How often have you clicked away from a product purchasing decision only because of the fact that you could not find a review of the product or service? I know I have done it more often than not.
Consumer reviews have become a vital part of my purchasing decisions and are more and more an instinctive part of the purchasing process. As online shoppers we expect to the have access to product reviews and we expect the opportunities to submit our reviews as well.
Just another part of the interactive, participatory open web that is characteristic of Web 2.0 and new media technologies for online publishing such as blogs, RSS, and podcasting distributed audio and video.
Customer feedback is a powerfully trusted voice that is highly influential on merchant sales. A Jupiter Research survey of online shoppers revealed that 48% of online shoppers it critical that retailers post reviews. This means of course that “one of two people are going to leave your web site if you don’t have ratings and reviews,” says Brett Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice.
“…a signal that reviews themselves have become a major sales and marketing tool. Their mere presence on an e-commerce web site is among the most important factors in turning a visitor into a buyer.”
“A report from Jupiter Research, for instance, issued a call for retailers to "use consumer-created content throughout the full circle of customer interaction," citing research that 48% of online shoppers find it critical that retailers post reviews. That report also found that the number of online shoppers who found reviews the most important feature in a site doubled from 2005 to 2006. “
“Product reviews written by real people are perhaps the most under appreciated slice of the consumer-generated-media universe, the explosion of which has captivated the advertising and media worlds. But as marketers fixate on getting their virals on YouTube and making friends on MySpace, these relatively unsexy product write-ups have quietly become the most common form of consumer content -- Forrester puts it as the most-used form of peer-generated content -- not to mention the one with the most direct impact on purchase decisions.”
Consumer reviews are not new, yet the socialization of content on the web as living, persistent, trusted and by the people for people has created a new value chain for online merchants to factor into their marketing strategies going forward.
Consumer review enabled ecommerce is now being considered a primary activity for merchants large as small as research and bottom line revenues bear witness to the increase or decrease in ecommerce fortunes based on providing consumers access to product reviews.
This drives home the point of openness, authenticity and consumer control. Word of mouth is powerful. As consumers we want to read it and write it and we’re will to make that point clearly through our purchasing power. What is just as important and perhaps exciting is the application of RSS technologies to literally channel reviews for increase web traffic generation and increase revenues.
Microsoft releases a free and beta version of a new blog writing tool called Microsoft Live Writer. As with most graphical user interface blog writer tools, this one also let's you create blog content in WYSIWYG fashion. Of course, that is the Microsoft way for web content development anyway. Not a bad thing depending on how hardcore of a coder you are or the level of control you need for tweaking content on the back end your client tool or server.
Installation
Installing Live Writer is a simple process. Just download the Microsoft msi file and double-click to launch the installer (pictured at right). After the installation is complete you will prompted to configure Live Writer to create blog content for Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces or you can configure it for your custom blog setup. Currently, Live Writer supports the RSD, Metaweblog, and Movable Type API's. I haven't had a chance to test compatibility and usability across different blog software platforms yet.
Features
I just got back from a long deserved week long vacation in Jamaica. My wife's place of birth. I spent all of July on the road and traveling doing IT engagements which prevented me from posting here since I began publishing content here again a few months back.
My mention of my vacation to Jamaica provides a segue for mentioning the Map Publishing feature of Live Writer. It's like a smaller version of Google Maps for your blog. You can do a high level map like the one I've inserted at left or your can drive down to more details is that is suitable.
Wow factor his is pretty low for me but it is one of the things that may not be as cool because it won't be used that much but becomes really cool when you want to share a location or directions with our readers in a very visual way within your blog content. The Interface is pretty clean and simple to use. Standard formatting bar and menu's are located across the top of the interface with quick access to features located in a Sidebar to the right. The interface looks, feels and functions like the standard MS Office family of products so if you familiar with MS Office, you will right at home getting up and running with this blog content creation tool.
Overall...
Eh...it's okay. Being that it is beta, it seems to work well but which much left for the developer community to pick up on an implement such as support for Tagging, insertion of audio and video into blog posts, and photo sharing support for sites like Flikr. Definitely not a bad start for a free tool that is highly Microsoft-centric.
Now this is pretty cool. Scrapblog combines "...the storytelling aspects of scrapbooks and the sharing power of blogs". I haven't tried this service yet but I did have a interest in scrapbooking in a former life but I remain passionate about the power of story with visuals. Using RSS of course, Scrapbloggers can share their creations with one another.
Scrapbooks can be made public or private. I've taken a look at several of the public scrapbooks and I must say that this service is exciting, fun and very promising. Scrapblog allows you to import photos from Flickr and embed your Scrapblog pages in MySpaces pages or your personal blog.
Scrapblog allows you to enhance your scrapblog with rich media so that you can tell your stories in real-time and with engaging visuals. Scrapbook hobbyist from all walks of like would do well to check this service out. Assuming there isn't a to big of a digital divide between traditional scrapbook creators and social publishing aspects of Scapblog using RSS and blog publishing, there should a very bright future in store for Scrapblog.
Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Conversations with Experts is hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of the newly released Build A Better Blog System manual that teaches professionals and businesses about how to create blog success by integrating blogging technology in their marketing strategy.
