My first year as a Cyberpreneur was a steep learning-curve. I was an academic before starting an online business, so I had a lot to learn. But even if you were in offline-business before going online, you may still have to learn some new skills -online business is a whole new ball-game. Here are some of the things I learnt in my first year in Cyber Space:

(1) Be careful who you register your domain with. Some domain name registrars make it very difficult to change your web host.

I registered my first two domains with a registrar that caused me more headaches than I care to think about.

When I needed to transfer one of my domain names to a new web host, my original email address had changed. I was no longer able to send them an email from that address and so I couldn’t authenticate my request for domain transfer.

So I tried to update my personal record with my new email address. I got a message saying that I could only change my email address by sending an email from my original email address (which no longer existed).

This bureaucratic nightmare went on for 4 weeks. To add to my frustration, I was communicating with a machine, not a human being. By the end of that time I had no less than 35 computer-generated emails telling me that my domain could not be transferred.

Finally, I sent my request for domain transfer in a 5-page fax, including photocopy of my passport. They then sent me an email saying my request for domain transfer could not be processed because my request was not on company letterhead.

So I designed a letterhead and re-submitted the 5-page fax. Finally, 6 weeks after my first request, my domain was transferred.

To avoid this kind of experience I recommend you use register.com: http://www.register.com

Using their online Domain Manager, it took me less than two minutes to transfer my domain!

(2) A slow-loading index page is still one of the main reasons that online businesses lose customers.

Surveys show that the average surfer will wait no more than 8 seconds for a web page to load before moving onto another website. So ‘load-time’ is a vital consideration when you choose a web host.

Below is a website that allows you to check the load-time of a web host: http://www.hostpulse.com/app/networktools/ping.asp

(3) Once you’ve designed your home page and uploaded it to your server space, check to see what it looks like to other people. What you’re seeing may not be what other people are seeing.

I once designed a home page I was very proud of - I had added a piece of javascript that gave the day and date.

Then one day I checked my home page at Anybrowser.com. I was horrified to see that my home page was invisible except for my company logo and the navigation bar. For two weeks it had been virtually blank to most visitors! So take a minute and look at your website through your visitors’ browser: http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html

(4) If a customer asks you for a refund, give it to them immediately, even if you think it’s unjustified. You’ll be out of pocket by a few dollars, but your name and your integrity will be intact. Your good name is perhaps your most precious commodity on the Internet. Remember these words from Shakespeare:

"Who steals my purse steals trash;

’tis something, nothing;

‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed."

(Othello, Act III. Scene III.)

(5) Reply to emails quickly. Nothing impresses me more on the Internet than a rapid response to a business enquiry. Try and respond within 2 hours, or at least within 24 hours.

(6) Never reply angrily to abusive emails or flames. People who send flames want you to reply, but there is nothing to be gained by replying. An abusive email can be very disturbing, but the best thing to do is ignore it. Better still delete it - that way you remove it from your life and you remove the temptation to reply.

(7) Lastly, never give up. Most successes are due to sheer persistence:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of

persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common

than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; the

world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and

determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, ‘press

on’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of

the human race." (Calvin Coolidge)

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Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
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What is the golden rule of internet advertising?

Give, so you may receive.

It is as simple as that.

Most people desire to receive, but never give!

You can increase your marketing exposure effortlessly by placing your ad on free stuff, then allow other people to give it away. The more people that give away your free stuff the more your ad will be seen.

Most free stuff can be created easily and without little or no expense. Electronic freebies are perfect because with these types of freebies there’s no shipping or physical material costs.

Below are some popular types of electronic freebies.

Free e-Coupons/e-Gift Certificates-Give your visitors free electronic coupons and gift certificates for your products or services.

Free e-Books-Give your visitors a free electronic book. The e-book should be related to your web site theme.

Free e-Reports-Give your visitors free electronic reports. The reports could be in autoresponder form or in text format.

Free e-Courses-Give your visitors a free electronic courses. They could e-mail your follow-up autoresponder and be sent a lesson each day.

Free Software-Give your visitors free software. It could be a game or a useful utility. Just have them download it right from your web site.

