Internet Brothers - Interviews with the Masters

Internet Brothers: Helpware for the Cybercommunity - Interviews with the Masters

Interview with Wally Gross - Part 4

Visionary delivery methodology [WG] The Web is about information and those that grasp this concept and develop delivery methods will be high profile in the not too distant future. Contextual merchandising (the weaving together of words or information marketing) is something I have alluded to often in recent times and I think it's the next niche on the Web. Content is king and that's what will build customer loyalty and return visits to those Web sites that grasp and embrace this concept. Just try registering a domain name with the words share, info, content, contextual and similar words and you'll see just how many have their visionary glasses in place and focused.

Canadians embraced the on-line experience in a big way starting in 1997. I recall seeing stats that Canada was the world leader in Internet users with some 30% of us on-line. I can't recall where I saw the number or if it is accurate, but it seems to be stuck in my little grey portal.

Although we have yet to exhibit our spending habits electronically, we are avid surfers. It's a fact that many credit card services report about 50% of all processed transactions originate in the US.

I believe that the Web has done a great deal of good for both of our countries in the social and economic sense. The term Netizen is one I like for it aptly describes a new heritage and a new foundation for the proliferation of good things.

[IB] When not hanging out with that old geezer Don Chisholm, what do you like to do to relax and entertain yourself? Do you have any particular causes you support or institutions you champion? Read any good books lately?

[WG] Read a book lately? Are you pulling my head here Jeff? The only reflection in my eye has Eudora, Pegasus, a spinning "e" or falling stars as the feature attraction.

While we're talking about books and Canadians, let me share this site with you. It's called the Business Source and it's owned by my not too distant neighbour Dan Pfister. Here you'll find book summaries of the most popular business related titles. I read the 21 Immutable Laws of Branding in about 5 minutes. Great concept and Dan is doing very well with it.

I enjoy golf; love our great Canadian pastime, hockey; enjoy movies, special times with friends and family, and music. Pretty much your typical crazy and hip 53 year old recycled teenager type.

The Children's Miracle Network is one cause I have contributed to for about 14 years now. Both The Cancer Society and The Diabetes Foundation in recent times because these diseases have affected my family and me. I hope Surfers Choice can be one vehicle that can help these three great organizations.

[IB] Internet Brothers enjoys some nice search engine listings, but we get well over half our traffic from link and content partnerships. This simple "shaking hands" (a term Wally used to describe IB) community building aspect of site promotion has gained momentum. With the major search engines and directories switching their focus to portal gateways, has the worm turned? Are the niche portals like SC Portal going to be more prevalent in the future?

[WG] The first thing most newbies do is visit Yahoo! and start finding stuff. Has Yahoo! taken advantage of being first, and the concept of branding or what? To me it's still the number one place on the Net to have your site listed.

Now, in no way do I want to downplay the importance of the top search engine services. It is important to be there. However, a site marketing campaign based strictly on high search engine rankings is well over-rated.

Every Marketer's Goal The last time I looked (about 5 minutes ago), Surfers Choice enjoyed a high ranking at Yahoo!, Infoseek and Alta Vista. Top 10 in all using "Internet Awards" as a search term. Why you ask? Well, to be frank, I recently started a series of articles on the search engines and how would it look if Surfers Choice didn't show up? Credibility means everything (well almost) doesn't it? Prior to that I had not spent even a second on my search engine marketing for several months.

Why you ask. Simple, didn't need to. We've had a prominent presence on Yahoo! for years. Where do our hits originate? About 30% from Yahoo!, another 15% from other search and portals, and 55% from you good people.

From your question, the same seems to hold true for IB. By the way, I visit IB all the time and steal their stuff using fake IP headers — hehe — just kidding partner.

When I wrote about the "shaking hands" philosophy in Internet Day over a year ago, I was amazed by the positive response. Heck, people actually read this thing. Why can't they read submissions standards laden with profound information?

Link exchanging via this "one-to-one" method works wonders. Most of the content I find on the Web comes to me via links from sites I visit — albeit that visit may start at a search engine, it almost always proceeds from links within a site. I can also tell you that text links within site content are far and away the leader in getting clicks. Why some Webmasters have this aversion to providing outside links is something I really don't understand, especially when the evidence is so strong in favor of doing just that.

Consider this fact. At Surfers Choice we love conducting surveys — people get some cool prizes and we get some very pertinent data. Some time ago we asked, "What are the five top reasons you bookmark a site." The first reason by a landslide was good and useful content. Next was they felt comfortable at the site. The fourth was that the site provided links to other good content. In other words, if a site is good and provides other links, they will bookmark it. So linking to other good content increases a site's chances of being bookmarked and consequently re-visited. Imagine that!!!!

Continue Wally Gross Interview

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"The term Netizen is one I like for it aptly describes a new heritage and a new foundation for the proliferation of good things."

"I hope Surfers Choice can be one vehicle that can help these three great organizations."

"Has Yahoo! taken advantage of being first, and the concept of branding or what? To me it's still the number one place on the Net to have your site listed."