Jon Samsel

In their 1993 editorial essay “Where are the Theories for the New Organizational Forms?,” R.L. Daft and A.Y. Lewin forewarned us about technology’s impact on the corporation when they wrote “Computer-mediated communication technology is becoming the backbone of many organizations, supplanting the formal hierarchical structure to achieve coordination and manage relationships within and between organizations.”1  These writers were speaking to the impact technology has had on businesses prior to the pervasive adoption of the Internet.  The Web further compounds the complexities of these new organizational dynamics.

Many businesses will face an uphill battle in their attempt to alter the status quo.  That’s because existing organizations are stitched together like fine tapestries –– every piece of thread is unique, yet each holds its place in relation to the whole.  If a thread were to come loose, there is a real threat that the fabric will unravel.  That’s one of the reasons why executive management is so indecisive about the Web.  They are not quite sure what to make it –– is it a thread, a tapestry, a sewing machine or textile factory?  But businesses do know one thing:  the Web will have an impact on their business and their organization which must be dealt with.

Businesses aspiring to “webify” their efforts will face tough decisions about how far they want to integrate the Web into their companies.  Fundamentally there are five key components to webifying an organization:

1. Empowering, educating, and energizing executive management to lead the Web initiative
2. Transforming the hierarchical organizational structure to a system of multi-directional, interconnected alliances
3. Developing employee skills sets to be Web savvy
4. Changing the way programs are funded
5. Measuring performance based on new metrics

With the rapid emergence of Web 2.0 platforms and technologies, many Fortune 500 companies are now utilizing their websites and digital media assets to create mash-ups, crowdsource, microblog, and publish data in a way that promotes, engages and influences their key constituents. They are doing this by utilizing social media applications, word of mouth communication tactics, and consumer-centric interactive experiences to mesh business goals with constituent desires. The reward for successfully navigating this next media minefield is often a stronger brand, more loyal customers, and a new type of business mindset whereby markets are conversations.

Companies who have already embraced the type of conversations enabled by digital networks seem to have several things in common. Here are 10 of them:

1. An understanding that being responsive to customers with service level agreements that know no boundaries, channel barriers or time constraints.
2. Recognition that the online experience you provide is your brand. Great first experiences, like the theoretical ripple effect of a butterfly’s wings, are the catalyst for something larger, positive, profound, and influential, that associates a company with trust.
3. Admission that honesty and transparency trumps double-talk and corporate babble-speak. In fact, it’s this real discussion (warts and all) that constituents crave.
4. Have a network of smart marketers who prompt audiences to interact because they know that will increase the likelihood that their audiences will transact.
5. Have the foresight and knowledge that customer engagement means more than launching an online discussion board, it comes organically through enabling valuable and motivating experiences at every touch point.
6. Tend to have empathetic staff who question what they do for a living and then juxtapose this against what they know their consituencies actually need from them—implementing beneficial solutions as a result.
7. An appreciation that new web analytics and measurement tools need to speak to where the visitor is going, and not merely to ‘where the puck is’
8. Acknowledgement that although user-generated content diffuses corporate governance and editorial authority in some ways, it can be leveraged to boost site credibility and improve natural search results.
9. An innate ability to harness the talents of each individual employee to share their knowledge and leverage their personal connections.
10. Realizes that effective word of mouth campaigns cannot be manufactured. They tend to be spontaneous, honest and truly viral events centered around humor, oddities, insider news, the taboo or the just plain awe-inspiring.

I upgraded to a new laptop computer the other day (a Dell Studio 17 with lightning fast Mobile Broadband USB Modem connection– sweet). I decided to upload some old documents to my hard drive and after a few minutes, I found myself reviewing some ancient Word documents. Suddenly, there it was. A book proposal I had written in 1997 titled, Silicon Stories: Uncensored Tales From A World Gone Wired. The internet had only been accessible to the masses for a few short years when this book concept was first dreamed up. Even back then we all knew the internet was going to be big and would likely change our lives– but I always felt it would be the little stories– the honest, emotional, funny and heartwarming tales of real people that were impacted by the internet that would make this new medium worth all the hype.

