Tool Box
Issue No. 9 - February/March 2003
Web Global, Think Local
How to effectively market your website 'locally'
by Kenneth Doyle
In the evolution of the web there have been three distinctive phases, which directly affected its commercial applications and uses.
Phase One: The technical, or “the bells, whistles and gadgets” phase. The technicians drove this phase. Businesses were told that they needed dancing bears on their websites to “attract attention”. Now, if you were in the business of selling digital dancing bears to technicians then this may have been a reasonable strategy.
Phase Two: The website designers, or “it’s got to look like a glossy brochure” phase. The website designers drove this phase. Many were professional graphic designers who’d migrated to web design. Others had just received their first shaving kits or “L” plates.
Many businesses trusted these designers, because they just didn’t understand the web medium. Business assumptions were that if these designers knew what all those technical terms meant then they must know about website marketing. These assumptions were wrong.
Web designers knew a lot about creating websites, but many did not know a whole lot about web marketing, the critical 85% of the (website) game.
Phase Three: The web marketer’s phase. Over the last few years there’s been a quiet revolution happening on the web. It’s gone professional, and many small “Mum & Dad” web operations are now quietly making serious money online.
When the big dot coms were throwing investors’ money at the web these people were learning about web marketing. They did the grunt work, and learned through trial and error how to market their wares on the Internet.
Some examples of these financial successes:
- Website focused on hard to find sheet music: US$40,000 a month
- Website focused on financial advice for seniors: US$600,000 a year
- Website focused on birds: Now, it’s the fourth most visited site on th...
