The conversation continues March 27, 2008
Posted by Stephen Sammartino in Environment, Hummer, Marketing Insight, eco, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, green marketing, marketing, rentoid, startups, web 2.0, websites, word of mouth.add a comment
Digital footprints last forever… and our anti-hummer conversation continues…
Fun parks and CBD’s March 27, 2008
Posted by Stephen Sammartino in Advertising, Audience (Consumer), Bootstrapping, Business admin, Company structure, Corporations, Customer, Ideas, Innovation, Marketing Insight, Selling, Viral Marketing, architecture, blogging, brands, business, business ideas, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, internet, marketing, media, social networking, startups, strategy, web 2.0, websites.2 comments
In reality there are two ways we can define websites. They’re either Fun Parks or Central Business Districts.
Startup blog definitions:
Fun park: A website which is primarily in existence for the entertainment of its users. A place to enjoy, socialize, have fun and waste time.
Central Business District (CBD): A website which has a commercial function from it’s inception and is essentially there to assist people in trade.
Examples of each include:
| Fun parks | CBD’s |
|
Youtube |
Ebay |
|
|
Paypal |
|
Flickr |
Amazon |
|
Hot or not |
Lulu |
Sure, there’s some overlap, but it’s the insights behind the two variants that matter.
Fun parks are ‘fun’. They’re easy to use and addictive in nature. They tend to spread quicker and go viral because there’s less risk. We’re not being asked to spend money, just enjoy the rides. So the fun park fills up quickly, gets popular and the owners monetize them by selling advertising billboards to all the eyeballs in the fun park. Eventually the park becomes overcrowded and people start to leave. They tend to have a rotating user base.
CBD’s are useful. Sometimes fun, but usually more serious and offer ‘value’. The commercial function is built in to the site, hence it doesn’t need to ‘monetize’ itself. People tend to investigate more, take longer to put their name down and join site. But once the do, they often become evanaglists and do the marketing for the site. They build more slowly, maybe take years, but usually end up with a more loyal user base. And rightfully end up more profitable. (profit as defined by yield)
Both are valid, both are evolving. If you’re a start up, it just pays to know which category you fit into.
Some stuff all web startups should know March 27, 2008
Posted by Stephen Sammartino in Bootstrapping, Business admin, Business planning, Corporations, Customer, Ideas, Innovation, Launch, Selling, Venture Capital, articles, books, brand names, brands, business, business ideas, business plans, capital raising, debt, employees, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, home office, internet, marketing, startups, strategy, web 2.0, websites.3 comments
I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.
I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:
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More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
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Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
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‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
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The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
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Most took much longer than 2 years to build
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The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
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The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.
Worth a read.
