Web 2.0 is all the rage in the Internet world. What does it mean for your website building plans?
One of the hallmarks of Web 2.0 is that visitors to sites now want to be active participants in those sites and not just readers who come to browse an article and then move on to the next site. Social networking is a big part of current Internet buzz, and for successful website building plans, you will need to be aware of how to harness social networking for your benefit.
Comments on Your Posts
The most basic way to incorporate readers is to allow them to comment on posts. Though the number of comments can get unruly if your site grows large, most site owners can handle the initial influx of comments they will receive. When you are considering website building platforms, take into consideration the ease with which visitors can make comments. Blog software is set up with commenting in mind, and many other content management systems have built-in commenting software. Find out how easily you can alter the options so that you can control spam and moderate comments if needed.
Checking in with Visitors
Some people who comment on your posts will be interested readers who just want to participate. Others will be site owners who, like you, are trying to grow readers for their own site. They will have links to their sites in the comments. Spend some time checking out the sites of the people who visit yours and link. You can begin to build an online network of people by cross-commenting on posts. Though it may seem tedious at first, as in the brick and mortar world, a bit of schmoozing can go a long way in helping build up traffic for your website.
Frequent Promotion
Many sites, including the Huffington Post, use a voting system to determine the best articles available. These sites rely on users to let them know which articles are interesting or controversial. You can submit your own articles to many of these searches to help gain popularity.
Alternatively you may try posting a link from a forum to an article relevant to a post on the forum. While you should not make a post just to say “read my article” unless you are a very senior member of the forum, you can point people to specific articles if they bring up a question you have addressed. Also, use your signature lines to point people to specific articles you’ve written that they may find helpful.
Commenting and other forms of linking up to visitors online becomes fun once you get the hang of it. You are connecting with people whose interests are like your own, and since your website building project likely is on a subject that interests you, the time you spend reading others’ articles and commenting on their blogs will be interesting as well. Websites built without considering the social networking possibilities are likely to stagnate and not become visitor favorites, so be sure to take these tips into account when you are planning your project.
Websites are no longer just static pages of information. Current web surfers want sites with considerable additions, such as interactive content opportunities, video, and audio feeds.
Interactive Web Visitors
Web visitors who read a good – or bad – article now expect to be able to tell the author about her feelings on the subject. Interactive website building means considering how users can comment on articles. Commenting is done most often through allowing comments in blog-style posts, though many news-related sites also allow article commenting. Another way to permit readers to participate in content is through wiki-based sites. Though Wikipedia is the most popular, it is only the largest example using this language. Wiki allows even the most novice user to write and edit articles on a site.
Video Links
With the growth of YouTube and similar video-sharing sites, having content available through video feeds is fast becoming a vital part of website building. Indeed, almost all popular blogs and sites now have video entries on a regular basis. These entries often highlight the point of a blog. A blog devoted to a particular political topic, for example, may have portions of speeches by activists on that topic. Readers can view the video and then comment, making the site interactive and adding an audio-visual element to the site.
Podcasts and Other Audio
Podcasting came onto the scene in the last two years, and now website building projects typically include some plan for adding podcasts to their site. These podcasts are usually short audio clips that add the blog or site owner’s thoughts on a subject. A podcast may include an interview with a popular person related to the topic, or they may include instructional material for how to complete a project, or they may be ramblings about the niche area. Podcasts make the person behind a site real, which makes it an important tool in website building. Rather than just “Sue the Hardware Blogger,” Sue can become a real entity for the people who visit her blog through audio casts.
Rules About Extras
While commenting, video, and audio have a place in website building, they do not replace the old-fashioned information portal purpose of the web. A site without fresh content for readers will not hold the attention of most readers for very long. While video feeds can make a great quickie post, they also should not form the bulk of the posts for a site. Because these feeds are turn-offs to a minority of readers, website building plans must include true content additions as well as these multimedia presentations.
Rather than viewing these elements as the core of a website, then, the website owner should view the content as the core and the multimedia elements as accessories. When considering whether to include a video or audio feed, ask yourself why you are putting it on the site. If you find yourself unable to answer that question, then reconsider whether that element will add something valuable to your visitors.
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