Web 2.0 Marketing a Hype?

Dwain Jeworski, Internet Marketing Center's VP of Marketing, advised that it is prudent to take the current hype in Web 2.0 with a pinch of salt. He warned that using social media and bookmarking sites, no doubt is beneficial but is very time consuming and one has to weigh the value of it. It takes lots of time and effort to get that traffic.

One can't just jump in and start a sales pitch but has to slowly ease into the community. Also, the people hanging out at Web 2.0 sites are looking for fun and entertainment rather than for something to buy. One can't just waltz into an online community and start talking about one's product and think of driving swarms of interested buyers to one's site.

If you want to get hold whatsoever out of Web 2.0, you have to invest a lot of time in them. You can only put your URL in your signature or profile page. In other words, in Web 2.0 your objective should be relationship building, not selling.

Usually the visitors you manage to bring from, say, Facebook or Digg will normally click out of curiosity and not to buy. Thus, Web 2.0 traffic isn't going to convert so well.

So, is it worthwhile to do Web 2.0 marketing? Jeworski says if you're already getting hundreds or thousands of high converting visitors to your site each day, only then should you even consider Web 2.0 marketing.

Otherwise, the truth is, there are probably many other things you should be looking at that will produce better results than spending hours each day on a site like Facebook or Digg.

Before you invest your time in Web 2.0 marketing you should absolutely make sure your basics are right, such as your marketing factors, sales copy and site design.

Then you should optimize for the search engines, which is still the greatest source of free traffic online. Also don't forget the proven traffic generation strategies such as pay-per-click and article marketing. Then also do joint ventures with other successful entrepreneurs to promote your product to new groups of interested visitors.

Only after the proven ways of driving qualified traffic have been utilized, then and only then, should you venture into Web 2.0 marketing, advised Jeworski.

He says, because otherwise, you'll find yourself digging way too many holes in the ground - but never striking gold.

• Jeworski's article