May 26, 2008(Ventura, CA) When the Internet clicked into the public consciousness more than a decade ago, experts debated its usefulness and staying power. Now, few would argue that mobile devices and online technology have become deeply embedded in society. Millions of Americans have become dependent upon the new digital conveniences that provide them with entertainment, information, products, and content. The impact of these technologies on interpersonal relationships – a domain often called social networking – has begun to rewire the way people meet, express themselves, and stay connected.

A new study from The Barna Group explores social networking as well as how Americans use digital technology to get the products, services, and content they desire. The research identifies the mainstream – as well as emerging – platforms and practices. Additionally, the Barna study also examines how the Christian community engages with such technologies, including the use of church podcasts.

Electronic Communication

A cultural novelty a mere 15 years ago, email has become an essential part of culture and commerce. Currently, nearly four out of five Americans (78%) who access a computer have sent an email in the past week. As proof of its mainstream status, computer users over the age of 50 are just as likely as younger adults to use email.

By contrast, text messaging and instant messaging (IM) are used by smaller, though devoted segments of the population. One-third of computer users (33%) have used IM in the past week, while 30% of Americans have sent someone a text message via a mobile telephone. One of the reasons younger adults email rates are merely “average” compared to older residents is the younger set’s heavy reliance on IM’ing and texting to stay connected.

Facebook, MySpace and the Blogosphere

The Internet helps individuals express themselves. Millions of Americans have taken advantage of this, launching personal websites and blogs (short for “weblogs”). While these personal venues for self-expression have become a significant feature of the online landscape, most Americans remain on the digital sidelines: just one-quarter of computer users (23%) has a personal webpage or home page on a social networking site (such as Facebook or MySpace).

Even fewer adults have a personal blog where they communicate their ideas and experiences (10% of Americans with regular access to a computer). Interestingly, an even higher proportion of computer users (14%) had posted a comment on another person’s blog in the last week.

Blogging has not reached the “tipping point” towards becoming a mainstream activity (an emerging technology is often thought to “tip” toward majority use when the penetration reaches 20% or more of the population). Still, there are an estimated 16 million American adults who use their blog as a pulpit to broadcast their voice to the world. Blogs are most common among single adults, Northeast residents, homosexuals, those not registered to vote, and atheists and agnostics.

One other insight related to blogs is the sheer devotion many bloggers find in the pursuit, rarely letting their online journals grow dark. More than seven out of 10 people who have a blog update the online journal at least once a week.

Finding Information, Content and Entertainment

Not surprisingly, the promise of the Internet – instant access to ubiquitous information – is not lost on Americans. Searching for information or content is easily the most common online activity of the 15 assessed in the study. In all, more than eight out of 10 computer users had snapped up information via the Web in the last week (84%).

Compared to online search habits, a less common activity is online purchasing. Still, the Internet has become a viable and widely used retail channel, tallying one-quarter of computer users (27%) who have completed an online purchase in the last week.

With more people than ever using high-speed connections, watching online videos has also become an important feature of the inter-connected digital world. Overall, one-quarter of computer users (26%) reported watching a video via the Internet in the previous seven days. This was twice as common as downloading music in the past week (13% of users).

Two of the activities examined were rarely undertaken by Americans. As yet, downloading movies is still a limited activity among computer users (just 2% in the past week). Also, just 4% of adults admitted to viewing pornography or adult content in the last week.

The Socially Networked Church

People within the Christian community are just as immersed in (and dependent upon) digital technologies and social networks as are those outside of it. Both evangelical Christians and other born again Christians emerged as statistically on par with national norms when it came to each of the 15 different areas that were studied. In other words, matters of faith played very little role in differentiating people’s technological habits.

One exception was access to spiritual content via podcasting, which not surprisingly found a more eager audience among Christians than non-Christians. The study found that 38% of evangelicals and 31% of other born again Christians had listened to a sermon or church teaching via digital recordings available on the Internet (often called a “podcast”), compared with 17% of other adults. In macro-terms, an enormous audience of roughly 45 million Americans reports going digital to acquire church sermon and teaching content. In all, one out of every four adults – 23% – said they downloaded a church podcast in the past week.

