Have a revenue model, right now. Not something you’ll figure out when you get some traffic. Oh, and it cannot be 100% based on AdSense or being an Amazon Affiliate. It is fine to be ad-supported, pay-per-something, platform licensing, or anything that is predictable based on existing economic models. Revenue matters, and if you aren’t thinking about it, then what you have is a hobby not a business.
And some not so good ones:
If applicable, get unaffiliated with Web 2.0, because it is hype and will have a very negative backlash in a little while. I don’t know when, but it’s coming. If you are a ZiXXo, an Ether, or a Plaxo, you are not Web 2.0, because you are really about traditional businesses and extending their potential, not about the Internet ‘unbounded.’ Think about your business and the world 3 years from now with no hype; is it still interesting? This should be easy to answer.
Remember all those companies associated with dot-com era that couldn't recover after the fall - Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Monster, Expedia, ETrade, etc. These are firms whose reputations are still in jeopardy.... oh, wait...
If being "Web 2.0" gets you press, mindshare, branding, free publicity and thousands of links, it would take a special kind of crazy to ignore the benefits and instead think of the future, when you can proudly say "Well! We were always too cool for that Web 2.0 thing." To which your enchanted listeners will surely reply, "Who are you?"
Many "Web 2.0" companies are filling useful niches, and providing a solution to a problem. For example in the housing space Zillow and Altos Research are providing information about the housing vertical. This is mundane, but very useful stuff. A house is the biggest purchase most people make in their lifetime. Web-based services like this are meeting a demand. I think another defining characteristic of web 2.0 is human collaboration. People, networked together, in a focused are can accomplish a lot- and together are the true experts because of the collective intelligence.
What percentage of Web 2.0 companies are going to be Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, etc? Seriously, if you have a business that can honestly answer to any other 8 or 9of my points, then you can skip this one. If not, then you are just on the hype-wagon, and doing nothing else.
Dead - our job as marketers is to help clients get publicity, notoriety, branding, leads and, ultimately, sales. In some instances, bucking the trends and fighting the naming convention of "Web2.0" may work, but our experience has been quite the opposite - that embracing that moniker and appealing to the passionate community surrounding it has produced exceptional results in terms of the above metrics.
I can understand your displeasure with the "hype" surrounding the term, but dismissing the value to a business would hurt our clients.
My point is that you don't need to be a Yahoo! or an Amazon to take advantage of a groundswell of interest in the "Web2.0" phenomenon - play it for all its worth to help you get eyeballs, press and links. Rebelling for rebellions sake is great for angst-ridden teens, but for a business, it's generally not the right direction.
Rand,
Is there a market for "Rebelling for rebellions sake" since it "is great for angst-ridden teens"? Those teens buy stuff, talk about stuff, and will eventually grow up to earn more money to buy and talk about more stuff -- even the angst-ridden crowd.
Well, there's something to be said for avoiding the hype train, since if you avoid it, you can't be run over by it either. I'm certainly not one to go with a trend because it's hot. I'd rather look at why it's working, and put that to work.
I think something to point out here is that Rand is advocating more of the Web 2.0 style, rather than the Web 2.0 hype. At the same time, wouldn't you have being lumpedinto a category just because of your look.
I'm pushing for a web redesign to give us a more updated look, but more importantly, better end-user functionality. It's not Web 2.0 for its own sake, but borrowing some of those themes that make for a more consistent experience for our customers.
Rob Stevens, I hereby declare your avatar to be extremely adorable. And it's not because beagles are my favorite type of pooch. Well, maybe it is.
That's my Casey. :)
LOL! Talk about Web 2.0...
Nice pooch.