"The Desktop Global Marketer" (tm)

   A free on-line newsletter of Sidereal Designs, Inc.,
   for Internet Entrepreneurs, and those who are
   considering becoming one.
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                  May 1998
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   "The Desktop Global Marketer" is free, and may be 
   re-published freely with permission. We encourage 
   you to give it to your friends.

   For subscription (or un-subscription) details,
   and other information, please see the end of the 
   newsletter.

   For any other purpose, please write to:
   	jamie(at)siderealdesigns.com
   Or visit us at:
   	http://siderealdesigns.com
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What can you do with the Internet and/or the Web besides put up
on-line advertising?

The Internet is fast providing us with unlimited, bi-directional,
real-time interconnectivity of the human race, and it is virtually
free. This is rapidly changing the way we do business, and will do so
increasingly in the future. It will empower those who understand it
and who can harness it to their benefit. Global marketing in
particular, which has been restricted to giant corporations in the
past, is now the province of the small entrepreneur and individual
professional. Showing you how simple it is to use Internet technology
to reach the world from your desk is one of the goals of this
newsletter.

There is an understanding in the business world of the developing
importance of the Internet, but few businesses yet know how to exploit
it well. According to Manufacturing News (12/4/97), sixty-two percent
of goods manufacturers now have Internet sites; almost all of these
are just "electronic brochures" aimed at marketing and advertising in
the model of older mass media. Fifty percent of these sites are
dedicated to image-building and product communication. A mere sixteen
percent obtain consumer feedback, and only ten percent are used for
active collaboration with trading partners. Actual on-line sales are
still a tiny affair at three percent.

Most of these businesses are ignoring the real potential of the
Internet, which is to provide cheaply and easily at any distance the
kind of interpersonal communication and cooperation that previously
could be had only in a face-to-face encounter, or at great cost and
inconvenience. On the Internet all distances are equal to one. This
new capability empowers the small professional to extend his market
from the local community to the world.
 
If your business is mainly information, if you're an accountant, a
consultant, a graphic artist, a business coach, a writer, a product
designer, a trainer, a broker, or any other professional who markets
expertise, advice, information, or service, you now have a global
population as your market. If your product is tangible, you have a
global market if you design, customize, advise, or otherwise interact
with the client as a major part of your business; the final delivery
by physical shipment is the easy part. So if you're not selling
soybeans, you need to understand how to practice your business or
profession on a global scale.

Here is a key point - the Internet is fully bi-directional. People
cannot only look at your web site, they can leave you comments, ask
questions, subscribe to your mailing list, request a quote, order your
product, leave you instructions, and do just about anything else you
need to conduct business with them, and you can respond to them in
turn. Moreover, the Internet is not just the Web (actually only about
ten percent of the Internet traffic is the Web.) There is a vast range
of communication functions available to you on the Internet to support
your operations, and while it may sound complex now, it is simple to
use. I'll just mention a few of the possibilities here as they relate
to online business and marketing.

Email is an enormously powerful Internet tool, and you can harness it
not just as a real-time postal service, but also as a broadcast medium
with the capability to send your message to multiple, potentially
millions, of people on your mailing list. To do this you need only
set up a "list server" such as the one which is mailing you this
newsletter. You can also set up "auto-responders" that immediately
dispatch personal responses tailored to the information or requests
that come to your site over the Internet.

You can tap into newsgroups on "usenet" that let you share news,
information and advice with others in your field.

You can put to work "cgi" programs that serve people information on
demand from your databases. Many of these are available free and most
webmasters can quickly customize one for your needs.

You can use "ftp" to move large documents and images around
the world to one or multiple recipients, and to use it to fetch them
to yourself from remote providers. 

You can use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels for establishing live,
real-time teleconferencing with one or multiple remote people.

You can use the Internet's "telnet" protocol to log into your client's
computer on the other side of the continent and work on it directly.
Similarly, you can have a consultant or co-worker in a distant city
log into your machine over the Internet to do work for you.

You can even augment the humble telephone by using it in conjunction
with the Web. You can have 'private' web pages that no one will find
unless you give them the address. Put images and documents in them
for your customers and colleagues to view with you while you hold a
voice discussion on the phone.

All of this is here, right now, at very little cost. 

You already have business or professional skills and the ability to
market them. You have affordable technology available today to empower
yourself to become a global business; all it requires is to start
thinking about it in the right terms and taking advantage of it. In
this space we'll be exploring the technology you need and ways to make
it simple for you to acquire and use it.

Jamie
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"Sidereal" is pronounced sy-DEER-ee-all, and means "of
or pertaining to the stars, the heavens, etc."