Does anybody actually own the internet?<\/p>\n
Well, the answer is yes and no.<\/p>\n
The question came about last week at Martin Avis\u2019s London Lunch, where I was chatting with Catherine Ford.<\/p>\n
In fact, the subject line in today\u2019s email is a direct copy of the title of her most successful blog post, which she wrote some time ago.<\/p>\n
And yes\u2026 I did have her permission to use it as a subject line. I\u2019m not stealing it, I\u2019m borrowing it to make an example of.<\/p>\n
But more on that later.<\/p>\n
First, the question of who owns the internet\u2026<\/p>\n
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\u2019re in control of a substantial amount of it, then you have to be in control of a portion of the internet.<\/p>\n
So you never actually own it, but you can control big chunks of it.<\/p>\n
Anyhoo\u2026 back to the subject line.<\/p>\n
Do you think it\u2019s good or bad?<\/p>\n
Me, I think it\u2019s friggin awesome.<\/p>\n
It has curiosity, everyone can relate to it, and everyone will be interested in the answer.<\/p>\n
The fact that Catherine used it as a blog post article, and I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
And that follows through to your blog content, which should be written in the same entertaining way you\u2019d write an email.<\/p>\n
Just write facts and figures, and you\u2019ll bore your audience to sleep. Write stories and tie it into the facts, figures, and your products\u2026 and you\u2019ll make a fanbase and a shitload of sales.<\/p>\n
Michael<\/p>\n
P.S. At the London Lunch, and through private messages, I\u2019ve had a lot of people contact me about autoresponders, which to use, and if there are any cheaper ones out there that are good.<\/p>\n
Which kinda got me thinking\u2026 maybe I should set up my own autoresponder service that fulfils all those criteria.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a bunch of work involved in that, so I want to see if you\u2019re interested in it before I do it.<\/p>\n
So, can you spend five seconds and let me know if that\u2019s something you\u2019d be interested in here\u2026<\/p>\n