Here is my original book summary, along with a sample submission I received from a member of the Apple Developer Program who was kind enough to respond to a request for story submissions. I have other small tales similar to this one that I may post in the future on this blog. In the meantime, enjoy your trip back in time to the year 1997…

Book Summary
If you’re a hard-boiled Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Silicon Stories: Uncensored Tales From A World Gone Wired is chicken soup for your hard-wired soul. If you’re just a plain old reader with an interest in technology and anecdotal storytelling, there’s something here for you to enjoy as well. This unique book captures the contradictions and everyday insanity of the computer industry and the Internet, while at the same time chipping away sardonically at the myths, legends and lies that have built up in our own time. Silicon Stories balances humor with a genuine appreciation of both the technical and not so technical accomplishments of real people who have found ways to meet the challenges of work with humor, ingenuity and imagination.

Submission from an Apple Developer

X-Sender: sperling at sojourn.com

Mime-Version: 1.0

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 10:35:34 -0400

To: samsel at gte.net

From: sperling at sperling.com (tedd)

Subject: Inspirational Developer Stories

Hi Jon:

I received the Apple Developer News #52 today and read that you’re looking for “inspirational stories that explore the humanity behind the digital revolution”. Well… I got one.

First, a little back ground. I was contacted by the Wall Street Journal last year. They wanted some advise on the net which I gave them. In talking to the reporter, he inquired as to my background and my “story”. I told him.

After a couple of months, this reporter contact me again and said that he wanted to do an article about me. He asked if I could put together some things for him. I wrote and sent him the attached story “Net WORKS”.

He liked it, but his boss said that they needed more people like me to make a story. His boss didn’t want to do one story about one person. As such, he never found another person like me and that’s the end of that story.

Now, you come along asking for a story, well here’s one. You may use as you wish. Everything written herein is true.

Good luck, and let me know what you think.

tedd

—

Net WORKS

We’ve all heard about the young whiz kids, cyberdudes, and computer jocks who are doing something new, hot, and fascinating with computers and the internet. But, who are these people? The answer may surprise you.

Let’s take a look at one of them. He calls himself “tedd” and has an email address of “sperling@sperling.com”. He provides Macintosh programming and consulting to the net. He has done a lot of exciting things and people have taken notice. His client’s range from large companies (like DOW Chemical) to the small “mom & pop” independants. His accomplishments are many and perhaps too many for his youthful image. Let’s peel away the cyber-veneer and see who this person is.

Tedd F. Sperling is a 50 year old professional who was originally from California and now resides in Lansing, Michignan. Tedd graduated California State University in 1975 with a BS degree (cum laude) in Geology. He later received an MS in Geophysics from Michigan State University.

In 1977, he started a Geophysical exploration company (Sperling Geophysics Corporation) and provided geophysical services for the petroleum community. In the 1980’s, Tedd found over 100 producing wells and generated over 2.5 million in consulting. He developed the first micro computer (Apple II) based seismic modeling workstation and was credited with the first micro-computer oil discovery.

The business was successful and life was great. However, it all ended in 1992. The oil and gas industry, which had been on the decline for several years, finally dusted for his business. While his business did not bankrupt, he found him­self “unemployed”. A condition found far too often in today’s business climate that has been producing large numbers of unemployed middle-aged professionals due to down-sizing, layoffs, and the new practice of hiring cheap young replacements.

During the next one and a half years, Tedd sent out over 1,000 resumes and received 11 interviews. All interviews ended with “I’m sorry, but you are overqualified for the position.”. His last interview ended with his interviewer saying “Well… we were actually looking for somebody a little younger.” At that point, Tedd thought would his next position be one that includes the phrase “Will you have fries with that?”.

During a continued and determined effort to find employment, he logged on to the internet and started sending out more resumes. He opened several freenet accounts in places like Detroit, Youngstown, Denver, Columbus, Traverse City, and Buffalo, New York. He sent email resumes to every lead he could find. But, he received little response. However, in the meantime he became net savvy.

A friend of Tedd’s, from the oil industry, had to go to Malaysia on business and commented to Tedd about the communication problems he was going to have keeping in touch with his wife in Arizona. So, Tedd got on the net and found several avenues for his friend to communicate with his wife for little, or no, money. In a similar situation, he helped another person in Michigan who was from Argentina establish communication with his family through the net for no expense. The more time Tedd spent on the net, the more his focus became providing assistance for others.