Free Online Services/Utilities-Give your visitors free online services or utilities. They should be ready to use right from your web site.

In conclusion, when you use this marketing strategy it will quickly spread your advertising all over the internet.

May you succeed in your internet advertising and make a lot of money.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of "Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System", (internet income) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

Let’s face it. Email marketing and publishing have became very popular tool for promoting your business, especially in the USA. Many people use email in everyday communication. Email is fast and cheap. What would you like more? Many people subscribe to ezines about Internet, Jokes, Tips, Recipes, Horoscopes… Majority of these emails are free and very quality.

Advertising and marketing online and offline has at least one thing in common - you have to know your target audience. Market segmentation is very important because you don’t want to loose your money sending your ads to someone who has no interest in it. Email advertising and online advertising in general is more effective because there are many state-of-the-art techniques which enable that you track every advertising.

Some good services for tracking are:

Web Site Tracking

Stat Counter http://www.statcounter.com
Web Trends http://www.webtrends.com

Email Tracking

Group Metrics http://www.group-metrics.com

In online advertising you can get information where your visitors are coming from, what do they read on your web site, how much is your email newsletter open-ratio, how much is click/thru ratio for every link in your newsletter, also you can get demographic reports about your visitors/subscribers and many other things. Because of that, in online presence you have great options for 1-1 marketing. You can adjust your web site design and content according to your visitor needs.

If you advertise on TV or magazines you can’t know exactly how many people actually saw your ad. There are some predictions but not that precise, of course.

One of the main advantages of offline advertising over online is that people still believe more in what they see on TV than on the Internet.

Online promotion has one very big advantage over offline promotion and that is interactivity. In online promotion you can have interactive ads that behave differently based on visitor’s behavior. Popular thing in online advertising is making ads like mini home pages. Yahoo! use that technique for advertising their services.

______________________________

Dejan Bizinger is a Contributing Editor for Infacta. Infacta is email messaging services company providing powerful, yet easy-to-use award-winning Group Mail, software for sending highly-personalized email messages and Group Metrics, software for email tracking. For more information visit: http://www.infacta.com

______________________________

NOTE: This article may be used freely in opt-in publications and websites, provided that the resource box is included and the links are active.

Most people who have been involved with sales & marketing for any length of time have heard the axiom, “Sell them what they want. Then sell them what they need”. But what does it mean? It sounds a little odd doesn’t it?

Does it mean that people are frivolous & go around making irrational purchases that don’t meet their needs, before more serious ones that sustain them? Should you try to sell trivial goods first, & then follow up with those that are more substantial? Should you put games & entertainment on your home page, and flour & salt in your follow up messages?

No, that’s not it.

What it is trying to say is that people buy for emotional reasons. Does anybody buy a Mercedes Benz just because they NEED to get from point A to point B? Do they buy it because they NEED all of the amazing gizmos, the heated leather seats & hand polished wood trim?

No, a person buys an expensive car that they don’t need because it makes them feel important. You may be shocked when I say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Luxury purchases are motivated by vanity, envy, pride, jealousy, & narcissism, even greed. And, there is nothing sinister, or wrong with it. That’s just the way we are as human beings. It’s what makes us tick. In fact, these emotions are behind all kinds of everyday purchases too.

Understanding how they motivate buying behavior is critical to selling.

Look at this ad for the Wall Street Journal. It’s said to be one of the most successful advertisements in the history of the world, responsible for over $1 billion in sales.

Look carefully, & see how skillfully it evokes one or more of these powerful emotions. Try to get a sense of how you feel when you read it. ——————————————————

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "TWO YOUNG MEN" LETTER

On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable, and both – as young college graduates are - were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.

Recently, these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion. They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people’s lives? It isn’t always a native intelligence or talent or dedication. It isn’t that one person wants success and the other doesn’t. The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge.

And that is why I am writing to you and to people like you about The Wall Street Journal. For that is the whole purpose of The Journal: To give its readers knowledge - knowledge that they can use in business.

The letter closes:

About those two college classmates I mention at the beginning of this letter: They were graduated from college together and together got started in the business world. So what made their lives in business different?

Knowledge. Useful knowledge. And its application.