Is blogging a fad that will pass or a sea change in corporate communications? The conversation with BL Ochman will cover a range of topics from what your company could do with a blog, why blogging is not for everyone, how to write for your blog, to building an audience and why blogs are good buys for advertisers. BL will also reveal ... more»
Seems that George Simpson at MediaPost heard a cosmic crash last week. Hmmmm...I didn't hear anything. Obviously we can expect more anti-blog rhetoric to emerge and rightfully so. With all of the media attention and claims to the effectiveness of blog publishing there needs to an examination of those claims. There needs to be a continued discussion of what works and what doesn't work with blogs. That is to be expected. (similarly discussed here at Desconstructing the Blog). As with everything else, critics and cynics will spin the facts, test cases and whatever else they have at their disposal to make their arguments. I'm okay with that.
Ah...nothing like lively debate. At any rate...
I can't help but sense that George hasn't fully explored the many ways that blogs are proving to be effective publishing and communications tools for ... more»
I wanted to says to all have responded and submitted entries. Here's the deal however. We want you to submit more entries more often. You see, want crazy and out of the box names. We want names that don't makes sense yet do make sense. We want imaginative names. We want a wide range of names. We want names that will capture the essence and spirit of the tech savvy solopreneur community.
Here's a brief summary of our story and published on our site at NameThisCompany.com:
There's a new breed of solopreneur today. One who's street smart and lives from the heart. She's nimble and techno-savvy. ... more»
Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Conversations with Experts is hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of the newly released Build A Better Blog System manual that teaches professionals and businesses about how to create blog success by integrating blogging technology in their marketing strategy.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert: Michael Pollock of Small Business Branding, featured in the Build a Better Blog System
There's a new breed of solopreneur today. (S)he's street smart and lives from the heart; nimble and technically savvy. (S)he weaves an intricate web of like-minded souls who feast upon the products of his/her energy and spirit. Like some of the world's biggest companies, (s)he's well-known, respected and sought after for the value (s)he consistently delivers to her network. During this conversation, we'll ... more»
" Microsoft Geek Blogger, Robert Scoble, discusses business benefits of RSS and Blogs at May 17-18 event
IDG World Expo, the leading producer of world-class tradeshows, conferences and events for technology markets, and FuelDog Events, a developer of tradeshow concepts and technology, today announced the Lunchtime Presentation schedule for Syndicate(TM), a new B2B conference focused on emerging trends and technologies in content syndication, scheduled to take place May 17-18, 2005 at New York City's Marriott Marquis. Executives from Yahoo!, Microsoft, Edelman, Nooked, Forrester and Moreover Technologies will participate in presentations focused on RSS (Really Simple Syndication)."
"Syndicate is the premier venue to learn about the new tools of syndication-- RSS, Atom, OPML, Media RSS, blogs and other emerging technologies that are changing a marketplace with billions of advertising dollars at stake. Real-world ideas and solutions will be ... more»
Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Conversations with Experts is hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of the newly released Build A Better Blog System manual that teaches professionals and businesses about how to create blog success by integrating blogging technology in their marketing strategy.
Wednesday, May 4, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert: Priya Shah of eBrand360, featured in the Build a Better Blog System
Conversations with Experts will feature Priya Shah who will discuss 'Using Blogs to Market Your Products and Services.' If you haven't registered yet, there's still time. Your certainly don't miss this free Conversation with Priya who has about 10 blogs! I highly respect Priya who has become a awesome colleague and friend of mine behind the blogging scenes. Her newsletter is one of the few ... more»
They are conducting a series of interviews with several of the blog experts included in the Build A Better Blog System series. This Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 at 8:30pm EDT I will be their next guest expert and we will talk about blogs as powerful social marketing tools. Blogging provides a distinct advantage to solo entrepreneurs, professionals, and small businesses by allowing you to rapidly drive the value of your expertise deep into your market space. I invite you to join this FREE ... more»
I bookmarked this awhile back and rediscovered this. This is a great audio interview with Eric Olsen who is someone who runs one of the most successful blogs available to today. Listen to "How I Run a Publishing Business with 700 Authors from a Home Office" by clicking here.
This interview was done by SMB Trendwire back on December 16, 2004.
This is great stuff and great insight. This is a must listen. more»
"The patent also answers some questions. Why did Google become a domain registrar? To have access to site historical data, which it will now use in its rankings. Why did Google purchase Urchin? To use that data for site rankings. Does the Google toolbar help determine rankings? You're damn right it does.
Here's one interesting fact: PageRank isn't about the number of links, its about link ... more»
Here's an interesting find. NewsWorthyAudio.com is launching a personal audio news service for bloggers in the DC Metro Area. Since I fall into that crowd I decided to check it out and pass the word along for those who may be interested.
Right now, they are collecting data on candidates to accept as testers for the service. This means that you will need to take a survey that has questions about your news consumption habits, work commute and drive time activities. Not sure if I'll qualify since my line of work isn't quite the 9-5 traffic jam type of gig. But I'd sure like to test out the service to see how it works.
Anyway, if you are a blogger in the DC Metro area, click over to NewsworthyAudio.com, take the survey and see what happens. more»
Last Friday I briefly announced 
