Friday, July 10, 2009

The New Age of Internet

By Finbar Minstrel

In a very similar fashion to the way that the industrial revolution re-shaped the financial world of business, we have seen the next great revolution begin to take shape over the last few years. Unlike the last one however, the gain is there to be had regardless of geographical location and levels of accessibility.

Before the Internet became the main medium through which people communicate, it was extremely difficult to compete nationally, let alone world wide in any business field. The only methods of advertising were all very expensive; TV and radio, national newspapers or magazines (usually for a niche target market anyway) or an ad in the yellow pages. All of these methods are very expensive, but were a reliable advertising method, until the Internet exploded upon the scene.

There have been several points in history where the businesses that managed to adapt to new technologies the quickest and the best often succeeded where many others failed. There are many instances where pioneers have led the way, Henry Ford invented mass production lines almost single handed and in the same stroke managed to slash his costs, improve product quality and consistency and had a massive advantage over his rivals that has helped to carry the Ford Motor Company through leaner times.

There is usually a huge difference between companies that embrace and move with new technologies and those that find something that works and stick to it for years to come. That is truer now than it has ever been as we are bombarded with new technology opportunities at an alarming rate.

The Internet has taken down the barrier that was stopping the entrepreneurial masses from fulfilling their ambitions. Many great ideas went down the pan because of insufficient promotional funds. With the coming of the Internet (particularly Google) the financial curtain that shielded most of the big corporations is gone.

A quality sales funnel website will attract thousands of people, looking to buy your product, to your site, for a tiny fraction of what an advertising campaign of that magnitude would have cost before the Internet. A quality website costs next to nothing to have made and around two years of search engine optimisation might cost you 5,000-10,000, and could drive billions of people to your site.

The Internet is in its infancy, we are only just scratching the surface of this information revolution. 98% of all the information online is inaccessible to strangers as it has not been designed for search engines to read. Because of this, many good ideas are going to waste. It is only recently that SEO has reached the public consciousness. In 5 or 10 years what will the Internet look like?

The organisations who adapt now to the technological advances at hand, will be the ones that are on top in 10 years time.

The Internet is a truly great leveller, allowing virtually anyone with a good idea and a few pounds for a website to develop a service or a product and to sell it worldwide.

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