I cannot promise you that success will be instantly yours if you start reading The Wall Street Journal. But I can guarantee that you will find The Journal always interesting, always reliable, and always useful. ——————————————————-

This is a newspaper! It doesn’t get much more mundane than that, but the same principle applies, do you see the power in it?

What we are talking about here are emotions that are inextricably tied to the universal desire for esteem that’s hard wired into our nature as human beings. If you’ve got a pulse, you’re under its spell. But here’s the kicker. Most of the time, we are not even aware of the stimulus, only the response.

When you were reading the story about the graduates and the reunion, chances are, you were playing out your own meta program inside your head, and experiencing one of the esteem emotions. And it triggered your own personal desire to show the world what you could do, didn’t it?

Esteem (to feel valued) is NOT a WANT at all. It is a basic human NEED almost as fundamental as food & water. Your prospect’s hunger & thirst for it. Their emotions are the expressions of that craving.

If you can trigger them, & then associate satisfaction of the “esteem needs” with your product, you’ve got a winning ad!

Copyright 2005 Daniel Levis

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & world-renowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author “Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies – From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!”, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier. Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell…Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters! http://www.Advertising-Online-Strategies.com/ad-strategies.html

Now that everyone has conformed to Living Your Brand on the Web, Part 1, it’s time to add a couple of tweaks that will further reinforce your brand.

Tweak #1: Your Signature File

A signature file is the simple text that, once activated is attached to your email automatically. It is the simplest and the most effective way to get a message across. Some are funny, some are serious and some consider another point of view, but in any case, any professional should use one and keep it updated.

Every signature file should include complete contact information so customers can contact you in their time. A signature can also include a tag line that reinforces your company’s brand. Consider the following two options:

Good Signature File:
Mark Wilson
President, Wilson Widgets
876-555-1234
mark@wilsonwidgets.com
www.wilsonwidgets.com

Better Signature File:
Mark Wilson
Wilson Widgets
"We’ve Got Your Widgets Right Here"
876-555-1234
888-555-9876 toll free
876-555-4321 fax
www.wilsonwidgets.com
Office Hours: M-F 7a-7p

One step further, allowing employees to add a personal message of their own, and it makes for fun reading.

Tweak #2: Subject Line Words of the Email

There are only 40-60 letters to grab the attention of a perspective reader, so choose wisely. Get to the point and give a synopsis of what the email is about. Short, clean and simple is the rule of thumb here. Don’t use words like Free, Fun, Pictures, Warning, or even non-alphanumeric’s (*%&#@) that could be confused with spam. Simply state the message and allow the reader to read on.

The purpose of this is to get as many eyes as possible on your company’s message and brand.

Glenn Geiger is the Director of Interactive Services for Pixallure Design LLC, http://www.pixallure.com. Glenn has worked in Web site design, development, systems administration and management since 1987, including work for DynCorp, Accent Software, GlobalKey, Inc., and Digital Equipment Corp.

This article may be freely distributed as long as the author’s bio is included with an active link to http://www.Pixallure.com.

OK, so you took the plunge and purchased your internet domain. Good for you! Now what? According to Google.com there are about 8,058,044,651 current web pages. That’s billion with a "B"! So how do you stand out?

The first thing you should do is stop using a free email service. More often than not, a potential client will delete your email if they are not familiar with whom it is coming from. Think about what you do with emails that you are not familiar with. Having your domain name in the "From" field lets them know that it is you and your business that is calling on them. Plus, don’t you want your business name in front of as many eyeballs as possible?

If you use a free or fee-based email service (Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Earthlink, etc.) then at least make it work for you. Having an email named wilsonwidgets@hotmail.com is much more identifiable than wilwid123@hotmail.com and again puts your companies name in front of the client. If you choose to send email via one of these services then most people will assume that you do not have a web presence and that can reflect negatively on your brand.

The best way to present your identity to your clients via email is to make sure that they are reading what you are sending out. If they delete it then they never read it.

In many cases, email accounts come free with standard hosting of your domain, so it makes zero sense to not have your own personalized email account.

