Archive for January, 2010

The Web: What’s to come?

Published by
Cherie
1 month, 1 week ago in General. 0 Comments

Don Grantham writes a considerable amount of useful information on Evolve Fuel that readers find as a beneficial resource for up to date news and information for the technology and web development industry. As a leader in this field for over 20 years, he has developed enough insight and experience to write a book. I asked him a few questions in an informal interview regarding the latest changes in the online world. Here’s how Don responded:

Q: New York Times is considering charging for web access in 2010. Facebook is considering charging a $14.99 monthly membership fee. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? What other online companies will follow suit? In a world that went from money in exchange for tangible goods and services to online free access for goods and services, how will the public respond to having to pay for their news again and paying for online social networking?

kid on computerA: “There are some key business model differences in the NY Times and Facebook. People are already used to paying for the newspaper and have been ever since there have been publications. Facebook on the other hand will suffer a huge loss in its userbase. What facebook will likely do is offer a free membership to those that don’t mind more ads in their space and a limited number of features. Whereas a paying user will get ad free space along with a much more extended feature set. Giving the user a reason to pay is what the name of this game will be. This is IF they decide to get users to pay for service. What they should do is figure out how to offer up more advertising like the google empire! What if google charged everyone to use their search engine? Not gonna happen. Why? Because everyone is ok with how they are being advertised to and google makes a fortune on their ads from those businesses willing to pay the fee. What facebook should do is create new and innovative features for the user. Grow their userbase in such a way that advertisers will be willing to pay much more than they do now for advertising because they will be reaching a much larger and broader audience.“

Q: How can we educate the public to understand the costs that are incurred into the development of these websites and applications? If a company is providing something that was created using their resources, and they are filling a need that people find valuable, what can be wrong about asking for a reimbursement or payment in exchange?

A: “People get very comfortable with “free” services. But in reality nothing is free. Take Google as an excellent example. Look at the myriad of seemingly free services they offer. The reality is the user base is being bombarded with advertising and is giving away their online habits and personal information in exchange for these services. What google has done right is to introduce these things in a way that is inconspicuous and not immediately obvious to its users.

So I don’t believe business needs to “educate” the public, rather, they should find ways of generating revenue without leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of their greatest asset, the user. There are many countless and successful examples of this philosophy and business process. All anyone needs to do is pick one and try and take it to the next level and do it better. This is why MySpace is failing and Facebook is booming. The moment you alienate your users, they’ll move on to the “next big thing” and there will always be someone there to make it for them. By the way, Twitter is a unique example of promise. Google was there once too – they didn’t always have ads. So twitter doesn’t make money. That’s right! Zero. So how the heck do they stay in business? Employees, rent, servers, overhead, etc.  ——    INVESTORS. They have developed a very simple platform really – I mean you leave messages and people follow you. Not that hard a concept. And they are getting everyone used to the service “for free” and growing their user base. What they are doing is trying to reach a critical mass of users. At which point they will monetize by putting up ads, selling merchandise or start charging users for extended services, (like I pointed out in the facebook model). Marketing products on Twitter is a potentially more interesting idea from a revenue perspective. Incidentally, late last year, Dell reported that it had made over $1.5 million in revenue thanks to Twitter. More recently, Dell announced it would start offering exclusive deals to users who follow its accounts on Twitter. Hmmm… Whats a brewin…?“

Q: What is to come of the virtual world really? The internet has filled such a huge demand that is growing rapidly. Shall we reassess the rules of supply and demand?

A: “The internet is ever evolving and changing and the way we engage with it has been changing along the way. From the early pioneering dial-up days of AOL, Prodigy & Compuserve all the way up to now – some 20 years later. The rules are constantly changing. What doesn’t change is human nature. Human nature is predictable. Supply and demand will always be there. And where no demand exists innovative business will create one. One word: iPhone. Everyone that has one has said to me “I cant live without it”. Yet what did they do before they had it? Creation of demand. Genius.“

Well, there you go! Good discussion.

Thanks for reading!

Website Packaged Solutions—What You Should Ask

Published by
Don
1 month, 1 week ago in Internet and Marketing. 0 Comments

The pitch sounds good: “As a web development firm, we specialize in ONLY (insert industry here.) We’ve developed sites for dozens, or even hundreds, of companies just like yours. And we have a complete, pre-packaged solution that is absolutely perfect for your (industry.)”

TV-dinerAnd the demo looks good! It’s slick. It’s easy to use. It looks like everything you need—and it’s already up and running!

And who wouldn’t want the security of choosing a vendor that dozens, or hundreds, of other companies in your same industry have chosen? They know your unique industry challenges. They know the buzzwords and gotta-haves. They won’t have a big learning curve. It’s a decision that’s easy to back up in front of the board.

But before you dive in and sign that contract, there are some questions you should ask yourself:

If dozens or hundreds of my competitors are using this system, does it provide the competitive advantage I need to stand apart from them?

