What’s all the buzz about?

June 1st, 2006 · 9 Comments ·

You’ve undoubtedly heard of Internet Marketing NewsWatch by now. I’ve been skyped about it. I’ve been PM’d about it. I’ve been emailed about it. I’ve even been asked about it over the phone.

Yes, I’ve checked it out. So what’s the big deal… and what’s all the buzz about, anyway?

I set off to find that out today. And for two reasons: 1) because I am simply curious what sets this site apart from the countless other Internet Marketing related websites on the web, and 2) because the launch & buzz of this site fascinates me.

First, What is IMNewsWatch? It is hand-edited, updated daily, and contains news and information from a variety of Internet Marketing sources that they monitor. The two men behind this site: Mike Mograbi and Stephen Boutelle. In their own words, they describe the site as:

IMNewswatch will keep you informed and up-to-date on all that’s going on in the internet marketing world by making relevant news readily available to you on a daily basis, from macro/industry level, down to individuals, products, services and events (micro-level).

source

IMNewsWatch has been featured in John Reese’s newsletter, on NetBizRadio and as a personal endorsement in the latest email from JVNotifyPro. I did notice that one of the owners was inquiring about Newsletter Advertising for promotion of the site, so I imagine the site may have been featured in more newsletters than I am subscribed to.

It was recently ranked #1 on Alexa’s Movers & Shakers list… which took them only 9 days to achieve. And the main page of IMNewsWatch already has over 1,200 inbound links, according to Yahoo’s link search.

It’s also been talked about by the likes of Armand Morin, Russel Brunson and David Frey… and countless other leaders in the Internet Marketing industry.

You can find discussions about the launch of IMNewsWatch on a few discussion forums as well, such as:

For Internet Marketing News Junkies on SSWT
One of the Top 10 Coolest Sites on SEO Elite
IMNewsWatch.com hits movers and shakers on Warrior Forum
Talk about a brilliant idea! on Seeds of Wisdom

Most of these threads are pretty ‘dead’. Which left me wondering where the real buzz originated…

There are two Press Releases on PR Web: Official Launch and Number One on Alexa, which got picked up and reprinted on numerous websites, including Yahoo! News.

And bloggers? Yes, they are blogging about it:

Internet Marketing NewsWatch
Denise Wakemen says, “I’m going to keep my eye on this site to see if it can help me wade through the masses of information that is available on Internet marketing.”

Internet Marketers News
Franks says, “I have had this set as my home page for over a week now and find myself checking it regularly to see what is the latest happenings on the internet.”

IMNewsWatch, The CNN for Internet Marketers

Mike Mograbi Launched the Most Important News Site Ever in Internet Marketing Industry

From Webmaster to Newsmaster: A New Generation of Content Development
This is a great article, actually. Using IMNewsWatch as an example she goes into detail about becoming a professional newsmaster. How to get started, the tools to use, how to monetize it, etc. This one is definitely worth a read. It was also submitted as an article.

Internet Marketing NewsWatch Tops Alexa
Mike Merz says “… it has become THE hot spot for the latest in cutting edge Internet Marketing news. Many of the Net’s top Marketers have actually made it their homepage … and have notified their lists to support it, WITHOUT compensation of any kind … it’s that important a resource.”

One of the Coolest Internet Marketing Sites I’ve Seen in a Long Time
Chad Flick calls IMNewsWatch ‘the only site of its kind’ in a quick blog post to encourage people to check it out.

Free Product Promotion
This is my own blog post at MidnightMarketingSnack.com where I featured IMNewsWatch as a great opportunity to gain exposure and publicity for your products.

Internet Marketing News
Evelyn Lim suggests that IMNewsWatch is a good solution to the hassle of keeping up with Internet Marketing news via email…

New Site by Mike Mograbi
Paul Kleinmeulman gives it his recommendation while blogging from his wireless laptop there in Australia with his feet up.

FYI - According to Alexa, the owners of IMNewsWatch.com also own these websites:

And it appears that in addition to IMNewsWatch.com, the site also appears on Internet-Marketing-Newswatch.com

What I am interested in, specifically, is the buzz surrounding this site… and how that got started. What’s the source of this buzz? Where did YOU first hear about IMNewsWatch, and what got your interest? The site itself is a great one, but I find myself more intrigued by their marketing strategy than anything else at this point.

I think there are some great points to be learned from the launch of this new Internet Marketing site…

Lynn Terry, still trying to find the source of the buzz

Tags: mike mograbi, stephen boutelle, imnewswatch, news watch, internet marketing, launch, buzz, movers and shakers

Tags: Internet Marketing

9 responses so far ↓

Rae // Jun 2, 2006 at 10:51 pm

IMHO (and this is the first time I’ve heard of this thing - so *you* are my answer to your question LOL) it looks like a sleazier version of threadwatch with a little more aim at the “guru” side of things and not the SEM side of things.
Alice Seba // Jun 3, 2006 at 12:26 pm

I don’t know anything about the behind-the-scenes launch and have never been approached by the guys. I mentioned their site on my blog after they sent a quite a bit of traffic my way, so clearly the site was gaining popularity.

