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Today I’d like to point you to Shara Karasic’s Guide to 60+ Web Development Tools & Resources for Entrepreneurs. You’ll know some of them, but I dare say there are a number of new tools you haven’t heard of that are cheap or even free. So check out Shara’s list to jump start your Web 2.0 design, development and ecommerce. The days are long gone you could just put up a pretty site, throw in some meta tags and submit to the search engines. This list will get you started.

Living a stone’s throw from Moscone and MacWorld, I wanted to pass on a summary to my clients. And here it is, all capsulized by Veronica Belmont of Mahalo - The Steve Jobs 90 Minute Keynote in 60 Seconds.

And of course, MacWorld coverage wouldn’t be complete without hearing from Fake Steve Jobs. Fake Steve’s blog is my guilty pleasure. Read his complete Thank You to the faithful. But just to give you a taste: “…Finally I want to thank everyone in the audience yesterday for gasping and moaning every time I announced something. Really appreciated this, as always. I was especially grateful when the flickr feed didn’t work and we were standing there with a giant blank screen and you all cheered and clapped like mindless zombies anyway. Yes! That is the spirit of our community!…”

And yeah, yeah, I’m a marketing victim. I own an iPod and a Macbook.

This is the time when business, marketing and social media bloggers make predictions and lists of what’s hot for the coming year. I want to pass some of my favorite lists to you for consideration while you plan your 2008 web marketing strategy.

• Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Analyst in social media gives us his Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing for 2008. You won’t implement initiatives in all these areas, but your strategy should include considering which are right for your company.

• TechCrunch lists 2008: Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn’t Live Without. These are social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Digg and many, many more. Don’t know all the companies TechCrunch lists? Time to familiarize yourself, because the social media wave is only going to get bigger. Ride it, don’t drown in it.

• Mashable’s 2008 Predictions touch on NBC’s online strategies, Google’s mobile plans, social media, women and technology, and the increasing status of bloggers. Watch the trends so you can see the opportunities.

• All those marketing conferences and not enough time? See iPlot’s Most Important Marketing Conferences of 2008.

• Facebook is increasingly important for business, and if you’re not there, you should be. (Needless to say, you already have a vibrant presence in LinkedIn.) Check out FaceReview’s 13 Facebook 2008 Predictions.

• See John Battelle’s Search Blog for 2008 predictions in search, media and technology.

I wrote a guide similar to this post about a year ago for work.com, but I’ve updated it a bit here. While I’m at it, I’ll probably go back and do a little updating there too.

One day soon, the most powerful web presences will be 3D, interactive and very, very personal. Today, a pioneer of the 3D web is masquerading as a game called Second Life. In Second Life, people create avatars to represent themselves and move about the “world” making friends, shopping, setting up businesses and doing just about anything people do in the real world. At the time of this writing, there are over 5 million Second Life registered accounts. All well and good, you may say, but I’m really not interested in buying and selling pixelated land or creating clothing in Photoshop to sell to avatars.

Well, it’s time to sit up and take notice.When IBM invests $10 million in Second Life, and companies like Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, General Motors, Dell Computer, Reuters Group, Sears and Toyota Motor build virtual offices, showrooms and meeting centers, they aren’t doing it for kicks. These corporate buildings commonly feature interactive products, presentations, videos and web site links. Even global bank ABN-AMRO (expected to merge soon with Barclays to create one of the world’s largest financial institutions) and a Dutch funeral industry association (uitvaart.com) have substantial Second Life presences. Expect even more attention with the recent $50,000 e-Bay sale of the popular sim Amsterdam, which is a Second Life city modeled on the real thing.

Second Life is not a viable marketing choice for many businesses, but for others it can be a dynamic branding opportunity. Why market your business in Second Life?

1. Generate trial use
Through their avatars, people can touch and use your simulated product in ways that are impossible on the 2-D web. Witness avatars carrying and using Motorola Razr phones they pull out to indicate they are on real life phone calls and unavailable for chat. At one of the virtual Cisco locations, people can walk around a “connected house” and play with everything from rotating picture frames to a networked security system.

2. Bond with your customers
Be aware that people usually invest a strong sense of self in their avatars. If an avatar is using your brand of computer, driving your car or wearing your clothes, expect the person behind the avatar to check out your product when he or she gets back to the real world.

3. Make a splash
Second Life is hot. Though the days of landing in the Wall Street Journal just because you have a Second Life presence are over, you can still generate some great press if you have a creative campaign. See the Second Life web site for examples.

4. Advertise cheaply and effectively
Many people who ignore traditional advertising and Internet banner ads carefully check out stores and displays in Second Life. Buildings filled with products, videos, and information at IBM and Cisco are destination sites people are exploring. Circuit City and Sears, located on one of the IBM sims, are good examples as is the technology featured at Sun Microsystems.