Bottom line: If your email address doesn’t convey any meaning about you and your business, every email you send will be a missed opportunity.

Glenn Geiger is the Director of Interactive Services for Pixallure Design LLC, http://www.pixallure.com. Glenn has worked in Web site design, development, systems administration and management since 1987, including work for DynCorp, Accent Software, GlobalKey, Inc., and Digital Equipment Corp.

This article may be freely distributed as long as the author’s bio is included with an active link to http://www.Pixallure.com.

I am sick and tired of marketing geeks touting the beauty of branding, brand building and just spouting branding in any context, especially when the term is used with "internet" or "web" or "digital!" You can’t have a conversation today for more than five minutes without some marketing type throwing in a line about brand building!

Branding doesn’t work with the net’s warp speed - look at some of the leading online brand builders, including a certain big three TV network here in the states and a book seller in Seattle trying to do classic brand extension, from books to barbecues.

We tell our B2B clients to build a revenue-producing online brand by developing a campaign that sells the value of their goods or services! Forget the esoteric, very expensive brand building campaigns that have no measurable impact! Here are my ten "cliff notes" to building an effective B2B Brand Online, B2C coming next article.

1. Do a careful Competitive Web Analysis of your competitors - you can’t build a unique brand without knowing the lay of the digital and real-world land! The beauty of the web is that it is a 247/365 resource for analysis and you can find out quite a lot from your competitor’s web sites. We’ve created a comprehensive matrix of 75-200 items to assess when preparing a competitive analysis report for a client.

2. Identify your target audience early on as everything flows from this. You can’t conceptualize your creative, graphical imagery, content or what type of online media you want to deploy until you know the size and characteristics of your target audience.

3. Think revenue producing branding - this translates to marketing campaigns that deliver sales (the goal of all good marketing campaigns) by customer acquisition. Meaning, develop messages that speak to your audience. B2B customers typically want referenceable data that addresses their needs. "Our xyz services help you leverage your IT resources by…." Think providing tactical information to enhance their decision-making!

4. If your early to market or just plain old early stage then you may want to develop some branding with other complementary partners who have established names (brands) in your market segment. This can include joint announcements, co-branded pages; direct marketing or opt-in e-mail pieces, etc. Here’s an example of a co-branded page we did for an existing client, PolyServe, Inc. http://www.polyserve.com/partners.html

5 .Make sure you PR agency and Interactive or Traditional Agency are all in concert when it comes to building a branding campaign. Your various messages and processes should be mutually reinforcing.

6. Select an Interactive or Traditional Agency that understands your unique B2B needs. Consumer branding is much different than B2B Customer Acquisition Branding. By "understand" I mean ask them about the types of campaigns they’ve set up for previous clients, what types of media they’ve used, do they know how to develop creative that speaks to a potential B2B client - I love the "do the Dew" campaign, but this isn’t the type of branding you would want to deploy for an IT Manager who is contemplating a purchase of your software.

7. How do you measure effective branding on the web? I am not sure if I have any answer or if I have unlimited answers - this is such a difficult marketing characteristic to measure. But, again, be "customer-centric" - ask people who purchase your software or services what they think. Why did you purchase (or why not if you can), did our marketing address your needs, was it meaningful and informative?

8. Think digital shelf life when branding on the web - you have to build messages and content that will only last for a finite amount of time. You have to continually refresh your branding and positioning by developing new content for a web site, opt-in e-mail or banner advertising campaign.

9. Incorporate your offline branding (creative, content, graphics, etc.) into your online branding when/where you can. So your customer has a sense of continuity when they review all of your marketing and communications processes. This also sends a signal to them that you have carefully thought through your overall campaign.

10. Last but not least - build net speed into your overall campaign. I’ve said it before in many articles, but always essential to underscore; better to be quick to market with something that may need slight calibration later on that to delay a facet of a campaign of the entire campaign to get everything perfect! Revenue is the engine that makes a B2B Branding campaign work and you can’t drive sales unless you are putting your branding message out there in front of your potential customers!

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. Lee@intelective.com

Lee@intelective.com

Using flyers is one commonly overlooked method of advertising offline. Flyers are extremely easy to create. They also allow you to exhibit some of your creative side, making it just that much more fun to make money.