I saw value in the site, even though most of the news updates don’t interest me at all. But same goes when I head over to Google News or any other news site.

I am interested to know why Rae thinks it’s sleazy (other than it’s guru-related)? I haven’t seen an affiliate link come out of the site and they appear to review things before they post them. It’s not fully automated from what I can see.

I think the site is useful for people who still don’t use feed readers (most don’t). They bookmark some really good pieces of information amongst the clutter.

It’s definitely a guru-watching site, but there’s a market for that. It’s useful for people who like to keep up with the gurus, the gurus who want keep tabs on what products other people are developing.

Personally, I think it’s a brilliant idea and something people could possibly apply to other markets as well.
Darren // Jun 3, 2006 at 1:50 pm

From someone whose learning all about internet marketing, it looks like a very useful resource. That is one jump in Alexa , and it can only be that it’s been marketed heavily on the internet on portals / newsletters and websites that have a high level of traffic..

If it’s a new site then marketing heavily like this is the only way that’s going to get a high number of visitors because Google, will take some time to rank them in the SERP’s.

Once you get the traffic it’s keeping their attention that’s important.
Robert // Jun 3, 2006 at 9:38 pm

Just my two cents worth, if it inculdes articles by Ann Rusnak it has to be all right or prehaps better said right on! in my book. DSDF”(Different Strokes for Different Folks) in regards to Rae’s comment
Teli Adlam // Jun 4, 2006 at 1:35 pm

The first time I heard about IMNewsWatch and paid attention was here. I’d heard about it a few times and remember clicking the link, but found the homepage too cluttered and left.

Today, though, I decided to stick around and click on a few of the articles and was pleasantly surprised at the single entry pages (easier to read and digest). I even found some useful information that I hadn’t known about just yet.

I’ll reserve judgment for the time being, but I’d agree with most that it’s a guru watching site. It could possibly be construed as sleazy because there are definitely some black hat products floating through there (though not blatantly advertised as such).

Then again, who are they to censor the news? If they’re impartial, I can see nothing wrong…if they’re taking some bribes under the table to feature certain products/press releases/articles over others, then they may run into some problems.

Like I said, reserving judgment, but the buzz piques my interest as well. Please be sure to share your findings Lynn.

~ Teli
Rae // Jun 4, 2006 at 4:27 pm

For the record - my “sleazier” comment and “guru aimed” comment were two seperate ones. I don’t equate one with being synonymous with another. Sure, there are a lot of sleazy gurus, but there are a lot of sleazy internet marketers (non guru) as well.

So what I should have said should have been more like this….

It looks kind of like Threadwatch, but aimed at the “guru” community instead of the SEO/SEM community.

[BREAK]

It gives off a sleazy like vibe to me because of the fact that they accept press releases (which are usually company or personal schpeel) and most of the articles are reprinted on their site - making it look like some weird cross between an article directory and a news site. Of the ones not reprinted on the site, some: http://www.imnewswatch.com/archives/2006/06/imnewswatch_new_1.html require me to subscribe to get to the real story.

That doesn’t seem like “news watching” to me. Tell me the news, why it’s news (add some opinion to it, otherwise, you’re a glorified feed aggregator) and link for me to get the full story on the news… *that* is what I consider a good news watch site.

And I guess I’m the only one who finds the photo gallery of Internet marketers to be a weird feature LOL.

http://www.imnewswatch.com/archives/2006/06/hughbanks_launc.html - a sales letter? How is that news? Ok, even if you go for the “people like to know about new products route” - where is the *unique* information? A review, an interview, a question as to whether it will be used for “evil” (which we all know I’m not worried about LOL)… something that makes it something more than a reprint of a sales letter off some guys site… who is this guy, why should I care?

So sleazier and aimed at guru’s - two seperate comments… we all know I’m not a “guru” follower, but I’m never a random guru slammer either. My problem isn’t the general theory behind this site, I just find the execution a bit… sleazy, or maybe not what I consider well done.
Lynn Terry // Jun 4, 2006 at 5:04 pm

Some good points and interesting observations…

I’m curious what got the ‘buzz’ started. Why people got excited about this site and did the ‘pass it on’ thing (Have you seen this yet???). Was there buzz because they reached the Movers & Shakers in under 10 days… or was that a result of the buzz?

How big of an impact do you think the Press Releases for this site had on their initial exposure & popularity? Or do you think the ‘names’ mentioning this site to their readers had more of an impact on the community than anything else?

I had the same initial reaction as most of you when I first took a look at the site (after several mentions that I *should*): “hmm, okay”. Nothing really jumped out at me or got my attention. It’s a decent looking site, I just didnt see what was causing the excitement.

That’s what I’d love to figure out…

Lynn
Darren // Jun 4, 2006 at 7:06 pm

Lynn, I believe in it’s not WHAT you know but WHO you know
Lynn Terry // Jun 11, 2006 at 10:08 pm

So you think all the buzz generated from Networking & Joint Ventures?