IF YOU GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE WILL HE STILL MARRY YOU?

or

Building a Business by Giving Away Free Internet Content

a presentation by Marylaine Block for Internet Librarian, November 8, 2000


  1. Build a Site Worth Visiting

    Note that often the site begins as a passion, and becomes a business later. (see the book Net. People). To build a site people will spend time with,

    Make the site design and navigation simple and intuitive

    Exploit what the net does well: connectivity and interactivity.

    Offer extensive content to hold surfers at your site.

    Organize your material as your users are likely to look for it

    Make the navigation scheme transparent

    Establish your credentials and credibility upfront.

    Fill a niche -- provide information or service nobody else provides or do it better, or different, than anybody else (NeatNew http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html; other announcement services http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/Librarians/new.htm)

    Answer your e-mail!!




  2. Get Known Among Your Peers

    Provide a valuable service for your peers on your web page

    Join relevant professional or trade organizations

    Participate in relevant listservs, discussion groups and bulletin boards

    Let the creators of relevant subject directories in your field know your page is there

    If possible, provide interactivity -- bulletin boards, discussion groups, Aska service (many libraries, including O'Keefe, now answer your questions by e-mail)



  3. Make Sure Search Engines and Customers Find You on the Net

    Submit your site to search engines and directories under the headings users are likely to look under. AVOID CUTENESS.

    Produce the kind of deep site search engines (and netizens) like: a lot of content, frequently updated.

    Emphasize key content in metatags, page titles, and headers.

    Try to get librarians to list your site on their pages, because search engines pay attention to sites librarians think are good.

    Build your own 404 page.



  4. Find Out Who Your Customers Are

    You can offer extra services for those who register (e.g., NetMechanic http://netmechanic.com/, Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/, MailStart http://mailstart.com/)

    You can offer to send them regular updates by e-mail (NeatNew, Search Engine Watch, About.com http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/)

    Analyze your web statistics

    Analyze your e-mail



  5. Choose How To Make Money Off Your Site

    You can accept advertisements both for web pages and for e-mail offerings (make sure you're able to document who your users are) -- Yahoo!, Geocities http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Mezzanine/6613/, Hotmail

    You can accept partnership (clickthrough) arrangements for linking to commercial vendors (e.g., Amazon)

    You can offer some content free, promote the rest, and make it available by paid subscription

    You can ask for voluntary contributions

    You can wait for a micropayment system to develop on the web so people can pay five or ten cents to view a page

    You can use the entire site to promote other related services you offer.

    You can get all kinds of free material for review.

  6. Take Advantage of Serendipity

    The net is built for serendipity. The opposite of serendipity is Columbusity -- having a discovery present itself and not recognizing it when you see it. Be prepared to consider unexpected opportunities.