Tedd started frequenting several news groups on the net and helping others with questions. As he did, he became aware of what actions and conduct the net accepted and rejected about employment. He found that selling yourself on the net was much different from what he expected. Tedd said “No one wants to hear how good you are. They just want answers. Whoever provides the answers, will get the attention.”.

The key to Tedd’s success on the net has been his willingness to help others. Every time he posts an answer to a question posed by some newbie, his answer is posted with a subtle signature block that simply states “mac programmer” and in­cludes links to his email address and his web resume.

Tedd explains that potential clients looking for computer professionals will often “lurk” around news groups and observe the question and answer exchange. If they like your answers, and need your services, they will check you out, and contact you.

Tedd likes this new way of doing business. He now consults with no cash outlay for advertising, no meetings, no suits, no regimented work day, and no comments about his age. To the majority of his clients, he is a young computer whiz kid. An image that Tedd doesn’t discourage. In fact, Tedd has picked up the jargon of the net and often uses terms like “kewl” in business proposals. Tedd says “It’s almost expected to be unconventional. If the employers can’t have you under their thumb in the conventional 8 to 5 environment, then they react the other way and want the eccentric programmer.” Many clients find it novel to pose a problem to Tedd and then forget it while Tedd provides a solution.

His work on the net has been so successful, that he has other programmers working for him. Tedd says “I find programmers the same way as those who find me, I lurk. When a person has the right answers and I like his style, I contact him. I commonly provide sub-contracting work for a 20% commission and most of the work is done without any contracts.” As Tedd puts it “If you don’t trust your people, don’t hire them. Besides, many of the contacts I have are global and the expenses of global litigation make contracts a moot point. I just don’t have time for it.”

Tedd adds, “The net has been one of the most fascinating experiences of my life. The people there are brilliant, honest, caring and very giving of their time and talents. The generosity I have seen on the net is unbelievable. The net provides an avenue for people to put aside non-relevant discriminatory practices and deal with other people on a pure aspect of worth.”

Tedd
____
|[ ]| mac programmer tedd f. sperling
|[__]| mailto: sperling at sperling.com
|___-| http://www.sojourn.com/~sperling/resume.html
—

To show proof of concept, many writer/designers painstakingly produce working prototypes or demos of their ideas. Sometimes this is done to secure financing. Other times it’s to demonstrate a concept. Demos or prototypes can also help you land a new job.

Whether a published blog or a fully-functional interactive game, a demo or prototype can serve as an ideal calling card to exhibit the quality of your work. And in business, companies tend to want to work with writers and designers who understand their industry and needs. Demos can sort out the wanna-be’s from the true contenders.

What is a prototype?

A prototype is an application made up of several key elements loosely thrown together to demonstrate a basic sense of what the project is and how it works. A prototype can be as simple as a sketch-up of several screen shots, sample music, and some narration. Or a prototype can be deeply interactive, including elaborate graphic designs, maps, and concepts ‘borrowed’ from other projects for illustrative purposes.

What is a demo?

A working demo looks and feels much like the final product. A website demo might include a home page, several interior screens, active hypertext links, interactive tools, along with several design variations to consider. A game demo might include an interface that illustrates the basic navigation, interactive methodology, game play, music score, sound effects, sample puzzles and other obstacles.

Beside the obvious benefits (landing a job), prototypes and demos can also serve a myriad of functions:

• Road test new ideas before your final product is put together
• A crash course in production (nothing like building something on your own to really learn)
• Marketing deliverable (use a sample game to serve as link bait on your website, or as CD leave behind on your next job interview)
• Shareware (as in game demos, you introduce a few levels of functionality in the hopes that some players will ‘try before they buy’ and purchase an upgrade to your full application)
• Key ingredient in your new business plan (to demonstrate proof of concept)

If you are looking to boost your website traffic, boost your organic search engine results and/or increase your overall site conversions (aka drive more sales), the following tips may help improve your success metrics.

