Internet Tip of the Week
by Bob Osgoodby
The Year In ReviewThe Christmas gifts that were wrapped with such care are all
gone, and a New Year is here. No, this will not be an
anthology of events, but rather some impressions.The year started off with the alarmists, who had predicted their
usual dire results for online businesses. At year end however,
putting their tails between their legs, they went slinking off
into the twilight zone. This was the best year ever for online
commerce, and it can only get better.The fear of terror attacks continued making headlines on a daily
basis. Some people cancelled vacations and avoided largegatherings, or took other protective measures. The majority of
people however went about their daily business with an almost
blasé attitude.We saw MLMs come and go, but what else is new. This happens all
the time and last year was no exception. With "visions
of sugar plums" the uninitiated plunked down their hard earned
bucks, and signed up in droves, only to find that if they wanted
to succeed, they had to work. When they didn't earn their
million the first month, while sitting in front of the TV eating
bonbons or guzzling beer, they lost heart.The dot.coms rebounded with a flourish. They had learned their
lesson the hard way and avoided the pitfalls which took so many
down a few years ago. They finally realized that most people arenot idiots, and you can't sell an overpriced item - plus shipping
and handling - just because it is on the web.Some continued to believe the propaganda that "Job" was a dirty
word and fell into the 40-40-40 trap - work 40 hours a week for
40 years and retire at 40 percent of your pay. They scraped up a
hundred bucks or so, and purchased "automatic submission"
software that sent their ads to all the major web sites and
ezines that accept free ads. Web site owners and publishers
quickly recognized this, and filtered all their emails into the
delete bucket. The only people who made any money here were
those selling the software.Others purchased mailing lists that contained millions of email
addresses, only to find that most were returned as undeliverable.
Those that were valid, resulted in getting their Internet
account canceled for spamming – sending unsolicited commercial
email.The pundits continued to suggest that anyone can publish an
online newsletter or ezine. What they didn't say is that you
have to be at least semi-literate to do so. There have been many
startups, and just as many who found that publishing is work -
there's that dirty word again. Some even gave away free ads in
their publication only to find that they were concentrating on
the wrong thing. There is a world of difference between
"readers" and "subscribers". Readers want content, not just a
bunch of ads with an occasional out of date article pulled off
the web.Investors have wised up, and the high tech stocks, which took a
beating, are on the rebound. The market which shapes all our
lives, like life in general, will have its ups and downs. There
will be winners and there will be losers, but isn't it like that
all the time.The scamsters did flourish. With new "fresh from the farm"
millions arriving on the web, P.T. Barnum would have had a
field day. "A sucker is born every minute" couldn't be truer.
Funny thing is that most of the scams were simply reworked
versions of ones that have been around for years. What was
new, is that the web provided access to these uninformed, whose
greed outweighed their common sense.There are currently over a million pornographic sites on the
Web, and growing. Despite the hue and cry of the legislators,
and attempts by the ISPs to block them, their filth continues
to flood our inbox. They are publicly denounced but remain
profitable. Is there a double standard here?Spam has increased to the point that email has become almost
unusable. Spam accounted for approximately half of all the email
traffic on the web. Some ISPs have become so obsessed, almost to
the point of fanaticism, in trying to protect their subscribers
from this, that they are blocking legitimate email because it
violates one of their many rules.Many States passed laws banning spam, and effective the first of
the year, the Federal Anti-Spam Bill was enacted. Given a
“maturation period” the federal law should work if it is
enforced and hopefully, the ISPs will stop blocking legitimate
email.My impression is that 2004 will be a great year. The
opportunities we face will only increase as the new technology
continues to emerge. Sure, some will "bite the bullet" but, we
live in a great time, and I look forward to it with great
anticipation.-----
Bob has been publishing online since 1996. All the “tricks of the trade” are contained in his latest E-book. Learn how to avoid being shut down by your ISP for Spamming, and where to find “E-mail friendly ISP's. Learn which software packages are available to easily manage and distribute your email. For more information - http://www.adv-marketing.com/business/handbook.htm
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