Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Online Business :: How much is your web site a "business"?
Yesterday, I was in the midst of a speech when a member of the audience shot their hand up, apparently to ask a question. I paused, smiled and invited the member of the audience to speak. "You're not talking about the Internet at all," he said. "What you are really saying is that we shouldn't just have a web site, but that our web site should be a business in all senses of that word." Of course, he was right. As I travel around the UK speaking about the Internet, I discover that more and more businesses treat the Internet as an afterthought; it's as though they've been told they must have a web site, so they have one. Yet, if they were told they must have a set of accounts books, would they just go and get some from the local stationers and pop them on the shelf, thinking little more of them? Probably not. Yet that's exactly what most people do with their business web site. They set up their site and leave it, forgetting all about it and then wondering why it has little impact on their business. The audience member was right; you need to treat your web site as a business in its own right. That means planning, measurement, analysis and so on. It means regular checking, updating and working out the profitability of each aspect of the site. Successful online businesses do this; but for most people I meet, their web site is a financial burden rather than a profit centre. That just doesn't make any sense.
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April 05, 2007 8:35 PM 
IanAR said…
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April 06, 2007 3:43 AM Manhydra said…
It is rather surprising that some businesses today do not treat their web sites as businesses of themselves. I remember when some businesses used web sites primary as a promotional tool because, back then, websites were not seen (in their eyes) as viable, stand-alone tools for their every activites.
Sometimes I wonder if it may stem from a traditional/conservative view that a brick-and-mortar business is the best/only way to go, and an online presence is only meant to serve just that...
Yes Graham - For near all info' commerce, and most high-volume retail, is part of the heart and lungs of a company. For most others, it's at least part of the skin and, with the occasional exception of pure stock market exposure, one the most sensitive parts of that shin. Responsibility's demanded by such sensitivity and backing it, with accountability, will usually pay!
For example: There were times when managers had: scribes, typists, WP operators and folk to read/write their e-mails - All these traditions have fallen by the wayside. Now, it's becoming prudent for every manager to have a basic grasp of Web authoring (rather than leaving it all to "gurus"), even if that's a few simple BBcodes, for blogging ... I assume you've read Neal Stephenson's In The Beginning Was The Command Line - I love that little book! Esp' the Time Machine Morlocks/Eloi interpretation. With Web 2.0, as a whole, an Eloi lifestyle's becoming increasingly untenable.
BTW: Your title first reminded me that I must look into strategies for selling on website traffic that arrives, from SERPs, using non-competitive keyword combinations. Any pointers? - Best, Ian MySpace.com/ScrawlAudio