Website Enhancement	How It Helps
1. Perform an H1 and H2 tag, page description & image tag review	Improve SEO results if your code is tagged properly and in line with SEO best practices
2. Do your keyword research	Before launching a new site or page on a site, determine what keywords are being searched for the most, and then ensure that page is saturated with a cluster of like keywords. Done right, this can maximize the total possible organic visits to a web page.
3. Conduct a spider simulation	See how the search engines view your web site. Make improvements earlier in the process to maximize SEO results.
4. Increase # .edu and .gov links	Examine the actual .edu and .gov links of high ranking competitor websites, then deconstruct & emulate their tactics to build up your .edu & .gov links
5. Conduct a page-by-page keyword density examination	Improves SEO results if pages are as keyword dense as SEO best practices say they should be
6. Add direct response elements to direct the user’s eye to specific content, offers or next steps. Examples: yellow highlighter effect, use of arrows, big simple buttons, multiple 1-800 numbers, etc.	Count # and style of direct response elements on a page. Ask yourself, if this page was the only page on your website that a web visitor saw, would it generate leads? If not, how could various DR help? Examples of DR: Arrows, large 800#’s, yellow pen highlighter effect, red Apply Now buttons, etc
7. Monitor Google PageRank, Alexa rank, Compete rank, etc	Establish baseline metrics and determine of your site is improving over time
8. Determine how many of your site’s pages are indexed by major engines?	Establish baseline metrics and determine of your site is improving over time. Plenty of free tools available online
9. Increase # inbound links	The more inbound links you have, from sites with some level of authority, the more site traffic you are likely to generate over time from organic search.
10. Optimize banner clicks and flow through	Banners are a form of direct response marketing that can compel a site visitor to become a lead prospect. By rotating out different banner designs & messaging via testing, you can improve your response rates (ie: sales)
11. Launch content syndication and external publishing of articles, PDF’s, podcasts, widgets & videos	Use external publishers to expand the reach of your content and get links back to your site. Metacafe, Scribd, Flickr and some examples of sites where your content can reside
12. Participate in social media, list serves and news commenting	Comment on others’ posts and mention one of your web pages in the comment and include a URL address to pick up a few more site visits, and perhaps another inbound link. Note: This doesn’t always work…and be sure to only post comments that are relevant
13. Enable RSS feeds	Publish regular content via RSS feeds (Real Simple Syndication)to let other websites pick up your content and embedded links.
14. Add link bait content	Generate more traffic and links to your website with content that is so well liked, visitors refer it to friends or link to it from their blog or website. Offering free, fun tools such as a website button generator is an example of link bait
15. Run content through the We We Calculator	Measure the effectiveness of your web page copy. Is it consumer focused? Consumers tend to respond better to content that speaks to their needs rather than to a company’s needs
16. Add more, quality content pages to your site	Deeper the site’s indexable pages are, the more SEO traffic you might be able to generate
17. Try paid links	There are a few above-board companies offering pay per click or paid link opportunities. As long as you are following search best practices, you may want to experiment to see what works
18. Test Yahoo SSP	Search submit pro can be an effective way to pay for ‘organic search results’ on Yahoo
19. Competitor analysis	Study what other company’s sites are ranking and why – then adopt a similar approach to boost SEO results on your website
20. Try user experience testing	Ask others to walk through your website, or conduct formal offline or online tests to identify simple design improvements. Provides immediate quick wins, such as identifying key issues in information architecture – by understanding how users struggle to find a key content within a website – which can provide the necessary proof that key changes need to be made
21. Place Google Analytics code on your site and do a deep dive	By placing Google Analytics code on your website, you can uncover numerous insights about user behavior. Analytics can also help you uncover problems and make design changes to increase conversions

The following article was written by Jon Samsel and Laurie Windham, and was first published in E-Business Magazine, an online imprint of HP.com, July, 1998.

Ken Orton didn’t set out to revolutionize the e-commerce travel market. In fact, what he initially set out to do was transform a TV-based travel programming company into a networked online travel business. What Orton and team managed to do in the process is shake up the $101 billion US travel agency market––growing their company into one of the most comprehensive, easy-to-use, and enjoyable travel destinations on the Internet.

Preview Travel is now a mega-travel information and transaction site with over 220,000 cumulative customers and 3.4 million registered users. Preview Travel’s innovative Web tactics exemplify what’s expected of next generation, e-commerce Web sites.

The question executive managers should ask themselves is not a new one y–– “How can I re-tool my Web site so that it becomes more productive and engaging for my users?”

A Productive Web Site

Business-to-business Web sites must enable users to perform their jobs better. Productive Web sites have a depth and breadth of content. The one thing today’s Web visitors will not tolerate is unwanted marketing material “pushed on them” over the Web. Users will “click away” when they sense they are being “sold.”