In some areas, you may be able to put up as many flyers as you can afford to duplicate! The more flyers you put up the better chances you have of making money.

Go to the web site of the product your promoting, and save their web page to your hard drive. Modify the page a little bit so that it is in the form of a flyer, and be sure to include your own affiliate link on the flyer to ensure you make money.

Once you are satisfied with the way it looks, compile a list of all the possible places you may be able to put up your flyers,(ie) college campuses, neighborhood bullentin boards, supermarkets, etc. If you don’t have the time to place them, consider hiring someone to do it for you.

If your flyer directs your potential customer to a web site, then the only traffic you will receive are those people who would take the time to enter your web address into their Internet Browser. That’s pretty qualified traffic!

Let’s break it down and estimate the amount of sales/traffic you could receive from a well planned offline flyer campaign.

Say you print 500 flyers promoting an affiliate product that you signed up for. If you put up 500 flyers on bulletin boards that allow your flyers for two weeks, you have an almost 100% guaranteed exposure number of 500 times 14 or 7000 impressions. If 1% of 7,000 are converted to a $30 dollar sale, you have just made $2,100 or 70 sales.

Now that’s good money if you ask me.

All you have to do is find a way to convert your affiliate products web site to a flyer, and print out as many copies as you can afford. Then the small task of getting them circulated.

Several months ago I ran a test campaign similar to this and started to receive sales the day after I posted all my flyers.

You may want to add flyers as part of your advertising plan.

Copyright 2005 Paul Jesse

Paul Jesse is a rerired government employee turned Internet Marketer. For Work at Home Resources and Opportunities, visit his site at: http://www.SheaMarketing.com

Let me tell you a story about Pete and a pizza. After a long day of fighting uncooperative pipes and fixtures, Pete P. Lumber, of Pete’s DuperRooter, was looking forward to a nice, hot, decidedly Atkins-disapproved pizza — the stuff of which dreams are made. The week before, Pete was doing a bathroom remodel at Bob’s historical Chicago bungalow. The house had only one bathroom, so Pete had to complete the project as fast as possible. Due to a series of unfortunate events, some of which involved a repeated, forceful application of a rather large hammer, Pete stayed much longer than he initially anticipated. To bungalow owner Bob’s delight, Pete completed the remodel the same day.

Bob decided to take Pete out to dinner to show his appreciation. Bob knew that Pete liked pizza, so he took him to the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium across the street. The restaurant was small, unassuming, and had the charming aura of a hole-in-the-wall. And it had the best pizza that Pete has ever tasted. Just the memory of that pizza he shared with Bob made Pete’s stomach growl. The crust was browned just right. The sauce had the perfect balance of tomato sauce and spices. And the toppings….there were over 20 toppings to chose from.

It’s no wonder that this week, Pete was looking forward to having pizza delivered from MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium. By the time Pete got home and was ready to pick up the phone, he could almost taste it. But, (these stories never seem to end well, do they?) he realized that he didn’t have the pizza place’s phone number. Pete didn’t remember the name of the place either — the sign above the door had been tiny and hard to read.

Even if Pete had been paying attention, he would have had a hard time figuring out what the name was, since most vowels fell off the neon sign sometime around the Roosevelt administration (Teddy, in case you were wondering). It gets worse. As he and Bob were leaving, Pete had asked Kate, the hostess, for a take-out menu. She apologized profusely and said that they ran out four months ago and nobody bothered to reorder new ones.

The phone book turned out to be useless — remember, Pete couldn’t recall the name of the pizza place. Scanning the restaurant pages didn’t ring a bell either. The only thing Pete could recall was the approximate address (across from Bob’s bungalow). Pete was too tired to go out and drive again, since he had just returned home. To add insult to injury, the weather person on Channel 5 news was gleefully pointing to the latest Doppler radar and cheerfully informing his audience that yet another 15 inches of snow were going to fall in the next hour.