5. Sell product
Consider selling products within Second Life as well as marketing your real world products. One could argue that someone who has already spent a little money with you in Second Life is more likely to buy from you in the real world. Also, all those $2 sales might pay for

your virtual world marketing. In addition to selling virtual phones, Telus offers customers about $60 U.S. worth of Second Life money for signing up for a “cool real life phone.” Toyota sells Second Life cars.

6. Educate and Direct
Click on products at most Second Life corporate locations and you will be given a note card detailing the benefits and features of the product or sent to a web site that does the same. You can also demonstrate your product or service visually and interactively, the key strength of Second Life. Tour the Uitvaart mortuary and learn about each step of the burial process by visiting a funereal urn room, a body preparation room, a viewing area, a funeral service room and more. Yes, there are even bodies laid out!

7. Interact directly with your customers
Second Life gives you an opportunity for your sales people to meet with and discuss products with prospective customers, to conduct seminars and to give demonstrations. It is much more personal and hands-on than “Live Help” buttons which are only instant messaging without interactive visuals. Check out the IBM Executive Briefing Center in Second Life for a great example.

8. Conduct meetings
More and more, companies are turning to Second Life for meetings of far-flung employees. The 3-D visuals and opportunities for interaction far surpass a typical webinar. Dell, IBM and Cisco all have conference centers, and conference facilities are available for rent in Second Life.

9. Recruit and interview employees

If you have a farflung organization and want to add a personal touch to the recruiting process, consider Second Life. IBM has entire buildings devoted to recruiting.

So how can you create a Second Life marketing presence without spending a fortune? Second Life is a little like a foreign country. Just like importing from China, you shouldn’t go in for a week, then think you are ready to do business.

• Hire a project manager who is a successful, real world marketer who also knows Second Life inside and out. Find someone who can put together the best team to help you develop your marketing strategy, implement your marketing tactics, deliver on your goals and supervise the building of your Second Life presence.
• Develop a draw, a reason for people to come to your business. Find something great to offer or a way to interact with them in an interesting, entertaining way. The common and elitist “If we build it, they will come” mentality of some big companies may garner press, but it won’t produce eyeballs or repeated consumer visits.
• Commit to a long-term presence and constantly develop new ways to interact with the community and add value. There are tremendous branding opportunities that have barely been tapped.
• Determine if Second Life is really right for your company. At this point, the biggest value is heightened brand awareness to a far-flung market and a progressive image. For many companies, Second Life may not make sense. For example, if you are selling locally or selling products B2B to a nontech vertical market, think twice for now.

A newsletter filled with information valuable to your customers/prospects is a wonderful tool for keeping your customers loyal and touching prospects regularly. Make your content valuable, and you can build your database by offering free subscriptions on your web site’s home page. Send your newsletter once a month if you can, but quarterly at the very least. If you send via email, the costs are negligible. Fill your newsletter with helpful, educational content. No one wants to read a newsletter that only beats the drum about your products, your company, your awards, you, you, you. Don’t create a four-page ad and call it a newsletter. Instead, think about you can impart that will help your customers increase their profits and grow their businesses.

Structure your newsletter
Set up easy-to-find sections and breaks to make your newsletter more easily readable. Consider the following: 1) Section filled with statistics and useful information about your customers’ industry. Include links to resources and interesting articles.. 2) Question and Answer section to address common customer concerns. 3) An offer special to your customers, whether it is a link to a free white paper or a discount to an industry seminar. Make your readers feel like VIPs. 4) Calendar with important industry dates; this might include trade shows or conferences schedules. 5) Updates and first glimpses of your new products or services. Keep this focused on how these new offerings can benefit your customers. 6) A spotlight on a customer. Tell a success story and give tips.

Before writing your own newsletter, study some others. Look on industry association web sites and your competitors’ web sites. Ask your industry associates for the names of their favorite newsletters. Once you see some good examples, think about how you can improve on them in both content and presentation. See Newsletter Access for an online directory of newsletters on all topics.

Name your newsletter
It’s not easy to come up with a short, catchy name. Hold a company-wide contest to name the newsletter. Offer a great prize that will create some buzz around the company and help generate internal support for the project. Once you launch the newsletter, you will want to ask some of your employees to write articles for it, and so you want them to be enthusiastic. See “Pages” for ideas and help on how to name your newsletter.

Delegate
Don’t feel like you have to write the entire newsletter yourself. Draw on the varied expertise of people in different departments of your company. Of course, the content they produce will likely have to be edited to fit the “feel” of the newsletter and to keep it externally focused on your customers (rather than internally focused on how great your company is). Assign specific sections of the newsletter to some individuals on an ongoing basis, and have “guest” writers for other sections. Read How to Delegate if you are concerned about the time demands of creating a newsletter.

Generate customer interaction
Use your newsletter as one of many tools to create an online community with your company at the hub. Solicit questions from customers that can be answered in the newsletter. Have a column that is actually written by featured customers. Possibly they could relate industry tips or describe how your product or service is being successfully used in their companies. To get a real feel for the power of online community, read Shara Karasic’s Guide to Building an Online Community.

