Similarly to the way in which the industrial revolution changed the world of commerce as we (or rather, they) knew it, over the last five – ten years we have seen the early signs of the great revolution of our time. This time though, the rewards of it are not restricted by geographical location and general accessibility like the last one.
Up until the explosion of the Internet into our lives, it was virtually impossible to compete nationally with market leaders in any field, let alone globally. The only advertising mediums were either TV advertising which represents a significant cost barrier to entry, or magazines which are again expensive and quite often niche, national newspapers a costly medium again, or regional advertising in the Yellow Pages. This is one of the most expensive ways of advertising nationally, but until the swift take up of Internet technologies, was a reliable method of finding customers.
At many times in the history of commerce, it has been the businesses that are able to keep on top of new, emerging technologies and adapt their practises to them quickly and effectively, that stay a step above their competition and ultimately, succeed where others fail. Pioneers have led the way on many occasions, such as Henry Ford who almost single handedly invented the mass production line, and by the same hand, massively improved product consistency and quality, severely cut his costs and gained a huge advantage over the competitors, helping to guide the Ford Motor Company through harder 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.
Instead of an advertising campaign for a product costing tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds, an efficient sales funnel website correctly optimized for Google and Yahoo will attract thousands of potential customers who are already pre qualified to buy from you, for a fraction of the investment. A good website and a couple of years Search Engine Optimization can be bought for less than 5,000 – 10,000 and will be seen by potentially billions of people.
The Internet is still only starting to fulfil it’s potential, it still has a lot more growing to do yet. 98% of online data is unreadable to search engines and is therefore inaccessible to most Internet users. Search engine optimisation is only just reaching public awareness and when it catches on and people start realising what their site really can achieve, what will the Internet be like in years to come?
The companies that embrace the technology now and use it to their advantage will be the companies who are sitting on top of the pile in a decades time.
The world wide web is a truly brilliant gateway of opportunity for everyone and anyone with a good idea and a small pocket of cash for a website to turn their idea into their trade.
I'm David Jessee and I'm
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