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2006 Top Mistakes
Written by Patricia Handsc... - December 28, 2006
If business mirrors sport, the game’s been on this past year in technology. Multi-million dollar deals, slick and sexy moguls, rowdy crowds, high stakes – it’s like a Quiddich match in Harry Potter and no wonder everybody wants to jump on board. Thousands of new concepts and companies have launched in the past year and somehow, all of them seem to have high traffic, big numbers and of course, an arrow-proof revenue model. A bubble? Probably, though more than likely only for those who aren’t familiar with bubbles and what can happen if you’re not careful. Not to say plenty of veteran players didn’t share in a few of the mistakes we saw many fall prey to as 2006 hits the final round.
Misunderstanding user driven content takes a top spot on my list of something everybody felt they needed but probably didn’t. Yes, it was very popular in 2006 and well deserved (the $1.65 billion sale of YouTube to Google can’t be wrong). This, however, doesn’t mean it makes sense for every internet company - regardless of market – to add it to their site, nor does it merit paying people for content as a marketing strategy to drive business. The thing is, user driven content was more or less the only content for a long time, as the dot com bust of 2000 left the internet all of about abandoned by everybody else. If a cracker is the only option on the menu, surely then, crackers will be a chef’s most popular dish. Without much to compare it to, it’d be wise to see what users gravitate toward when given other options before shelling out any dough.
Blogs in the hands of public figures have most certainly become the bane of every publicist’s existence as high profiles now have an unbridled, unregulated and easily accessed microphone for airing laundry, venting feelings or engaging in the occasional nonsensical ramble. Trashy tarts in Hollywood aren’t the only ones taking to free speech – CEOs, journalists and other recognized faces have as well, including a few fights between dueling characters. D’oh!
The numbers actually do lie, but only because they’re guilty of not really knowing what we want them to know. Everybody rolls Alexa and Comscore numbers off their tongues but it’s well known that none stand alone as most accurate (and some are quite off). The way to be most certain would be to mix results from all, compare to your own back-end reports and then maybe you’ll have truly accurate site traffic – but, of course, video and AJAX are growing and throw it all off anyhow.
Expect new measurement methods to come soon. At long last, the return of everybody doing the same thing as a business model has finally come, and just in time to blast through VC money and burst the bubble! As if we hadn’t learned what happens to companies in oversaturated markets the last time around, a fresh crop of new entrepreneurs, rallied by tales of big payouts on projects launched out garages, have taken to recreating (and recreating and recreating) what’s already on the market. One or three or even five players in a space can fare well – just look at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. But fifteen, thirty or forty? Oy. Surely the idea of studying a market for a few months to learn it and create something that makes sense is preposterous when one can simply find what’s already working and recreate it! But give it a shot, you never know...
All in all, it’s been a good year for web business and plenty of new players (Venice Project, Like.com, etc) are examples of smart moves and ideas worth watching. Developments in mobile, telecom, internet and their convergence, should continue, meaning there should still be plenty of opportunity in the coming months. If you’re looking to cash in, the formula is simple: find a hole and plug it. Small players can mean big things to the right people so do what you do well and let it grow on its own. That’s what the YouTubes and MySpaces of the business have done – if you follow anything they do in charting the course for your company, follow that they did it first.
Patricia Handschiegel is the founder of StyleDiary, an online magazine and a social networking site.
Misunderstanding user driven content takes a top spot on my list of something everybody felt they needed but probably didn’t. Yes, it was very popular in 2006 and well deserved (the $1.65 billion sale of YouTube to Google can’t be wrong). This, however, doesn’t mean it makes sense for every internet company - regardless of market – to add it to their site, nor does it merit paying people for content as a marketing strategy to drive business. The thing is, user driven content was more or less the only content for a long time, as the dot com bust of 2000 left the internet all of about abandoned by everybody else. If a cracker is the only option on the menu, surely then, crackers will be a chef’s most popular dish. Without much to compare it to, it’d be wise to see what users gravitate toward when given other options before shelling out any dough.
Blogs in the hands of public figures have most certainly become the bane of every publicist’s existence as high profiles now have an unbridled, unregulated and easily accessed microphone for airing laundry, venting feelings or engaging in the occasional nonsensical ramble. Trashy tarts in Hollywood aren’t the only ones taking to free speech – CEOs, journalists and other recognized faces have as well, including a few fights between dueling characters. D’oh!
The numbers actually do lie, but only because they’re guilty of not really knowing what we want them to know. Everybody rolls Alexa and Comscore numbers off their tongues but it’s well known that none stand alone as most accurate (and some are quite off). The way to be most certain would be to mix results from all, compare to your own back-end reports and then maybe you’ll have truly accurate site traffic – but, of course, video and AJAX are growing and throw it all off anyhow.
Expect new measurement methods to come soon. At long last, the return of everybody doing the same thing as a business model has finally come, and just in time to blast through VC money and burst the bubble! As if we hadn’t learned what happens to companies in oversaturated markets the last time around, a fresh crop of new entrepreneurs, rallied by tales of big payouts on projects launched out garages, have taken to recreating (and recreating and recreating) what’s already on the market. One or three or even five players in a space can fare well – just look at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. But fifteen, thirty or forty? Oy. Surely the idea of studying a market for a few months to learn it and create something that makes sense is preposterous when one can simply find what’s already working and recreate it! But give it a shot, you never know...
All in all, it’s been a good year for web business and plenty of new players (Venice Project, Like.com, etc) are examples of smart moves and ideas worth watching. Developments in mobile, telecom, internet and their convergence, should continue, meaning there should still be plenty of opportunity in the coming months. If you’re looking to cash in, the formula is simple: find a hole and plug it. Small players can mean big things to the right people so do what you do well and let it grow on its own. That’s what the YouTubes and MySpaces of the business have done – if you follow anything they do in charting the course for your company, follow that they did it first.
Patricia Handschiegel is the founder of StyleDiary, an online magazine and a social networking site.