How “like yours” are all those other companies, anyway—don’t you have unique processes, procedures, sales support, or other needs that may not fit into a one-size-fits-all approach?

Will we stand out enough among all the other companies they’re working with—will we matter, or are we just a number to them?

And, even if those questions don’t give you pause, here are some you should ask your vendor:

What happens if we want to make changes to a standard module, or create a new module to serve a unique need we have, during the development process? What happens if we want to do this after development is complete?

What does your system training look like, and can you go through a quick demo with myself and a non-technical person now?

What’s the bottom-line one-time cost—a single number, not a range, not a smorgasbord of options. Do you guarantee zero variance?

What’s the bottom-line ongoing cost—again, a single, easy to understand number? If there’s ongoing “maintenance,” what does it cover? If there’s ongoing software licensing costs, what does this cover and why is it necessary?

Can I put the site on the host of my choice, or does it have to reside at your datacenter? If I put it on a host outside your datacenter, does it cost more?

Do I own the code you developed for me?

How will the search engines find me? Do you offer SEO services?

What if I want to move away from your platform in the future? How hard is it to get the data out of your system? What are the costs associated with getting data into a standard, portable format? Has anyone done this? Please provide references of clients who have done this.

Now, just to be clear: there are good pre-packaged solutions out there. And there are bad ones. This is just a guide that might help you steer around the gotchas.

Because, if you don’t do your homework, and look deeper than the simple answers and shiny, scripted demos, you can end up with a system you’re locked into, a system that doesn’t serve all your needs, a system that ends up costing far more than you expected—and has ongoing fees which never end.

HP: Preemptive Strike?

Published by
Don
1 month, 2 weeks ago in Computers. 0 Comments

As we eagerly await Apples tablet announcement slated for tomorrow, HP has launched their product that may show why you would even need such a device.

Officially unveiled at CES 2010, “Phil McKinney, walks us through HP’s latest innovation, the HP Slate.” The walkthrough begins with a short backstory on how the tablet came about, starting with e-reader prototypes in 2005.

Micropost: ‘NYT’ To Charge For Web Access In 2011

Published by
Don
1 month, 2 weeks ago in General and Internet. 0 Comments

nytimesEnjoy your free NYTimes online? Get ready to pay in 2011 – Click to read more VIA NPR

The New York Times says it will charge readers for full access to its Web site starting in 2011, a risky move aimed at drawing more revenue online without driving away advertisers that want the biggest possible audience.

The Whys of Social Media: Twitter

Published by
Don
1 month, 2 weeks ago in Marketing and Social Networking. 1 Comment

Hopefully you’ve noticed that Evolve Media is counseling common sense when it comes to marketing – and has been especially pointed about getting your house in order before engaging in any emerging or nontraditional media.

But let’s assume your house is in order. Or let’s assume that your CMO is directing you to “take advantage” of social media, or else.

In this case, let’s look at why you’d want to get into social media, why you’d use it, and why it could be a very good thing for your brand.

It’s easiest to look at this if I break it down by tactic. I’m going to assume you already know the basics, so this isn’t intended to be a tutorial or how-to. There’s plenty of those online – and I’ll link to them if relevant.

I’ll start with Twitter.

Twitter

twitter300Why would you want to use Twitter, especially given its extremely small message size and lack of internal integration with any media other than text?

Actually, there are a lot of reasons:

SMS Campaign Integration. Want people to be able to enter a contest or giveaway via SMS? Twitter’s a great way to add this functionality without spending a lot of money.

SEO. Twitter gets a lot of attention from Google. Want to be top-ranked within minutes when posting with specific keywords (such as a winery name and vintage)? Twitter helps put you at the top of the charts.

Immediate information. Do you have repeated, time-sensitive alerts that people want to know about? We’re talking things like “registration has opened for our 55th super-popular monthly webinar” or “our server is going to be down for X” or other announcements like that. Useful stuff. Repeated stuff. Twitter is great for communicating this kind of information. But if it’s not useful (be honest), exclusive (be honest), or important (be very honest), you may be disappointed in your Twitter results.

Lots of specials. Have lots of sales? Special one-day offers? Do them a lot? Woot was one of the first Twitter successes. If you have the sustained volume of truly special offers, you can build one heck of a Twitter list off of this. If your offers are lackluster or only occur occasionally, Twitter probably isn’t for you.

Celeb status. If you are a celebrity, or if a person allied with your company is a celebrity, Twitter can help you connect with your fans, and even enhance your celebrity profile. Fair warning, though: Twitter isn’t about creating celebrities. If you expect to become the next Oprah through Twitter, you may be expecting too much.

Making a character real. Have a company mascot? Have time to create an imaginary life for them? This could make a very entertaining Twitter feed. Of course, it can also eat up a whole lot of marketing time.

“But wait,” you might be saying. “You didn’t say that Twitter is a perfect place for us to reflect all the headlines of our company blog, post anecdotes from company picnics, and to link to news articles that Ernie in Engineering think are funny.”

And, you know what? You’re right. I didn’t.

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