How much attention should you pay to trends?

Recently I had a reader contact me and tell me that my blog was unreadable.

Although he offered no suggestions on how to fix the problem, and most people won’t, I decided that it would be prudent to fix the problem.

The reader in question used Firefox. Now, I’m not a big fan of Firefox because to me it’s slow, it crashes a lot, and it looks like another Explorer wannabe. At least this was my experience.

However, my mom always said different strokes for different folks, and there are millions of people using this browser.

There is a startling difference between the way a site can look in one browser compared to another. Although my site looked great in Explorer, it wasn’t even the same color in Firefox, and there was a problem with the footer lying on top of the header so that you couldn’t read the top of the page.

I was appalled by the way my site looked. (It’s now fixed. I downloaded Firefox and am working with it when I work on my site). In fact, I actually like the site look in Firefox compared to Explorer because it looks cleaner. The colors are now the same in both, and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

There is a point, and a moral to this story though: maybe I don’t like Firefox, or I don’t want to use it. There are, however, millions and millions of people who do use it, and it’s a very popular browser.

Regardless of my own personal feelings and preferences, from a strictly business point of view, it’s a good idea to pay attention to a trend like this one. After all, if that person visits my site, and it’s not displaying correctly, they may just click away and never come back. BAD FOR BUSINESS.

Personally, I hate it when I go to a site that says “Best viewed in Firefox”. What a jerk! What if I don’t want to use Firefox?

When I see something like that, then I understand how Firefox users feel because there are millions of websites on the internet that they can’t view because they don’t display properly in Firefox. It’s an irritation for these users that’s been widely reported in the news.

The same applies to blogs. Some don’t get the idea, or the reason why blogs are popular. That’s ok. You don’t have to. However, this is another trend on the internet you can’t ignore.

You can still use blogs to promote your business by posting comments. Just don’t post those stupid “ditto, me too” type comments. They’re useless. No one will ever visit your site. Don’t post spam comments or junk.

I personally believe in the exercise of free speech, especially in business. However, there are certain things I won’t allow on my blogs or sites, including gambling, adult sites, and that type of thing. These things violate the Google Adsense terms of service.

That’s another trend that you should also pay attention to that will never go away. Branding. Reputation. Your name.

Branding is a hot topic on the internet today, and it isn’t a topic that’s confined to big companies like Coca Cola or Google. Reputation is everything. If you don’t have that, what do you have? Credibility is paramount to your success in internet business because people are so skeptical online.

Should you pay attention to trends on the internet? Absolutely. Do you need to engage in every trend on the internet? Not necessarily. Just don’t ignore them. You could be leaving money on the table.

The bottom line is this: I don’t care what you sell on, or off, the internet. I can show you how to market whatever you market for free. The same methods, whether it’s blogging, article writing, search engine optimization or any other free marketing method will work on any business. The only difference is WHERE you market. Go to where your market is, and you’ll see positive results every time.

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Tags: point of view, colors, firefox, trend, business point, jerk, different strokes for different folks, footer, browser, mom

Filed under: Internet Marketing News and Tips

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