Who Owns The Internet?

Does anybody actually own the internet?

Well, the answer is yes and no.

The question came about last week at Martin Avis’s London Lunch, where I was chatting with Catherine Ford.

In fact, the subject line in today’s email is a direct copy of the title of her most successful blog post, which she wrote some time ago.

And yes… I did have her permission to use it as a subject line. I’m not stealing it, I’m borrowing it to make an example of.

But more on that later.

First, the question of who owns the internet…

While, officially, nobody owns the internet, people own domains. And the owners of the domains that are the most high-trafficked, in effect, control a large portion of the internet. By definition, the internet is made up of people browsing (web traffic), and if you’re in control of a substantial amount of it, then you have to be in control of a portion of the internet.

So you never actually own it, but you can control big chunks of it.

Anyhoo… back to the subject line.

Do you think it’s good or bad?

Me, I think it’s friggin awesome.

It has curiosity, everyone can relate to it, and everyone will be interested in the answer.

The fact that Catherine used it as a blog post article, and I’ve used it as an email subject line, highlights the fact your blog titles should be written in exactly the same way as an email subject line.

And that follows through to your blog content, which should be written in the same entertaining way you’d write an email.

Just write facts and figures, and you’ll bore your audience to sleep. Write stories and tie it into the facts, figures, and your products… and you’ll make a fanbase and a shitload of sales.

Michael

P.S. At the London Lunch, and through private messages, I’ve had a lot of people contact me about autoresponders, which to use, and if there are any cheaper ones out there that are good.

Which kinda got me thinking… maybe I should set up my own autoresponder service that fulfils all those criteria.

But there’s a bunch of work involved in that, so I want to see if you’re interested in it before I do it.

So, can you spend five seconds and let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in here…

http://www.opinionstage.com/michaelwilding/survey-10-03

P.P.S. If you take part, I’ll also add you to the special Private Invitation list I’ll be starting if I go ahead 😉