The profile of people who had listened to sermon podcasts cut across generational lines, with older adults just as likely as young residents to listen in. Residents of the South (31%) were twice as likely as those in the Northeast (14%) to access church podcasts. Similarly, Protestants (32%) were more intrigued by such content than were Catholics (18%) and the same held true for non-mainline attenders (38%) compared to mainline Protestants (16%). African-Americans (50%) were very loyal listeners, especially when contrasted with Asians (14%). Furthermore, those who are economically downscale (35%) were more likely to listen to church podcasts than were upscale adults (10%).

Subgroup Insights

The analysis of differing demographic and psychographic groups provided several intriguing patterns:

Social Networking, Online Entertainment and Church Podcasts is a post from: Internet Business Success

“What are You Here For?”

What Drives Your Desire for Lifestyle Change?

So many people come to internet marketing with one goal at the forefront of their mind – to make money.  This is certainly a fine ambition, but it won’t get you anywhere on its own. I know this is a blunt way to put it, but if you just have a goal of “making money”, you won’t get anywhere. Why? The goal is too vague.

The question becomes, why do you want to make money?

What is it in life that drives that desire?

Do you want to:

• Leave your day job
• Send your kids to college
• Travel the world
• Buy a house
• Move out to the country
• Retire in style
• Buy that fancy car you have always wanted
• Buy a cottage by the lake
• Fill in the blank _______________________

You need to capture one or more of your dreams and make it a long term or even short term goal, something to aim toward. Of course, some of our dreams are wants (which we all have) and some are purpose-driven.

There is more to life than just figuring out what our dreams are. Every person has been put on this earth to fulfill a purpose, to somehow contribute to life on this planet and to somehow give to others. What is your purpose? You might find your dreams and your purpose are aligned with each other.

For instance, you might have a dream of learning all about eco-living and to buy a farm on which you can establish an environment of self-sustainable, earth-friendly living. Then you will open it up as a retreat center so that you can teach others and help them reconnect with themselves and the earth. Your dream of buying a farm is in line with your purpose in life.

Real Life Purpose

Having purpose can change your Lifestyle and contribute to your overall success in Life. Just look at some of the perks of purpose:

• purpose gives meaning to your life.
• purpose simplifies your life.
• purpose focuses your life.
• purpose motivates your life.
• purpose always produces passion.
• purpose prepares you for eternity
• Purpose provides Real Life Success

Nothing energizes like a clear purpose. On the other hand, passion dissipates when you lack a purpose.

First Things First

Your purpose in life can easily be translated into your purpose in business. After all, we do live in a world in which we need to make money to survive and if we can turn our purpose in life into our career, then we are very fortunate indeed because then we will be truly happy with life’s work.

Now I would like you to start thinking about what your life’s purpose is and what you feel your business purpose is. The key is to create a business purpose in line with your life’s purpose. Just close your eyes and imagine what you might want your internet business to be.

Then you need to decide if you are going to market a product or a service. What do you want to promote to the world. The key here is that you want to be sure that whatever you do gives you pleasure. It is not enough in life to just do the minimum you need to do simply to earn money and it is not enough to accept any line of work in order to earn money.

It is from this perspective that I will guide you through the steps of starting your own internet business. This book, which is the first of a series of 5 consecutive projects will thoroughly cover this 1st t purpose of “Finding your passion and the right market “. It is most commonly known as “How to find your niche”.

Later on, in my upcoming books, you will learn:

* Purpose 2- Starting your site and building the basic content to launch.
* Purpose 3- Growing your traffic and your list
* Purpose 4- Promotion and relationship building with potential partners, your visitors, and your subscribers.
* Purpose 5- Monetizing with your own product, someone else’s product, or selling advertising.
For more information visit Real Life Purpose.com

Internet Marketing With Purpose= Lifestyle Change is a post from: Internet Business Success