The Internet is Not Everything to Everyone

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When the webmaster's full-time attention is on publications on the Internet,and all full-time efforts are to increase public distribution of data postedin these publications, it is difficult not to ov...
When the webmaster's full-time attention is on publications on the Internet,and all full-time efforts are to increase public distribution of data postedin these publications, it is difficult not to over-concentrate. I believemost webmasters are aware of the existence of obsolescent post office mailadvertising, or snail mail, but I do not believe much advertising effort iscurrently being channeled into anything except Internet related sources.Even magazines are now ezines and "personal contact" means e-mail.
We stillsee individuals, sometimes dressed in weird costumes, standing alongside theroad in a downtown area, waving a sign about a grand opening, or grandclosing, or special car wash, or some such. But I have never seen anyonestanding alongside the road waving a sign advertising a new website.
"Thatisn't the way Internet sites are promoted". But why not? There is no lawstating physical business sites must be promoted physically, and cyberspacesites promoted only in cyberspace.Many, many people now have an electronic door that can be knocked on viaemail or notices in search engines or bannered in popular programs or onpopular sites.
But those same people still have a physical presence that canbe reached. The excitement of all the new "dot.coms" is subsiding, but notnecessarily the products they presented to an eager public.
While many ofthe flood of e-businesses were little more than electronic pyramid letters,the online sales of durable goods has not decreased substantially with theexpiration of the many get-rich-quick schemes. Like the days of theCalifornia Gold Rush many dot.coms did not pan out - but many e-businessesbecame online catalogs of what people had formerly driven their cars to astore to view, and satisfied customers of such catalogs are not going toreadily relinquish the convenience of online shopping.
However,non-satisfied customers of online shopping, and those yet to test the Worldof Internet shopping, are not likely to learn about it from the Internet.Literally millions of people have been hearing about the wonders andconvenience of the Internet - but the only place they can find out aboutthe Internet is from the Internet. And there is a lot of garbage on thatInternet, as well as useful websites.
The Internet is not really a very goodatmosphere for presenting legitimate offers and products of value - unlessthe customer already knows their value and knows the location where they canbe found. Separating the wheat from the chaff on the Internet requiressomeone well versed in Internet procedure.
It is truly a "boot-strap"operation for someone to learn anything very useful from the Internet untilthey have already learned quite a bit from that Internet. Everywhere theuninitiated turn in cyberspace they encounter more confusion and deception.Constructing and presenting useful e-business websites for skilled users isnot going to reach or impress millions of potential customers who are not,and probably never will be, skilled users of browsers, email programs, andthe Internet in general.
However, these same users can read the signs beingwaved alongside the road, and follow the directions of pitchmen and women onTV. This does not mean that webmasters need put on a chicken suit and dancealong sidewalks waving a sign promoting their website.
In fact just such asign is not like providing the customer with a street address. Practicallyeveryone can find a location with a street address.
But a large number ofpeople interested in whatever the sign might address, still have not theknowledge or sufficient interest in the Internet to be able to find a URLthat may be shown them. The URL could be in a regular magazine or newspaper,or shown on TV or listed on a radio show, and still be in a mysterious,unattainable location for many, many people.This leads to an unavoidable conclusion.
Many products presented on theInternet are not available to a large proportion of the population. And theonly way to make these products available to them is with person-to-personcontact.
Tell a friend about a desirable product and show them how to reachit online. Convince others to tell a friend about a desirable product andshow them how to reach it online.
This cannot be done online. No amount ofwebsite information and instructions will have a noticeable effect.
Theproduct catalogs need to be online but the information on how to reach themcannot be presented only online. The webmaster needs to physically meet thepublic and not depend on achieving success by just sitting at the computerand becoming proficient in programming.
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