I want to be optimistic and get behind what they are trying to do but for the life of me I don’t understand the business model. I suppose it boils down to two simple but important questions for me:

1. Why would Amazon want to compete with Apple in a market that isn’t their core business?
2. Does Amazon honestly consider the Kindle to be a competitive device to the iPhone?

Maybe that’s too academic of me to bring it down to two relatively rudimentary questions but really – that’s it in a nutshell.

Let’s look at it in a little more detail – the Kindle and it’s e-ink technology is black and white – circa 1980 technology – reminiscent of the dot matrix era. For anyone that’s seen one imagining a game being played on it is somewhat foreign to say the least.

That being said some of the text based applications that could be created could be somewhat interesting – but still – in competition in a market that isn’t your core business in an arena that currently (based on the current version of the Kindle) you can’t compete in seems like an uphill battle – but I could be wrong.

The confusing thing from my perspective is that there is a Kindle application for iPhone that will presumably work on the iTablet (when it’s announced) that will allow you to read Kindle books on the iPhone – so if you were going to be in a competitive market space – would you give the tool that differentiates you to your competitor?

Interesting indeed – I wish Amazon luck – this could be a long bumpy ride for them.

So then work happened and I was writing on the corporate blog – daily and then on the extranet – whenever anything I wrote on the internal blog could be re-purposed for “real people” to read.

So here I am – a year later and nothing.

Here’s the deal; I have decided that I will once again write in this blog in earnest and that I will do my best to at the very least post at least two or three times a week. If you happen to read this – or if you happen to stumble across it then please call me on it if there is a gap between posts – a little accountability is a good thing.

The next question is – what am I going to be writing about? I have a unique background of experience in that I have been in the interactive/digital marketing space for a while – almost 12 years to be exact so I will provide my particular insights into what I read and what I see and what I think about what I see. I’m not always going to be right and I’m not always going to make sense – call me on that too!

Either way – this should be fun and to some extent a learning experience for me as well. Feel free to comment on anything you see here and I will do my best to answer each one (if an answer is required).

I was a little surprised that someone that works in the industry and has seen as many changes in it as we have would make such a blanket dismissive statement – but he made an interesting point however.

He said that he remembers a couple years ago that when SEO was the big buzz word du jour that web firms everywhere were clamoring for the ever so trendy “SEO Specialist”. He or she would come in and promise to revolutionize your SEO strategies. Then they would provide you with a fifty page report, charge you big bucks and then applaud their diligence if you moved up a spot or two on a Google search.

Although the above is sadly true – I still fundamentally disagreed with his comparison.

SEO is more technical structure and additions to code and strategies that can, and in most cases are, now being implemented by technical and information design teams. Conceptually, they are more of an overall technical strategy now – building a website without considering SEO is as much of a fundamental flaw in process as building it without a well thought out information architecture, in other words, you just wouldn’t do it any more.

Social Marketing on the other hand, is another part of a solid online marketing strategy. People inherently want to communicate – its how we learn. For companies, it shouldn’t be any different. If you want to know what or how to sell things to your customers then all you have to do is listen to what they are asking for and then provide it to them. Fundamentally speaking, that is why social marketing in my opinion will only grow in popularity and consumer and corporate proliferation.

As a “web professional” I would be remiss in approving any kind of online marketing strategy that didn’t include a solid basis and thorough thought out Social Marketing strategy. Done correct and the SEO will take care of itself – much to the chagrin of the “SEO Specialists”.