The site must hold their attention, empower them, and cause them to want to come back. This is engagement––and it’s not an easy technique to master.

Nine Principles For Improving A Web Site’s Effectiveness

The following nine principles may improve the effectiveness of your business-to-business Web site:

1. Know Your Audience

Today’s most productive and engaging Web sites understand their audiences. Businesses can learn more about their visitors by asking questions such as:

• Who are your users, and why do they come to the site?
• How experienced are they with your technology, services and/or products?
• What type of content do they come back for and what might compel them to come back more often?
• Is localization important — what language choice do they need?
• Do they want peer group interaction?
• How long does it take for them to find what they need and how can you improve this experience?
• What functions and features do they really need?
• What are their purchasing preferences relative to your products/services.

These questions can help shape the productivity and functionality of a Web experience. For example, businesses need to know where their Web site visitors are in the cycle of consuming their products, as well as how those visitors define productivity.

What’s productive to a prospect is different than what is productive to a customer. For the prospect, Web productivity means easy access to purchase information, pricing, product specifications, comparative analysis, and basic company data. A customer’s view might include easy access to tech support, software patches, chat rooms, and FAQs.

Using research techniques like focus groups to identify common user attitudes or commissioning formative usability tests to discover what areas of your site are most effective can arm you with critical data needed for e-commerce success

2. Identify Topline Content Objectives

Today, innovative technology companies are developing new Web services at a blistering pace. But deploying new Web content doesn’t always achieve the desired results. Content managers frequently jump into production mode without first identifying the objective(s) of their sites relative to the consumption cycle.

Define your main goals and establish clear objectives to create a solid foundation from which to build an efficient and engaging experience.

3. Leverage Existing Content

Online content can originate from traditional sources: catalogs, data sheets, press releases and advertisements. Sometimes content creators can re-purpose this material in new and innovative ways, but some content that was first intended for print does not translate well to the online world.

Web visitors have an uncanny ability to spot sales and marketing material disguised as “new” Web content. They don’t like to be fooled. Just because you can re-purpose content doesn’t always mean you should.

One way around this problem is to integrate your marketing and mixed-media campaigns creating a cross-media solution. In the past, content creators from different departments within the same company created their own assets that solved their own unique needs (commercials, print ads, brochures, radio spots, stationary, etc.). Now content creators can build digital assets that can be distributed or “shared” from one department to all departments. Your strategic message is “authored” or “branded” once and incorporated into many mediums throughout many departments — both traditional (print, direct marketing, video) and electronic (Web, Intranet, CD-ROM, e-mail, kiosk).

4. Build Dynamic Environments

Businesses need to create unique ways to express their content within the confines of the digital screen. Unique content is more than superior graphic design. It’s a Whole Experience that engages the visitor with both content and functionality. The experience is the message.

Business-to-business sites can take a page from successful consumer Web sites such as Amazon.com, which is pioneering next-generation customer satisfaction with collaborative filtering technology.

Dynamic online environments allow the visitor to give feedback on how to improve the product or services offered by the company, or allow visitors to communicate with other users with similar interests. Web managers can also create “self-service” applications that empower customers, employees, vendors, and partners to interact with the content they need most.

Database delivery of customized content can also bring Web pages to life. One thing is for certain––current generation Web sites with their static content, poor integration, inferior interfaces, lack of personalization––won’t be good enough for long.

5. Create A “Whole Structure” Access System

The Whole Experience Web site should satisfy the visitor’s needs, pull visitors through the

Consumption Cycle, and accomplish this task by providing the quickest, most efficient path between any two locations within the site.

This access methodology must be planned––a collaboration between the technologist, writer, and designer. This special team must think as one––a strange amalgam of architecture, storytelling, and design––to create a Whole Experience that works.

As content increases, the underlying structure of a Web site can become quite complex. Taking a Whole Structure approach rather than simply a “page display system” means going beyond the typical organizational system to a “matrix of distributed solutions”––a dynamic solution for both company and customer.

Whole Structures are systems which:

• Promote intelligent navigation
• Offer quick and efficient search capabilities
• Ensure that unique/personalized content needs are met
• Empower visitors to discover their own solutions
• Promote “ease of transition” through the Consumption Cycle

6. Test the Interface

The media displayed on a computer screen should be compelling and interactive (whenever possible).

