With all the focus on the recent election, it is interesting that one of the least discussed parts of the Obama campaign’s path to victory was their smart and efficient usage of emerging technology, harnessing a broad swath of internet tools to help his campaign. From the beginning of his campaign, he used resources on his website to manage organization and fundraising, and it was this capacity that allowed him to compete in a long and hard fought primary election. The rapid pace or his fundraising and the large number of volunteers the campaign brought out were all in part due to his embrace of internet technology.

Obama’s website started out fairly standard, as far as political sites go, it was modeled after Howard Dean’s success in small donor, web-based fundraising. Soon after, the team introduced a social networking style site, offering the ability to connect to other Obama supporters, and introduced the ability to easily and quickly communicate. Access to volunteers was important, allowing the ground organization to reach out to Obama supporters in every state during the primary. With fundraising came greater resources, and it was through this the Obama campaign expanded their efforts.

By the end of the election, they were regularly using text-messaging to motivate voters, and the campaign had introduced an application for the iPhone that included a number of tools to help voters canvas for Obama. In each precinct, volunteers and paid staffers worked with software provided by Central Desktop, giving them professional quality organization. The usage of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace helped build enthusiasm among young voters, something that turned out to be a good investment of time, considering Obama won young 68% of young voters. The campaign regularly posted videos to sites like youtube, and generally harnessed the power of its supporters creating media online.

The convergence of social networking tools, making resources available to supporters, and raising money online, all helped Obama win, creating a formula for electoral success that many politicians will replicate in the future. Truly, one of the most important parts of future political campaigns will be information technology and how it can motivate voters.

Posted by Ian Logsdon.
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Developing a subscription based site is a difficult task, as you must find a niche that is not occupied with free alternatives that are already thriving social networks. Subscription based sites are, however, one of the most sustainable and profitable ways to make money on your website. Subscription based sites offer something other models don’t, a guaranteed revenue stream once your site is active. As common as advertising supported sites are, unless you have a great deal of traffic, it is almost impossible to maintain a website for profit without selling something.

The cost of getting a subscription site off the ground is low, as all you need to get started is your hosting, a website design, some content management software, and software for managing members. Many of the membership site applications available have content management incorporated, allowing you to keep everything on one system. And because the software tends to have a set cost, the only recurring cost to you is your hosting fees. This means you will be receiving income and your only costs will be centered on keeping your site online, which is relatively low, especially for a site that is just starting out, and the cost of maintaining content, which you may be able to manage yourself.

In the end, while many people will opt for the free option, having an exclusive site is a great way to make money off your idea. You can even manage a site with a hybrid model, offer a free mode with limited features and advertising, and let users know if they sign up for a recurring membership, they will have full access. This is commonly used for sites that are social networks, like forums, and it is important that you make your differentiating features a big enough deal that people will be willing to pay extra every month or year for a membership.

Posted by Ian Logsdon.
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Omnistar Interactive is pleased to release a series of new articles intended to help introduce the world of email marketing:

1. Email Marketing Glossary - Omnistar has compiled a comprehensive glossary introducing you to the terminology you will need to understand when working in the field of email marketing.

2. Keeping List Members Interested - Getting people to sign up with your email list isn’t everything, after all, you need them to keep reading your marketing copy. This article provides you with a number of methods for keeping your list subscribers interested.

3. How Often Should You Email Your List - Once you have an email list, choosing how often to send out your marketing emails will impact the effectiveness of your marketing. Knowing how often to send is key to maximizing the effectiveness of your individual efforts.

4. The Best Day to Send Marketing Emails - Choosing when to send your periodical emails is an important decision, because open rates and click-thru rates are greatly affected by when your customers receive your email.

5. How to Avoid Spam Filters - Spam filters have become increasingly aggressive, as spammers have developed numerous ways to bypass them, and because of this your marketing is more likely to be capture as well. Avoiding Spam filters is an important step to increasing your email campaigns success.

6. How to Increase Your Click-Thru Rate - Getting people to click links within your email is important, it makes the difference between email that arrives and gets deleted and emails that get opened and read. Improving your advertising is an essential part of improving your marketing’s success rate.

7. HTML Vs. Plain Newsletters - Using different formats for your email is necessary because so many users read in either HTML or Plain Text, this article explains why this is, and how you can take advantage of these different behaviors.

In the quest to court big search engines, many webmasters may overlook what is arguably the most important part of any website: the quality of your copy. Copy writing is an important part of any business, and it’s essential to building a successful website. After all, your site is how you communicate with your clients, so you have to ensure that you are using the best possible approach. Developing good copy takes time, editing, and is best done with more than one person. Having at least two people go over every word of your site is essential to catching harder to miss mistakes, so always have at least one person edit your writing.

When writing for your website, it is easy to focus too heavily on keywords for SEO; you have to ensure that each page of your site gets its point across. Each page is there for a reason, so make sure that a reader can immediately tell what information the page will provide them. You should also include useful and descriptive entries in your meta tags, because this information is what is shown to users searching for your site on Google.

You should be aware by now, but due to the breadth of the internet, it is likely you are in direct competition with more than a few web sites. Your site should make a specific effort to address what makes your product unique, superior, or otherwise the best choice for your customers. You have to address the issue of competition, because otherwise you won’t stand out. List what you see as your signature features, and highlight your product’s superiority at certain tasks compared to the competition. Its all about selling your product.

You should not, however, forget about Search Engine Optimization, while it often gets overemphasized, it is still important. The key is, you must make your keywords a natural part of your copy, incorporating them seamlessly into sentences, descriptions, and html titles. Use title tags wisely, they are given more weight as keywords, so take advantage of this. The key is to make your SEO invisible, its there, but the customer just reads through it, because it feels natural. This approach means you get the best of both worlds, great copy for your customers, and a good search engine rank for your site.

Finally, you have to remember to make clear what you want your customer to do and how. If you want them to read your blog and leave a comment, indicate that on your site, make sure the comment button is large and instruct the reader to post a comment if they are interested. If you are selling something, tell the reader its time to buy, there’s never been a better time, etc. and make sure your buy button is large and easy to find. By focusing your writing on your reader, not Google, you will get much better results from your site.

Posted by Ian Logsdon.
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