Design an easy-to-read format
Design an easy-to-read, attractive format. Ideally, you will hire a graphics designer to give it a clean, professional look that is integrated with your current branding. If you have a very small business, and you are short on funds, consider using one of many online services and templates that will enable you to get your newsletters out fast. See the Guide to Producing Your Own Electronic Newsletter for resources that offer turn-key solutions and templates.

Things to think about:

• You may want to email the newsletter itself, or just email your customer and prospect database a link that takes them to the newsletter on your web site. Since newsletters can easily be emailed, these days there are no postage costs.
• Arm your salespeople with a print version of your newsletter to give them yet another weapon in their arsenal. You should be able to print these inhouse if you are using a well-designed template.
• Write in a casual, conversational style. If your newsletter reads like a quarterly report, you will put your readers to sleep. Of course, you need to keep your image in mind, and a bank’s newsletter should have a more conservative tone than a day spa’s newsletter.

To successfully sell your product to today’s businesses or consumers, you must research competitive products, your market segment and your distribution channels to determine how your product should be positioned. Are you developing a product with more features and benefits than any other product, so that your product can therefore be sold at a premium price? Or are you developing a product that does not have many of the features of that of competitive products, so that it can be sold cheaper than anything else on the market? Is your market segment married suburban women between the ages of 35 and 45, or is your market segment 14-year-old boys? Will your product be sold at Bloomingdale’s or K-Mart? It is a consumer or a business product?

To develop product positioning, you will need to write product positioning statements. Positioning statements are internally focused and are not meant to be broadcast to your market. They typically compare your product to that of the competition and may even reference weaknesses in your product. A positioning statement is not to be confused with a messaging statement. A messaging statement is based on positioning, but unlike a positioning statement, messaging is broadcast to your market and will not include any weaknesses or references to internal goals.

Consider this information when writing your product positioning statement
Information that should be considered when forming product positioning statements includes the following: 1) Product differentiators that show the product’s advantages over the competition’s products 2) Market segment 3) Customer benefits 4) Pricing and how it relates to performance of the product (For example, a high end product may cost more, but it may offer more features or benefits than competitive products.) 5) Market share.

Here is an example of a product positioning statement: “Our new SuperSonic toy costs more than Acme Corp.’s Rocket, but unlike the Rocket, which has no audio and comes in only one color, the SuperSonic plays three different popular songs, accelerates twice as fast as the Rocket, has a reverse feature and comes in five alternate colors including hot pink and bright lime. Because of these added features, our SuperSonic appeals to both boys and girls in the age range of eight to twelve, while Acme’s Rocket only appeals to boys eight to ten years old.”

Research your market and your competition
To research your market, you may want to commission custom research or perform certain types of research yourself using various methods such as surveys and focus groups. But before you spend the money on customized research, study research that is already complete. Research your competition by visiting their Web sites, visiting stores where their products are displayed, attending trade shows where they are exhibiting and even calling competitive companies and requesting information. Also read analysts’ reports and track your competition in the press by performing Internet searches or enlisting the aid of your public relations firm if you have one.

Consider joining Shop.org if you are an online or multi-channel retailer. Technology companies may want to subscribe to appropriate research from Forrester Research, Jupiter Research or Gartner which provide information about both market trends and products. If you are exporting products, be sure to check out the U.S. Government Web site Export.gov for access to valuable market research. Can’t find what you need? Locate a research firm that is right for your company at The Blue Book Research Services Directory or at Greenbook.

Be first or carve out a unique niche
It is hard to change the minds of consumers once they are set, so if you can position yourself as first in your market, you have an advantage. But no matter what, you need to carve out a unique niche for your product.

The American Marketing Association provides a Product Positioning Overview. Also see the SBA for information sheets on Product Basics and Finding a Niche.

Choose your price strategically
Price is a critical factor in positioning your product. Consider your market segment, your product’s benefits and features as compared to that of the competition, the demand, your costs and your pricing objective.

Read more about pricing strategy at NetMBA or Marketing Teacher. You may also want to try Price Director software to assist you in setting pricing.

A few things to keep in mind

• Company positioning: Before you position your product, position your company. However, reexamine company positioning when you introduce new products that may affect image and direction. A sample company positioning statement might be, “With the new SuperSonic, we can overtake Acme Corporation’s lead and gain majority market share.”
• Product line positioning: Define how the product fits into your line and how you can lay the groundwork for future products with the positioning of this one.
• Product positioning: Do not be afraid to be too detailed when positioning your product. You will want to compare your product to that of the competition.
• Channel positioning: If your product is being distributed by a channel, you need to specifically consider how to demonstrate that your product is unique or superior to others the channel representative handles.
• Messaging: Messaging statements are the foundation of everything you broadcast to your market. They are based on positioning statements, but unlike positioning statements, they are externally oriented to your target market.