Designed properly, the interface helps prospects and customers successfully navigate the site. Designed poorly, the interface interferes with a user’s goals and objectives.

Interface design is an area that can benefit from professional usability research because it must account for everything a user can, might, and will interact with. Everything from sight, sound, and touch must be meticulously planned and implemented in order to achieve the optimum end-user experience. The most powerful interface designs are those which seamlessly meld navigational tools with graphic images. The right mix creates a unique identity––an atmosphere, theme, and access methodology for your business-to-business Web site.

7. Unify Vision, Style, and Theme

Follow the rules of good graphical design:

• Try not to crowd your screen with too much content
• ·Use fonts that are pleasing to the eye
• Use white space (yes, less is sometimes better)
• Stick with a specific color scheme
• Design for the screen with a sense of balance
• Use images instead of text whenever possible (one image speaks louder than a chunk of words
• Implement universal concepts that visitors will be able to relate to in an emotionally engaging way
• Use symbolism to represent abstract concepts (when appropriate)

Make sure your brand and corporate vision shine through the site, but do it subtly. Try not to hit the user over the head with blatant marketing propaganda.

8. Write for the Web

First off, let’s state the obvious––writing engaging content for the Web is no simple task––especially for content creators who come from traditional disciplines such as advertising, marketing, journalism, customer support, technical documentation, or copy editing. Writing for the Web requires a deep understanding of the concept of interactivity––and how interactive multimedia experiences engage more than one sense to stimulate the user.

It is the Web writer’s task to help the content planning team create both a functional and dynamic site that combines page layout, multimedia content, interactivity, network tools, commerce, and human interface design. Writers must play a more complex role than simply copy-fitting for the screen. They need to become tech-savvy and start “thinking like designers and programmers” in order to gain the insight needed to effectively create for the electronic mediums.

9. Give Something Back

One of the key functions of a business-oriented Web site is gathering visitor demographics.

Businesses lure users onto their sites to “officially register” their products and seem surprised when their requests are met with stiff opposition. We sometimes forget that we in the US live in a culture that vigorously protects its privacy. Users are hesitant to provide personal information over the Internet without first receiving assurances that the business will not sell their names to third-party marketers. Businesses need to respect and reward participants.

Interestingly, recent studies have found that many Web site visitors are willing to participate in online registration if it will help personalize their online experience. The personalization is the reward. This also applies to any application that, in return for information, empowers the customer to make their own decisions and take immediate action to get what they need.

Today’s businesses face the exciting challenge of transforming their first and second generation Web sites into dynamic end-user experiences that are more productive and engaging for people at all points of the consumption cycle. For businesses whose bottom line depends on reaching prospects and customers via the Web, engaging and productive content is the solution.

I was rummaging through some old files when I came across the following business article I co-wrote with Laurie Windham. At the time, Laurie was CEO of her own market research firm, Cognitiative and I was a senior e-business consultant working for her. I am pretty sure the article was published in an online magazine, circa 1999. I can’t for the life of me remember which one it was. A quick search on Google revealed no results. I thought I’d share the article as I know many up-in-coming writers are looking for examples of what a 300-350 word article might look like. This article is 334 words.

The Six Most Common Barriers to Developing An Effective Web Business Strategy

When it comes to leveraging the Web as a critical business vehicle, companies are realizing that the biggest obstacle to success is themselves. The challenge for executive management today is how to overcome internal resistance to the inevitability of the Web. Based on thousands of hours of Cognitiative’s “Voice of the Customer” research and studies we’ve conducted with a range of large companies, we’ve identified six common barriers business leaders face as they take on the challenge of defining and deploying a Web business strategy: 1) Knowledge of what customers want, 2) Existing business strategies and practices, 3) Leadership, organizational structures and funding models, 4) Existing skill sets, 5) Technology solutions, and 6) Internationalization.

Let’s probe the first two barriers a little deeper.

Knowledge of What Customers Want
Addressing the needs of online constituents in a fulfilling and differentiated way requires a deep understanding of them. We suggest approaching this as if you were developing a new product –– define your market requirements, survey the market and competitive landscape, talk to your target constituents; find out what business partners want; test the usability of the site experience; and track satisfaction. The key is to understand why people come to your Web site and what actions they take when they are there so that you can develop a proactive site strategy that satisfies their needs. And be aware––this process never really stops. Keep a constant pulse on your efforts because Web savvy customers are increasingly demanding.

