Newsletter #105 Super Net Companies

Created on 09/06/06

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Our last newsletter (12th April, 2006) was "Online Advertising Takes Off"

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Around the world Web-only businesses are changing the way that we interact socially and commercially. In the developed world a confluence of key trends has turned these online businesses into powerful entities - super Net companies.

These key trends are:

• Broadband adoption that is continuing worldwide - it now reaches into 60% of US households according to a recent report released by Leichtman Research Group.
• The continued expansion of wireless Internet means that the Net is becoming available from almost anywhere within major urban areas.
• Internet users have become more comfortable making payments online. Online retail is still growing at 20% per annum according to Forrester Research.
• Younger users are highly adaptable to new technologies. 56% are dubbed SuperConnectors according to a study by Energy BBDO, using multiple means of connectivity at any one time. These younger savvy users are driving the growth of many Web businesses.

Sites like Amazon, eBay, MySpace, Craigslist and YouTube (see later) are sites with huge traffic levels and numbers of users. The main differences between these super Net businesses and traditional Bricks and Mortar ones are:

• A large number of site visitors are members and belong to forums, subgroups or other sites associated with them and therefore are part of the site's community.
• Members can interact with the brands in a number of ways: as a researcher, viewer, a forum participant, content provider, buyer, and a seller.
• Members receive regular email updates from the sites that details changes, new services and other news as well as advertising messages.
• Online businesses can move quickly to change their site and add services. Because they have a huge volume of registered users, new services can quickly became extremely successful when introduced.
• No paper is involved as almost all interactions with these sites and other members are via the Website or by email.

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Think about how you interact with your daily newspaper. You read it and that’s about all, right? Well an average day on one of these sites sees millions of people visit and they’re doing more than just read. They’re checking their own content, goods they may be interested in and looking for and interacting with other community members.

So what lessons can be learnt from these super Net companies?

• The Internet is a communications medium more than just an advertising channel. Don't just look at the Net as just another way of advertising - how can you help your suppliers, customers and anyone else you deal with?
• These businesses have been successful by providing services that make it easier for people to communicate with others. Can you do the same in your industry?
• Probably just as important as the great idea is the ability to execute properly. The super Net companies haven't necessarily had incredible original ideas; they've just done it better than anyone else.
• How your business uses the Internet needs to be part of your business strategy. If you have had planning meetings that have looked at Internet trends and how they affect your company - well done! If you haven't you should.

Newbies

Did you know that you could copy Webpage images straight to your hard drive? Just right click on an image you want, chose "Save Picture As" ("Save Image As" in Firefox), amend the description as required, chose which folder you want the image to be stored in and voila! Just be real careful of copyright issues here. The images copied shouldn't be used for commercial purposes without the owner's permission.

Power Users

If you're reasonably familiar with HTML, you may want to generate some of your email directly in HTML. To do this, run Outlook Express (5 or 6) and click 'Create Mail' or 'New Mail' depending on your version. When the New Message window opens, go to 'Format' and make sure 'Rich Text (HTML)' is selected. Next, choose 'View' then 'Source Edit' and you should see three tabs appearing at the bottom of the screen. Click on the 'Source' tab to edit the HTML and the 'Preview' tab to see how it looks. Send in the normal manner.

YouTube is a place for people to watch, comment on and share original videos. On YouTube you can join video groups to connect with people of similar interests, create playlists, integrate YouTube videos on Websites and much more. More than 40 million videos are watched on the site daily! http://www.youtube.com/

"The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom." Jon Stewart, comedian.

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive.

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Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management