Jason DeVelvis is a well-known and respected Internet Marketer, responsible for products like FlurryPop, a script that allows you to put your product over other people’s websites, and SaleFlurry – one of the premier Affiliate Networks. He also does Internet Marketing coaching.
ME: Jason, what is Web 2.0 all about?
JASON: Well, most people think it’s about AJAX, DHTML, Dynamic websites, Social Networking, things like that. But those are all byproducts of Web 2.0, not what it really is.
Web 2.0 is more of a paradigm shift – a change from “pushing” websites and content to visitors into “pulling” the content from them. Internet surfers don’t necessarily want to be just given information, but instead are looking for sites that allow them to participate. They want to get information from other people like themselves while making friends, forming relationships, and building a community. That’s Web 2.0 – and so many people are missing the boat.
ME: So static content sites are on the way out?
JASON: Nope, I don’t mean that, because content sites will always have a place on the web. Not all visitors are going to want to contribute, many will still just be looking for an answer to their question, or information on their topic. But why not let another one of your visitors give them that information?
ME: Ok, so how can Internet Marketers and webmasters take advantage of this on their websites?
JASON: In a number of ways, actually. But the easiest way is to give your users the opportunity to contribute to your site somehow. Put up a forum, or give them the ability to blog on your site, or throw up a blog and encourage them to comment, etc etc etc. Honestly, people like to tell people their opinions, and they’re generally willing to put those opinions out there for people to read.
ME: Is it really that easy? “Put up a forum”?
JASON: Haha, no. If you don’t have traffic to your site, you won’t be successful in getting your visitors to post and spend time there.
ME: So no “If you build it, they will come?”
JASON: Nope – that hasn’t worked since the mid 90s. Actually, I created my first affiliate site in 2001, and I thought that all I had to do was put up a site and people would just come to it. After about a month of work to get the site up (it was a sweet site, or so I thought) it took me about a week to realize that it was a bomb – big time – because I didn’t have any traffic. Then, I launched another site, and concentrated on getting people to it through any means that I could, and that’s when I started to see success with it. When I got people to 1) come to my site, and 2) keep coming back to it. Coincidentally, that site went down within a few months because my hosting company at the time had a bandwidth limit and no way to upgrade the account, so they shut my site down when I hit that threshold. My lesson: make sure your hosting company will grow with your site 
ME: Ok, then how do you recommend getting people to come to your site?
JASON: That’s an entire course in and of itself, and there are plenty of courses out there on it, but I’m a BIG fan of article marketing. But there are tons of ways to drive traffic – SEO, articles, AdWords, email lists, forum marketing, email signatures, JVs, and on and on and on…
But the REAL biggie is how to keep your visitors coming back! You don’t want to do all that work to get tons of traffic to your site just to have them give it a once over and then leave, never to return, do you? Nah, that’s leaving money on the table! So how do you keep people coming back? Give them a reason to. Plain and simple. If your site is an affiliate site, or a content site, or a plain old blog, you NEED to give them something to make them want to one, be there, and two, come back for more. My suggestion on doing it? Turn your site into a user-driven ratings/review site.
ME: Great advice. Any chance a ratings site will help with bringing new people in, too?
JASON: Well, I can’t say this 100% for sure, because I haven’t thoroughly tested it, but I’ve been noticing a HUGE upswing of reviews and review sites in the top 10 pages of Google. Any time I search for any kind of product, I almost immediately see a review listed in the top 10, frequently in the top 5! Now, that may just be coincidence, so take it with a grain of salt, but if other people’s review sites are making the top 10, can’t yours?
ME: Haha, well said. If I’m right, you just launched a script that allows you to easily create user-generated review sites, didn’t you?
JASON: Why else would I be raving about them? Just kidding – Yes, I did just release a Wordpress plugin that turns your blog into a Web 2.0 review machine. But this isn’t one of those “Hey, maybe this will sell well… I’ll create it and sell it to all these suckers” (actually, none of my products are) – I created it to run my own review sites and drive more profits. I created it as an income source, and it turned out very well.
As I was creating it, I wondered if anyone else could make use of it. And I kid you not, the first 10 people I talked to about it thought it was AWESOME and they wanted to get their hands on it ASAP! I almost flipped – I only mentioned in in passing most of the time, and it quickly became the topic of conversation. I actually had to push up the launch because people were emailing me and almost begging me to release it. So I did
ME: What’s so good about this product? Why should I use it?
JASON: Well, first of all, it’s easy to use – it runs on Wordpress, so it’s VERY easy to get set up. For those who aren’t very technological, or experienced with Wordpress, there are full, step-by-step help videos.
Second, with the intrinsic Wordpress spam filtering, you don’t have to worry about getting your ratings site spammed like crazy from random spam bots.
But the most important thing is that it enables your visitors to give their opinion on products, ideas, blog posts, or whatever you want them to rate! You can use it for affiliate products, your own products, your rants and ramblings, ideas, blog posts, anything – so you’re not limited on how you can use it. And we all know how much people like to give their opinions, so you shouldn’t be short on user generated content for the search engines to eat up and keep the traffic coming.
ME: You haven’t given a URL yet, Jason…
JASON: Haha, that I haven’t. You can get your copy of Rating Dominator at http://www.RatingDominator.com/?download=952
ME: Alright, that’s all the time we have, thanks a lot Jason!
And for those of you reading this, what Jason didn’t mention was that Rating Dominator is FREE! Yeah, you don’t have to pay a dime - All you have to do is go to http://www.RatingDominator.com/?download=952 now!