That sealed it. Pete, who almost never surrendered, gave up. He ordered pizza from his usual joint, OKPizzaParlor. Pizza there was nothing to write home about. However, the proprietors always stocked a four-year supply of take-out menus and business cards. As an added twist, they gave out 4×6 magnets with "OKPizzaParlor" emblazoned on them with three inch high neon green letters with every order. Pete’s fridge was plastered with at least 20 of these.

OKPizzaParlor also sent their customers coupons and specialized promotional flyers. OKPizzaParlor even sent their customers a free 16 inch thin crust pizza coupons for their birthdays. Finally, all advertising materials prominently featured OKPizzaParlor’s contact information.

The MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium, didn’t get an order that night, even though Pete vastly preferred their pizza, and desperately wanted to order from them. MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium committed one of the cardinal sins of marketing: they didn’t bother with branding. The proprietors figured that their superior product would speak for itself, and decided not to waste their money on pointless advertising. Little did the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium owners realize that skipping branding is like leaving the cheese off the pizza!

Don’t make the same mistake. Here are a few ideas you can use to make sure your marketing plan doesn’t follow in MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium’s footsteps and to remind your customers of your business long after they leave your store or web site:

* Create and maintain consistent corperate branding. A logo, font and a color scheme are the three crucial elements of an online image. Once created, use the same color scheme, logo, and font everywhere else — on your brochures, business cards, newsletters, and signatures. Menus, magnets, employee t-shirts, name tags should all be consistent with your brand.

* Don’t dilute your brand. Having a web site and business cards with an inconsistent look and feel will confuse your customers.

* Reinforce the corporate branding in all communications. Every mode of communication should provide information about your business. This includes letters, invoices, e-mail, and so on. At the very least, include the business name, web site address and e-mail address.

* Use a signature with every e-mail. How many emails do you send in a single day? Wesend around 75 on a typical business day. This translates into 75 opportunities to remind customers about our brand every single day. Keep the signature short: your business tagline and URL or a link to your latest blog entry will do. The point is to do this consistently, early, and often.

Make sure that your business is the first thing that pops into your customers’ minds when they need products or services you provide. Make your brand memorable, and take advantage of every change to reinforce it. Not every customer is going to be like Pete, who drove out to the MostDeliciousPizzaEmporium the next day, and wrote down their name and phone number. Incidentally, that day he came home with 6 pizzas.

Biana Babinsky is the online business consultant, expert and author who teaches business owners how to make more money online. Learn step by step techniques to drive more traffic to your web site and make more money online in Biana’s Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course at http://avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zcourse

Having been in the franchising business all my life and understanding how hard it is to build a brand, I have probably read every other popular book on the subject. Some are good and most are excellent, as each one helps give you ideas on setting the stage for your brand marketing objectives. Branding on the Internet is somewhat new as before 1995 there was little if any Internet to speak of. One book I can recommend is:

“11 immutable laws of Internet branding” by Laura Ries.

This was a goods book. Where as I agree with MANY of the rules of thumb, I disagree completely with nearly all of the examples supporting their assertions. Most of the purported examples to prove their theories are outdated and out of context. I do not recommend this book to anyone and having personally called the author, I was a little concerned with the lack of business history and knowledge that went into the work. Too bad, it is a good subject. In my companies we are following most all of the basic marketing branding rules they consider relevant, and probably better than nearly all of the other companies listed or mentioned.

Internet Brand Marketing is important, but only a mere component of the whole. Sure it is important and you should pay attention to your strategy, but the customer will always vote with their dollar, so realize when reading such books that these people who write them actually are writing them to puff up clients they have and trying to sell marketing strategy services. They made errors in their assumptions of Microsoft, the reason for the Boston Market failure, their degree of confidence in Amazon.com, their domain name picking theories. I could nearly crush them in a debate on almost every single example they used to prove a point, as they cite case laws and business histories. On the points themselves they are plus or minus average in their correctness, and I would only challenge a few points, if any and only in certain contexts or situations. All in all however the book should be read with a grain of salt but definitely read by anyone who is in charge of brand marketing on the Internet, which by now should be every CEO in the country.

So, why would one recommend a book they disagree with? Because this book makes you think and question reality. You must constantly audit your brand image, you need to look at it from every perspective, trust me. So read this book and buy it online today.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/