versed in technical aspects of Internet, including programming and site development. In fact, if you've ever used any of various freelance sites to outsource technical projects, you've seen that many of bidders are from Asia. With populations of one billion people and more in those two countries alone, current generation is certainly well-attuned to Internet, and being avid surfers, are no doubt aware of commercial opportunities and worldwide reach available only on net. It's likely only a matter of time before they begin marketing to western audiences themselves. Whether through affiliate marketing, or by developing new products to sell on their own behalf, prospect of increased competition for current Internet marketers is very real, and likely very near. The biggest hurdles will be language and market understanding. After all, it's difficult enough to write effective sales letters in ones native language, even if addressed to a market and culture you understand. Over time, even those barriers will fall - face it, just as programming can be outsourced, so can marketing and language assistance.
| | Google tests expanded search to include printed worksWritten by Jakob Jelling
Google Labs is currently testing Google Print, which returns results from within scanned printed books along with Google's standard web search results. The searcher doesn't have to do anything special - printed work results are already included in Google database. Searchers have option of narrowing their search by including, for example, word "book" in their search terms. For example, a search on "home repair" might return a variety of web sites, online merchants, etc., while changing search to "home repair book" will help filter results to include more material scanned directly from books. Publishers don't want their entire books read online of course, so Google limits number of pages a single user may read at any one time. A user can see page where their search was found, plus they can go two pages forward and two pages backward from their original result page. Google provides links to merchants where book can be purchased. Google earns no revenue from book purchases, but they do display their contextual advertising within Google Print results, and they share this with participating publishers.
|