Stifling the Italian Start Up

I had a look round SecondLife this week - it's extremely disorientating for a complete beginner so I'm holding judgement 'till I've had my guided tour.

I have just posted a similar article to this over on my Italian blog. The reason being that I am wondering just how far a newcomer can or even must travel down the long tail before his or her e-commerce site becomes financially sustainable.

I doubt very much that newcomers could take on short tail champions like Amazon or iTunes, but having said that, too far down the tail would see so little activity that any ROI would be neglibible at best.

I am fascinated by Internet Marketing at the moment. I honestly cannot see the point of having an Internet site for the sake of having one. In every situation, given a little thought, there is a whole lot more to be gained from Web 2.0

I see that blogs are taking over the role of static websites - once static information zones that do nothing more than identify who the person or company is. Blogs are changing all this. Through a blog you can get to know someone's thoughts, their personality and also their reputation. A static website gives you a fraction of that.

Yet a working website can offer just so much more. Ever since Google Adsense arrived, there has been a definite switch towards optimizing websites in order to rank higher in the search engines. But why would you waste your time chasing a front-page result if your website offered no more than your phone number?

Working websites can advertise, promote and, even better, sell. They provide the perfect opportunity to capture new clients and keep them informed about the latest developments. The goal of the website is to turn as many of those customers into clients and it's very easy to measure how effective they are at this.

Newsletters, blog posts and even video logs give such a strong message of customer commitment, it's hard to imagine why anyone would consider doing it any differently.

Streamlining this process for maximum CTR is what fascinates me and here's the rub. When you study, research and apply these SEO techniques, you do so in an ideal envoronment: America.

Here in Italy, there are no fulfillment agencies, back-end offices for rent and cheap web hosting businesses. What's worse, when you decide to sell something physical over the web, you have to get special permission from the Chamber of Commerce before you print out your first receipt.

It's a sign of just how sorry the Italian market is when the government has to stifle free market growth by filtering out all the irreputable sites that would otherwise spring up like mushrooms.

It's also sad that before you can even think about entering the still-lucrative web business market, you have to go 5 rounds with the government.

It would also be nice if we competing businesses had similar taxation requirements but there again, all things are anything but equal.

The answer lies in meticulous research, shrewed determination and blind faith.

Extreme socializing tours

While we're all discovering how to navigate in the land of the social, some clever people have come up with a site designed to show newbies around the increasingly popular virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft and Second Life.

"Synthravels is the first organization to offer a complete guide service to all the people who want to make a tour in virtual worlds without knowing these new realities, even if they have never put their feet in these strange, synthetic grounds." says their site.

I don't mind admitting that these virtual communities scare the bejesus out of me. It's bad enopugh convincing clients to embrace social media. Virtual communities is pushing it waaay beyond credible.

Second Life recently got a credibility boost after Reuters opened an agency and IBM started holding corporate meetings there.

Having said that, it is a fascinating transformation in the way we represent ourselves. I'm not sure I've fully grasped the point of the original names requirement. I mean getting major personalities like, I don't know, Carlos Ghosn - CEO of Renault Nissan, to go online under the name of Bungo Kaloterakis seems to me the wrong side of lunacy, although having said that Renault does build some looney cars...

Sorry, can't stop now, I've got a virtual tour bus to catch.

Can you copyright Web 2.0?

This is a good one.

There was a lot of speculation over copyright infringement at YouTube before Google took over the reins. Now it's gaining momentum and all the copyright lawyers have started dusting their suits off.

As it turns out, YouTube doesn't carry a direct responsibility for the content that appears on its site. They even say so on their guidlines page. I read a post by Mark Cuban over at CNet.

Basically, while it was starting up, no-body cared. Now it's a suit-wearing mega-site with the keys to millions of amateur/pro videos, it's washing its hands of all and any responsibility to the people that made it what it is.

Napster took us there a few years back and they were shut down with aggression. I don't see how YouTube can "host" copyright material and not be hung, drawn and quartered as Shawn Fanning was.

The safe alternative is Revver. But until I read Mark's mail this morning, I will admit this site had passed beneath the radar, which gives you some idea to its viral limitations over YouTube's.

I am wondering if the same applies to blog content. If you host a site which uses and/or refers to material written by others, and you give credits, links and all the rest, are you promoting them, or ripping them off?

In social networks, we are all footholds for each other. If I'm not allowed to use yours, do we both slip?