Existing Business Strategies and Practices
Resolving conflict with existing business strategies is another critical barrier to doing business on the Internet. This can run the whole gamut from pricing, product development, logistics, channels, required investments, and how customers are served. An interesting exercise is to construct a hypothetical Web strategy for your market as if you were a start-up company. What would your business model be? Where would you invest? How might a competitor invade your space? Addressing these issues can help drive clarity on the required business strategy.

Defining the maximum revenue potential of any given website is a business theory I’ve been tinkering with lately. The topic inevitably comes up in any website creative project pitch - as the suits in the room debate critical business topics such as creative agency and development spends, timelines, online advertising budgets, SEO, web publishing/syndication, staffing, and the revenue potential/profits that a website might generate.

Knowing the maximum revenue potential of a website is important because it sets the stage for what is possible, and every decision thereafter can be focused on closing the gap between actual and potential profitability. Decisions about design, coding, calls-to-action, methods of interaction, frequency of placement, size, etc. – could be impacted when Maximum Revenue Potential is taken into consideration.

The concept of Maximum Revenue Potential first came to me after reading an intriguing article on how Gamal Aziz helped the MGM Grand casino resort dramatically increase its revenue by restructuring foot traffic and re-aligning high-revenue retail outlets throughout its property.

That got me thinking – could this same concept be applied to a website? Imagine if a website redesign project was looked at through this lens and a web marketer first asked, “What is the maximum revenue potential of my website?” Could an equation be developed to establish a baseline metric for how much revenue a site is capable of generating – and what the opportunity gap currently is? Wouldn’t this information be extremely valuable to business people trying to justify a site redesign project – or the website channel itself?

To calculate the maximum revenue potential for a website, one could calculate as follows:

If every site visitor purchased a product or service that generated the highest revenue (yes, this goal may be unrealistic, but hang with me a second)…

and…

…a website were able to reach its maximum, yet realistic, traffic growth goals…

Example

1 million site visits annually

x $50.00 (max revenue per product/service sold)

Maximum revenue potential = $50 million per yr

Subtract this from the actual annual revenue generated from the website…

Actual annual revenue = $1.34 million per yr

Difference = $48.7 million

$48.7 million is a company’s ‘lost opportunity.’ The goal for the website would be to close this gap – and close it substantially. (Note: Rather than looking at external variables, I have limited my analysis and thinking to known variables such as a realistic number of website visits and actual average revenue per sale on a single product. External factors such as a new competitor entering the market and taking away market share is out of scope for the purpose of this discussion).

Next Steps

• Look at leverage points and consider how much impact each change to your website might have on the bottom line. Look at effort v.s. reward. Idealistically, we’re always looking for the next activity to be the one that makes the biggest impact on results for the smallest amount of money / effort.
• Divide a web page into 100 grids and then determine the percentage of real estate that has been allotted to each product / service and corresponding action – and then see if some simple design adjustments can be made to the page placement and size of your content, offers, navigation, or calls to action so that the highest revenue generating products / services stand out.
• Of course, a good website is not all about attaining maximum profitability. Fulfilling customer needs as well as promoting a company’s other lines of business / products / services are important counterbalances to consider.
• Reducing clutter on a given page is key. Try this out. Look at your website and count the number of actionables you have on your homepage – hyperlinks, navigation drop-downs, footer links, buttons, phone numbers, tools – anything that is actionable from a site visitor’s P.O.V. Let’s examine a random website I pulled up – the Bank of the Web homepage.
  

I counted 159 actionables on the homepage alone! Now, when you give your site visitors 159 things to do on a given web page, not only is it a cluttered experience, but some portion of your visitors will do each of those 159 things. Meaning that the top 5 actions you hope your visitors will take will be watered down by the other 154 things they try instead. Wouldn’t it be better to first go through a serious clutter reduction exercise to streamline the number of actionables – by say, 50% or more? What if Bank of the West surveyed its visitors and asked them what the top 10 things they expected to be able to do on the bank of the West site – and then balanced consumer demand with Bank of the West’s desire to promote its top five highest revenue generating products / services?

The resulting website could be a streamlined homepage design that not only does a better job directing consumers to where they want to go, the the site restructuring could also send a higher number of site visitors down the most profitable action paths.